We caught up with Paul Armstrong, Commercial Director this week to hear how he ended up in Food Tech, what he's most proud of and his advice to anyone considering a career at Foods Connected.
1. What attracted you to a career in the food tech?
I’ve been working in the food industry for 25 years now, but when I graduated from university I wasn’t sure what my career path would be, I secured a placement in a meat processing factory and ended up really enjoying it. I worked my way up through the business to commercial director, and during that time noticed a lot of process inefficiencies across the industry when it came to things like buying and selling and conducting audits, from there I saw a unique opportunity to develop a solution.
That’s when I teamed up with Roger McCracken (MD of Foods Connected) and started to build our initial concept into a software business, which has since grown to become Foods Connected as we know it today.
2. What has been the proudest moment (or most accomplished moment!) of your time with Foods Connected so far?
I’m extremely proud of the supportive team environment we have built at Foods Connected. We took an idea and built it into an internationally recognised business, employing 90 people, with employees and customers all over the world.
I really love to see young people come into the business and grow both personally and professionally and I get a lot of satisfaction when I see employees happy and progressing in their roles.
3. Tell us something not many people would guess about you
I actually used to be a keen drummer when I was younger, playing in blues, funk and Jazz bands across Northern Ireland. In fact I still play from time to time!
4. What advice would you give those looking to kick start a career at Foods Connected?
One key thing about Foods Connected is that we hire for attitude and train for skill. So even if you don’t tick every single box on the job listing, please don’t be put off! A positive attitude is something we really value and can’t be taught, whereas new skills and industry knowledge can. We want team members that genuinely care about the business, that want to do a good job to serve our customers to grow the business. That’s why we support our employees by providing every opportunity we can to upskill them through additional training courses, we’ve even put people through degrees!
5. What are you most looking forward to in the next year?
Foods Connected have been working with Invest NI to develop a growth strategy that will take the business to the next level, so I’m extremely excited for that to come to fruition.
We are also seeing exciting new opportunities specifically in digital marketing and how we can harness different marketing channels and tools to extend our global reach and market share, so I would say I’m excited to continue ramping up our marketing activity and see what new opportunities arise from it.
In short, I'm excited to see what new parternships lay ahead for Foods Connected and how our solutions can help to transform businesses, driving supply chain improvements in sustainability, food safety, supplier compliance and procurement to name a few.
