Peter Thorman has been Kersia UK’s Divisional Manager Brewing and Beverage for seven years. He worked at our sister company Sopura for 14 years before that.
What was your career path to your role?
I started my career in the brewing industry with a home brew kit bought with some Christmas money when I was 16 years old. This led to a summer job after my O-Levels at Elgoods Brewery where I was employed as a ‘Cleaning Assistant’, so firsthand experience of cleaning casks, square fermenting vessels even inside their copper (wort boiler).
After I took my A-Levels, I did a degree in Brewing & Microbiology at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. From University I joined Bass Brewers as a Graduate where I worked for 14 years in three of their breweries in a variety of managerial & technical roles. Sopura approached me and I joined them as Technical Sales Manager and after a couple of years I was promoted to UK Sales Manager. Holchem then approached me and I joined as UK Sales Manager Brewing & Beverage. When Kersia bought the company, I then switched to my current job title.
What responsibilities does your job include?
My role is to support the Brewing & Beverage Team to improve our customers’ operations.
What’s your favourite part of your job?
My favourite part of my job is working with customers to improve their cleaning, disinfection and conveyor lubrication performance, including safety, quality and cost. Key to this is visiting customer sites and studying their processes i.e. getting my hands dirty. Having a fantastic team of experienced brewers working in the Brewing & Beverage Team means that as the years go by, I spend less time doing this.
What does a typical day look like for you?
There isn’t a typical day. It varies from a long day at home in front of my laptop responding to e-mails, Teams meetings, to a day at a customer’s site followed by an evening in front of my laptop.
What would your dream job be?
It would be Head Brewer in a UK brewery that produces 500 barrels a week of totally Gluten Free beer (not gluten reduced) that is sold in the UK. I discovered 11 years ago that I’m a Coeliac and I’m a very sensitive Coeliac. Very, very small quantities of 100% Gluten Free beer are produced in the UK. If a brewery was selling 500 barrels per week, then totally Gluten Free beers would be a success in the UK.
