Jeff King is our Associate Director for Operations based in our PBM Nutritionals plant in Covington, Ohio (POH). Below he shares some insights into the location!
Can you tell me a little bit about the POH location at Perrigo? Covington is a small community and Perrigo is the largest employer in the immediate area. We have developed a strong relationship and work very closely with the village officials. We make many different varieties of infant formula, at the POH facility. Many of these you see as the store brands if you shop at some of the large retailers! One of our new products is EH (Extensively Hydrolyzed) Formula. This formula is our hypoallergenic product and has just started to hit store shelves this year, which is very exciting for the company and parents alike! There are over 100 people that work at the plant across safety, quality, operations, warehouse, maintenance, and engineering functions.
Tell me about your commute to work? How do other colleagues commute to work? My drive to work is around 25 minutes, primarily through rural areas. I don’t typically run into much traffic and the only things that slow down the drive is a tractor or a horse and buggy driving down the road. Covington, Ohio is a rural community and most others have similar drives while some live closer to the Dayton metropolitan area where it is more of a city feel with a drive of 30-45 mins.
What is a typical day like for you when in the office? There are no two days that are the same, which I love! We work very closely here at the plant across all functions. Day to day tasks are varied and could include anything from figuring out a way to help make the plant a safer place to work, streamlining the quality processes, or troubleshooting an issue out in operations. We work together to make sure we look at problems from as many angles as possible and come up with the best solution. The plant has a familial feel and there is a lot of positivity, engagement, and passion as we strive towards our vision of making our plant a world class facility. The best part of my day is working directly with everyone in the plant. There are times when we are working through some tough issues, but we work together doing it and have as much fun as we can along the way.
What’s your typical lunchtime spot? I generally eat at my desk and get caught up on some emails. I spend quite a bit of time in meetings and lunch time gives some quiet time to get caught up on that. It helps keep other areas from getting too congested from a CV-19 perspective as well.
How would you describe the location? The Perrigo Ohio location is truly a great place to work. The plant is a smaller facility and is very nimble. I have seen great things come from this facility during my time here over the last couple of years and continue to foresee more on the horizon!
What’s your favourite part about the location? My favorite part about this location is the people. The culture here is extremely team oriented and a pleasure to work with every day.The Nutritional Leadership Team as well as the leaders above are extremely supportive. They take the time to listen and understand issues in the plant and help try to figure out solutions to those issues. There is great engagement and genuine care and concern from our leaders to the folks in the plant.
How would you describe the leadership style at Perrigo? The leadership style here at Perrigo is the most supportive I have ever seen. I have been with other companies and consider myself blessed to have found a company where leaders genuinely care about the folks on the front line.The leaders truly understand that we may make mistakes, or something may not turn out quite like we expected. In the end the goal is to learn as much as we can from those instances and make improvements to prevent them from happening again.
We are always looking for passionate, dedicated people to join our teams at Perrigo. Take your next career step today and check out our live vacancies!