MEET: SAM MITCHELL

We had a chat with Sam Mitchell, Head of Manufacturing, about his new internal promotion, what the team have on the plan for the rest of the year, and how quality has come on in the last 12 months.

Sam, tell us a little bit about yourself…

I have been with Greene King for just over two years now. I have 20+ years experience working in the food industry,, making a variety of different products from Ketchup, Piccalilli, Cooking Sauces to Jams and Jellies. I have spent most of my career working in quality, but I enjoy all things manufacturing and operations.

Outside of work, I live in Cambridge with my Wife and two Daughters who keep me very busy. I enjoy playing golf and as I’ve been renovating our house for the last two years, I suppose I would say I also enjoy a bit of DIY. I am a lifelong Cambridge United supporter (a small, league two team before someone asks who they are).

Congratulations on the promotion, can you talk to us about what your role entails?

Thank you, my new role is a combination of my previous role and parts of the previous Head of Manufacturing role. I am responsible for the packaging operations at Bury St Edmunds (Draught Beer and Hen Hall) and Engineering.

I am very lucky that we have a great team across all these areas, and it is my role to help the teams ensure our products are made in a safe way while ensuring the highest quality products are always produced.

One of the areas of focus is also around Manufacturing Excellence which involves us reviewing our processes and understanding where we can remove barriers to make the process safer, faster or more cost effective by removing waste.

We know how important quality is for our business, how have you seen this come on in the last 12 months?

When I joined Greene King, we implemented a two-year plan to build on the foundations already in place.

This involved a change in the Quality Structure to allow us to focus resource on the implementation of a paperless quality management systems (Quor) to help provide a better system for our operations team.

We have also seen improvements in our dartboard metric and at the start of 2025 we tightened the targets on the dartboard which is a credit to everyone, and a sign that quality is improving and we continue to prioritise driving our standards and quality.

And what do the team have on the plan for the remainder of the year?

Lots of exciting plans for the remainder or this year and into 2026. We are building a new roadmap with a focus on the implementation of Paperless Quality. Paperless quality is the process of converting all our paper-based checks on to tablets using the Quor system. The hope is this will be rolled out in Hen Hall first before the end of the year.

We also have a big project looking at Micro Testing and what we test and how we test with the hope that new technology will allow us to have results faster allowing more testing and improvements to our processes to continue to drive up quality.

How can team members find out more about the importance of quality in our beers?

Once per month in the Brewery Tap in Bury, a chance to come and taste our products and other products in the market. The Quality and Brewery Teams will give you an understanding of the beer and it’s flavour profile while the Marketing Team will provide an update on sales and customers. It is a very relaxed session open to all and there is often food too.

Also, the entire team are hugely passionate about what they do, and the quality of a product, so please do reach out to them if you want to find out more!