Why not push the work of combining stuff into the DB?

my $sth = $dbh_bob->prepare(<<SQL);
    SELECT name, birthdate_date, gender, company
    FROM namespace.directory
    order by company
SQL
$sth->execute();

my $results = $sth->fetchall_arrayref(Slice=>{});
my $cur_company;
my $line;
for my $row (@$results) {
    if ($cur_company ne $row->{company}) {
        $cur_company = $row->{company};
        $worksheet = $excel->addworksheet($cur_company);
        $line = 0;
    };
    $worksheet->write_row($line++,0,$row);
};
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