In this series, British Baker speaks to people from across the baking industry to find out about their career path, what their current job involves, and where they get their inspiration from.
Name: William Leet
Age: 36
Job title: Senior bakery development technologist
Company and location: David Wood Baking Ltd, multi-site across eight locations
Education: Bakery & Confectionery Level 2 and 3 at Leicester College, BSc (Hons) Bakery & Patisserie Technology UCB
Tell us about your career to date:
I wasn’t always into bakery and decided to make a leap a little later in life. I originally left school at age 16 and joined HM Armed Forces. After suffering mental health difficulties upon leaving, I decided to go along to my local adult education college in Leicester where I participated in a day bakery course to help get me out the house.
I loved it and found kneading the dough so helpful and destressing and creating something so amazing from a few ingredients inspiring. I then went on to do a more advanced day course at the same centre before being bit by the baking bug and deciding this is something I wanted to get into and do every day for the rest of my life.
At the age of 25, I enrolled and completed my level 2 and 3, finishing as one of the top students.
Wanting to stay in education to develop my skills further, I enrolled with University College Birmingham (UCB) on the Bakery & Patisserie Degree. This turned out to be an amazing decision for myself and whilst there I was supported by amazing industry professionals such as David Smart of Greenhalghs, who arranged for me to go over to Holland during my first year and complete a summer internship at Tromp Bakery Equipment.
During my three years at university, I was heavily involved in the ABST as a student taking part in many competitions and being the recipient of the prestigious President’s Cup for two years running.
In my third year, I undertook a summer internship in Norway at the famous Bakeriet I Lom. I learned so much under the watchful eye and mentoring of famous chef turned amazing baker and bakery owner Morten Schakenda, who was sadly taken to soon from us in 2022 but who I owe so much to for the start of my baking career.
Once my internship was completed, Morten invited me to stay and continue working for him. I gladly accepted and continued to learn and develop my artisan and craft bakery skills for a further two years before deciding that it was time to head home, where I joined David Wood Baking as a development baker.
Explain your job in a few sentences:
My job involves being in contact with all our customers and supporting their needs with samples and questions they may have. Being in contact with ingredient suppliers and keeping on top of the most popular trends in bakery. Taking samples from concept to launch.
What does a typical workday involve for you?
A typical workday for me would involve making and sending out samples to customers, conducting factory trials, teams call internally and with customers and suppliers.
Tell us about a challenge you have overcome recently:
The biggest challenge I have overcome recently was the loss of our Dudley site due to a fire back in September 2023, after which part of my job was relocating products that were manufactured there and set up across our other sites.
More challenging was the sourdough bread project that I was put in charge of at our Workington site, where I spent a good few months creating a new sourdough process, conducting trials, and training staff on the process. It caused some long days and some sleepless nights whilst spending week after week away from home, but it was all worth it in the end when you see the amazing product coming off the end of the line and on the supermarket shelves.
What are your career highlights so far?
The highlights of my career so far are winning the Rising Star Award in 2021 and being asked to be president elect for the Alliance for Bakery Students and Trainees (ABST), along with seeing many of the products I have developed on shelves across many different supermarkets, coffee shop chains, and airlines, just to name a few.
Since winning the Rising Star Award, I have given talks at the British Society of Baking conference, taken part in lots of baking industry events such as Mathews Cotswold Flour’s Soil, Stone, & Sourdough event. I have also judged Britain’s Best Loaf for the last three years, something that I love doing and hoping to continue to do in the future. I have also become an industry supporter at UCB, where I often guest lecture.
What advice would you give to up-and-coming talent in the baking industry?
As you can see from my career so far, a lot of the opportunities that I have been given and how I have managed to succeed in the industry is down to hard work and making contacts and befriending industry supporters. So, my advice would be to do just that, whether it be during your time at college or university, at an event and at exhibitions, as these people have a wealth of industry knowledge and contacts which can be immeasurable to helping you finding a job or solving a problem.
I would also recommend entering bakery competitions to help get your name out there and become recognised for your hard work and get noticed by the industry experts.
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