START! your day with breakfast from START! and AXA

Привіт з Києва! (Hello from Kiev!)

Since the last time I wrote, I have moved from Stockholm to the amazing city Kiev in Ukraine. I had never visited Kiev before and now, when I have been living here for about 10 weeks, I can say I really like Kiev! There are so many things to see and so much to do.

So what brought me to Kiev? Cerealia has an office here (or actually two if you include the one at the production plant) and more specifically, the brands START! and AXA have a production site here, mainly for the Ukrainian market. The products differ slightly from the START! and AXA products you can find in for instance Sweden, where the START! in Ukraine is more focused towards children and both of the brands are a little bit more sweet in the taste.

A view of the the beautiful city Kiev.

The office here is a lot smaller than the head quarter in Stockholm, so everyone knows everyone which creates a good atmosphere in the office. I am at the marketing team doing different assignments connected to their two main brands. At the moment, the marketing team is working on a new commercial platform for the START! brand in Ukraine, which is really interesting for me since I get to see the process from the beginning to the end.

Initially, I attended everything from a photo shoot to several focus groups. Since I do not have a background in marketing (I have only had a few introductory courses in marketing), it was all very new to me. As a result, it has been very interesting and I have learnt a lot of new things when it comes to marketing. This is really a good example of why I enjoy this Trainee Program, since you get the opportunity to try and learn new things in areas that is not specifically connected to your previous expertise. We get a really good insight in several of the main parts of Lantmännen, which will be very valuable going forward in our careers, no matter which area we eventually end up in.  

Taking some new photos for an updated product design.

Time really flies, and in a few weeks I am going back to Sweden again for some summer vacation. But before that, we will have a recharge in Copenhagen with all trainees that I really look forward to. I am sure one of the other trainees will write about that in the end of June, so stay updated and don’t forget to read all other blog posts before that – we (the nine trainees) keep you updated every week!

Приємного літа!

/Johan  

St Andrew’s church. One of many churches and cathedrals in Kiev.