Working with customers has always been a passion for Amelia. She joined Arla as a Commercial Trainee before stepping up to a Business Executive role and later becoming Business Manager for one of the largest retailers in the UK. After eight years in sales, Amelia decided she was ready for a new customer-related role, so she made a move into logistics, as Head of Customer Logistics.
Amelia lives in Leeds with her husband to whom she finally got married to after waiting for two years because of Covid and they have recently announced that they’re expecting their first child at the end of this year. Amelia spends her spare time exercising either in the gym or going running.
Training for a commercial role
After finishing her university degree in History & Politics in 2013, Amelia was looking for her first job. She didn't know Arla at the time but got excited about becoming a Commercial Graduate Trainee at our Leeds office in the UK.
“During my first two years, I supported the business managers on the Morrisons account with administrative tasks such as keeping sales materials and presentations up to date. Further into the role, I got more involved in customer meetings,” Amelia says and adds:
“I also did a lot of training sessions to develop my sales and negotiations skills. The whole traineeship was basically preparing me for a future commercial role in sales or marketing.”
The big milestone within sales
After completing the graduate programme, Amelia became a Business Executive.
“I was responsible for some of our smaller customers in Foodservice and convenience. Though the accounts were relatively small, I was looking after a lot of customers at the same time. So, I developed time management skills and learned to prioritise,” she says.
After a year in the executive role, Amelia got promoted to Business Manager, which she describes as a big milestone within sales. First, responsible for accounts such as P&H, Coop and Spar and later as part of the Tesco team.
“As a Tesco Business Manager, I was only responsible for two categories, Milk-Based Beverages (MBB) and Yogurts, in which I had to become an expert. Because Tesco is the largest retailer in UK, I had to learn who the Tesco shopper was and why Arla products would be right for Tesco and their shoppers,” Amelia explains.
Managing people in logistics
After eight years in sales, Amelia decided she was ready for a new customer-related role, so she made the cross-functional move to become Head of Customer Logistic.
“I wanted to stretch myself a bit more and become a people manager, so my mentor and I discussed different roles that could offer me either strategic mindset or people management, and logistics was one that came up a lot in our conversations.”
“The role was perfect because it ticked all the boxes on the customer side, which I had worked on for eight years, but it was also a cross-functional move that allowed me to get a much bigger breadth of experience, specifically on the two things that I wanted to develop on,” Amelia says and continues:
“If you've got the curiosity, make the move sooner rather than later. In my mind, I needed to rise to a higher level in sales before looking across functions. That wasn't the case. I moved into logistics and got promoted at the same time.”
