Name: Rory Millar
Age: 27
Job title: Assistant brand manager
Company & location: Union Hand-Roasted Coffee, East London
Education: Popular Music BA Hons, Edinburgh Napier University, Diploma in Professional Marketing, CIM
Why did you decide to go for a career in food? When I finished my studies in Edinburgh, I found myself working in the vibrant world of hospitality whilst continuing to play music on the side. Through witnessing the sheer joy food & drink brings to consumers (and creators), I wanted to learn more and help introduce as many people as possible to the wonderful world of food & drink.
Explain your job to us in a sentence (or two): Being an ambassador for the brand across our key marketing channels, ensuring the customer and our values are kept at the core of all decisions. We want to help spread the word of speciality coffee far and wide!
What does a typical day look like for you? Working with our fantastic in-house team at Union to ensure we are presenting the brand consistently across all communications and facilitating growth for the wider Union Hand-Roasted business.
My specific focus lies around our D2C channels, working with our key retail partners to implement digital and in-store growth strategies and activations. From an ecommerce perspective, I manage our microlots range from pricing to launch – these microlot coffees are delicious, limited parcels from some of our expert farmer partners.
“Food & drink is a dynamic environment full of highly skilled and creative people”
Tell us about how you went about applying for your job. It was a two-stage interview process with our head of brand and marketing & ecommerce director. At the final stage, I was asked to present for 30 minutes on a new coffee launch, from objective setting to channel strategy to measuring success. With all interviews there were some nerves, but the team made me feel very comfortable from the get-go, which really helps when it comes to the more difficult questions. Specifics on the marketing plan were trickier, however I had done my best to work through potential Q&As in advance and when I wasn’t completely sure of something it didn’t seem to hurt to admit it!
What’s the best part about working for a food company? Food & drink is a dynamic environment full of highly skilled and creative people with expertise across a broad scope. Over the last 20 years, Union has remained committed to being purpose led through protecting the future of speciality coffee, building communities at origin and always minimising the impact on our planet – most of which is made possible through our Union Direct Trade model. It makes coming to work every day very easy.
And what’s the biggest misconception people have about working in food & drink? There are misconceptions around food & drink being a stepping stone into other industries, I couldn’t disagree more! There is a whole spectrum of businesses within the food & drink world servicing different parts of the supply chain and with that a whole host of opportunities are available – finance, commercial, digital, branding & marketing and operations – to name but a few.
What advice would you give to other young people looking to get into the food & drink industry? Go for it! Things move so quickly in this industry and it is a great place to learn fast and develop your skills with some brilliant people.
What’s your ultimate career dream? To continue growing brands for creative and purpose-led businesses – where it will take me, who knows!
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