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STEM Teacher Placement 2009 -10
St. Mary’s High School
@
Crossgar
Foodservice
Work Placement
Background
Crossgar Foodservice is one of the leading foodservice suppliers in of
Ireland, providing the foodservice market with a "one stop shop".
The product range includes poultry, meat, chilled, frozen, grocery and non
food items, offering our customers access to over 10,000 products built
around a core of locally produced products.
Unique to the foodservice market as they own and control the sourcing of
their poultry, meat and sauce products.
Crossgar Foodservice comprises of 3 key
businesses
Crossgar Poultry
Established in 1959 by Gerald Bell, Crossgar Poultry is one of the leading
poultry suppliers in the Foodservice market.
The factory in Crossgar is accredited to the British Retail Consortium
Standard (BRC). This is a nationally recognised accreditation used by all
major suppliers and ensures that the HACCP, quality management, factory
environment standards and production process controls are adhered to.
Crossgar Meats
Crossgar Meats has been established for over 25 years.
Crossgar Meats launched the unique Dexter Beef range in January
2009. Dexter Cattle are a Traditional Irish Breed and their existence was
first recorded in Ireland in 1776. Dexter Cattle by nature don't lend
themselves to large scale commercial beef operations. They are
traditionally grown in small herds across Ireland and therefore are difficult
to source. In order to ensure a consistent supply for our customers we
have signed an exclusive deal with The Dexter Society in Ireland.
Crossgar Foodservice
Crossgar Foodservice is the sole All Ireland Distributor for 3663 - the UK's
leading foodservice company. With sales over £1.2 billion a year 3663
delivers quality ingredients, finished products and equipment to the
catering industry in the UK.
This exclusive agreement gives Crossgar Foodservice access to an
additional 10,000 chilled, frozen, grocery and non food products. With
many of Ireland's leading restaurants, hospitals, schools, and hotel
groups among their customers, Crossgar Foodservice are set to continue
being a 'one stop shop' for the Irish catering industry.
Management Structure
Mr Gerald Bell
Chairman
Mr Paul Bell
Mr David Bell
Poultry Director
Sales Director
Managing Director
Mr Conor Bell
Meats Director
(Downpatrick)
Mr Terry Casement Mr Micheal Morrisey
Group Financial
Controller
(Crossgar)
Foodservice
Director
(Seaforde)
Mr Steve Millership
Mr Conleth
Trade & Marketing
Manager
Mc Carthy
(Downpatrick)
Sales Manager
(Downpatrick)
Employment Opportunities
Administration
Staff
Accounts
Assistants
Purchase Ledgers
Receptionists
Credit Control
Currently 241 Staff
Accountants
Sales
Representatives
Tele Sales
Personnel
Departmental
Managers
Market researchers
Factory Floor staff
Sales & Marketing
Co-Ordinator
Human Resource
Officers
Operations Manager
Warehouse Staff
Sales & Marketing
Co-Ordinator
Working Environment
General impressions from staff and students before placement
• Smelly
• Working with raw meat
• Boring
• Tiring work
Impressions from experience after placement
• No smell! Clean and very busy environment
• Health & safety of utmost importance. Access to factory was not allowed
• Wide variety of jobs available within the one company
• More flexibility within the working day – no bells
• Thriving work force
Regional Sales Team
Reps place the order themselves
or their customer does so through
the reps telesales team.
Sales Reps set up various meetings
with their current customers and
with new business owners
Financial Controller explains the
details of performance of the sales
team to the Directors once a month.
Sales Reps set up
various meetings
‘Circle
Trust meetings’
withofbusinesses
TSPC
Reps are now responsible to
collect money owed, and may
refer bad debt to their credit
control agent to chase.
Sales Reps
A meeting takes place within the
Catering/Food industry
Buddy between the
Financial Controllers. B
‘Buddy’
System
Sales Rep Liaise with Sales
support team/ Sales manager
Sales Projections are sent to
reps twice a week therefore if
they are not hitting their targets
they have time to rectify this.
ad debtors are identified.
Targets are set and areas for improvements
explained, between the Financial Controller and
the Sales Rep, based on the calculations made.
Sales Rep reports to Financial
controller (once a month to
review their performance)
Everything is shared and
explained.
Bonuses are awarded as incentives
‘Sales Surgery’
Under performers a will be issued with warnings
Maths
&
Employability
“Why do I need to know this?”
“What will I ever used this for?”
Types of employment
within Crossgar
Foodservice
Financial Controller
A hands on role and you'll head up the day to day financial activities
for your company, including; financial strategy, analysis of the books,
reporting back to management on the state of the company's
finances, cash flow, producing accounts, setting and checking
targets, monitoring the performance of each department, auditing and
overseeing all tax and regulatory/compliance issues.
Skills Required
•Good attention of business as well as financial issues
•Sound decision making
•An ability to work to deadlines
•An ability to use Microsoft EXCEL, and other ICT software packages
•General Mental Maths used on a daily basis – sound ability to
calculate percentages.
Financial Controller – Daily Problem Solving Skills
• Constantly looking for new products.
Products which haven’t sold well are delisted.
• 18% cheaper to put fuel into lorries in the South. All routes are
planned so that lorries will stop at a Southern Service Station.
• Lorries never travel with half loads. Any lorries going to England, or
further, may be hired by other companies, so that maximum use is
made of them.
• Mobile phone tariffs are constantly checked for best deal.
• Pricing ‘by each’ or per kg on meat or chicken products is done to
maximise profit. E.g. Anything on the bone is priced per kg.
• Time wasted on small transactions – a minimum order put into place.
E.g. out of 22,000 transactions in a month, 4853 were under £25.
Administration Jobs
Purchase Ledger Administrator
A purchase ledger is a system in
accountancy by which a business
records and monitors its creditors.
• Organisational skills
• Attention to detail
• Computer literate
• A Spreadsheet is prepared for the
Board of Directors to make
decisions. E.g.. Electricity bills etc.
• Ability to deal with units of
measure
• Deal with volume of stock ordered
and estimate costs
Receptionist
•
•
•
•
•
Excellent Telephone manner
Be able to deal with queries
Organisational skills
Computer literate
Work under pressure
Accounting Assistant/ Executive
Skills required
1. Competency in Microsoft
applications including Word, Excel
and Outlook. Organizational, verbal
and written communication skills a
must.
2. Attention to detail and ability to multi
task is an asset.
3. Required typing speed.
4. Verbal and written communication
skills.
5. Attention to detail, if an error occurs
a short investigation must take place.
Since accounts are reconciled at the
end of each month it is usually easy
to find discrepancies.
6. Confidentiality.
7. Time management.
8. Interpersonal skills.
9. Customer-service
10. Initiative.
11. Reliability.
12. Stress tolerance.
Credit control
Credit Control Manager
Credit Control Cashier
Skills
Skills
• Good Team management skills
• Ability to work as part of a
• Sound decision Making
team
• Confidence
• Excellent Numeracy skills
• Good attention to detail
• Reports to Transport manager
• The ability to work under
pressure and meet deadlines
(i.e. if Lorry drivers amounts are
over/under/exact)
• Good financial skills
• Good attention to detail
• Excellent written and verbal
• The ability to work under
communication skills
• Confidentiality
pressure and meet deadlines
Stock Controller/
Warehouse personnel
Stock Controller
Skills
• Estimations based on trends
• Processing purchase orders.
• Receiving Deliveries.
• Reconciling Delivery notes with
purchase orders.
• Recording serial numbers where
applicable.
• Organising stock buying per piece
or per kg
• Place stock in designated areas for
ongoing projects/special offers
• Monthly stock take and
reconciliation of stock.
over last 5 weeks. Seasons
also taken into account.
• Assess Max/Min stock levels
• 2 weeks stock usually in place
• Stock sometimes split
between a few suppliers to
ensure delivery
• Currency conversion
• Negotiation skills to get best
deal
Sales and Marketing Team
Sales and Marketing
Coordinator
• Responsible for the Brochures
produced
Trade and Marketing Manager
Responsible for;
• the advertisements which
• Website and ecommerce site
fund the brochure they
• Pricing guides for Sales reps
produce.
• Advertisements
• The last brochure cost
• Photography
£12,000 and have a shelf life
• Newsletters
of one year
• Exhibitions
• Pricing new products
• Negotiating new deals with
suppliers
Telesales
Telesales
Department
Telesales Manager
Telessales departmental jobs
• Dealing with irate customers
• Inbound caller/ Outbound caller
• Monitors the calls coming in
• Good telephone manner (longer
and going out
• How many are abandoned?
• Average waiting time?
• Organises motivational
you talk the more chance of
making that sale)
• Works in a very busy and
stressful environment
incentives, usually selling
• Have excellent keyboard skills
some slow moving stock
• Be able to read info from Excel
•Rah Rah Day!
and navigate through screens
• Do a quick conversion in head
Euro/sterling
Maths & Employability
Interview Questions for a Telesales post or
stockroom post
1. Have you had any Telephone Sales Experience, or telephone
training?
2. What do you expect to gain from this post?
3. What hours are you available to work, do you have access to a
car?
4. How could you demonstrate the ability to sell?
5. How would you handle an irate customer?
6. What are your strengths and weaknesses you have?
7. How many grams per kg?
8. How many ounces per lb?
9. How many is one dozen?
Summary
Summary
• Diversity of jobs I knew existed but didn’t know what was involved
• I was part of the ‘Real world’
• Teamwork working at a larger level
• Percentages are hugely important in business, other links made
with certain parts of the curriculum
• The ability to use Microsoft Excel is an important asset
• Incentives and motivation so important
• Target setting part of day to day routine
• Communication skills are extremely important
• Links made with Crossgar Foodservices
• Tours available to schools/ jobs available for sixth formers