Meet Dan Billington
Meet Dan, our Commercial Manager here at Genus! Dan started out in the cooking industry where he did a Diploma in professional cookery and met his partner (and our director) Billie. Together they worked and lived in various places before both deciding to leave the industry.
In 2015 he went to work for Palm Recycling as a quality inspector on the materials recycling facility.
Quality inspection
Dan’s job as a quality inspector involved taking samples from waste that was collected and deposited in the depot. He would test it and evaluate the composition of the waste before then sorting and sampling it to check for contamination levels. Basically, making sure that the plastic was plastic and paper was paper.
In 2017, Dan left Palm and became a quality inspector for Cyclelink UK, where he travelled round and inspected the material that the company was buying to supply Chinese mills. Dan eventually became an account manager for Cyclelink and gained lots of commercial knowledge along the way. In 2020, Cyclelink purchased a Dutch trading arm, and Dan was transferred to the new company, WPT, where he became an account manager, responsible for purchasing material to supply to paper mills in Europe and the Far East.
New chapter with Genus
Dan left WPT in 2023 and started working for our family business as Commercial Manager. On a typical day, you can find Dan on the road from Monday to Wednesday, seeing new and existing customers and nurturing those relationships. Thursdays are trading days, and Fridays are for making sure everything is booked and finalised.
Dan loves working for Genus because he appreciates the ease at which decisions are made, as it makes his job a whole lot easier. He says, “I don’t have to wait around for answers so I can be more responsive with buying and trading and get the best deal for my customers. We’re well on our way to becoming one of the biggest wastepaper traders in the UK, and I’m excited to be a part of that growth.”
Dan also enjoys working with his family and can create a healthy separation between his home and work life adding, “there’s always a good vibe in the office, and the team loves to have a laugh together.”
Be sure to say hi to Dan the next time you’re in the office!