Nine Twenty Recruitment have been supporting the Managing Director of Houston Bottling, Sandy Manson, in the strengthening of his team. The business is going from strength to strength and Sandy is focussing on building the infrastructure and systems to support this exciting period of growth.
Nine Twenty Recruitment placed Houston Bottling's Compliance Manager, who has just led the teams to their BRC Accreditation. So, we caught up with Angela to hear more about their progress.
1. How long have you been with Houston Bottling and what attracted you to the role?
It's been 11 extremely quick and busy months since I joined the company. I started on July 5th, 2021. I was attracted to being part of the plan to change and grow the business. I liked the idea of getting the opportunity to build and implement the management systems it would need for the future. I wanted to be part of the 5-year growth plan that Sandy has for the business.
2. What are you responsible for in your role?
The word compliance in my title is pretty far reaching as you can imagine in a smaller company. It covers a lot and in a company that is evolving and growing rapidly. It can be anything from uniform purchasing, to ordering a new water plant, to ensure sustained water quality and compliance at the Dumbarton site, which I have done since being on board. However, my remit is the Health and Safety and Environmental compliance of the company.
3. Congratulations on BRC Accreditation, could you tell us more about this?
This was my first task in my new role. Customers were requiring and wanting this from us. The Dumbarton site had done the gap analysis to the standard - version 8 - prior to my arrival. From day one we set about building our structure to those requirements of the BRC standard. It was built, implemented and operated in unison. There was plenty to do.
The site was accredited to ISO9001:2015, so the foundations were there but we needed to take it to the next level of compliance for BRC. It's a tough Food Safety and Quality standard. We managed to achieve accreditation to a B grade in 9 months from start to finish, which is excellent. A lot of hard work but very rewarding for both me personally and for the future of the business.
4. What is next?
Firstly, a QPulse implementation and then ISO 45000 accreditation. I have my sights set on ISO 45000 to formalise and pull together where Health and Safety is just now for the company. However, before that we purchased a platform to run our quality management system from and I'm currently working with the developers mapping the system. We are getting the data ready to migrate, training plans and then it's a go live!
5. What do you like about working for Houston Bottling?
No two days are the same and every day is a challenge, in a good way! I like working for this smaller organisation and being able to directly influence its future.
If you are interested in strengthening and developing your team, or looking to expand your team, please get in touch with us below and follow us on LinkedIn.
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