Meet our staff
Bente Asmussen
Job description:
”I am a packing operator in Scandinavian Tobacco Group Assens in Denmark.”
Your tasks?
”Packing pipe tobacco mainly in tins for the Danish market and for export, but also tobacco in pouches from half a kilo to 2½ kilo.”
Why have you chosen to work for STG?
”Because my training as a hairdresser involved unsociable working hours, which didn't fit well with having small children. Now the children are grown up, but I am still working with tobacco. When you are satisfied with your job, there is no reason to seek something new.”
What does a typical day comprise?
”First the machine is started up, so that we can get going with production. Throughout the day we regularly check the finished products. In addition, we order materials in good time, so that we always have various things ready when we need to change the production. If it involves mechanical changeover of the machine, we notify the engineer in good time so he is prepared when the time comes. We do that in order to make the down-time as short as possible. At the end of the day, the line is emptied of products and the various machines are cleaned and the whole area cleared.”
What qualifications do you have that are necessary to do the job?
”Interest in my job, flexibility and being able to maintain an overview in a sometimes stressful working day.”
What career opportunities do you have in STG?
”There is not much opportunity for me to advance in the system. But there have been enormous developments in the job over the almost 20 years I have been in the firm. Many processes which previously were manual work or semi-automatic, are today carried out on very complex lines. Now the products are completed in an interconnected process.”
What is best about your work?
”The satisfaction of seeing a finished product, and so seeing the result of my efforts. Also the good social interaction with colleagues at all levels in the firm.”
What characterises the staff in STG?
”Loyalty, fidelity, commitment.”
What is the worst or perhaps the most challenging aspect of your work?
”The worst is to be short of orders! But fortunately it is a long time since we last time had that problem. The challenge is to get as much as possible out of the day in an expedient and satisfactory way.”
What motivates you the most?
”A varied working day.”
What is vital for your success?
”That we are working together in STG to develop the company so that we can face the future and the external world, and that we can maintain and develop our workplace and production.”
What is your best advice to those seeking jobs in STG?
”That you can quickly adapt at all levels, also in relation to the requirements and wishes of the external world, and that you remember that everyone is equally important. No chain is stronger than the weakest link.”
Hope for the future:
”That we are part of a success at a time when tobacco is a dirty word, and that during a time of crisis STG focuses on continuing to be the world's largest manufacturer of pipe tobacco.”
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