Star buyer: Helena Watson Frozen desserts and ice cream buyer, Sainsbury's



Watson has been in her role for almost two years but has previously traded in petfood, soft drinks and fresh and processed fish products. Before joining Sainsbury's graduate trading training programme in 2000, she studied psychology and business at Edinburgh University.



Kanaiya Parekh Tesco, ice cream and desserts buyer



Parekh joined as a graduate trainee in 1997 and now has 10 years of experience at the multiple under his belt. He has been senior buyer for ice cream and desserts since January. He was involved in the launch of Tesco.com and the set-up of Tesco Media Services.



Kelly Hathaway Makro, frozen food buyer



Hathaway joined Makro in 2003 from Safeway and moved to frozen food in 2005. She says she gets huge job satisfaction from her role, and the hard work she put in paid off when she won Makro's Food Buyer of the Year award in 2006. She is responsible for buying across the whole frozen foods category but really enjoys the desserts sector and dealing with NPD.



Steve Dixon Trading controller, Nisachill



With a career that began pushing trolleys for a supermarket, Dixon managed to work his way up to store manager and spent 10 years working for various stores before switching to field sales. He joined Nisa-Today's as a buying controller and oversees eight frozen and chilled categories.



Amanda Scott Frozen food buyer, Waitrose



Scott has been buying ice cream and frozen desserts for three years and added savoury lines to her remit in February. She joined Waitrose after five years with Safeway, where she joined its graduate training programme and became a meat buyer. Her career began at Sainsbury's.



Keith Wright Frozen food trading manager at Morrisons



Wright joined Morrisons full-time when he was 18, working as a management trainee. At the age of 20 he moved to head office as a buyer's assistant in the frozen foods department before moving up the ranks to the position of frozen foods trading manager - a position he has held for seven years.

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