Behind the Bread: Meet Operations Director Marianna

Hi, who are you and what are you most proud of in your life?  

My name is Marianna and I work as Operations Director at Lantmännen Unibake, Finland & Baltics, Frozen. Lantmännen Unibake is the bakery group of Lantmännen with more than 30 bakeries in around 20 countries, so a global company with both bake-off and fresh bakery products in the portfolio.

In my life, I am most proud of my two grown up sons, the older being a physiotherapist and the younger being an engineer.

Tell us about your career at Lantmännen.

I have always worked in international surroundings. It was very interesting and highly motivating to jump from an industrial world to food manufacturing. My experience before joining Vaasan (that later became part of Lantmännen) was from ethanol process developments & engineering, plastics industry and water purification technology. In food manufacturing there are different priorities - it’s all about food safety, sustainability and product quality to keep the smile on the customer’s faces.

I started at Vaasan having two bakeries and supply chain (SC) related to these bakeries within my responsibility. When Vaasan was acquired by Lantmännen, I moved to Lantmännen Unibake Finland & Baltics and built the Operations organization from the two different companies and cultures. It’s so exciting to work with different people!

Further on as Lantmännen acquired Myllyn Paras in Finland, there are now four bakeries on my responsibility and the supply chain, quality, technology, operations excellence and procurement related to them. After two big acquisitions and integrating the organizations, I really feel how important it is to take care of people.

It’s the people and culture, which makes the difference.

Describe your current role – what do you do on a daily basis? What's the most fun and the most challenging aspect of your role?

What makes my current role so interesting is that there are no days that are the same working cross-border and cross-functions. It might be about jumping from people development to maintenance strategy, from health and safety topics to balancing demand and supply requirements or from audits to strategic planning. And everything in between and on top of them. I’m travelling quite a lot, and my sister just recently commented that when she calls me, she never knows from where I’m answering the phone.

What is your relationship with Lantmännen’s values - openness, holistic view, and drive?

Holistic view is so important, to have the helicopter perspective and understand the effects of our decisions on Lantmännen Unibake as whole. Openness is the bases for trust throughout the organization and together we’ll drive to succeed.

What drives you to develop?

Curiosity and the will to have new challenges. The best part of my work is the great team and colleagues, wide role and variety of tasks.

Your best advice for others who want to make a career at Lantmännen.

Lantmännen is a great, sustainable company. Join us if you have a will to win with us.

What's your best advice for someone who is newly hired at Lantmännen?

Be open-minded and flexible and be brave to bring up your insights – they really matter.

Some final questions Marianna. What’s a fun fact about Lantmännen that people might not know?

We are sending bakery waste to Agro Recycling, where it is processed and sent to Lantmännen Biorefineries in Sweden. It might be fun to follow the journey of how our process waste turns into bioethanol, carbonic acid and animal feed ingredients.

Thanks Marianna, for giving us some insights into your experiences, life and work!