Alicja Chrapek - Financial Accountant BUK Rotherham
"Good things don’t come easy but if you are open to new opportunities and challenges, they are here for you. You may start off in one place but end up somewhere else if you are willing to put in the work."
It makes me very proud when I go abroad to see the name and the logo of the company that I work for. Every associate is valued, associates working on the lines are not forgotten and given opportunities as you can read by my experience - their contributions are recognised as well as same for more office based roles.
I think the support of work colleagues makes all the difference; it helps motivate you to achieve even better things and that has been my experience.
I originally came to the UK from my native Poland with my husband, in September 2006, initially just for a year. I had recently graduated with a degree in Finance & Banking but needed a job to get started. We got jobs straight away - temporary work at several companies and then in October 2006 we both started working at NYBCo. through an Agency. It was initially only for a month, working on the line, however, as I was so committed and the company saw potential, I quickly progressed to operating a Packaging Bagger as a permanent Associate.
In 2008, I was asked to step up again to cover whilst my Supervisor was on maternity leave, a role that covered both Packing and Process. I was proud to become a permanent Area Supervisor.
In my experience, Grupo Bimbo UK are flexible to accommodate personal family planning. I started my own family in 2011. Whilst I was pregnant, my role changed so that I was working days only to help me, supporting the Technical and Planning teams in an admin capacity.
I returned to working part-time on the manufacturing lines as this flexibility suited my family life.
In 2014 I had my second child and was off for another year, returning in July 2015 to my previous role working on the lines and then in January 2016, I started working for the Technical Department full-time as a QA Auditor/Technical Administrator.
Antony Patton – Group Planning Manager Supply Chain
"The business grows and expands every year and is backed by a huge parent company so I feel my job is as secure as can be. The opportunities are fantastic, I would have never thought all those years ago I would be doing what I am doing now."
More importantly, the people I work with are great, the team spirit and support from the very top of the business is what I have experienced.
I joined the company for a very short time through an agency, I was cleaning belts and helping out on the packaging lines. At the time the bakery was expanding, so I also got exposure to the production side of the business. The factory evolved into building a new production line and I had the chance to have roles as a team leader in both production and packing lines.
I left just as they were building the Alitech line to run a computer repair shop for my parents, which lasted about 9 months. The pull of the company was too great and I ended up re-joining the business again as part of the team that was involved in commissioning yet another new line, and Ispent quite a few days scraping product off the boards, which was hard work.
I then expressed my interest as wanting to become a shift manager and was given a chance to train firstly as cover.
This is where I was trained to plan production of the bakery as this task was shared by all the shift mangers. After this, there was a restructure and I applied for the role of managing production, I did this for around 2 years before a new role was created as production controller which I took on.
I also became responsible for the despatch and goods in functions and areas. My role changed to site Materials Requirements Planning and Logistics manager until I became Group Planning Manager and now have responsibility for the planning teams at our three sites; Rotherham, Maidstone and Welwyn.
This has meant I have been able to grow my experience and skills, as well as travel up and down the country, meet new people, work directly with our customers and experience new challenges.