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NBS team rises to the Greggs Challenge

Business students at Northumbria University, Newcastle, have won the chance to spend a day with the UK’s largest bakery chain, after winning the annual Greggs Marketing Challenge.

Now in its fourth year, the Challenge is aimed solely at students studying marketing.

Newcastle Business School candidates, who were the only undergraduate group, went head to head to compete against postgraduate students at Newcastle, Teesside, and Sunderland Universities. They were asked to develop ideas on ‘How does the Greggs brand remain relevant across key consumer life stages’ in front of marketing experts and an audience of regional businesses, academics, and fellow students.

The team from Northumbria - Emily Booth, 21, Priya Chowdhry, 21, James Grant, 21, Rachael Parker, 21, and Danielle Parkes, 22, and Ed Shepherdson, 21 – presented their strategy of producing a market-leading Greggs app named Greggs Go, allowing customers to use a click and collect service. “‘Skip the queue, for a healthier you’ was our strapline for the Greggs Go app” said Rachael and Emily.

“It was a really good evening, and we were so happy for our hard work to be paid off. We are now looking forward to going to the head office in May. We also enjoyed the free sausage rolls!” Matt Sutherland, Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Business with Marketing Management at Northumbria University, said “The Greggs Marketing Challenge is one of the region’s top student business competitions. Our competing group put in a great deal of effort, working on a brief in their own time outside of their core modules whilst in the final year of their degree.

“Winning this competition emphasises the type of well-rounded and skilled students we produce at Newcastle Business School. Spending a day with the marketing team at Greggs will also be a hugely valuable learning experience. The students demonstrated creative thinking and put theory in to practice as well as being comfortable at presenting in front of some of the region’s top business people. I am very proud on what they achieved.”

Each group had to deliver a 15 minute presentation in front of the judging panel, which included Malcolm Copland, Commercial Director of Greggs; Gordon Bethell, Managing Partner at Creative Race; Roger Whiteside, Chief Executive of Greggs; and Graeme Nash, Head of Customer and Marketing at Greggs. There were also around 170 guests in attendance.

Graeme Nash said: “The Greggs Marketing Challenge was once again hugely successful, with impressive presentations from all of the students involved. It was difficult to pick a winner, but all the judges agreed the Northumbria team’s Greggs Go idea was the most thought provoking.

“We’re looking forward to the Northumbria team joining us for a day at Greggs head office. The students will gain first-hand experience and valuable insight into working for a national business – which we hope will be useful for their future careers.”

Anna Tilba, Director of Corporate Engagement at Newcastle University Business School, added: “We’re delighted that the fourth Greggs Marketing Challenge proved more popular than ever, and we had a fantastic audience turn out. All the students demonstrated innovative ideas, ingenuity and impressive business insight. We’re sure the winning team will find their placement opportunity wholly beneficial.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Northumbria University .