Featured employers announced for London Inspiring Careers in Food event
The five featured employers for Food Matters Live’s London Career Event: Inspiring Careers in Food – running on 8 and 9 February 2023 at the BFI on London’s Southbank – have now been finalised. They are: Britvic, SSP UK, Budweiser, GrowUp Farms and Compass Group.
Inspiring Careers in Food will host a full day programme of podcast sessions and panels on a range of topics to help students find out all they need to know about securing a fulfilling and exciting role in the food and drinks sector. In addition, the London event will give students the unique chance to meet with employers and find out more about the wide array of roles existing within the industry.
Industry recruiters from these companies will be present both days of the event, taking the stage during the Meet the Employers workshop sessions.
During these workshops, attendees will be able to learn about career opportunities on offer – for both graduates and apprentices – as well as what the companies are looking for in new employees and how to stand out in an application.
The employers will also be at The Hub throughout the day, where they’ll be on hand to meet students, answer any queries and provide more information on their product innovations.
The five companies operate in a range of areas in the food sector. Find out more about what they do and the opportunities they’ll be discussing at the event:
Britvic
From 7Up, J20 and Tango, to Lipton Ice Tea, Robinson’s and Pepsi Max, a job at Britvic gives you the opportunity to work for some of the biggest brands in soft drinks. The company was first founded in Great Britain in the 1930s under the name the British Vitamin Products Company, in a bid to provide people with an easy access to vitamins through drinks. A great portion of the company’s work takes place across England at its three factories in Leeds, Rugby and Beckton, at the national distribution centre in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, at some of its offices in Tamworth and Solihull, and the head office in Hemel Hempstead.
During the London event, Julie Brahmia, GB Senior Product Development Team Manager at Britvic, will discuss the latest opportunities for graduates and apprentices available at the company. These could include Apprentice Maintenance Electrician or Sales Executive roles.
SSP UK
Calling themselves the ‘food travel experts’, SSP UK is a food and drinks provider for travel food outlets in 36 countries worldwide. The business supplies airports, railway stations, motorway service stations, hospitals, shopping centres, as well as some onboard catering for airlines and trains. SSP also owns a range of brands that are firmly established in travel food outlets. Some familiar businesses SSP UK owns include Upper Crust, Ritazza, Camden Food Co., Millie’s Cookies and Mi Casa Cantina, among others. It also works alongside several big names which they franchise, including Starbucks, Leon, M&S Food to Go and Burger King.
SSP has a wide variety of apprenticeships on offer and they’ve partnered with Not Going to Uni – the UK’s online guide for school and college leavers looking for alternatives to university. During the London Careers Event, attendees will meet Eunji Choi, UK Operations Training Manager, UK L&D, and Susan Alaba, Apprenticeship Coordinator at SSP Group, and hear about the apprenticeships which are open for applications. These could range from Barista or Bar Team Leader roles to a Kitchen Assistant or Commis Chef.
Budweiser
Founded in the USA in 1876 by Carl Conrad & Co., Budweiser Brewing Group is a market leader and long-standing beer company, known for its American-style lager made from barley, water, rice, and hops. Now a part of the multinational group Ab InBev, the company helps to brew a range of popular beers as well as Budweiser, including Stella Artois, Bud Light and Corona.
Attendees interested in apprenticeships at Budweiser will get the chance to hear from Ian Dorans and Peter Amor, who are both Divisional Managers at the organisation. Budweiser currently has a wide range of apprenticeships on offer in its Dispenses Unit (drinks installation) which Amor and Dorans will discuss in detail.
GrowUp Farms
As the agricultural sector looks for solutions to become more eco-friendly and cut carbon emissions, one popular innovation appearing in the past decade has been vertical farming. Encouraging higher crop yields and allowing farming to take place 365 days a year in a controlled indoor climate, vertical farming allows food production to take place anywhere – from a purpose-built indoor space in the countryside to a shipping container in a more urban environment.
GrowUp Farms was first launched by Kate Hofman and Tom Webster in 2013 via a Kickstarter campaign to build The GrowUp Box – a shipping container filled with a vertical farm. The following year the business opened the nation’s first commercial scale aquaponic vertical farm in east London. Since then, it has decided to switch to a hydroponic-led site, in which, unlike aquaponics, doesn’t use fish to eat and produce waste to feed crops. The company’s next farm in Sandwich, Kent is currently in the process of being built to help produce more locally-grown salad leaves for supermarkets across the UK.
With a lot happening for the company, it’s an exciting place to start your career. At the upcoming event in London, attendees will be able to hear from Chantelle Cohen, People & Culture Associate at GrowUp Farms, who will explore the range of opportunities available at the company. These could be in research, marketing, engineering, or operations, among other areas.
Compass Group
Compass is a multinational foodservice provider working with a range of clients from business, healthcare, education, sports, and leisure industries, to remote mining and construction camps, offshore fixed and mobile and defence bases. Operating in 40 countries across Europe, North and South America, Australasia, Asia, and the MENA region, and employing and working with approximately 500,000 people, there are plenty of diverse career opportunities on offer at Compass. This could include managing the food menu for patients in a hospital or retirement home, helping to educate children and teens on the importance of healthy nutritious food and meals, or managing a canteen at a corporate company headquarters.
At the event, attendees will hear from Chris Chidley, Chief Growth Officer, and Gemma Evans-Hurley, Culinary Lead Projects, at Compass Group. Chidley and Evans-Hurley will delve into the apprenticeships and graduate schemes they’re currently hiring for, such as its Graduate Management Trainee Operations Programme – a two-year rotational scheme where graduates work in four different departments of the company every six months.
