Alex Pedersen - Team Leader, Production

It never gets boring to deliver something unique

I’m originally trained as a chef, but the working hours didn’t fit well with a life with small children. So, I went back to study to become a food technologist and got a job as an Operator at Danmark Protein – one of Arla Foods Ingredients’ production sites. I was promoted to Operations Supporter and today I'm a Team Leader. I’m part of running a production line you won’t find anywhere else in the world together with my great team of talented and fun colleagues. What we’re doing here at Arla Foods Ingredients is unique – and that’s fun to be a part of.

We keep the operation going and the quality top notch

As an Operations Supporter, I was the Operators' go-to-person if the operation was not running as it should. I also took over if my Team Leader had tasks that needed to be delegated. So, it was a natural next step for me to become Team Leader and take on the full responsibility.
There are a lot of processes to keep track of and we constantly focus on optimization. We aim to produce more so that we can earn more while maintaining our high quality. Many of our ingredients help patients and babies, so quality and food safety are absolutely critical. Everything we do must be of top notch quality.

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We are growing and there are countless opportunities

In Operations, we also help our colleagues in Innovation to make experiments and innovations. Innovation discovers new wonders of whey and milk, which we then help figure out how to put into and scale up for production. It’s crazy innovative and there is no other company in the world that can do what we can, so it also feels like there are countless opportunities to grow here and take on more responsibility – just as I have. We have grown by more than 200 employees alone at Danmark Protein since I joined in 2016 – and we are still growing and adding to the production. It’s cool to be a part of.

We care about our work and about each other

My colleagues are really engaged and caring. If things are not going the way they should, they become eager to find a solution. They don’t just accept if things are not optimal. We all want it to work and our solutions should still be a success in 10-15 years. I really thrive with that mindset. Another positive thing about my job, believe it or not, is my commute back and forth from Viborg with three of my colleagues. The colleagues I commute with come from different departments, so I also get to hear a bit about what’s going on there and chat about our workdays before going home. I’m happy to go to work, and that’s how it should be.