Tasty options

The food and drink sector is one of the biggest in the UK economy and one of the few industries whose products are indispensable to everyday life.

The universal demand to eat and drink does not, however, protect food and drink companies from commercial realities. On the contrary, the sector is under constant pressure to become more efficient, adopt new technologies and launch a stream of innovative products that will literally whet the appetites of consumers.

These imperatives mean there are plenty of interesting and rewarding roles available for engineering professionals with the right mix of skills in a sector that employs almost 470,000 people. However, finding the right people to fill these jobs is not always easy as even the leading firms in the sector have found.

One company now looking for quality staff is

. The drinks firm recently won a large brewing contract from Scottish and Newcastle (S&N) in the UK, and is also setting up a joint venture with SAB Miller in the US. 'We are looking for people to fill two sizeable engineering posts,' said Kevin Bailey, director of production operations at Coors. 'The first is an engineering manager for our Alton brewery in Hampshire and the second is for a head of engineering for our UK operations. The latter post has been vacant since October last year, after the previous holder was made global head of engineering. However, we have yet to find the right person to fill this role.'