Welcome to the team

I’ve been working for CTR Group since June 2020, when the company I was working for was taken over by CTR. I like to think CTR inherited me! I’ve really enjoyed working for them over the last few years. My role is to liaise with our charity partners, manage those relationships and make sure they’re getting what they need from our drivers and collections.
As you can imagine that means being proactive and flexible. Charities don’t always know how much stock they’re going to have coming in the door, and our job is to help them manage that. A typical day is a blur of meetings on the road with existing clients, potential new business and charity shop visits to see how they’re doing.
As you can imagine 2020 was a strange time to start working for them, and it was around then that I became a parent for the first time, so I had a lot to get my head around! CTR Group has been brilliant though. Employers who do the right thing simply because it’s the right thing to do are rare. I work flexibly and have never felt torn between my roles as employee and parent. It makes me happy to work for a company like this.

I’ve worked for CTR Group for almost ten years. My job is to coordinate our team and plan routes for all our collections fleet. That means I’m responsible for everything from keeping our vans in good condition on the road, to making sure our drivers are engaged and happy, and that the shops we’re collecting from are getting the service they need from us. When I started for CTR I was in the warehouse loading the trucks, and then I became a driver for several years. It meant that when I moved into this role I knew all the people, stores and cities – and that really helps.

We can have up to 110 vehicles on the road each day, and each of those vans can make more than half a dozen collections. So we’re looking at planning anywhere between 700-800 collections every single day. That means knowing each town and city we collect from and matching what each shop needs from us (how many collections per week they need, for example) to the right route, van and driver. We use our own in-house logistics platform to get it done, and plan each collection based on around 300kg per shop.

I’d recommend to anyone who gets the chance to work for CTR Group to grab the chance. It’s a business that looks after you. If you enjoy fresh challenges every day then we have a great team here full of smart people, and we’re all in it together. It’s like coming home every day rather than going to work, if you know what I mean!

I came to the CTR Group in 2017, and I was looking for a company where I would be part of a team and feel I could make a contribution. I enjoy that no two days are the same and I love the people that I work with because we all muck in together. It’s fast paced and you have to get stuck in, which I like as the day flies! It’s a rewarding job in many ways, and I do feel that what I do makes a difference which is satisfying.
Commitment from the top of the business is ever-present which is good to see, as they get involved with the day-to-day running of the whole business. The business has grown significantly since I joined in 2017, when you see the scale of the site now you really understand the scale of the operation. Juggling the workload is a big challenge, because on a busy day the call desk can be very fast-paced. You need to be able to make sure that you can deal with any issues promptly and you learn to prioritise.

Patience is definitely needed along with empathy, as the charity shops can be having a challenging time when you talk to them, so you need to understand them and a can-do attitude is a must. You need to be organised, have good communication skills as well as the ability to work under pressure and adapt to change quickly. Being up for a giggle is always a bonus and there’s plenty of that!

I joined CTR Group in 2021, having lived in New York City for five years and then London, before coming back home to Leicestershire. I was previously working in intimate apparel and fashion, and from my experience in these industries I noticed a constant need for environmentally-friendly solutions, so when I came across CTR Group I was excited and refreshed by the company’s sustainability ethos.

I work in our asset management side of the business, which means part of my role is to ensure our partners are supplied with a steady flow of high-quality new retail goods. We work with very high volumes of liquidated stock which we sort and organise into categories and store friendly boxes and pallets, that we then ship to our partners to sell to their customers.

I love how varied my job is and how much there is to learn. It’s brilliant working for a business like CTR Group that is creating a closed loop sustainable system. Everything we do is about keeping products away from landfill. I’d say to anyone to consider a career with us. It’s a really nice place to work with a flat structure that gives you plenty of responsibility and room to grow in. I’d definitely recommend it.

I joined the CTR Group in 2015, with a decade of experience as an IT Project Manager behind me. My role involves taking a strategic view of our technology, developing new systems with my team and generally managing anything in the business that involves a keyboard and mouse. We design and build our own technology, including our bespoke ERP system “ACTRA”.

Probably the biggest challenge (and opportunity) in my role is that we’re such a dynamic business. We’re always quick to respond to what’s happening with our customers and our business. It’s one of the things I really love about working here – that we can move so quickly. In my twenty years in the IT industry, I’ve worked places where change takes weeks or even months, often requiring sign-off from several layers of stakeholders. Here we can turn on a sixpence and make change happen in days or even hours. Once we know what needs to be done, we simply get on and do it.

I’ve said before that if you cut me in half it would say ‘CTR’ in the middle, that probably gives you an idea of how I feel about working here. If you like change and can handle it in abundance, we are exactly the right company for you. I like to hire dynamic people and I’m a believer in the saying; ‘move fast and break things.’ We can always fix them later.

My role is to find and recruit new people to work here. I’ve worked here more than two years ago but I started in this role quite recently. I make sure people are happy and settled here. Anyone having issues can talk to me and I can try to help. I deal with issues like employee absences and making sure that all our people are being looked after.

We’re a fast-growing business, so most days I’m interviewing new people to see if they have the kind of qualities we’re looking for. If they’re successful then I need to prep their contracts, and plan and deliver their inductions once they start with us. When they get here I show them around so they know where everything is, and make sure they understand what they’re going to be doing.
The people here are very friendly, I only have good things to say about them! It’s definitely the place for me because I have the chance to progress. It’s a good place, if you work hard there’s lots of benefits.

I joined the organisation in 2021, coming from a background in luxury and premium fashion brands like Belstaff. The CTR Group has always been full of mavericks and some of my work is around keeping that sensibility and hunger, while helping the business align with its future aspirations. It’s enjoyed huge growth over the last eight years and so I work with the business to make sure that our people and processes match up.

I work with a cross-functional team to make sure we’re doing things right internally. That means everything from strategic HR to business processes to organisational design. What I really enjoy about working here is that we combine that sense of sleeves-rolled-up graft with a bit of purpose. What we do can make a real difference.

We’re working in an emerging part of our industry, pioneering the circular economy and doing our bit to help people in the developing world too, by managing to find margins where others can’t or won’t. So we do good, as well as a good day’s work.

It’s a great place to work for people who are good at their job, and know how to add value and hit the ground running. They’re a really nice bunch here. People turn up early, work hard and enjoy one another’s company.

I have worked for the CTR Group for about five and a half years. I make sure our clients have a smart, environmentally-friendly solution for the disposal and recycling of their corporate waste. Everything from printer cartridges to laptops get collected and then we make sure they’re recycled, reused or repurposed where possible.

On a day-to-day basis I’m in constant touch with our customers to make sure we have collections and deliveries booked. I’m also talking to potential new customers and providing them with quotes and information. I ensure all environmental documentation and reports are up to date for the Environment Agency and ISO audits.

What I like about working for CTR is that no two days feel the same, and I get to work with some great people. I feel like I am making a difference by making sure products that are no longer needed don’t otherwise end up in landfill, and I love being part of an exciting and fast-moving company who are leaders in their field.