The ready meals business, which now employs 620 people, won two new contacts with the major multiples in 2010–11, and supplies four of the supermarkets, md Jimmy Mark told FoodManufacture.co.uk.
He said: “We have had a good year in the last year with lots of new business. We will be continue to grow and will take on any new staff that we need. But we have what we need at the moment and will not need to keep growing jobs at the rate which we have been.”
Saladworks, based at a plant at Leicester Forest East, produces meals such as spaghetti Bolognese, pasta carbonara and shepherd’s pie for Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Tesco and Morrisons.
Commodity price inflation
Mark said the business climate was “favourable but tough” at the moment. Inflation on commodity prices was a concern, with the price of beef, cardboard and vegetables such as onions of particular concern to the company.