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Job Role: Product Quality Manager
Luci works for Tryton Foods - brand name Aunt Bessie's, a frozen food company based in Hull, which is part of William Jackson Group. The company produce everything that can accompany a roast dinner e.g. baked Yorkshire puddings, dumplings, roast potatoes, stuffing balls, chips plus hot puddings such as jam roly-poly and steamed ginger pudding.
There are around 550 staff employed across 3 sites: Freightliner 1 where Yorkshire puddings, pancakes and 'toad in the hole' are produced; Freightliner 2 for meat pies (steak and chicken) and the Trinity Street site predominantly for hot puddings. The Trinity Street site has recently undergone refurbishment so that new products can be launched.
Tryton Foods' customers include the big supermarkets Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury, Morrison's and also the smaller ones such as Co-op and Nisa plus of course the consumers who purchase the products. These range from students to elderly people.
Luci's role within the company is Product Quality Manager which means she oversees the food production process from the raw material stage right through to the finished product. All products have to be continually quality checked as they move through this process and Luci's role is to oversee this. For example a problem with a raw ingredient will be raised with her. She and her team will then check the process line to ensure everything is running as it should be and that there are no contaminants. There will be an on line tasting session which all staff are trained to carry out, a finished product sampling where texture, taste and flavour profiles will be tested then the product will go off for micro sampling.
Luci reports to the Technical Director who has to ensure all due diligence is implemented in the factory. This means that if the company says it is producing food that is safe to eat, there have to be quality tests and procedures in place during the production process so that the final products are safe to eat.
Eleven staff report in to Luci: 8 technical auditors, a consumer services co-ordinator, a technical officer and a technical assistant.
Luci enjoys her role because of the variety that it brings each working day. She could be at her desk writing a report, down on the factory floor to oversee a product trial, dealing with a staffing issue or dealing with a visit from an Environmental Health Officer.
Luci explains "Every day is different; that's what keeps me going and what I love about the job. A nine to five job where I was working on a computer at a desk all day would not suit me at all".
Luci is mainly office/site based and normally works a 7.00 am to 5.00 pm day. There are some unsociable hours when she is involved in running product trials and then she could start very early in the morning or come in at night to meet with a technical auditor during a night shift.
The company operates different shift patterns so the office staff work 8.30 am to 5.00 pm, production workers work 3 different shifts (6 am - 2 pm, 2pm - 10pm and 10pm - 6pm) and the engineers work continental shifts (4 consecutive shifts of 12 hours and then 4 days off).
Luci's role requires her to work on her own for much of the time but she also has to be able to work within the team. Team working is required when working on the factory floor or holding technical auditor meetings. There are also times such as the launch of a new product when Luci and her team need to liaise with other departments within the company e.g. marketing, logistics, production and finance.
Luci's own working environment varies; she is often working in her office but also spends time in the factory and is required to go out to meet with suppliers and customers. As she says "It depends on where I need to be at any one time".
Most of Tryton Foods' employees travel to work by bike, car, bus or on foot and traffic around the sites can become very congested during rush hour periods. The company has pool' cars available so staff can travel easily between the 3 sites as and when required.
Luci had always wanted to work in the food business and knew that she would prefer to be involved in the processing/production of food rather than the hospitality/catering route.
Luci felt at 16 (after her GCSEs) she was not mature enough for the work place and therefore continued her further education taking 'A' levels at college (Home Economics, History, General Studies and English Literature) before moving on to a sandwich degree in Food Quality at Bournemouth University. A careers day at school had sparked her interest in this course.
During the summer holidays following the completion of her degree course, Luci knew she needed a job and began her search through a trade journal, "Food Manufacturer". She saw a vacancy for a Technical Assistant at Tryton Foods advertised on the journal's web site. Luci applied and after 2 interviews was selected for the post.
From this role she moved on to become Raw Materials Co-ordinator and then into the Quality Manager role she now has, which she has held for circa two and a half years.
Luci would like her next stage of development to take her to the post of Technical Manager within the company.
