Britain may be metaphorically ‘going Dutch’ in terms of trying to pay its own way post-Brexit, but former Birmingham operations manager Mark Hulland has taken the phrase literally after making the Netherlands his new home.
In May 2017, Mark, his wife Victoria and their toddler son Sebastian moved from Harborne to Geldrop, 10 minutes outside Eindhoven, as part of a work relocation with one of Europe’s largest poolers of sustainable wooden pallets, IPP, which has its UK headquarters in Coventry.
Two years on, increased responsibility and a growing family has necessitated a move onto the property ladder by switching from renting to buying in nearby new town Brandevoort, while Mark and Victoria have invested in permits to remain in the Netherlands, a status that they could make permanent after five years residency.
First son Sebastian, now four, has a new brother, Wilfred, and has graduated from his Peuterspeelzaal – a Dutch pre-school – to his main primary school while his Dad has been promoted to operations director for the PRS & IPP Benelux (the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) which sees him running an Operations team of multilingual professionals in Eindhoven which includes a restructured centralised International Collections Service Centre for PRS.
“My family is developing well here. As well as having another child, my wife has become an exam invigilator for the British Council,” said Mark.
“My own role is going from strength to strength. Since the restructure we have seen tremendous efficiencies and savings, including increasing the return of pallets by an additional 30,000, reducing the number of new pallets bought for this bigger yield.”
Despite English being used as an international business language in Mark’s Eindhoven office, where a number of other European nationals speaking nine different languages are located, the 32-year-old continues to learn Dutch in order to communicate socially with friends the family have made so far.
The assimilation has been so successful and the family cannot see any difficulties in remaining in Europe, despite Brexit.
“It has been both scary and exciting at the same time but both the business and my family here and in the UK have been very supportive about the move. We made the decision to accept the offer because it was a once in a lifetime opportunity in the heart of Europe,” Mark added.
Phil Storer, the UK and Ireland Director for IPP, said: “We are an international pallet company that trades across the multiple borders that our customers’ trade across so having strong individuals who know our business at the heart of Europe is really important. We are first and foremost a people business so Mark’s continued success in the Benelux operation is a real bonus on a corporate and personal level.”
