My food & drink job: Amy Day, senior brand manager, Mr Kipling

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Amy Day portrait

Name: Amy Day

Age: 29

Job title: Senior brand manager – Mr Kipling UK

Company & location: Premier Foods, St Albans

Education: International Business Management at University of Manchester

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? This changed a lot but when I was at primary school, I wanted to be a teacher and throughout secondary school a journalist. I also loved baking and ballet as hobbies.

Why did you decide to go for a career in food & drink? I have always enjoyed a broad range of topics and subjects, and when I was looking for what to do with my degree, I spotted Premier Foods and realised how interesting it could be.

I like how important food and drink is to everybody and how you feel an emotional connection to your favourite brands. I also love how many new food and drink products there constantly are, and the opportunity to work on some household names.

“When you say to someone you work for Mr Kipling they will almost always tell you their favourite Mr Kipling cake!”

Explain your job to us in a sentence (or two): Driving Mr Kipling’s growth by monitoring performance, working on innovation and designing go-to-market activation. We spend a lot of time working with consumers and retail customers to shape future brand activation and strategy.

What does a typical day look like for you? One of the things I love about marketing is that it is so varied so every day can look very different – from developing new products, working on diagnostics to developing a TV advert. A lot of my work is project-based so involves working with cross-functional teams and our manufacturing sites, collaborating to help solve challenges together. I am also responsible for how our products turn up at shelf so spend a lot of time on design and in-store activity.

Mr Kipling - Lunchbox Cake Slice 2100X900

Source: Mr Kipling

Tell us how you went about applying for your job: I have worked at Premier Foods for almost seven years and applied via the commercial graduate scheme which included competency tests, a telephone interview and assessment day. As a graduate my first role was in the field sales team. I then moved to category development and then various marketing roles in Cadbury and Mr Kipling cakes. Generally, at Premier Foods development and career progression is a priority. For my current role, I applied internally which involved an interview and competency task.

What’s the best part about working for a food & drink company? Being able to evolve our products and activations to meet the changing needs of consumers, for example working on our better-for-you Delicious & Light range. Plus, people truly caring about food – cake is very emotive for people and I love working on a brand that makes consumers feel something. One of my favourite things is that when you say to someone you work for Mr Kipling they will almost always tell you their favourite Mr Kipling cake!

And what’s the biggest misconception people have about working in food & drink? I think people don’t realise the variety of roles available and how broad they are – behind every food and drink company there are so many people who work in so many different functions, and they are real specialists at what they do. Food companies have so many different departments, from manufacturing functions like R&D and engineering to head office roles in legal, regulatory, finance and sales to name but a few.

What advice would you give to other young people looking to get into the food & drink industry? My biggest bit of advice would be that if you’re looking for an interesting and varied role, consider the food and drink industry – don’t overlook it.

There are also lots of pathways to get into food and drink including graduate schemes, placement years, apprenticeships and entry roles so don’t think your only way in is via one route.

What’s your ultimate career dream? For now, I’m learning loads and really enjoying my current role, and see myself being in brand marketing for a while. Longer term it’s hard to know especially as the industry evolves, but at some point I would like to have my own company.