Emma Baxter has recently been appointed by Holmesterne Foods to the position of Site Technical Manager at Brompton-on-Swale. Emma joins a growing number of women in senior management roles within the business. Empowered to take Holmesternes accreditations to the highest levels, Emma has the support of management and production colleagues to help her and the business to achieve these goals.
From chef to food industry professional
Emmas knowledge of food is extensive, from creating dishes in restaurants to achieving customer food production standards. She backs this up with an impressive number of professional qualifications and accreditations and with more than 10 years in the Food Service industry she has an enviable amount of experience on her CV.
Leaving school with a passion for cooking Emma spent her formative years working in pubs, hotels and restaurants in and around her home town of Middlesbrough. She studied for a NVQ level 1 and 2 in food preparation and cooking before becoming a chef and was pastry chef for the McCoy brothers who ran the famous Tontine restaurant near Yarm.
The die was cast and she set her sights on using her skills and knowledge of all things food to find a role that would offer more sociable hours for her family life. Emma moved into the food manufacturing industry following her graduation in 2007 with an MSc Food and Consumer Safety degree from the University of Teesside, Middlesbrough.
Food manufacturing experience
Emma joined Kerry Foods in Durham in 2008 as a Raw Materials Technologist and moved within the company to Kerry EMEA Hartlepool in October 2012. The role principally involved the carrying out of Raw Materials and Species risk assessments for the product lines including stocks and bouillons, formed butter and cheeses and sauces.
Within 2 years she was promoted internally to QA Team Manager where she managed the QA team covering all aspects of product release and carrying out all audits required within the factory. This was the perfect opportunity for Emma to develop her team and leadership skills.
Leaving Kerry in 2016 Emma moved to JLM Global Foods, Darlington as QA Manager where she managed a team QA/QC staff ensuring all products and processes met current legislative, customer requirements/specifications and company procedures. She was actively involved in all customer and external standard audits on site. The business made own and branded Crisps and Pop Chips for the European export markets.
and so to Holmesterne!
Wishing to expand her capabilities within a new environment Emma saw the role of Site Technical Manager advertised and has returned to a job where the central demands are technical rather than quality assurance led.
Reporting to Mark Breeze, Head of Technical at Holmesterne, her ambition is to not only maintain BRC Grade A* within the site but improve it to A**. To achieve this status she will be working towards less non-conformances in audits by SAI-Global.
In addition, her role involves maintaining all Retail and Manufacturing Customer Technical Approvals across the business and maintaining an input into Hygiene operations to ensure food is produced to the safest standards. She co-manages the Quality Manual and all associated policies, procedures and paperwork to achieve the companys aims and objectives as well as develops, trains, motivates and manages all Hygiene and Technical staff to ensure the highest quality standards are met.
Speaking about the role at Holmesterne Emma says: Im really pleased to be back in meat production! I am a strong team player who enjoys working as part of a team but I can work just as well on my own. Whatever my duties involve, I take great pride in delivering a job well done.
More importantly I have a sound working knowledge of various customer standards and COPs including Tesco, M&S, Morrisons, Waitrose, Sainsburys and Aldi, along with a thorough knowledge of the BRC standard, including gluten Free. I look forward to applying my expertise at Holmesterne to help secure new customers and markets.