Andy's inspiring marketing career journey at Greene King

Having graduated from the University of Portsmouth with a Marketing degree, plus a placement year working in Brand Management, Andy was ready to step up to his next challenge.

He joined Greene King on an eight-week contract straight out of uni which gave him a flavour for working in hospitality - something which has stayed with him all these years and allowed him to realise his passion for working in the food and beverage sector.

Andy's journey at Greene King has been a true adventure, with roles ranging from Marketing Executive to Digital Communications Manager and even Head of Digital. But his career path has been anything but predictable. Life's unexpected twists and turns led him to explore new opportunities outside our company. But, we’re extremely happy that his love for hospitality and deep connection with our brand has brought him back to us.

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a career journey as exciting and impressive as Andy’s.

Tell us about your career so far and how you got here

I joined Greene King on an 8-week contract as a Marketing Executive as a recent graduate. I had a great time, but I got the travel bug and decided to do some exploring. As soon as I was back in the UK, I took on a permanent Marketing Executive role at Greene King. But I knew I was interested in digital - specifically maintaining the company website - so one year later I transitioned to an E-Commerce Executive role. My move coincided with the company restructuring, and there would be a standalone Digital team for the first time.

Fast forward another year, and I was promoted to Digital Communications Manager, where I got a taste of management for the first time, leading the website content, social media and email marketing campaigns.

In 2015, Greene King acquired Spirit. This almost doubled the number of pubs we owned, and soon after I was offered the role of Head of Digital. I was only 28 at the time, and I’ll admit I faced a huge learning curve. As the team continued to grow, so did my responsibilities, and soon I was overseeing the websites, web development, digital marketing, and the content and UX team. Whilst in this role I needed to relocate and Greene King supported me fully which I’m really thankful for.

I moved on from Greene King in 2018 to set up my own digital consultancy, which I ran successfully for a few years. But before long, I made my way back and stepped into my current role as Head of Digital Product & UX.

What brought you back to Greene King?

Whilst I appreciated my time working with companies in other sectors, I realised how much I loved hospitality. I find it easy to be passionate about food and drink - it’s one of the things I enjoy most in life. I was really impressed with the new leadership team and the direction Greene King was going in. Also, it was incredibly exciting to hear how much was being invested into Digital.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

1. The Sector. I love the job because it’s so easy to be passionate about it. Hospitality in general is a really fun sector to work in.
2. The People. We have a great team and a great culture, and I thoroughly enjoy working with them every day.
3. The Work. There are lots of very exciting projects I’m currently working on, like our app project and web project. It’s incredibly interesting and exciting. Very exciting.

What's been the most rewarding career moment at Greene King?

Progression. The digital ‘Product’ function didn’t exist until I was given my current role and tasked with creating the function. It’s grown significantly and we have a lot of focus and investment from the business. Greene King as a whole is a much more product-focused organisation now. This has allowed team members to flourish, and it’s been amazing to see.

What's the number one reason people should bring their careers here?

Digital at Greene King is a really exciting place to be. We have received significant investment from the leadership team.

• We’re rebuilding our websites on a market-leading digital experience platform.
• We’re rolling out new booking experiences to all of our pubs.
• We’re redeveloping our app and developing a new app strategy which will then allow us to turn our attention to loyalty and customer engagement.

What one word sums up Greene King best?

Happiness. Our vision is that we pour happiness into people’s lives. We don’t get it right every time at the moment, but our focus is bringing happiness to our customers through their digital experiences and their pub experiences. Also, our focus is to bring happiness to our employees as a place to work.

Who would be your dream dinner guest?

It’d have to be my Dad. He passed away a few years ago, and I’d love to take him out for a steak and a pint and have a chat with him.

Start your own career adventure at Greene King

Has Andy’s story got you excited to learn more about what path you could carve out? From apprenticeship opportunities to junior product owners and digital data analysts to marketing managers, we've got a journey waiting for you.

Explore marketing and digital jobs at Greene King. Or, find out more about the other roles you could find yourself working in at our head office.