Hugo Southwell: Focus On Business

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Argentex LLP work with RPA members both throughout their playing career, and afterwards. Former Wasps captain and Scotland international Hugo Southwell, who is now a director of Trotter UK Mobile Billboards, talks about his transition away from rugby and how Argentex help with his business’ foreign exchange requirements.

What does the business do?

Trotter UK Mobile billboards is a company that provides both long and short term placements of billboards into the automotive, construction, retail and event sectors. We currently have 300 billboards out across these markets throughout the UK.

How did you get involved in the business?

 I was lucky to have met Henk Mol, who is now my business partner, on my year out between school and university whilst playing cricket and rugby in South Africa. We became very good friends and stayed in touch over the years whilst I was playing rugby. He had been working for our parent company over in Holland and his boss asked him one day if he would like to build a franchise in the UK or Germany. He decided on the UK and approached me to head up the sales for him. Trotter UK was then started in May 2015.

How does Argentex help support your business?

With the headquarters in Holland, and a regular requirement to exchange money between pounds and euros, Argentex provide us with rates of exchange that we found to be much better than our banks. Even in the early days when we were exchanging smaller amounts the savings were in the hundreds of pounds, and now our business is expanding the savings are getting bigger and bigger each month.

What did you find was the biggest challenge after your rugby career?

The biggest challenge immediately after my rugby career was probably making the absolute maximum out of the management of my time. When you play rugby, almost all of the logistics, timings for meetings, training schedule etc. is mapped out for you by the team manager. When I started working in sales straight out of rugby there was suddenly an immediate pressure to organise my own time so that I could be as efficient as I possibly could be. Luckily it didn’t take long to adapt to this, but initially this was very different.

What advice would you give to RPA members who are considering moving into the corporate world?

I would suggest getting out to networking events and getting work experience as much as you can during the latter stages of your career. This will help you gain knowledge not only in what you want to do after rugby, but also get an insight into what you don’t want to do when you finish. It can sometimes take a while to find a role that makes you excited in the morning. This is not something that will simply find you; you have to go out and make it happen and that takes time and effort.

If you would like to talk to Argentex about your own foreign exchange requirements, then please contact rpa@argentex.com or call 0203 772 0318. To contact Trotter UK please email info@trotter.co.uk or visit www.trotter.co.uk

 

This material has been prepared by Argentex LLP, a firm authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, FRN 781077. This material is published for information purposes only. Views expressed herein are not intended to be and should not be viewed as advice or as a recommendation. This material does not constitute an offer to buy or sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any investment.