Thinking of a career in food?

View the Article: http://www.jobmax.co.uk/article/thinkingofacareerinfood-30.htm

The food and drink industry is the largest of the manufacturing sectors accounting for 15% of total manufacturing overall, and has a total turnover of £70bn. The industry employsaround 500,000 people, which is about to 13% of the UK manufacturing workforce. Food and drink remains the biggest spending category. In 2005, consumer spending on food and drink was nearly £153.8bn, or 20% of total UK consumer expenditure

We are a nation of busy people and have a population going through changing trends including marrying later, higher divorce rates contributing to the increased number of  smaller families and single occupancy homes. Traditional mealtimes are largely a thing of the past with more women in the workforce impacting the way we eat.  The UK is by far the biggest consumer of ready meals compared to our European neighbours which keeps the manufacturing companies busy, with both manufacturers and supermarkets competing for our interest through constantly re-inventing and modifying prepared food to meet our changing food habits and taste. Through the recent recession food manufacturing, whilst affected of course by closures, restructuring and cost cutting, fared much better than other sectors because, after all, we all have to eat, and although our habits changed whilst reducing spending, (favouring the budget supermarkets such as Aldi and Lidl and led to the introduction of budget lines - even in Waitrose!) demand changed surprisingly little overall.

So - Food is a massive part of the economy, a dynamic but mature sector that demands a wide range of skills, innovation and creative thought as well as business acumen in order to continue to lead the way. Food is a diverse sector, spawning a huge vertical market that is needed to support the transformation of an idea into a product, through manufacture, packaging, warehousing and distribution to supermarkets and wholesalers and consumers across the globe - driven by the commercial activities of Sales, Marketing, Finance, Business analysts, purchasing and procurement, not forgetting HR and the Talent managers who may well be looking for you!