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Job title: Northern regional manager, Tip Top Bread

You might have shopped in Kim Calvert's supermarkets. Now 34, he ran Price Chopper in Mosgiel and Hawera, and Woolworths in Wainuiomata, Ngaio and Upper Hutt during 14 years with that company. More recently he was business manager for Woolworths@Gull service stations.

Now Calvert is on the other side of the industry, working on the supply of bread to major supermarkets and other retail stores for Tip Top Bread, a division of Allied Foods.

"This is my first time working on the supply side - I wanted to develop my skills," Calvert says.

It's his job to make sure bread gets to shelves in the right amounts and at the right time (it is provided on a sale-or-return basis).

The job involves a lot of number-crunching, forecasting, negotiating and coaching a large sales team: "It's a really dynamic business because it's fresh every day" - just like the product.

And situations need an immediate response: as sure as day follows night, fresh bread has to be on shelves in the morning and relationships with retailers managed.

His input is crucial to help them to sell more bread: "We're helping them grow their market share". He gets a "big buzz seeing the things we're trying to do have an impact".

Calvert, a self-confessed Southern Man, started a computer science degree at the University of Canterbury but didn't finish, embarking instead on a management trainee programme with Woolworths.

Recruiter Bobbi Ryan says that 157 people applied for the job.