In our latest team spotlight, we sat down with our Sales Manager, Gabrielle Butt, to explore the vital work she does within our team. From navigating complex daily challenges to sharing her sustainability insights, Gabby provides an inside look at what drives her passion for the industry. Read on to discover more!
You’ve been with Interlock Adhesives for nearly a year, how time flies! Can you share a little about your current role?
I’m the Sales Manager here, responsible for supporting customers across my local region, predominantly Lincolnshire and the Yorkshire & Humber area. My role is incredibly varied — you’ll find me running adhesive trials with new prospects, servicing our existing client base, and working closely with OEMs to support adhesive users with the right technical solutions.
I’m based at our HQ in sunny Scunthorpe, where I’m also overseeing a sales project alongside our internal sales team. We regularly hold energetic, collaborative meetings focused on bringing fresh, sustainable ideas to prospective clients. It’s a dynamic environment, and I genuinely enjoy helping businesses improve their processes with innovative adhesive solutions.
Touching on the fact you’ve completed your first year with the team, what’s one thing you’ve mastered over the last year that you’re particularly proud of?
Mastered is a strong word but I’m particularly proud of myself for deepening my technical understanding of adhesive solutions and how they impact customer’s production efficiency. Being able to bridge the gap between technical performance, sustainability progression and commercial value is the key to strengthening customer trust and retaining our long-term partnerships.
What would you say is the biggest barrier that production lines face when it comes to their hotmelt adhesive supply?
If the adhesive is “working fine,” there’s typically little motivation to evaluate alternative grades. That mindset creates a comfort zone that unintentionally blocks progress. As a result, opportunities are missed in several key areas:
Sustainability improvements – newer formulations can reduce energy consumption and environmental impact.
Lower operating temperatures – advanced grades can run at reduced temperatures, cutting energy costs and minimizing thermal degradation.
Cleaner-running performance – improved chemistries can reduce char, stringing, and nozzle blockages, leading to less maintenance and downtime.
Reduced wear and spare parts costs – cleaner systems mean fewer replacements and less unplanned intervention.
What’s often overlooked is how small the investment in validation really is. In many cases, an average trial of just 2–3 hours is enough to assess and validate an enhanced grade that delivers multiple operational and cost benefits.
The reality is that continuous improvement doesn’t happen by maintaining the status quo. Growth rarely comes from “playing it safe.” Proactively reviewing adhesive performance — even when it seems adequate — can unlock measurable efficiency, sustainability, and cost gains across the production line.
Touching on sustainability, Interlock Adhesives have a wide range of sustainable hotmelts – can you tell us what makes these grades so unique?
They are designed and engineered by Henkel – the leading manufacturers of adhesives not locally but in the world. Henkel are the pioneers of development and innovation, and we are so lucky to have access to all grades and expertise – I really do bang the drum with this and rightly so. Henkel are continuously looking to improve current grades by sourcing more sustainably to reduce carbon footprints even further such as the Techno melt Supra 130 Cool grade – have a read!
One question I’d ask myself as an adhesive user – does my supplier have a sustainability strategy? Are they truly able push the boundaries to achieve unknow advancements and offer cutting edge grades that are first to market. Are they continuously looking to develop their existing portfolio? If my supplier couldn’t offer the above, I’d be moving away to a trusted partner who could support and map out a sustainable route for my adhesives that would support a ‘net zero’ strategy that most manufacturers are striving to work towards.
What kind of hobbies do you particularly enjoy in your spare time?
Ooo! Where do I start. Anyone who knows me knows it’s incredibly rare for me to have a ‘quiet weekend’!! I tend to hibernate in the winter and have a jam-packed summer where I’m either on holiday, at a festival (Glastonbury being the absolute staple of my year), at a scooter rally riding pillion on my partners Lambretta or spending time with my friends and family. Alongside this I am absolutely loving the gym and eating clean and healthy – 2026 is really my year to focus on my wellness as well as having as much fun as possible.
And lastly, If you could wave a magic wand and create the perfect hotmelt adhesive, what would it be and why?
I could say the generic response of ‘sticks to every substrate, sourced from 100% renewable sources, operates at a ridiculously low temperature, has no charring and automatically stops flowing when it feels like gravity is going to embarrass it – #nostringing’ however I like to be controversial… My perfect hot-melt would called the BRIT-STIK – councils would apply it directly into our potholes, brit-stik sets in 30 seconds and withstands rain, frost, and passive-aggressive complaints from the locals.
