Chocolate maker to hire 300 staff before Christmas
The chocolate maker, which employs about permanent 650 staff at its Fakenham site, said 50 of the new roles would be permanent positions at the business.
The new roles would help boost production in the run up to Christmas and when it begins manufacturing Easter goods in November.
Kinnerton’s human resources director Dean Hunter told FoodManufacture.co.uk that the roles would be on the production floor, directly manufacturing the confectionery products.
“In addition to that – which I think is very normal for us at this time of year – we would be having upwards of 250 temporary staff onsite,” said Hunter. “We are working with our agency partner PMP Recruitment to secure those.
Shift in direction
The recruitment of permanent staff members was a shift in direction for Kinnerton, which would usually only hire temporary staff during the Christmas period.
“This is something that we’ve done slightly different, because it’s looking at our forward order book for Christmas and Easter production and how that takes into next year,” Hunter continued.
“We believe that we’re in a position to make a commitment on permanent roles rather than the use of temporary labour like we normally would through that period.”
Kinnerton planned to stagger the introduction of new staff to the business over the next month.
Hunter added: “The challenge we’ve got is we can’t introduce everybody at the same time, which makes things difficult for production.
‘Difficult for production’
“We’re already underway with the process and receiving applications and interviewing. So within a month we’d hope to get up to that additional uplift of 50 people.”
Kinnerton manufactures branded confectionery products featuring children’s cartoon characters such as My Little Pony and Peppa Pig, as well as own-label products for a number of UK supermarkets.
Its Fakenham factory produces Easter eggs, Advent calendars, lollipops and chocolate bars all in a completely nut-free environment, making it one of the few UK manufacturers able to offer nut safe chocolate.
For the latest career opportunities in food and drink manufacturing, visit FoodManJobs.
Meanwhile, last year, our sister title Food Manufacture magazine’s associate editor Noli Dinkovski visited Kinnerton’s Sherburn-in-Elmet factory to interview general manager Mark Bullock, as part of the Me and My Factory feature series.
