Meet the ASC Team – Waldemar Gajda, Production Supervisor

Making sure your boxes are manufactured to the highest standards every time takes a dedicated and experienced production team, ready and willing to go the extra mile. The team are balancing the vast range of boxes ordered, with the different material requirements along with the need to turn production around – fast! We wanted to find out a bit more, so we asked some questions of Waldemar Gajda, Production Supervisor, who joined the ASC team four years ago. 

Where it started

Waldemar began his career at Morrisons, working in food preparation. Waldemar explains, “Morrisons is renowned for the high quality of its fresh produce and the standards required for food preparation are extremely high. My role meant getting the food ready to sell, which could be grocery or other food items. Working in a retail environment with food is high pressure – there are lots of rules to follow for safe food preparation, and you need the shelves full of quality produce for customers to buy.”

Promoted to Team Leader

During his time at Morrisons, Waldemar was promoted to Team Leader. “It was good to be recognised for my communication and leadership skills. The role meant making sure the team knew what to achieve in that day. I held a short meeting every morning, to make sure everyone knew their targets and could ask any questions. Good communication is key in a fast-moving production environment.”

Waldemar also had to make sure regulations were met and the paperwork was correctly completed. “As you can imagine, producing food means an extremely high level of hygiene and regulation. I had to make sure all of the regulations were met and the food was produced to the highest standards”

Move to an office environment

After Morrisons, Waldemar went to work for Torque, a supplier for Mountain Warehouse, handling customer orders for their outdoor equipment like outdoor clothing, tents and boots. Initially he started as an Administrator, “This role was all about customer care and making sure customers were happy. I handled calls and emails, managed orders and responded to any customer queries and complaints.” Waldemar was also involved in production, printing orders and sending them to the shopfloor for fulfilment.

Again, during his time here, Waldemar was promoted. “After I had been there a while, the experience I gained meant a promotion to Team Leader. For this role, I was responsible for all of the pickers and packers getting orders out quickly and meeting customer expectations. It was a large team – 35 people – so it was important everyone knew what they were doing.”

Good communication

In this role, good communication was key – “I held a short regular meeting in the morning to make sure the team understood what we needed to achieve. An environment like that is high pressure so there are daily and even hourly KPIs.”

Joining ASC Direct

Then Waldemar joined ASC Direct. “I started at ASC on the shopfloor as a Machine Operator. This was another busy production environment, so it was great to use my previous experience to meet the required targets.”

After a year, Waldemar’s talent for management and people were recognised, “The Operations Director, Ashley Power, asked me if I was interested in applying for the position of Production Supervisor. I knew I had the experience to do this so went ahead. After the interviews and inductions, my promotion was confirmed. I was thrilled.”

Now Waldemar is very much enjoying his new role. “My previous experience is essential in helping me to make sure the team know what they need to do and the boxes are produced to the highest quality and with the fast turnaround ASC are famous for. It is a great environment to be part of.”

Waldemar enjoys his role at ASC Direct. “I like a successful busy shopfloor and it is good to see my team happy and the boxes produced and delivered to satisfied customers!”

Outside Work

When Waldemar isn’t at work, he and his girlfriend love to travel. “I like to go away four or five times a year, to see different places and meet new people. There are many countries and cities to visit and I want to see as many as I can!”

Waldemar likes to travel independently, researching and booking his hotel and transport. “I’ve been to most places in Europe – some many times. I particularly love Greece and clapping the sunset in Santorini. I also love Italy and am planning to return soon. This year, we’re looking at going to Malta.”

When Waldemar isn’t working or traveling, he likes construction – building models from Lego. “I enjoy making different structures, like the Colosseum in Rome – a recent one was the Titanic, which used 10,000 bricks!”

Waldemar is responsible for the best in custom packaging production for all of our customers. When you need custom packaging for your high value products, then call our sales team at 0800 0731 126 or fill out our contact form here.