IT Carlow Marketing Students Give Connolly’s Red Mills food for thought in International marketing project

Melanie Mynhardt, a 4th Year marketing student at Institute of Technology Carlow, recently awarded a six-week internship with international animal feeds exporter Connolly’s Red Mills, following a collaboration between the company and the Institute’s Faculty of Business and Humanities.

Global animal feed manufacturer Connolly’s Red Mills invited the Institute’s 4th Year marketing students, as part of their international marketing module, to research and assess the future market potential of Australia, Indonesia, Greece, Argentina, and Mexico – for their high performance equine nutrition product range. Five student groups who achieved the highest academic marks for the project, were chosen to present this week to Connolly’s Red Mills executives for the chance of winning the six-week internship.

As part of the collaboration, Global Business Development Director for Connolly’s Red Mills, Michael Connolly this week invited the Institute’s 4th year marketing group and faculty staff to an in-depth tour of its factory in Goresbridge, Co Kilkenny. They later convened at the company’s head office and retail store at Cillín Hill where the students presented their projects.

Melanie Mynhardt, from Carlow, who is also an ambassador for the Institute’s CAO 2019 campaign, was awarded the internship with the global company following an assessment of her marketing project and presentation to a panel of senior executives from Connolly’s Red Mills and Institute of Technology Carlow’s Bachelor of Business in Marketing lecturer, Rita Kelly.

Speaking to the group, Michael Connolly said, “The presentations today represented some of the highest standards we’ve seen from college students on this kind of initiative. As a global company and one of the largest employers in the area, Connolly’s Red Mills is delighted to be collaborating with the marketing students and staff at IT Carlow and look forward to many such opportunities in the future”.

To conclude the day, Rita Kelly had this to say, “We would like to thank Connolly’s Red Mills for having us here today, it is fantastic for the students to experience this kind of collaborative opportunity with industry”.