One day Danny will be in a Sealord factory, wearing high-vis and earmuffs, to see how a seafood product or process is looking.
Another day he could be in Auckland working on branding and advertising creative concepts for a new product. And on any day, most days, Danny is talking to and working with a diverse range of people in his professional world as Sealord’s Business Development Manager.
Close at hand are Sealord’s innovation technologists, marketing, sales and planning teams, factory and operations managers, all of whom he meets with regularly.
Also close at hand, on his phone or online, are the external networks of manufacturers, suppliers, scientists, researchers and partners Danny is connected to. And he’s never too far from Sealord’s fishing ‘frontline’, with the company’s deep sea vessels docked a short walk away from his office at Sealord’s headquarters in Port Nelson.
The diversity of the Business Development Manager role, a new position established in late 2023, is one of the highlights for Danny. It is also a role that he felt comfortable stepping up into from his previous role as Innovation Manager.
“The skills and knowledge I gained in product development have been super transferable to this role,” Danny says.
“I’ve had to upskill in marketing and sales, communications too, with great support from my manager and Sealord experts in these areas.
“Generally, I have a lot of autonomy and can drive a project – which means I need to be on top of project management – and that’s a naturally comfortable place for me to be in.”
Danny’s first year as Business Development Manager closed with a landmark event – the launch of Sealord’s first retail product that’s not food for humans, but food for plants.
The ‘Naked’ range of liquid garden fertilisers leapt onto shelves in major retailers such as Mitre 10 and the Warehouse in late 2024, and into people’s view through a fun (and a little bit cheeky) advertising campaign.
Naked fertiliser is a blend of fish waste left over from processing – the last one percent of the fish that Sealord hasn’t been able to be use until now – and seaweed extract grown in the Coromandel.
“Naked is the first Sealord product that I’ve been involved with every step of the way, from concept to launch and everything in between,” Danny says.
“We made it from scratch. The product and process, the packaging, brand and marketing strategy were all managed by our Sealord teams. It’s a real innovation success story, and a sustainability success story too.”
Danny especially enjoyed working with Lincoln Agritech scientists who undertook nutritional analysis of the fertiliser formula to ensure it had the right balance of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium that plants need to thrive.
Danny is thriving too, with a work / life balance that living in Nelson and working for a family-friendly employer enables. When he’s not in a factory, on a flight to Auckland, or online chatting with manufacturers, Danny loves getting out on the water, swimming, fishing and kayaking with his family.
