Meet Dave Lowe
Managing Director
Let us introduce you to Dave Lowe, our Group Managing Director, who loves the Eurovision Song Contest. If he wasn’t working at Caro, you might have found him out on a dig or even appearing in your favourite soap.
When did you join Caro, and what did your career look like prior to this?
I joined Caro in July 2004 as the management accountant after working in various accountancy positions in the internet IPVN and telecoms markets. Caro offered me the chance to join a small company with big dreams. Over the past 19 years, I have been lucky enough to be a large part of realising those dreams and helping grow the company into the multi-million-pound UK manufacturing group it is today.
What is your biggest achievement to date?
Steering the group through COVID-19, as can be said for many directors who had to navigate it. It was the biggest challenge we had been through, with the potential for all of the companies in the Group to be permanently altered by the pandemic, but we came through the other side in even better shape.
What do you think are Caro’s main strengths?
Its diversity. Over the years, there have been peaks and troughs for each business, but due to the diversity of the industries covered by Caro Group, we have managed to emerge from each trough stronger than before. We have already started to sell into new markets and have new products emerging yearly. We work with other European manufacturers to further enhance our range of high-quality products.
Describe your average day.
Hectic. But I am supported by an incredible team. We are a very close team with multiple roles. The staff who thrive here are the ones who do not want a rigid or specified job role but the ones who want to learn every aspect of the company and grow with us.
If you had to do something completely different, what job would you do?
I never saw myself in the role of managing director of a group of UK manufacturing companies, that’s for sure. I desired many jobs when I was young, including being a soap actor, a carpenter or an archaeologist.
Who do you most admire?
People who triumph over adversity get up and try again after each knock. Very few people succeed on their first attempt; it’s all about how many times you try and how much you want it. The country singer Trisha Yearwood is my ultimate role model and a prime example of “if you want it, go out and get it”.
If you had a dinner party, which three people (living or dead) would you invite?
Number 1: Claire Richards from Steps. I am a huge Steps fan. I love the simplicity of their music, and I don’t care how uncool that makes me sound!
Number 2: Trisha Yearwood. I have followed her career since her first song in the early 90s and have watched her forge a path in a male-dominated industry, shining brighter than any man could.
Number 3: This changes over time, but now it would be Sam Ryder. I have always admired people who look at the world in an unencumbered way and people who make whoever they meet smile.
Tell us something about yourself which might surprise people.
It won’t surprise anyone who knows me well, but I have watched every single Eurovision Song Contest since 1979. I have also written a Eurovision entry called Make You Love Me.
One day, my time will come.