Breaking News on the Food and Drink Manufacturing Sector

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News in brief

British Soft Drinks Association elects new president

22-May-2012 - David Saint is the newly-elected president of the British Soft Drinks Association (BSDA).

Food manufacturers face jobs ‘time bomb’

10-May-2012 - The food industry is facing a “demographic time bomb” with an ageing workforce and not enough talent to fill the skills gap, according to industry experts.

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Curry Queen

01-May-2012 - Eleven years have passed since I last visited Derby to interview Perween Warsi, the founder and chief executive of ethnic chilled ready meals producer S&A Foods. Much has changed in the world since then, but one thing has remained constant and that's her passion for food.

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No small fry

01-May-2012 - We have a three-year plan to take sales to north of £25M. In 2007 we were at £2M, last year we were at £12M and this year we are at £15M.

Which food and drink owners made the Rich List?

01-May-2012 - More than 60 food and drink manufacturers, retailers and distributors were included in The Sunday Times Rich List, which spotlights the 1,000 wealthiest men and women in Britain.

Food firms miss recruitment chance: Nestle Apprentice

05-Apr-2012 - Food and drink manufacturers are missing out on recruiting young talent by failing to promote their industry in schools and colleges, Nestlé apprentice Sam Richards told the HR Forum at trade event Foodex, staged at the NEC.

Sector skills councils ‘fail to deliver value for money’

04-Apr-2012 - Sector skills councils (SSCs), including Improve, which represents the food and drink sector, have come under a scathing attack by the head of the Meat Training Council (MTC) for not meeting the needs of the sectors they represent.

Food manufacturers plan to attract recruits

03-Apr-2012 - Food and drink manufacturers must improve the image of their industry if they are to attract new recruits, warns the Food and Drink Federation (FDF).

Food manufacturers ‘too reliant’ on migrant workers

02-Apr-2012 - Food and drink manufacturers’ “over-reliance” on migrant workers and the challenge of attracting young recruits, were hot topics at Food Manufacture’s HR forum. Here, we capture a flavour – in quotes – of a wide-ranging and, at times, hard-hitting debate.

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It's in the bag

01-Apr-2012 - Two things strike you as soon as you begin to engage Intersnack md Richard Robinson in any conversation about his background. The first is that, although he is relentlessly positive, it is in a way that's not the least bit irritating. His is a quiet, calm positivity, not a zealous, aggressive one.

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Mixing it up

01-Apr-2012 - This is Summit Foods' 31st year. Our core business is frozen meat-based snacks. My family background was in farming, but I have worked in food processing all of my career. My father used to supply eggs to Morrisons. Then came the Edwina Currie [salmonella in eggs] crisis, which hit his business along with the wider industry, quite hard.

Pay rises for managers promise food manufacturers

07-Mar-2012 - Most managers who work in food and drink manufacturing can expect a boost to their salary and bonus this year, according to a survey by recruitment consultant Michael Page.

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Man on the bake

27-Feb-2012 - Few people have been privileged enough to work on some of the UK's highest profile food brands. But Stiletto Foods md Jeremy Woods has sung the praises of products from Wotsits to Pot Noodle in various sales and marketing roles over the years. How appropriate, then, that before he entered the food industry, he was a singer in a rock band that made a bid for the big time.

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Chew on this

27-Feb-2012 - This business started under the name 'Sleaford Trading Company' in 1968 importing and distributing dehydrated vegetables. As it has grown, it has expanded into various dried and canned products. In 1980 Sleaford was the first company to move on to this industrial estate. By the time we changed the name to Sleaford Quality Foods in the mid-1990s to reflect our emphasis on quality, we were making £5M in sales.

Apprenticeships key to Scottish food and drink firms’ growth

15-Feb-2012 - Apprenticeships are the key to maintaining the competitive advantage of Scottish food and drink firms, according to industry experts.

Food group rejects Cameron’s quotas for women

14-Feb-2012 - Prime minister David Cameron’s support for the idea of introducing a quota for women in top business jobs has been rejected by the National Skills Academy for Food and Drink (NSAFD).

Britvic and Nestlé start apprenticeship search

08-Feb-2012 - Leading manufacturers Britvic and Nestlé have started recruiting for their 2012 apprenticeship programmes in a bid to support the Food and Drink Federation’s (FDF) pledge to double the number of industry trainees by the end of the year.

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Turning the tide of obesity

30-Jan-2012 - Professor Judy Buttriss knew very early in her career that nutrition was where her heart lay. But these days, as director general of the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF), it's not just nutrition research that puts demands on her time. She has to juggle the competing duties of running an organisation dedicated to disseminating sound nutritional information to a world awash with uninformed comment and fad diets much of it emanating from self-appointed celebrity 'experts' and tabloids in search of sensationalist headlines.

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Fishy business

30-Jan-2012 - The Paramount 21 story started for me 10 years ago when I was invited down to its former site in Brixham, Devon (I was working for a Marks & Spencer supplier at the time).

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People control their diets, not governments

30-Jan-2012 - The evergreen Tim Lang, professor of Food Policy at City University London, has never been afraid to rattle cages and elicit strong reactions.

Free seminar takes on yawning skills gap and labour shortages

30-Jan-2012 - Britain's food manufacturing sector is facing a potential skills crisis, with an ageing workforce and an image problem that is putting young people off choosing food and drink as a career.

News in brief

Ferrero Group appoints new md

13-Jan-2012 - Confectionery firm Ferrero Group has appointed Pieraldo Oldano as the new md of Ferrero UK & Ireland.

Food industry could be hit by GLA budget cuts

01-Jan-2012 - The policing of food industry employment standards could suffer if the Gangmasters Licensing Authority's (GLA's) remit widens while its budget is cut, as is feared.

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Smokin' hot

01-Jan-2012 - Huw Griffiths tells Rod Addy how he took Besmoke from farmers' market to supermarket

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Enemy of the obese state

01-Jan-2012 - Shadow minister for public health Diane Abbott is no friend of the food industry or the coalition government's health policy. Reports Rick Pendrous

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