News Archive
Bulls Business Community Students Tour Melitta, Talk Corporate Culture, Coffee
By Keith Morelli
TAMPA (March 12, 2020) -- Members of the Muma College of Business Bulls Business Community toured Melitta鈥檚 Clearwater headquarters, which houses all of the company鈥檚 North America operations, in what may have been a coffee lover鈥檚 dream-come-true. The Germany-based company manufactures, markets and sells coffee filters, coffee and pour-over coffee brewing systems in the United States, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
The students, who are high-achieving, declared business-major freshmen, checked out the offices and the coffee-filter manufacturing plant and listened to talks from a variety of executives including the heads of the sales, management and information systems departments.
鈥淭hey had a global intern from Germany who shared her experiences with Melitta as well,鈥� said Magdala Saint-Louis, Bulls Business Community adviser. 鈥淲e also heard from the CEO of the North America operations, Marty Miller, who shared his perspective and answered a ton of questions.鈥�
The purpose of the Bulls Business Community tours is to show students where future employment opportunities are and what positions they may find themselves filling, depending on their degrees, Saint-Louis said. First-year students have the opportunity to attend six different tours.
鈥淢y hope is that these students will have a better understanding of what they can do with their majors and if their major is the best fit for them,鈥� she said. 鈥淏usiness is a broad field with so much variety, each of these tours provides a different perspective of the field.鈥�
Juliana Dunlap was one of the students on the tour. She was impressed with the company and its culture.
鈥淚t was fascinating to learn of the corporate culture,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 thought the tour of the production facility was enlightening. I learned a lot watching the filters being produced and going through quality-assurance testing.
鈥淚 was also proud to learn that the coffee-filter founder was female,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 enjoyed listening to every department and how they collaborated with each other, especially with the implementation of an enterprise resource planning system.鈥�
Samuel Micio said the tour was well executed from beginning to end.
鈥淭he speakers were excellent in building rapport,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey pitched the company well and were informative about important aspects of business not discussed in class.鈥�
The Bulls Business Community is among the most active living learning centers on campus and offers innovative learning opportunities and programs such as 鈥淏usiness Etiquette,鈥� 鈥淒ress for Success,鈥� "R茅sum茅 Building" along with the off-site company tours. Students also enjoy special networking opportunities with alumni, other students and business professionals.
For some of the students on the Melitta tour, visiting a large company headquarters was something new.
鈥淚 loved it,鈥� said Ayla Baker Kural. 鈥淭he people were so welcoming and entertained all of our many questions with really good answers. And I thought it was very generous of them to give us gift bags at the end.鈥�