Food jobs from Carrus

Development Accelerated Management Scheme

Name:

Claire

University attended:

University Of Ulster

Degree obtained:

BA (Hons) Culinary Arts

Joined Scheme:

2005

Claire is currently in her first post-AMS role as Product Manager within the Bakkavör Spalding business

New Product Development is the "life blood" of our food manufacturing business. This is your chance to influence what the nation will be eating in the months and years to come!

Working in a highly rewarding and challenging environment, this is a "hands on" role, interacting with other departments/functions and customers, to develop and deliver to market exciting new food products. So gaining an incredible amount of experience in a short period of time.

Add to this unrivalled training, international and diverse opportunities and a fast track progression up the career ladder into a postion of genuine responsibility and the decision is easy!

Real work from day one

The Bakkavör Development Accelerated Management Scheme is a graduate scheme designed to nurture and train future Food Developers. The scheme consists of two, one year placements, at two of its UK sites which could range from Ready Meals, Pizza, Produce, Dips and Dressings. Each site can offer the graduate the core skills and competences required to set them on their product development career path. On completion of a year at a given site, candidates are transferred to a second site to further develop core skills and management attributes necessary to develop into a Senior Technologist/Product Manager. The roles and product categories in each business inevitably vary in response to customer demands and food trends thus inspiring the graduate to meet these challenges.

Real responsibility for graduates

Having completed a university placement year at a dessert manufacturer I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in the food industry which would allow me to innovate, develop and launch products that consumers would enjoy eating. When researching which manufacturer to apply to I looked no further than the UK's largest fresh food supplier Bakkavör. The scheme attracted my attention in terms of product categories that were open to graduates across all fresh food groups as well as the structure and support to mentor and guide a graduate through the on the job training .On joining the Bakkavör Group in June 2005 my role as a Concept Technologist at Tilmanstone Salads involved the development of Gourmet Salads, Food To Go core lines and limited editions for Marks and Spencers.

The scope of my role involved the development of these products alongside divisional chefs and M&S category buyers ensuring that the best ingredients and products were used to provide the customer with innovative products within the required price points and margins. Innovation was driven from market research and trends, gap analysis, consumer research and blue sky development. On completion of my first year I then moved to Fresh Cook.

From the outset my role at Fresh Cook as a Senior Concept Technologist for the Healthily Balanced, Steam Cuisine, Traditional Range, Gastro Pub and Deli Salad ranges, ensured that I developed and strengthened key skills: effective costings management, responsibility for development and presentation of new innovative concepts and the management of the concept critical path which ensured that all products were launched within the appropriate time scales and to margin.

I was also fortunate to be a key player in the development and successful launch of the Deli salads range which launched in May 2007, shortly followed by the TV ad campaign.

As well as continual on the job training, formal courses such as commercial awareness, presentation skills, leadership and management were also provided to further build and develop the skills of the graduates.

On completion of the AMS in June 2007 I was promoted to a Product Manager in the Fresh dips category of the Bakkavör group, Bakkavör Spalding. My current role is customer facing, managing the development and launch of products into store by means of a critical path, whilst undertaking extensive gap analysis, costings and account management. Having previously trained and worked as a chef I have an in-depth knowledge and passion for food. My BA (Honours) Degree in Culinary Arts gave me an excellent grounding for all aspects of the food industry giving an opportunity to develop products which can not only feed one restaurant of customers but a nation of consumers through a retail environment. This experience laid the foundations for my current role ensuring that I strived to the highest standards and looked to challenge both suppliers and operations at all times to ensure we produced the finest innovative products.

An innovative company

Bakkavör empowers communication, therefore even on your first day you are made feel welcome and can see how your contribution will benefit the team and the company. Bakkavör is an innovative company which supports and drives graduates to achieve their goals. Each employee alike is driven by the company's core values such as can do approach, which make them stand out amongst the competition.