Pascal – Trade Marketing Manager Coffee & Tea Belgium

I started my career with Sara Lee in 2000 in the marketing research department as a trainee. I switched to the marketing department as junior product manager for our tea brand Pickwick in 2002 and evolved to product manager Pickwick and Duyvis (nuts) after 18 months. Then I made a switch from marketing to sales. In 2006 I started as trade marketeer. In January 2009 I became trade marketing manager, Coffee & Tea.

What originally attracted me to Sara Lee, were the strong brands, all marketed and supported in their specific way: Douwe Egberts, Jacqmotte, Chat Noir, Pickwick and Duyvis. Furthermore, the opportunity to start within the marketing research department was a tempting aspect. The traineeship within this department helped me get to know the market, the competitors and the key business levers through data analysis. It was a very challenging, but at the same time a very pleasant period with a strong learning curve, within a very amiable, team-focused environment.

The everyday key challenge to further develop our business is what keeps me coming back to Sara Lee every day. More concretely, we strive for delivering added value to the sales department by extending the knowledge and know-how within our trade marketing department. Sara Lee facilitates this mindset through a business environment in which trade marketing always discusses openly all opportunities to build our business.

Sara Lee has a clear approach to career development. Through the performance management process, every employee can indicate possible future career steps and discuss this with his/her manager. Of course, not every career ambition can be fulfilled in the short term, but I am convinced that the ideas employees put forward are being assessed in a fair way.

Sara Lee gave me the opportunity to grow within the company and to discover different departments. By giving me this opportunity, along with the necessary support from my managers as well through specific trainings, I have been able to continuously experience new challenges, develop new insights every day, which keeps my job interesting and challenging.