Fans of M&S who have been following ITV’s behind-the-scenes documentary series about the high street retailer may have recognised a familiar face.

Featured in the last episode of Inside M&S talking about her most successful innovation to date – the Outrageously Chocolatey Custard Cream biscuit – was product designer Abbie Smallwood, who was born and brought up in Maidstone.

Ms Smallwood, 26, said her interest in food was first sparked by taking a GCSE in Food Technology as a pupil at Maidstone Girls Grammar School.

That led Ms Smallwood, from Barming, to go on to study Food and Nutrition at the University of Surrey in Guildford.

But while her studies were focusing more on the health implications of food, a part-time job at the Cornerhouse restaurant in Canterbury was beginning to take her interests in another direction.

She said: “I became really interested in talking to customers and learning about what foods they liked and why.”

She added: “I really loved it there, even now I still go back sometimes to help them out.”

Meanwhile, to supplement her university grant, Ms Smallwood had taken a job as a sales assistant in the Food Hall at the M&S store in Guildford.

She said: “When I left uni I was delighted to be taken on by M&S as a product development assistant.

“Basically I was just helping six product designers – all on the meat and fish side.

“It was great experience, because I was learning from six people at once.

“That job was in London and I came back to live in Maidstone for the 18 months or so that I was there.”

When she was promoted to become a product developer herself, Ms Smallwood asked for a switch to ambient food – away from chilled meat and fish.

She said: “I just wanted to expand my experience, but what I discovered was that I really love biscuits!”

“M&S don’t have the elastic shelves of many big retailers so we don't stock 10 or 12 varieties of very similar products.

“For us, it is all about offering that very special biscuit that our customers really love.”

Ms Smallwood came up with the Outrageously Chocolatey Custard Cream which proved an instant winner.

She said: “It even knocked our other two best-selling products off the top spot – which was just unheard of – so I was very proud.”

In case you are wondering, the other two best-sellers are the pistachio and almond cookie and the cheese twist.

Ms Smallwood said: “It was a long slog to get the biscuit into production – it actually proved very difficult to get the biscuit fully coated in chocolate, but in the end working closely with our our supplier, we got there.

“As soon as it was launched it really caused a stir on social media!”

Ms Smallwood has had other successes. She was part of the team that devised last year’s M&S Christmas hit – the projecting biscuit tin.

She said: “That really caught on. So we have redesigned it and brought it back again this Christmas.”

The Snowy Christmas Biscuit Tin is filled with tasty gingerbreadmen, but also has a rotating light projector that casts a magical scene onto your ceiling.

She said: “It’s a great present.”

Ms Smallwood, who now lives in Minster, Thanet, with her partner, Josh, divides her time between the London head office in Paddington and her local M&S store at Westwood Cross in Margate Road, Broadstairs.

It was at Westwood Cross that she was filmed for her segment in the Inside M&S show.

She said: “Obviously it was a great privilege to be selected but I was a little bit nervous about telling everyone, because – you know – sometimes they film for hours and then it’s all cut and you’re on for five seconds.”

“I didn't want my family to be disappointed.”

As it turns out she had a key part in the programme.

She said: “I was very happy with it.

“My Nan and Grandad kept my feet on the ground by telling me they would have to watch it later on catch-up – because it clashed with their favourite programme!

“But even they relented and watched live after seeing my name in the TV Times.”

Ms Smallwood is not the only person from Kent to have made a career at M&S. Stuart Machlin, from Gillingham, started out stacking shelves at Sainsbury’s, but now is the chief executive at M&S.

The next episode of Inside M&S will be broadcast at 9pm on Thursday, December 14.

You can catch up on the two previous episodes – including Abbie Smallwood’s appearance – on ITVX.