Associated British Foods Group is our parent company. They have annual sales of more than £9.3 billion and 96,000 employees around the world. So they’re pretty big. Silver Spoon comes under the Grocery banner alongside big name FMCG brands like Twinings, Jordans, Ryvita and Kingsmill. By working collaboratively with household names like these, our people get to access brilliant career opportunities across the Group.
DEPARTMENTS
Sales
Our tenacious, highly motivated sales team are hugely important when it comes to fulfilling our ambitions. It’s all about identifying opportunities, maximising their potential, achieving targets and always meeting the needs of our customer. With tonnes of energy and a really buzzy atmosphere, it’s impossible to get bored in our sales team.
Marketing
So many lovely brands and so little time. But whatever brand you’re working with, you’ll be involved in a wide range of activities including sales performance and growth, developing advertising campaigns, leading and supporting New Product Development projects and managing external agencies. So it’s fast-paced, creative and perfect for marketing people with a passion for great food and beverage products.
Manufacturing
We have manufacturing sites in Bury, Ipswich, Bardney, Bishops Stortford and Aylesbury. Giving people the freedom to influence how the sites operate is the best way to encourage accountability and career development. It also means that everyone, from senior management right through to the people on the production line are engaged with everything. It comes down to trust at the end of the day, a lot of companies talk about it, we just do it. We know how brilliant our people are, support them when they need it and let them get on with it when they don’t.
Purchasing
From managing contracts for packaging and raw materials to reducing the amount of packaging we use, Purchasing plays a big part in achieving our objectives. So it’s challenging, but very rewarding. You’ll be liaising with clients and suppliers, working as part of cross functional teams and supporting initiatives. With so much happening, you’ll need to be a real team player who can multi-task effectively.
Logistics
Getting the right product to the right place at the right time, every single time, is pretty much their mantra. Our reputation, and our clients’ depend on it. But it doesn’t happen by itself, it takes exceptional planning and a robust distribution network. That’s the standard we expect. We’re always looking for new ways to make things more efficient, understanding customer needs and of course, working together as a team to get the job done.
Finance
From Sales and Marketing through to Purchasing, Logistics and Manufacturing, our Finance department influences every part of the business. With the focus on adding value, they analyse financial performance and provide rock solid reporting. But they’re about as far from your corporate bean counters as you can get, as a matter of fact, never use that name, they don’t like it. You’ll play a big part in new product development, be involved in a range of exciting projects and deliver big, strategic solutions and processes.
Customer Services
Our Customer Services team look after all the UK companies that receive deliveries direct from Silver Spoon, from small, independent customers to major retailers that place huge orders on a daily basis. It’s pretty fast-paced, the team handles everything from pricing structures, processing orders and selling-in promotional lines to ensuring that payment is received and invoice queries are resolved. With that in mind, you could say great teamwork’s important! Everyone mucks in when things get a bit manic, helping each other out and keeping the tea and biscuits coming. Great customer service skills are a must (obviously), but we’re also after people who have a real passion for service, people who genuinely care.
IT
We bring IT and business knowledge together to provide organisation wide solutions that make us more efficient and effective. Every team member’s multi-skilled with a diverse workload encompassing critical applications, projects and support. It’s an energetic atmosphere where we all support each other to achieve our aims and make it happen. IT offers tonnes of variety and is completely focused on what technology can achieve for the business. We’re also pretty good at translating the IT technobabble for non techie people!
Development
Our Food Centre is where the team comes up with new ideas for gorgeous things, provide technical advice and support our manufacturing sites. It’s all about the future. How can we tempt our customers with new, irresistible treats and ingredients? Along with strong technical skills, our Food Centre relies on great team players, brilliant creative thinking and people that love solving problems.
Export / Import
All our Silver Spoon products are exported worldwide and it’s up to our Import and Export people to manage every stage from receipt of order through to delivery. They build relationships with importers and distributors, develop long-term market strategies for our brands and work with our retail, catering and industrial partners to deliver an excellent service. They’re also brilliant organisers with the ability to forge really strong business relationships.
HR
Because people are so important to our success, HR is important to our business. Not exactly rocket science. So we focus on attracting the best people, like you of course, and ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to develop, whether that’s a specific training programme or the freedom to move between areas and gain different skill-sets. Our HR people also create the leadership structures that help people excel.