Welcome to our monthly series Meet the Team, where we spotlight the extraordinary people that make Bayley & Sage so special. This month’s feature is on John, our talented Head Buyer. Read the full interview below!
1. How long have you been working at Bayley & Sage and what different roles have you held within the company? What is your role now?
I’ve worked for Bayley & Sage for close to 15 years and I’m the head of buying.
2. What’s your favourite thing about working at Bayley & Sage?
I love the broad array of people that work here. We have people from a rich variety of places, and they all have their own stories and bring so much to the team, and this enriches the environment. I’d be lying if I didn’t add how much I love the products, I definitely have a serious soft spot for the cheese and the wine.
3. Who or what has inspired you the most throughout your career?
Inspired by I don’t really do. In terms of work, influence and development are more relevant, so that is what I will comment on. I’ve worked very closely with Jennie Allen for a very long time, and Jennie has a rare capacity to see people’s strengths. She helps them to recognise them and build on them, which has very much been the case with me. I think she encourages people to be true to who they are, both in the way they work and in the way they live. That has definitely had a considerable influence on me and how I’ve evolved over time. This has been very important for me.
4. Have you always worked in this industry? If not, what other types of roles have you held?
I studied history and all my working life has been in food. Though at one point I had a very brief stint working in a rifle range, stuck in a trench changing targets between rifle shots. It was a tough decision to put this behind me, ricochets and bullets racing through paper thin targets.
5. What’s the best advice you could give someone who’s just starting out in their career?
Read William Blake ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’, over and over again, until you remember it word for word, and then maybe read it one last time for good measure. Reading the works of a great poet is an excellent beginning to any enterprise. HR are you clocking this?
6. What are some of the accomplishments you’re most proud of?
The ones that I have kept quiet.
7. What are you most looking forward to this year, both personally and professionally?
My son is at university in Paris, and I have not visited him, but I will in 2025. We will walk the streets, talk, eat food, and take it easy together.
8. If you could only eat one thing from Bayley & Sage for the rest of your life, what would you choose?
If I could eat one thing at Bayley & Sage it would be everything. There would be a great big table on a crooked mountain, people would come from far and wide, and I’m sure the sun would be up. There would be a lot of cheese (Roquefort definitely on the list), bottles of wine (Dauvissat Chablis Cru and Welgegund Rouge on the table), freshly baked bread, and fruit (the very special Pecoca peach would have to be there). There’d be some madness, but all in good spirit, with conversation, debate, and laughter. Someone would fall off their chair and roll down the hill but there would be no broken bones, and no empty glasses.
9. How do you spend your time when you’re not at Bayley & Sage?
I live in Marseille so I like to wander the streets, I spend a lot of time doing this. I like exploring places, the street life, the human theatre, cafes, markets, boulangeries… losing myself.
10. What’s one interesting fact that we might not know about you?