Samantha Thomas-Berry just became Chief People Officer at Warburtons.

She's probably still finding her desk. Meeting the team. Figuring out which fires are real and which ones just look urgent.

She's also about to be bombarded.

Every HR tech vendor, benefits provider, L&D consultancy and recruitment partner in the UK is about to hit her inbox and LinkedIn feed.

Here's the thing: Samantha controls a serious budget. Warburtons is the UK's largest bakery brand - 5,000 employees, 11 bakeries, 1,600+ depots, over 2 million products delivered daily. This isn't a head office HR brief. This is operational scale.

And timing matters. You’ve got less than 100 days to make your mark. After that? Budgets are locked. Priorities are set. Suppliers are chosen. If you're not already in the conversation, you're just interrupting.

So how do you stand out in week one - without sounding like everyone else?

And not just do it for Samantha, but for the thousands of new HR leaders starting roles this month.

This Is Where Honch And Bernard Make The Difference

Honch surfaces Samantha the moment she moves. Fast, accurate data on senior hires as they happen.

Bernard does the rest. He researches and understands the company context:

• Warburtons is publicly celebrating apprentices.
• They've invested £56m in infrastructure.
• They're modernising logistics with electric and CNG fleets.
• They've strengthened HR leadership across talent and L&D.

These aren't random updates. They're signals - signals that workforce planning, skills pipelines and digital enablement are active priorities.

And he keeps digging until he finds the angle that matters for your business.

Signals + Context + How you help clients = The right approach.

We’re not pushing your feature list. We’re aligning to her mandate.

Here’s what Bernard wrote for a workforce planning software provider:

"Hi Samantha - congratulations on the CPO role at Warburtons. I saw the recent £56m infrastructure investment and the push to scale apprenticeships across the bakery network. With 5,000 employees across 11 sites and a shift-based model, I imagine workforce planning is front and centre right now. We help distributed operations like yours forecast labour needs and reduce scheduling gaps without adding admin overhead. Worth a conversation?"

Here’s what he wrote for a benefits provider:

"Hi Samantha - congratulations on joining Warburtons. With a shift-based workforce across 1,600+ depots, I imagine engagement and retention are high on your list. We work with distributed teams to deliver flexible benefits that actually get used - not just filed away in an intranet nobody checks. Happy to share what’s working for similar operational businesses if useful."

And for an L&D consultancy:

"Hi Samantha - saw you’ve just taken the CPO role at Warburtons. With the apprenticeship programme scaling and new leadership hires across talent and L&D, it looks like capability building is a real focus. We help large operational businesses design learning that sticks - particularly for deskless and shift-based teams. Worth 15 minutes to compare notes?"

Three different providers. Three different angles. All grounded in the same company context.

That’s not a template. That’s not token personalisation. That’s outreach written for that person, at that company, at that moment.

And Bernard does it again. And again. And again. For every new CPO, HR Director, Reward Lead or Talent Head we track.

Hundreds every week.
Thousands every month.

Because Samantha Is One Of Many

This week alone, hundreds of senior HR leaders changed roles or stepped into promotions. Real people. Real pressure. Real opportunity to prove themselves in the first 100 days.

You can blanket them and hope for a reply.

Or you can run targeted and highly personalised outreach to every single one of them - without hiring 5 new SDRs.

Honch gives you the breadth.

Bernard gives you the depth.

Relevance first. Then scale. 👊

‍

‍