THE FIRM
In a nutshell: If you take more than an idle interest in our feathered friends, privately owned Faccenda Group is your employer of choice. The second largest chicken processor in the UK after Grampian Country Food Group, Faccenda is a fully integrated agriculture and chicken processing business handling more than 2m birds a week from facilities across the UK
History: Established over 40 years ago by Sunday Times rich list regular Robin Faccenda and family, Faccenda has grown through a series of acquisitions including Hinton Poultry, Perry Poultry and Webbs Country Foods, and now turns over a cool £300m.
Operating from six sites in the UK, Faccenda supplies large supermarket chains and restaurants with whole chickens, breasts, chicken portions and value added products
Brands you'd recognise: You won't. Faccenda supplies own-label products.
The strategy: Sticking to its knitting and keeping customers happy with high quality whole chickens and chicken portions, plus more value added lines, especially for the barbecue season, says a spokesman. "We don't like too much publicity."
Where you’d work: Faccenda’s HQ is at Brackley, Northants, with job opportunities at production sites in Brackley; Sutton Benger, Wiltshire; Okeford, Dorset; Telford and Dudley in the West Midlands. The firm, which employs more than 2,500 staff, is also keen to recruit graduates, who go through an extensive training programme that can last up to two years and provides experience in all aspects of the business, says the spokesman. “Graduates get experience in our agricultural business and the chicken factories, but also get to work in IT, planning and the commercial side of our operation.”
Do say at interview: Vertical integration - it’s the way forward
Don’t say at interview: Campylobacter can be really nasty …
Contact: 01280 703641
NPD Direct chef Martin Eshelby and Robert Kedzlie (right)
