Meet the finalists: Site Team of the Year

AM Fresh Group 

A group of four managers started their collaboration around two years ago when they embarked on their leadership apprenticeship journey. 

Their limited management experience and varied functional responsibilities brought a fresh approach. 

They have led improvements to department efficiencies, service levels and cost savings.  The group have shown passion and resilience in difficult situations, coached and supported colleagues through personal and work challenges and demonstrated the power of cross functional collaboration with a growth mindset. 

Over the last 19 months this group of managers have been completing their L3 Team Leader apprenticeship. As a result of this programme, they have all displayed increased levels of self-awareness and personal effectiveness

Each individual has led a real business project which has exposed them to problem solving, decision making, negotiation and budget management skills and they have thrived under challenging conditions.

Dunbia 

Over the past 18-months Highland Meats has completed the launch of its Butchery Academy. Due to the shortage of butchers in the UK and the ageing workforce, the academy was established to create a continuous pool of talented, enthusiastic butchers. 

The academy was launched just five months before the first lockdown. With assessors’ access to the plant denied, the company looked at other ways of ensuring the continuous assessment of its trainees and decided to go virtual. Due to the new process working so well the company has continued to work with assessors virtually. 

Individuals on the Butchery Academy have continued to develop their skills. Not only are they skilled butchers but are now de-boners, meaning they have the specialised job of removing the bones from the meat before being trimmed. 

Hovis

This three-strong team has focused on the recruitment of Engineering Apprentices and their continual development. 

This focus is important for the challenges faced in the industry for engineering recruitment and retention. The result has been that ixteen Apprentice Engineers were recruited over a two-year period. There has also been specific emphasis also on EPA planning and development for the first FDEML3 Engineering and L6 Business Apprentices. 

The team guided Apprentices and Mentors through a selection of end point assessment (EPA) organisations.

Its first assessments and reviews of EPA processes and requirements, and overall results were outstanding Merits/Distinctions.  Members of the team achieved this despite the fact they were entering their first EPA experiences and developed knowledge and planning by liaising with ESFA, NSA and national bodies, the college and awarding bodies. 

Pilgrims UK – Corsham​

To address labour challenges a new tool was created to look at every process in the Pilgrims UK Corsham factory. 

Twenty team members heavily involved in the project, with support from factory operations. A total of 288 Corsham site employees.

The project compared actual performance on running time, packs per minute and staff used within the process. These were reviewed daily by Finance and operations, helping identify opportunities to optimise machinery output rates. This resulted in an improvement in labour efficiency at the site over the course of 18 months and delivering significant cost savings. 

There is a Corsham Employee Engagement Team with representatives from every department which acts as a steering group on how successful implementation has been. 

The Ice Co​

This project saw a 14-strong team develop the UK’s first Paper bag in the frozen aisle. 

The Paper Bag Team included employees from sales, production and marketing, who in 2019 gave themselves the challenge to be the first to market with a paper bag in the frozen aisle.

This development was a challenging this project that needed a new supplier that would find a new packaging solution that did not compromise brand standard or food safety. 

Development of a new and leading concept in bag design led to numerous trials being dedicated to its viability