GRADUATES: A KEY INGREDIENT FOR THE FOOD & DRINKS INDUSTRY
The food and drink manufacturing industry is the single largest manufacturing sector in the UK, employing over 395000 people in 2008. As 16 per cent of consumers’ expenditure in the UK is spent on food and drink, the prizes are high for the region’s sector to capitalise on the opportunities for even greater commercial success.
The East Midlands has become an established centre for the food and drink industry with manufacturers alone employing around 46,000 people across the region.
There are over 700 regional companies involved in processing and manufacturing with particular expertise in dairy, frozen and chilled foods, cereals, snacks and ready meals. The East Midlands food sector is also able to offer fast distribution, with over 99 per cent of the UK market within one day’s journey by road.
The economic importance of the sector in contributing to the wealth of the region highlights the challenges of skills shortages and the importance of recruiting graduates into the industry.
Leicestershire is just one of the economic hubs for the food and drink industry in the East Midlands. It employs around 12,000 people and its traditional gastronomic specialities include Red Leicester cheese and the world famous Melton Mowbray Pork Pie.
Less than one per cent of businesses in the UK’s food and drinks sector are large companies, but Leicestershire can boast one of the largest- manufacturer, Samworth Brothers.
The company is still a privately owned family business and is a leading producer of quality savoury and sweet food products. It comprises 13 operating companies split between Leicestershire and Cornwall, and has a turnover in excess of £450m, employing over 6,000 staff.
It produces products from sandwiches to desserts for many of the UK’s leading supermarkets and retailers under their own brands. It also has its own portfolio of brands including Ginsters and Dickinson & Morris.
Samworth Brothers believes focusing the training, development and well being of its people will ensure the continued success of the Group. Graduates play a key part in this success. The company recruits graduates regularly, and has, in fact, taken on 11 graduates using a new recruitment avenue.
The company has previously used trade magazine as its main vehicle for recruiting graduates. But it decided to try out a new, East Midlands based Graduate Recruitment Service, HotProspects.
The company likes to encourage graduates into the industry, as they often come with fresh ideas, a new way of thinking as well as good transferable skills.
Phelim Keaveny is Personnel Manager for Bradgate Bakery one of the largest Companies in the Samworth Brothers Group: “There are so many opportunities for graduates, not only in our company but in the food and drink sector. If people are prepared to work hard and with great enthusiasm, they can soon work their way up the career ladder. Many senior managers in the industry started off as a graduate within a company.”
HotProspects launched in June 2006. It was initially launched with the support of the East Midlands Development Agency (emda) to tackle the low level of graduate retention in the region. It is currently estimated that the East Midlands has 100,000 less graduates than the national average working in the region.
HotProspects offers a core service that supports a business throughout all the stages of the recruitment process from writing the job description, to assessing suitable candidates. HotProspects has helped Samworth Brothers recruit graduates for various positions, including Food Technicians, a Quality Assurance Team Leader and Process Technologists.
Phelim Keaveny said there are obvious benefits to using this service. “Not only does it give us access to a different pool of graduates to those we can normally reach, but it also saves us a lot of time by only putting forward suitable candidates. I had heard of the HotProspects service through a colleague, and thought it was worth trying out.”
The company has used HotProspects several times. It has found the service very quick and efficient. “We would absolutely recommend it for anyone in the food and drink industry looking to recruit graduates,” added Phelim Keaveny.
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