Tulip site boss: we adopt the mentality of a start-up

01-Nov-2013 - Last updated on 01-Nov-2013 at 12:19 GMT

The boss of Tulip’s Bodmin site in Cornwall says the business has adopted the “passion and mentality” of a start-up to achieve a “cultural transformation at the site.”

Site director Steve Smith joined meat processor Tulip in 2011 and said the business as a whole had been striving to change the way it worked.

Back then he said the Bodmin factory manufactured “standard and value cooked meats, predominantly for Tesco, and that was it.”

Listen to our exclusive podcast to discover how the business has expanded its ranges and how it sought to go from an operation which “failed to identify where innovation was required” to seeking to lead the way in terms of category growth.

‘Spirit of a fledgling start-up’

Key to this transformation, explained ex-Army man Smith, was fostering the spirit of a fledgling start-up business at the vast 25 acre site with 800 staff. Senior leaders could do this by tailoring key ideas and not getting bogged down in the minutiae of day-to-day operations, he said.

Listen to find how “the green shoots” of change were now visible to him, especially through its renewed foodservice focus.

“We have a massive economy of scale here, and we wanted to make that value and those high retail standards available to more people,” said Smith.

See a forthcoming edition of our sister title Food Manufacture magazine for a full Me and My Factory feature with Smith.