Sales and Marketing - Mark Butzke

I joined Lee Kum Kee in 2008 and have been working for the Company for more than 10 years. Now I am the Sales Director, US West Mainstream Retail, responsible for developing business at national retailers.

I like my job because there are always new challenges. For example, buyers on the customer side are rotated around every two years, and different buyers will have different perspectives of how they want to focus on capturing their consumers – be it authenticity, familiarity, itemisation, type or brands. I have to think out of the box to help meet their goals of continued category growth.

Lee Kum Kee provides the necessary tools for me to grow professionally and meet the ongoing challenges of mainstream retail. “Constant Entrepreneurship” is always a favourite core value of mine. I have to work with marketing and logistics on many occasions and our collaboration helped to develop markets that we were not selling before.

Back in 2010, I was invited to visit Hong Kong and Xinhui to join the Founder’s Day. I was very happy to learn the history of Lee Kum Kee and see how advanced the production facilities are compared to other manufacturing factories I have been to. I had the chance to participate in the Founder’s Day for a second time in 2018 and at that time I brought one of my customers. I was glad to experience the event with my customer in Hong Kong and it has provided me lots of memories to share with my colleagues and family.

My work at Lee Kum Kee is like our Premium Oyster Sauce. We are the world’s number 1 brand. It is our foundation but we have not stopped there. We continuously adapt to changes in response to customers’ needs by developing new products that contribute to our growth and add to the portfolio. I feel that as the Company grows, I am growing from Hoisin Sauce, to Sriracha Mayo, evolving into Panda Grilling Sauces and I hope to become a legacy like Premium Oyster Sauce finally.