Food Job Blog: The inside track on Food Recruitment and Careers

Julie Preston, Focus Management Consultants will be attending the Hi Europe & Ni Europe Exhibition in November 2012.

We have developed strong strategic relationships with leading companies in the food ingredients industry and the successful placements we have made with them are a testament to the high quality, professional service we pride ourselves in offering.

This is a fantastic global meeting for all stakeholders in the health and natural ingredients industry to network and meet under one roof.

Will you be attending this event, invitations to meet up and any Hotel or Restaurant recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

Julie Preston
Consultant
julie.preston@fmcl.co.uk

Non-ambient food maybe experiencing a price hike by 20%, but in the mean time, scientists are busy proving that chocolate, a product stored at ambient temperature, is good for you!

A new piece of research seems to prove people who eat chocolate regularly tend to be thinner - although this doesn't seem to be the case looking at the Late Shop customers!) The findings come from a study of nearly 1,000 people that looked at diet, calorie intake and body mass index (BMI) - a measure of obesity. It found those who ate chocolate a few times a week were, on average, slimmer than those who ate it occasionally.

Even though chocolate is loaded with calories, it contains ingredients that may favour weight loss rather than fat synthesis, scientists believe. Despite boosting calorie intake, regular chocolate consumption was related to lower BMI in the study, which is published in Archives of Internal Medicine. The link remained even when other factors, like how much exercise individuals did, were taken into account.

And it appears it is how often you eat chocolate that is important, rather than how much of it you eat. The study found no link with quantity consumed. According to the researchers, there is only one chance in a hundred that their findings could be explained by chance alone. This is not the first time scientists have suggested that chocolate may be healthy for us. Other studies have claimed chocolate may be good for the heart.

Consumption of certain types of chocolate has been linked to some favourable changes in blood pressure, insulin sensitivity and cholesterol level. And chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, does contain antioxidants, which can help to mop up harmful free radicals - unstable chemicals that can damage our cells.

Dr Golomb and her team believe that antioxidant compounds, called catechins, can improve lean muscle mass and reduce weight - at least studies in rodents would suggest this might be so.

While there's no harm in allowing yourself a treat like chocolate now and again, eating too much might be harmful because it often contains a lot of sugar and fat too.

And if you are looking to change your diet, you are likely to benefit most from eating more fresh fruits and vegetables - which are, in comparison to a hot sausage roll, 20% cheaper!

With some of the doom and gloom we again here in the press, it is interesting that we have definitely still got a glass half full perspective.

As always at times like these, there are differing positions but we can only judge the situation on what we see and the facts we see in our trading.  

With the notable exception of Tesco - all retailers had reasonably positive trading in the run up to Christmas with like for like sales increasing.  Waitrose enjoyed good growth and Marks and Spencer overall sales were supported by their food sales.

Most of our retail, foodservice and manufacturing clients are positive about 2012 - recognising there is still a need for talent.  In fact, the first couple of weeks in the New Year have seen an increase in recruitment briefs into the business against last year.  

The vast majority of clients are telling us there is a need for real talent to support their plans for this year. So whilst the Public sector in particular takes a pounding with increases in unemployment, we predict the food and drink sectors will increase employee numbers this year.   

Stephen Jones
Director of Focus Management Consultants Ltd

Stephen Jones, Director of Focus Management Consultants discusses his take on the economic climate in relation to the food and drink industry.

The Tesco store round the corner from my house has just started stocking 'milk bags'. I know Waitrose have trialled these last year and Sainsbury's were the first in the UK to introduce the milk bag and jug concept back in 2008.

The concept has actually been used in Germany for a number of years. Quite surprising it's taken some time to come over to the UK, but I guess that comes from differences in cultures and buying styles, but also as I expect the shift in packaging has required significant investments from milk producers/bottlers, who will have had to invest in new machinery and new materials.

 

It's not only Germany who has adopted this concept. A list of countries who have been using milk bags include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Nicaragua, Honduras, China, Colombia, Estonia, Hungary, India, Iran, Israel, Montenegro, Poland, South Africa and Uruguay.

I think the idea is good, and at the introductory price I guess it's a bit of a bargain, and you get the added feel good factor that you are somewhere along the line helping the environment. Is slightly odd though, as where I live we are able to recycle plastic milk bottles, however you can't recycle plastic bags - so in theory the packaging has been reduced but now goes in the bin instead of all in the recycling? I guess there must be some logic somewhere along the line.

If we compare this to Kenco, who introduced their low packaging coffee bags a few years ago. I personally think this is a great idea, however it puts me off buying it when you pay more for a bag of coffee that you do for a larger amount of coffee in a glass jar. Whilst the goal is to reduce packaging, surely some of the cost savings should be passed on to the consumer? As many still feel the pinch from the 'credit crunch' and from Government cut backs, how can they be expected to pay out extra for a low packaging product?

Following the recent 'Attracting Talent & Increasing Productivity' conference set up by the Food & Drink Federation, a statement has been made informing attendees that the reason behind the lack of talent within the food industry is a poor image.

As the average age of employees within the food industry increases, a skills shortage is expected to hit, resulting in a lack of suitable candidates to work in food and drink.

Representatives at the meeting stated that the reasoning for this was that many young professionals recognised the industry as being outdated.

Despite the food and drink manufacturing industry's sheer size, candidates still do not want to work in this industry... but is this really the case? Perhaps it's more likely that people just don't consider the food industry when thinking about careers and their future - perhaps it's not a poor image, but just no image? Is the food industry really marketed that well towards graduates and professionals looking for their next step?

We all hear the "you don't have to have food experience to work in the food industry", but is this really the case?

I'm going to be honest here. What? Delia Smith's Waitrose advert has been banned because it gave the impression that the 'all-in-one' Christmas cake package contained orange peel, when it didn't.

"This year my traditional Christmas cake recipe is going to be the easiest thing ever. I'm really excited by this, because all the preparation has been done for you."

I mean really, is that what the world has come to? Not only is the whole complain issue ridiculous - just buy an orange, or pop next door and ask for one… I'm sure someone somewhere has some orange peel you could borrow! But to make matters more ridiculous, a grand total of three people complained - apparently a just cause to ban the advert. But no, it gets worse than that. If I am correct, we're now in March. Christmas was nearly three months ago. Is there any sense whatsoever investing time, effort and resource in banning an advert that aired over two months ago?

The only slight bit of normality I can draw is that perhaps the Watchdog want to set an example, which I suppose in normal circumstances, would make sense. But what example are they setting here? Don't make out that your product comes with orange peel when it doesn't?

Now I suppose Waitrose should have addressed this one better. They should have put the orange peel in, or stated more clearly that you need to buy orange peel separately, but it's not as if they left out the flour, or anything that could be considered a 'vital' ingredient?

Maybe it's just me, but seems the world is going mad (well, more mad than it was already!)

This has nothing to do with the largest selling 12 inch record of all time, it is a reference to the state of the food industry on a Monday when we receive proportionately the largest number of visits to our sites in a week.

What is really interesting is that visitors looking for food jobs drop over a weekend  - when you would think you could take your time and do the searching in the privacy of your own home.  The largest search day is a Monday - when we get back to work and feel like Bob Geldoff.

When do you find time to search for a new job?

..so another huge food industry surprise comes out of the blue - the 'merger' between Greencore and Northern Foods. Everybody probably knew that Northern were not the force in industry that they once were, and from a recruitment point of view, once Northern 'centralised' this function it became very difficult to work with them in anything other than a purely 'transactional' way.

So what does the 'merger' do for recruiters? Will this mean another colossal centralised department, with 15 suppliers on a faceless PSL and fees at 12%, no opportunity to visit site and meet with line managers. No opportunity to look around the factory and really get a feel for the processes and the day to day issues from 'the horses mouth'?

Almost unanimously, the factory teams don't like this 'centralised' approach to recruitment. Neither do candidates.  The factory teams like to work with recruiters that they know and have chosen because of their capability and service. The best candidates expect us to have met the factory teams and had a good look around the factory - how else can a recruiter sell the role accurately and effectively.

In my view, which ever way you look at it, the 'centralised' approach to recruiting only serves to downgrade the whole activity unless the relationship is extremely strong and exclusive, and the savings achieved by driving down PSL rates are arguably 'wooden dollars' as ultimately the best placements are not made this way.

...just on my way out to visit a client to discuss a new brief. It's a client who knows me really well, has been giving me briefs consistently for five years. I know their factory inside out and have recruited 67% of their manufacturing team to date. The role is with me exclusively, allowing me the time to do a thorough search and screening exercise. The client will pay full fees because they appreciate the 'value-add'
If I have time later in the week, I'll have a glance through the 'portal' at the 12% fee roles I'm sharing with 15 other agencies. Then I'll sit down and prioritise my workload.

It has been really interesting in the last six months when working with major retailers, foodservice clients and food manufacturers whenever the topic of Food To Go comes up.

There is a real buzz of activity in the market about where this product category can go now... Are we going to follow the US (as always) and see the dominance of the triangular sandwich finally slip from pole spot?

I suppose it all comes down to how you define the category, but what is clear is that everyone is bringing new thinking to the sector. For too long the sandwich at lunch time has been the prime driver of the category, and yes there have been some significant developments into breakfast eating on the go, but there is so much more the industry could do.

And what about hot eating Food To Go? Or evening meal / snacking that isn't a Ready Meal. In the US hot sandwiches are a major product range, for example, with the addition of dipping sauces and side salads etc. These developments can mean a complete new way of selling in store of course - hot serve cabinets have been springing up in most petrol stations, but could you imagine how M&S would cope with that? Waitrose were interested in the EAT chain of sandwich, salad and soup shops, but that seems to have fallen by the wayside.

So if I were a Business Delevopment Manager, on in NPD or Marketing, I would be keen to get into the Food To Go sector just as it embarks on a complete re-definition of itself. The retailers are clearly keen to revitalize the sector, whilst the coffee shop and sandwich chains are always looking for more market share from each other. It's certainly a time to bring new ideas to the market.

Do you see the world of dairy is an exciting one? In food manufacturing the dairy sector offers excellent career progression, it offers state of the art processing facilities, capital investment, and talented and professional workforce. So why do people over look it?

Is it that we see dairy products such as milk, butter, spreads, eggs and cheese as everyday commodities and we overlook the food chain to get it to the supermarket shelves? Or is it that it is a traditional farming heritage we take it for granted, or is it that celebrity Chefs don't talk about these foods as "trendy" ingredients. Do you remember when Delia Smith used "white eggs" a few years ago and we couldn't get enough of them? Or is it the Government's food regulations to reduce saturated fats that keep people away from considering working in the sector with diets telling us that dairy products are not good for us.

Or is it the dairy industry's responsibility to update us of their developments?

Whatever the reasons are for people not seeing it is an exciting food sector, the facts are that Dairy farming in the UK accounts for around 17 per cent of UK agricultural production and is the single largest agricultural sector at £3.0 billion (Ref Defra).

So next time you buy your pint of milk or your dozen eggs, stop and think of the food chain to get these products to you and of the dairy food sector that could be your next career path.

The European Commission (EC) has put forward proposals to ban animal cloning in food production and sales for at least five years. However, the import of cloned food products to the EU has been given the green light.

The announcement that animal cloning will be banned for five years has been welcomed by the food industry as a whole, due to concerns over public health and animal welfare if the practice was to become widespread. However, many animal welfare, farming and food job groups have criticised the EC's decision to allow cloned meat products to be imported to Europe.

Peter Stevenson, the chief policy advisor at Compassion in World Farming, has said:

"We welcome the ban on European cloning and the commission's concern about the welfare implications of cloning,"

"But we are very disappointed that imports of cloned semen, embryos and food products are being allowed. We don't accept that it is impossible to trace the origins of cloned meat products.

This last sentiment was echoed by David Cotton, the chair of the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers, who also said that the confusion over which new technologies farmers can and can't use needs to be cleared up.

Key players in the UK meat processing industry have spoken out against the Food Standard Agency's (FSA) plan to stop firms operating whilst waiting for the outcome of non-compliance case appeals.

The FSA says that in order to comply with public health and EU regulations, non-compliant firms should no longer have the right to operate pending appeal decisions. An FSA spokesperson confirmed:

"EU legislation does not provide a right for food business operators (that are non-compliant with feed/food law) to continue operating pending the outcome of an appeal."

However, this proposed change has angered a number of meat processing chiefs, including the director of policy at the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers, Norman Bagley. Mr Bagley believes that the reason for the change is not down to public health concerns or the need to comply with EU regulations, but because of the length of time it takes for cases to reach appeal. He says:

"That has mostly been due to the FSA's own lawyers arguing that the courts should not take into account any improvements an operator has made since his approval was withdrawn. The courts have now rejected that notion most appeals are never heard, because operators carry out the improvements needed and the FSA restores the approval."

As the country braces itself for the devastating budget cuts and job losses imposed by coalition government Chancellor George Osborne in the next few years, the food and drink industry seems set to have a more optimistic future.

The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) has said that in the next seven to ten years, the food manufacturing industry in particular will need to recruit many more skilled workers to cope with demand. In total, it is estimated that at least 137,000 new food jobs will be created.

The number of apprenticeships for food job hopefuls may also increase in the next few years. It has, in fact, doubled to 2,500 over the last year, but FDF doesn't believe that this isn't nearly enough.

Human resources director at FDF, Angela Coleshill, explained the challenges the food manufacturing industry will face over the next decade and just why so many new food job workers are needed. She said:

"The sector's population is ageing and, in the next seven to 10 years, around one-fifth will retire,"

"Our big challenge is replicating this knowledge and people."

Meanwhile, the director general of FDF, Melanie Leech, firmly believes that the ever-expanding food and drink industry should be at the heart of the coalition government's strategy for economic recovery in the next few years.