Food Recruitment News: March 2010 Archives

The Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) - an organisation set up to monitor and prevent the exploitation of people in food jobs - has recently joined forces with a number of major British retailers to stamp out the problem within the food and drink industry.

The key issue here is the exploitation of migrant and agency workers within the food sector, a problem highlighted by a recent inquiry undertaken by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Months of consultations on the issue have now ended, and a partnership between the GLA and retailers has been established.

Major food companies such as Marks & Spencer, Asda and Tesco have joined forces with the GLA and representatives from the National Farmers' Union and the Fresh Produce Consortium to work on a new Protocol. This formal agreement will be integrated into the industry to:

• Ensure appropriate standards are withheld
• Make it easier for retailers to share information and report to the GLA

Overall, the new Protocol will ensure that all workers within the food and drink industry are protected and to identify and eradicate illegal and unethical practices.

In response to heavy criticism over unemployment figures in recent months, the Irish Republic's government have been quick to announce the creation of over 300 new food jobs within the Irish food and drink industry.

The new jobs will be opened up as part of the following new developments:

• A €12 million expansion from fast-food conglomerates McDonald's, who plan to open a total of four new restaurants in Ireland; three in Dublin and one outside of the nation's capital. The firm have said they expect to be able to offer around 250 new positions to Irish food job hunters.

• The opening of a new headquarters for Australian firm Probiotec, who specialise in making healthcare products on sale throughout Europe. The new European base will require 70 new employees in order to produce their Celebrity Slim weight loss products to full capacity.

The announcement of these new food jobs may prove to be a saving grace for the Republic government, whose reputation is on shaky ground due to consistently high unemployment figures after the global economic crisis.

Despite this, the Republic of Ireland's food and drink sector still contributes €8 billion to the economy and has around 46,000 people employed in food jobs.

It seems that tentative reports of a gradually stabilising economy might just pan out, as large food and drink retailers increasingly announce development plans and the creation of more food jobs. The two latest companies to announce expansion plans this week are internet grocery retailer Ocado and restaurant chain Mitchells and Butlers.

Ocado creates 2,200 new food jobs

Ocado, who sell Waitrose products through their grocery and homeware website, are planning to open a large new distribution centre. Bosses have told the press they haven't made a final decision as to the site of the new centre (speculation cites areas in the West Midlands and the South as under consideration), but they do know that they will start work on it by the end of 2010. The centre will hopefully be completed in two years time, creating more than 2,000 food jobs at the same time.

Mitchells & Butlers: expansion plans

Restaurant group Mitchells & Butlers already run hundreds of UK pubs, bars and restaurants, but they have big plans to expand their company to manage nearly 2,000. This could mean thousands of new restaurant and food jobs opening up.

The company has said they intend to focus more on food by doubling the number of Sizzling Pub Co, Harvester, Crown Carveries and Toby Carvery outlets in the UK, planning to site them in leisure centres and shopping centres.

Sainsbury's have recently announced positive plans with regards to the coming year, which could mean good news for food job hunters. The company has announced that like-for-like sales are up by 3 per cent for the year and up 1.7 per cent for that last quarter. Although Sainsbury's growth has slowed in recent months, the company still sees the latest figures as extremely encouraging, and there are even talks of store expansion and the creation of thousands of new food jobs.

Since the start of 2010, the chain has hired around 1,500 more employees and there are plans to increase this further in order to push market growth. According to Sainsbury's representatives, the company is well on the way to achieve their target of an overall 15 per cent sales growth by the same time in 2011. This could mean the potential creation of approximately 13,000 food jobs opening up.

Speaking of the company's employment ethos, Sainsbury's CEO Justin King has said that the key focus for the chain is employee engagement. He explained how the company aims to ensure that every member of staff understands Sainsbury's present and future goals and how they plan to achieve them.

It's always been seen as the luxury supermarket. The place where we go for those little treats, or the special meal that we want to cook for the family.

And now, Waitrose is popular not just with its customers but with job hunters too; particularly those looking for food jobs in the North Wales area.

For the first time, Waitrose will be providing jobs to people in North Wales when its new store opens in just a couple of days.

The new opening has created 85 new roles but as well as this; the supermarket has allowed 55 members of staff to transfer their employment over from the shop that was previously on the site.

The luxury supermarket has been creating jobs up and down the country this year as it has continued to expand and its success has led to it recruiting Heston Blumenthal and Delia Smith as partners. A new television advert featuring the two chefs is set to launch on March 25th and the store's in house magazine has also received a bit of a makeover; the name will be changed from Waitrose Food Illustrated to Waitrose Kitchen.

So it's all change for Waitrose. And it seems that they will be destined for even more success because of them.