I began my career in FMCG working for Diageo with my first role being a Field Sales Executive covering independent pubs and bars, as well as small regional multiple groups. This gave me a fantastic insight into the day-to-day interaction both customers and consumers had with brands, as well as a strong understanding of the key sales drivers. From this role I moved into a Retail Execution role working on Innovation Brands, which involved building and developing plans to ensure NPD was launched successfully in market. Looking to move my career on within sales, a couple of sales project roles followed before I became a National Account Manager looking after Diageo's biggest on trade customer.
I then decided that I wanted to broaden my FMCG knowledge as well as sales experience so I came moved to UB to take up a Category Management Role looking after Co-op and Waitrose. Whilst this is a less commercial sales role it still involves working very closely with customers, building up key strategic partnerships and working alongside retailers and sales teams to deliver longer-term category growth. A key part of the role, which I found of great interest, is understanding shopper behaviours to delivering key insights to help grow both UB's and their customers business'.
Personally I have found UB to be a great place to work. Impressive household brands, which have played a part in all of our lives, a very energetic culture that challenges and supports in equal measure and plenty of opportunity to develop and grow your career. I have just recently moved into a Market Strategy and Planning role which will lead to plenty more challenges and opportunities to develop. UB is a business that rewards your determination, listens to your ideas and supports you in achieving your goals.
Following University, I started my career with Endsleigh Insurance in a Sales role. I then moved into Insurance Claims and helped to set up a small Insurance Claim Handling company, where I became involved in Recruitment and Training, which started my career in HR. I wanted to move into a larger company to broaden my HR experience and the pace of FMCG and the strength of UB’s brands appealed to me. I joined UB's Teesside Manufacturing site as an HR Advisor and after 18 months was promoted to HR Business Partner at our Consett site, leading the HR team there.
After a further 18 months, I moved from manufacturing HR and relocated to our Head Office to provide HR support to the sales team, and understand the commercial side of the business. This then expanded to support both the Sales and Marketing teams in the UK. During 2010 I undertook a 12 month secondment into Sales as a Business Account Manager, which broadened my understanding of the commercial side of the business.
I returned to an HR Business Partner role supporting the International business unit, including our India business, Finance and IS functions in 2011. After a career as an HR generalist, in 2012 I was promoted into a role in Reward, which has given me the opportunity to specialise, and work as part of the HR leadership team. I am now Head of Group Reward and continue to business partner the international business to support our accelerated growth globally, which provides a varied and challenging role.
I find UB a fast paced, challenging, but supportive and fun environment to work in, where I have been able to drive my career progression, supported by the right development opportunities.
KPMG in Glasgow was the first stage in my career, where the main attraction was the opportunity to work with some of the world’s largest FMCG brands, whilst obtaining a professional qualification. However, having been on the outside looking in, I wanted to gain first hand exposure to the fast paced FMCG environment, so joined Heineken working in Commercial Finance. To develop a more rounded CV, I then joined a smaller FTSE 350 company where I worked closely with the Executive Board on investor relations and financial reporting. Yet, my passion for the exciting FMCG environment didn’t abate and I left Scotland for London to join UB as Sales Commercial Finance Manager. Leaving Scotland was a big move and I had to ensure that the company was the right fit. What attracted me to UB? The iconic brands, market leading position and strong company strategy were extremely enticing.
18 months into the role and my already high expectations have been exceeded. I have been given excellent development opportunities and my role has also grown, including additional responsibility for our largest accounts and leading a bigger finance team. The majority of my day is spent working closely across various commercial functions on customer business plans and investment decisions. Working collaboratively with the commercial teams is very motivating and this dynamic position provides lots of high-level exposure to senior stakeholders. At UB, finance plays a key role in decision-making and the commercial teams are embedded in the functions they support. This way I receive the best of both worlds; being part of a world-class finance function, whilst playing a vital role in the customer facing teams. UB offers a challenging and interesting environment, and I’m proud to be part of some of the UK’s best loved brands.
My journey began with UB in 1997 as Site Engineer. During my time in this role, I gained a vast amount of knowledge and understanding, which gave me the confidence to be where I am now - a trained Technical Coordinator.
I started my Technical Coordinator role in 2009 and was thrown in the deep end, along with four other Advanced Team Members and another Technical Coordinator. The Technical Coordinator role was new to the Wigston site. Initially there was a creation of a manual for specific tasks for the Advanced Team Members to complete. There was a real sense of ownership for this as we started to take on various jobs from the engineers and give them to the Advanced Team Members.
I have also carried out the role of a mentor to the team, where they have achieved NVQ level 2 qualifications. This was a great site success and I am now in the process of mentoring for the NVQ level 3 qualifications.
One of my personal recent achievements for UB was within the Gems department. Working with a dedicated team we were able to have success in efficiency. I am able to help others gain the same experience and skills I have, and feel privileged that I saw the start of this process and help influence the future of ATM’s in their journey.
I started in FMCG on the graduate scheme at RHM and had various account management roles working my way up to the Tesco account. I gained by first experience of managing a team when I joined PepsiCo Int. and learned how to operate in a more corporate and process driven environment. After a short sabbatical coaching football in Africa, I joined UB to lead our Tesco Snacks business worth over £100m of Retail Sales. I am now in my third role in three years at UB having worked across Sales and Market Strategy and Planning.
My current role is as Business Unit Controller managing over £130m of Retail Sales across a variety of customers from Waitrose to BP through a large team of talented sales people. UB is an extremely fast paced business where you are given huge responsibility and each individual is very accountable for what they deliver, this was a big motivating factor in joining.
In McVities we have one of the countries’ biggest and most iconic brands and are clear leaders within our category. UB is a business where if you possess the right attitude, the opportunity for progression and development will be there, this has certainly been true for me.
After leaving University with a Business degree, I worked within a few supply chain roles in the Food and Media industries, managing Inventory, Demand Planning and Supply Chain improvement projects. I then decided to completing an MSc in Supply Chain and joined UB c7 years ago into a Value Chain Analyst role in Procurement. I was attracted to UB due to its big household brand names, dynamic nature of the business and challenging Procurement environment. From there I moved into a Value Chain Manager role, where I developed and launched UB's Supplier Relationship Management programme and am now the Senior Buyer for Group Flexibles.
With the support of my team, I am responsible for managing the sourcing process, developing the sourcing strategy and developing the supply base of UB Group's Flexible packaging spend. UB has always been an exciting place to work with many challenges and its dynamic nature to meet these challenges. There is a great network of experienced professionals to help and support delivery of business goals and a robust framework to ensure personal development and progression within the business.
I started my employment career working for Crown Cork & Seal, a beverage can manufacturer. My first role was PA to the FGM, where I gained knowledge of our customer base and internal networks. My people and organisational skills developed quickly, this was recognised and I moved into a more commercial role. The next few years were spent liaising with customers and design houses on packaging designs, ensuring customer sign off at production and travelling to other plants within Europe.
I was offered a new role within Customer Services managing a key account, which involved being responsible for both Commercial and planning/forecasting for France, Greece and the UK. This was a brilliant opportunity, which gave me a taste of Global Supply Chain. During this time I developed a keen interest in supply chain and identified a number of areas to drive savings and efficiencies.
I joined UB as Supply Chain Development Manager. UB needed someone with knowledge of complex supply chains, good people and negotiations skills and the opportunity to progress. This was the role for me, and my research prior to the interview identified UB as a very successful company, with a focus on people development.
I have been with UB for three years now and benefited from a structured development plan. My peers have been incredibly generous in giving their knowledge, time and expertise to assist me in my role, but also in my development and career progression. Working in the logistics and supply chain function within UB has been a fantastic experience for me. We are an extremely high calibre team, who are forward thinking and constantly pushing the boundaries to drive supply chain efficiencies with our customers, with a big focus on sustainability.
After graduating in Chemistry, I decided to follow a research career. My first contract was with Agriculture Canada linked to food contaminants based at the University of Alberta, On returning to the UK, I decided that I really wanted to develop my career in food science in a commercial environment.
I joined UB in 1987 as a research scientist in the Corporate Technical function supporting all the businesses owned by the company. Over the years this has included biscuits, snacks, cakes, frozen food, fish, pizzas and sandwiches in the UK and worldwide. My career has progressed through project leadership to research and development management. My current role is Ingredients Development Manager with technical responsibility to all UB businesses for a range of ingredients such as flour, sugars and flavours. This involves working with many functions including Procurement, Manufacturing and Marketing as well as with our suppliers, universities and research associations. My projects are varied and based around innovation, cost, quality and risk. We have such a wide range of projects and products that there is always something new and interesting to do.
It's a great place to work not just in terms of my own role but also with the satisfaction of seeing the many other graduates I've worked with succeed with their career development.
I graduated with a degree in Business Studies and Human Resources Management in 2006 after I completed an industrial work placement for Outokumpu Stainless Ltd. This confirmed my aspirations to work in HR and after leaving University I worked for the NHS, before joining Princes Foods Ltd - where I worked for 5 years in various HR roles. In 2011 I joined UB as a HR Advisor in Carlisle, where I have recently progressed into a Site HR Lead.
I wanted to work for UB primarily because the McVitie’s manufacturing site in Carlisle has a great reputation locally, for being one of the best factories to work in around the local area. I also knew that from my previous employment history that I wanted to remain within manufacturing - where there is a great buzz of activity. UBs big brands and size of the business also appealed to me.
Working for HR within UB is a great team to be a part of; whilst out in the field you are working within stand-alone teams, there are HR colleagues and Centres of Expertise around the business for support and from which to learn. There is also a great deal of opportunity to influence and drive change.
Joining UB has allowed me to develop myself further in a relatively short period of time; I believe that this is because UB is very fast paced and there are always new challenges. This working environment can be beneficial as it means development opportunities are constantly around and there is never a dull moment! UB aspires to develop its people from within, and across the business there are developmental and promotional opportunities for individuals with the right skills and competencies who are driving their own career path; even more so for those who are geographically mobile.
I started my career on the Management Graduate Scheme at Mars. Following experience in both Procurement and Marketing, working across Mars Drinks’ UK Division and Mars Food – Uncle Ben’s, I decided that a career in Marketing was what I wanted to pursue.
I joined UB just over a year ago in the McVitie’s Marketing Team, working on Hobnobs & Other Everyday Biscuits (Rich Tea, Ginger Nuts and Fruit Shortcake). As well as delivering pack re-designs and ‘Best Evers’ across these brands I was heavily involved in the “Dunk or Not” cross-brand promotion that took place in early 2010. This was a through the line event across McVitie’s Core brands to celebrate and encourage the national debate about whether people dunk their biscuits or not.
Following this role, I moved to working on Minis and the launch of Medley bars, McVitie’s brand new biscuit and cereal bars, before recently starting a new Brand Manager role on Hobnobs and Special Treats (Boasters and Cookies). In this role I am responsible for optimising our products and growing the brands as well as working with our Innovation team to bring new products to market.
I chose UB for the variety of magnificent brands it owns, from McCoys and Hula Hoops to Go Ahead!, Penguin, Jaffa, and of course, McVitie’s as a whole. Getting to work on, and alongside these brands, has definitely lived up to expectations, but more than that it is the people at UB that make it such a great place to work. Working collaboratively is a key asset for all brand managers as we spend a great deal of time working as part of a much broader, cross functional team from manufacturing through to sales and everyone in between, so enjoying the environment you work in and the people you work with is essential.
Not only does UB have great brands, but is very strong commercially, meaning that as a brand manager you have full P&L responsibility, and have to make decisions that impact on your brand’s financial performance and be able to defend those decisions. If you’re looking for variety as well as responsibility and the opportunity to work at pace with a good team of people, then UB Marketing offers the type of challenging and stimulating working environment you just might be seeking.
I started my career at UB as a Regional Executive based in Saudi Arabia, where I was responsible for brands such as McVities and BN. This was an exciting time for me, as I had to learn about different cultures and understand a new business model.
After two years I was promoted to Regional Manager where I managed sales to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Yemen. Working at UB International has provided me with a range of experiences, I have had the opportunity to manage multi-cultural countries and find appropriate business solutions.
Within my role I have travelled to India, Nigeria and Egypt, and now have a better understanding of these countries and how to get our brands to market successfully. After seven years, I am a Regional Manager handling a bigger scope of our International business and manage a network of seven countries. I am proud to be part of UB as I am passionate about my role and the business.
As a proud member of the UB team, I am pleased to say that during my three and a half years with UB, I have been given various opportunities and challenges that have been fulfilling and mutually beneficial.
I started with UB as a Production Operative in the packing and pulling stock in bake house department, where I was given opportunities for job rotation in other departments. From this experience, I was able to enhance my understanding of supply-chain and food processing models. I then moved onto the LEAN project where the team was required to provide ideas for efficiency, and help management with spotting solutions. During this time I learnt key business aspects. I found this project intellectually stimulating, and an opportunity for me to provide the company with as many solutions as I could.
I moved to an Advanced Team Member role in September 2009. This was part of my long term career aspiration to fulfill my potential by taking on a challenging role like the ATM position and expand and put into practice the technical and soft skills I have accumulated to date.
I have just completed my NVQ Level 2 in Mechanical Maintenance and I am now doing my Level 3 in the same field. My goal is to complete the course by beginning of next year and also expand my knowledge on the electrical side, such as PLC programming. I can truly say that UB are committed in investing in people and realising individuals potential.