Susanna Lemon

I did my placement at United Biscuits, an international food manufacturer, with its most iconic brands being McVities, Carrs, Jacobs and Verkade.

I worked within the Procurement function, in the Co- Manufacturing team and I primarily worked with our UK based co-packers, and buying packing services.

My daily activities included sending out ‘co-packing enquiries’ to suppliers and negotiating costs. I also had to maintain relationships with all of our Co-Packers, and visit them on a regular basis.

My favourite part was working on the new product development projects. I also enjoyed other challenging projects, such as shipping of tins from China to the UK then storing and co-packing them. I also loved visiting the different factories and seeing how the process of making biscuits were converted to such a huge industrial scale. I found the machinery used fascinating.

I received a massive amount of responsibility from day one, meaning I learnt a huge amount very quickly. I also got to meet so many great friends and make a lot of business connections.