University of Bath School of Management

James Bruce

IMML Student

I graduated from IMML French in 2002 and started work with Danone in November of that year. I started out working in France for Danone Waters whose brands are Evian, Volvic and Badoit. I completed a six-month placement in their head office working as part of the merchandising team and then spent two years working in Sales as a Territory Manager. This role involved managing a portfolio of around sixty supermarkets and hypermarkets in the Parisian suburbs, and negotiating with independent and retail chain outlets to optimise Danone’s presence in stores. I was really immersed into French culture as all business was conducted in French.

In June 2005, I moved back to the UK to work for Danone's dairy business as National Account Executive for Sainsbury’s. The main brands I was working with were Actimel, Activia and Shape. My main responsibilities were managing our relationship with the convenience and online formats of the Sainsbury’s business, as well as supporting the Danone Account Manager in negotiations with the buyer.

In September 2006 I became Account Manager for Waitrose where the main objective was to build and execute a sales strategy to achieve volume, turnover and profitability targets, by managing the negotiations with the buyer in terms of price, promotions and shelf space. Since November 2007, I have been working as Account Manager for Tesco, our largest customer, managing the relationship with the buying team at Tesco Head Office.

Danone UK is a great fit for IMML graduates because it’s a young company that is growing fast. This means there are plenty of opportunities and you can get a lot of experience and responsibility quite quickly

Hannah-Rae Roberts - IMML Student

IMML Student

I chose IMML because I was seeking a challenge and wanted to nurture my enthusiasm for both business management and the German language. A 50:50 combination of the latter is rare, adding to the exclusivity of the degree. It encompasses a wide range of disciplines ranging from politics, economics and law to finance and international business relations.

For me, the year spent on placement at Siemens VDO in Frankfurt and in Regensburg was truly superb. The culture and language immersion enabled me to develop myself on academic and individual bases, not to mention linguistically.