Yngve Wieland International Business Development Manager “Being involved in growing a family business and working with a high quality, innovative and health conscious product range, are just a number of the factors that make working for Solaris a diverse, rewarding and challenging experience”

What I do
As International Business Development Manager my main focus is looking after our many overseas distributors and growing our international exports be it within Europe or as far afield as South Korea and the Middle East! Having studied Architecture in UCD I'm also involved in our product development, design and packaging optimisation.

My day in Solaris
From training our clients’ staff and holding tastings and educational talks on tea, to sales and business development, as well as exhibiting at a number of international trade and consumer shows throughout the year, there’s never a dull day in our Munich office!

What inspired me to do what I do
In the early 80’s when I was one and a half years old my parents (Hans & Gaby Wieland) moved from Germany to the wild west of Ireland. Throughout my childhood, I watched and became involved in helping my parents build an organic farming business; making goat’s cheese, baking rye bread and growing organic vegetables for local restaurants in our Polytunnels. Over the years they have focused more and more on teaching and passing on the skills they picked up along the way.

Up until May 2018 my Dad managed the Organic Centre in Rossinver, Co. Leitrim where he and my Mum still give courses on a number of topics including using herbs for medicinal and culinary use, baking sourdough bread, making your own cheese and more recently home fermentation. Now retired from the Organic Centre they are focused on building up the Neantóg Kitchen and Garden School in Cliffony Co. Sligo. Having grown up in such an environment it was easy to embrace similar values at Solaris Tea: living the good life while promoting health consciousness and using only sustainable organic ingredients.

Fun fact about me
Apart from working at Solaris I am also a Singer, Songwriter and Musician with two full length album releases. I perform both solo and with my band ‘Yngve & The Innocent’ and have toured extensively across Europe. One of the highlights was when I played in front of 18,000 people in London’s Trafalgar Square during the Official St. Patricks Day Festival!

My super power is...
…multi-tasking. With a wide range of responsibilities I have to be able to seamlessly switch between any number of roles throughout an average working day!

Outside the office
Apart from working for Solaris and pursuing a music career I am also a keen home gardener. I regularly practice Yoga, go running and recently started rock climbing which has become a new favourite hobby!