A Co. Down under-graduate in her final year studying consumer studies at the University of Ulster’s Coleraine campus is this year’s winner of the Ulster Business School’s Placement Innovation Awards 2012.
Katie Craig, from Tandragee, a spent a year with Cookstown-based Big Pot Co developing a comprehensive marketing strategy for the artisan hand-made soup company and initiating the introduction of a new line of ‘single serve’ soups.
Professor Marie McHugh, Dean of the Ulster Business School, said: “During any academic year the Ulster Business School has over 300 under graduate students in both local, national and international placements.
“As a school, we are actively engaged with the business community and student placements and internships are an integral part of our business.
“We place a very high value on the excellent relationships that we have with employers and through placement, we have an excellent opportunity to develop employability skills, and for Ulster Business School graduates to secure employment and ‘hit the ground running.’
“Katie is to be congratulated for maximising her time and experience with the Big Pot Co to not only enhance her own skills, but also for adding significant contribution to the company’s bottom line by introducing a new line of 300g single serve soups.”
Established in 2009 by Alison Seaney and her business partner Colin Monaghan the Big Pot Co produces high quality, fresh handmade soups. The company produces five lines stocked locally by Tesco’s, Sainsburys and other convenience stores.
Congratulating Katie on her award, Alison Seaney said: “As a Masters graduate in agri food and business development from Ulster Business School I have experienced at first-hand the excellent connections and highly productive two way relationship that the school has with the private sector through its placement programme.
“We are a small business with no dedicated marketing resource. Katie has greatly contributed to our brand awareness and brand development on her own initiative.
“Through competitor analysis and identification of new markets she came up with the idea of single serve soups and as a result we have three new lines listed in Tesco NI in a new lunchtime market segment.
“Even better, Katie’s innovation has added an extra 20% to our sales and we have high expectations for these products as they become more established.”