My name is Alice Wise, and I am currently the Head of Category at Toolstation, part of the Travis Perkins PLC group.
I have been in this specific role for 18 months. Before that, I spent three years within the green and gold arm of the group, including TP Hire, and nearly seven years at Wolseley UK. So I am coming up to 12 years in the construction industry this autumn.
Outside of my professional life, I’ve spent the last three years renovating a house with my partner. It has been a fantastic, hands-on way to apply everything I’ve learned and personally test the products I work with every day. I’m not sure he can keep up with all the ideas I have!
I graduated with a degree in Business Management and Economics, where I discovered a genuine love for numbers, graphs, and market trends. This led me into a product sourcing graduate scheme within the plumbing and heating merchant industry. While I fell into construction straight from university, I quickly developed a passion for it. I realised that I could build meaningful relationships with like-minded people while providing essential products that keep people safe, warm, and comfortable in their own homes. It’s an industry where the decisions we take truly impact and improve how people live and I love that.
One of my proudest career highlights was maintaining a consistent supply of heating spares during the pandemic. Ensuring that not only individual homes but care homes and hospitals had hot water and heating during all the lockdowns was incredibly rewarding. More recently, I have been passionate about enhancing and clarifying our own brand identities at Toolstation. I believe that putting our brand names on a product is a promise of quality and value to our customers.
However, my journey hasn’t been without its hurdles. During a four-month branch placement at the start of my career, I was the only female in a team of eight. Customers would often hang up when I answered the phone, assuming they had the wrong number simply because a woman answered. My branch manager was a vital male ally, helping me navigate that treatment and reminding me that I wasn’t the cause of the situation.
In the more recent years of my career, I have observed male counterparts being heard more clearly than myself, even when we share the same idea. To help with this, I am educating myself. My senior leadership apprenticeship has helped me identify ways to reduce unconscious bias and drive diversity and inclusion from the top. It is crucial for me to practice what I preach and ensure I am an inclusive leader, listening to all of my team and colleagues. I would encourage everyone to always take opportunities to learn and reflect on their approach, none of us are perfect and we can all learn and develop.
To me, being a woman in construction means bringing a fresh perspective that complements existing views so we can all win together. My advice to any young person considering this path is simple: do not let narrow-mindedness bring you down. For every person who might doubt you because you don’t look a certain way or have certain interests, there are a hundred others who want your insight and find your approach refreshing. Stay true to your values, the industry needs them to move forward.
Looking ahead, I want to see more diversity in leadership positions that accurately reflect our population, as well as stronger male allyship to encourage peers to embrace change. I think we can all be more inquisitive to build a stronger understanding of how to be more inclusive and take time to reflect on situations to consistently improve our approach.
