Jeff Parfrey

Age 36, General Manager, year joined 1998

My first experience of Moto was through their graduate assessment centre. It was made clear that real opportunities and exciting challenges would be on offer and I haven’t been disappointed. That was in 1998 and since then I have progressed from the role of Assistant Manager in Burger King to running my own Moto site in less than 3 years. I have run various sites along the M4 corridor having overall responsibility for profit delivery, operational standards and the development of my management team.

As a company, Moto value proactive and highly motivated people and operate an open door policy at all levels.  In fact they are willing to go that bit extra to ensure that their managers can enjoy real opportunities for development. A couple of years ago I took a sabbatical in South America. I taught English to Bolivian children living in La Paz’s slums which was both challenging and humbling. Being in a room with 30 children who’d never spoken English before, with no guidelines, resources or standard curriculum to rely on was quite daunting. But I quickly found that the management skills I had gained were transferable and in next to no time we were all singing the Hokey Kokey together. Like my role at Moto, every day brought tremendous variety and required me to adapt to new situations and challenges. I had a fantastic year which saw me building houses, climbing Andean peaks and swimming in the Amazon. I even managed to get myself a job as a Sports writer for the Bolivian Times!

I came back as a General Manager Designate to the same benefits that I had left behind.  Within 3 months of returning to the UK I was appointed as General Manager for Cardiff.  Within two years I was appointed into my third site as General Manager.  This was to the flag ship site at Reading. Whilst working at Reading I was involved in the evolution of the business which saw the introduction of WHSmith, Marks & Spencer Simply Food and Caffe Ritazza being rolled out across the business. I was also heavily involved in delivering the Supervisory Development Program, which allowed me to work with and develop Supervisors from across the region.

My latest challenge is to open Britain’s newest and greenest Motorway Service Area at Wetherby. It is a fantastic experience to watch something evolve from a Greenfield site to a fully functioning Motorway Service Area, and in that respect it is very similar to life at Moto – challenging, varied and very full of opportunity!