CAFRE helps Nathan manage his career

Nathan Crozier graduated with a BSc Honours Degree in Food Management and Marketing from the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) Loughry Campus in 2015 and continues to develop his career within the agri-food industry in Northern Ireland.

Loughry Campus Graduate, Nathan Crozier is an account manager with UMI Foods, Armagh.

A past student of Devenish College in Enniskillen, Nathan now lives in Portadown. Nathan began his food career within the fresh produce industry and now works for UMI Foods – a mushroom wholesaler and prepared vegetable supplier based outside Armagh city.

As part of the Ulster University validated Honours Degree course, Nathan had the opportunity to complete a work placement year within the programme. He completed a successful work placement with Quinfresh, a fresh vegetable producer based just outside Dungannon. Indeed the company offered him the opportunity to continue working on a part-time capacity within the Sales and Marketing department for the business during the final year of his degree study. During his work placement Nathan gained a valuable insight to the fresh food industry, which supported the theoretical knowledge and research undertaken through his studies at Loughry Campus.

After graduating, Nathan’s work ethic was rewarded when he was offered a full-time position with Quinfresh in their Sales and Marketing team, putting his knowledge and experience gained to practice. Nathan advises: “Loughry was a big help in preparing me for working in the food industry, particularly after the completion of my placement year where the theory and practical merged and suddenly made a lot more sense.”

After some time with Quinfresh, Nathan moved to a role with his current employer UMI Foods.  Nathan spent almost two years as the business’ Sales and Marketing Support Executive, before furthering his career within the commercial team where he now works as an Account Manager.

“Primarily, my role is to liaise with customers, to provide them with the information they need to feel supported and ensure that everything related to their account is running smoothly. Every day is different depending on the projects at the time. Being a strong communicator to both internal and external stakeholders is essential to a successful commercial role. Pre-Covid, I travelled and met customers developing new business connections but I have adapted and I am now adept with video conferencing! I attribute my career success to date to the practical solutions to learning offered within the programmes at Loughry. The courses equip students with a good foundation for working in the food industry and it’s over to us to utilise those skills. I particularly enjoyed the Food Design module and it’s one that is particularly relevant in my work today.”

CAFRE is currently accepting applications through UCAS Extra for places on Honours Degree courses starting this September and a limited number of places may be available through UCAS Clearing in August. If you would like information about Food courses offered at CAFRE, Loughry Campus please telephone 0800 028 4291, email: enquiries@cafre.ac.uk or visit the website.

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