Planning for reality, not perfection
with Sarah McGrath, Bulk
Transformation & Planning Manager
Sarah’s career at Calor hasn’t
followed a traditional path. “I probably had a different journey to most,” she
says. In her fourteen years with the company, her roles have taken her from
route planning and working with mechanics, to time spent in the engineering
department and out on the road with drivers. That hands-on experience
eventually led her to her current role as Calor’s Bulk Transformation & Planning
Manager.
This varied background has given
Sarah something rare — a true end-to-end understanding of how bulk operations work
in the real world. “Calor gave me an opportunity,” she says. “And I think
that’s just my nature, if I’m going to be given an opportunity, I’ll be an
expert at it.”
That mindset shapes how Sarah
approaches delivery planning. For her, it’s not about creating perfect routes
on a screen. It’s about constantly thinking through real-life challenges — the
weather, site access, safety, vulnerable customers, and the everyday realities
drivers face out on the road.
For her, it’s essential that her team learn from
the frontline.
“Whatever area you’re planning for,
you go out and spend two days with our drivers,” she says. “Because when we’re
looking at routes on a map, it doesn’t really mean anything.”
That connection matters most in winter.
Decisions made by the planning team affect households, farms and businesses that
are feeling the impact. But it’s here that the team can really make a
difference.
“The wee small wins really add up,”
Sarah explains. “It makes you actually feel like you’re doing a really good
job. Especially when our winter weather is at its worst and the challenge is how
do we get them gas? How do we protect our vulnerable customers?” Over time, the
team have re-examined planning processes and escalation paths, always
considering who might be most affected when something goes wrong.
And the culture around that work
matters as much as the systems behind it. Sarah describes her team as
close-knit and deeply aware of the lives beyond work. “The culture that
we have, it’s more like a family,” she says. “Everyone gets involved. Partners
or family, we always try to include them in social outings,” she says. “These
guys work out of hours and do on call. Partners are impacted. I know that
firsthand.”
This has helped shape a team that
reflects a broader mix of experience and leadership styles. “It’s a really
inclusive team as well,” Sarah notes. “It’s not the industry norm to find
females in these roles.”
That inclusivity is not so much a
statement as simply a part of building a team that makes sure the system works
for the people who depend on it.
Making change real
with Glory Cáceres, Bulk
Transformation Project Lead
What drew Glory to Calor was a sense of purpose.
“It’s an essential service,” she says. “We’re
providing something people really need.”
Originally from the Dominican Republic, Glory
joined Calor’s Belfast office as a planner, working directly with drivers and
routes. She became a team leader and then moved into Bulk Transformation.
Because she’s done the job and felt the pressure, she understands where systems
help, and what the roadblocks are.
Today, her role sits between people and technology.
Much of her work begins by listening - to the challenges of the planners when
manual tasks are taking too much time, to understanding frustrations faced by
drivers as they face the realities of the road.
Now she turns those pain points into projects,
automating processes, integrating systems. The results are practical and
immediate: reports that populate automatically, maps that make sense, freeing
up valuable time for the actions that matter.
“I don’t do everything myself,” she says. “But I
make sure it gets done.”
What matters most to Glory is real-life impact.
“The drivers are my customers,” she says. “The planners are my customers.
They’re the people I’m here to support.”
Even now, in a transformation role, she feels a
deep sense of responsibility when winter comes. “I still feel the pressure,”
she says. “Even though I’m not a team leader anymore. It’s a team challenge and
we are all in it together.”
The culture around her matters deeply. Glory speaks
with warmth about a team she describes as open, accepting, and built on trust.
“It feels like a family. Everyone is so different, and that’s what makes it
work.”
She credits strong, supportive leadership for
creating that environment - leaders who, as she puts it, “push you, but also
support you,” always giving people the space to learn and grow.
Leadership when the pressure is on
with Carol Ring, Head of Bulk
Transformation
After nearly two decades, Carol has seen Calor from
almost every angle: engineering, infrastructure, global operations and now bulk
transformation. That perspective shapes how she leads. Her focus is on
coherence not control, and on people not hierarchy.
What matters most to her is how teams work together
when things get hard. This is why, when she stepped into the Bulk
Transformation role, her first priority was culture.
“We will be a team. We will support each other. We
will work together. We will have each other’s backs,” she says. “That’s how a
team works. And that’s right the way from the managers to the planners and the
drivers.”
Bulk operations are complex and highly visible.
“When everything is going perfectly well, nobody really thinks anything of it,”
Carol says. “It’s not always obvious how much work the team puts in to keep
things running normally.”
But when weather turns, demand spikes or something
goes wrong, this team feels it immediately. For Carol, leadership in that
environment means no blame and shared responsibility. “It’s the people who make
it,” she says.
Carol has seen Calor evolve over time and credits
the organisation’s commitment to development for much of that change. “I went
back and did a Management degree and my Master’s degree, both sponsored by Calor,”
she says. “They really support you educationally. And they’re massively focused
on progression within the company.”
That belief in progression shapes how she leads
every day. She places deep trust in her managers, encouraging them to step up,
own decisions and push ideas into action.
“I trust them implicitly,” she says. “I know how good they are. And I know that
everything they’re doing is for the customer, for the company.”
That trust has helped build something rare in a
traditionally male-dominated space.
“From a diversity perspective, it’s amazing and motivating for a department focused
on distribution and logistics to have so many strong female leaders,” Carol
reflects.
“We have a great team,” she adds. “We really trust
and respect each other. It’s a tough job, but we really enjoy what we do.”
And when the pressure is on, it’s that trust and
teamwork that keep everything moving.
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