My food & drink job: Sam Tyzack, national account manager, CCEP

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Name: Sam Tyzack

Age: 23

Job title: National account manager – Tesco

Company & Location: Coca-Cola Europacific Partners in London/Uxbridge

Education: History, Geography and English Language at A-Level, then a business administration apprenticeship at CCEP

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? For most of my childhood, I wanted to be an airline pilot – I even went through all the training and preparation and got as far as the medical exams – but it wasn’t to be. As my dad worked for Hilton Hotels, I was lucky to do a lot of travelling as a child, but I’m grateful now that I didn’t go through with becoming a pilot, because I couldn’t imagine sitting in a quiet cockpit for hours on end – I need to talk with people!

Why did you decide to go for a career in food & drink? I wanted to work for a brand I personally enjoy, which made choosing the food & drink industry easy! I’m an avid consumer of Coca-Cola’s brands, so I thought it would be fun to get an understanding of the work that goes into the products, especially now I know that they are so diverse – not just soft drinks, but water, ARTD and RTD coffee too. The opportunity to work abroad also appealed, as Coca-Cola operates in nearly every country in the world.

“The opportunity to work abroad appealed, as Coca-Cola operates in nearly every country in the world”

Explain your job to us in a sentence (or two): My role involves managing the sales and relationships with CCEP’s largest retailers, including Tesco. I also work with our internal teams to support any growth plans through marketing activations, both in-store and online, and drive sales through selling exciting new products, ensuring our partners have the right tools to sell them.

What does a typical day look like for you? Much of my day is spent talking. I work closely with my counterparts and the buying team at Tesco, to learn about new opportunities and discuss how our products can support them and their customers. We’ll also identify their biggest priorities to figure out how we can link our yearly goals to their focus areas, so we can both succeed together.

I also look after the Monster brand for Tesco, so my job is to build relationships with the internal team there, so we can work seamlessly together to achieve our joint long-term ambitions. I’ll often go into stores to see what our competitors are doing, but more importantly to see how my work – including marketing and listing NPD – lives and breathes in-store for people to see and buy.

Finally, I am also managing people for the first time at the moment, so part of my day is spent supporting my team, ensuring they have opportunities to thrive and develop.

coca cola

Tell us how you went about applying for your job: For my current role as national account manager, I had to give a presentation on what my development plan would look like. This involved me presenting not only what my five-year plan looks like, but also my one-year and three-year plans. I then had to describe, if I was successful, what I would hope to achieve in the first 30, 60, and 90 days on the job, to show how my development goals linked to the job.

It wasn’t all serious though and involved some fun questions such as ‘if you were any Coca-Cola brand, which one would you be?’ I chose Fanta Lemon, because there’s nothing quite like the feeling of drinking a cold can of it on holiday – and that feeling is something I hope to bring to my teams too.

What’s the best part about working for a food & drink company? The business is so forward-looking. I’ve been fortunate enough to be part of the Future Generation Council at CCEP, which I am now chairperson of too.

It provides an opportunity for younger colleagues to work directly with our leadership group – for example, I reverse mentor Stephen Moorhouse, our general manager – and share their views on the causes they are passionate about, such as sustainability. It’s a really powerful tool to engage the future generation of CCEP colleagues and create a lasting impact on the company.

And what’s the biggest misconception people have about working in food & drink? I think people often don’t think about how many different cogs have to turn to get raw materials into a bottle or can, fill them with our product and then get them on to the shelf. It’s not as simple as it sounds, as there are thousands of different processes that help us to manufacture the initial product, right through to where it ends up in a shopper’s basket, and it requires a great team to put it all together.

What advice would you give to other young people looking to get into the food & drink industry? You need personality, motivation, and a willingness to learn. There are so many opportunities to try different things within a food & drink company, so if you’re able to get stuck in and enjoy yourself, you’ll go far. Remember that as a young person, you have skills that could influence the leadership team too, so have the confidence to express your views, because you never know where it might take you.

What’s your ultimate career dream? I’d love to be in a position where I can make a significant difference within a large business such as CCEP. In doing so, I’d like to work abroad and expose myself to different countries and cultures, with the aim of gaining a broader view of the company’s global operations and bringing those insights back to my everyday role. That, and to be in the Maldives sipping a piña colada – but only once I’ve achieved the first dream!