The middle way forward

The Midlands hosts many of the UK's largest food and drink processors, from Warburtons and 2 Sisters Food Group to Premier Foods and Cadbury.

Covering a territory stretching from the Welsh border in the West to the furthest edge of Northamptonshire, it's no surprise it's where the largest demand for industry jobs is.

"According to the Working Futures 2008 report, the food and drink industry in the Midlands as a whole needs to attract 32,000 new recruits in the next seven years,"​ says Justine Fosh, director of skills solutions for Sector Skills Council Improve and the National Skills Academy for Food and Drink Manufacturing. "Broken down, that equates to 19,000 in the East Midlands area and 13,000 in the West Midlands."​

Trawl through top specialist online job sites and one thing's for sure the recruitment market is definitely chilled. According to Alex Cooper, managing consultancy at recruitment and management consultant Nigel Wright: "Chilled foods is a big area for recruitment, particularly ready meals.​" She cites a rising number of firms in the region expressing an interest in traditional British cuisine.

A one-day snapshot of Food Manufacture's recruitment service, www.foodmanjobs.co.uk, reveals that out of 47 development roles advertised for the Midlands, 21 explicitly mention chilled food 45%. A total of 56% of production job adverts mention chilled, as do 26% of technical opportunities and 61% of quality and hygiene openings.

Large chilled firms running significant recruitment drives include Samworth Brothers, based in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, which announced last year it wanted 150 additional employees over two years.

Dairy giants​

In addition, the Midlands plays host to some of the UK's largest dairy businesses, including Nom Dairy and Müller Dairy UK, which are both based in Shropshire and continuously looking for recruits. Karen Wright, food and drink business development manager at Regional Development Agency (RDA) Advantage West Midlands (AWM), says the area has a high concentration of cheese producers.

Greencore is advertising for jobs at its plants in Worksop and Manton Wood, Nottinghamshire. And Northern Foods has a rolling recruitment and training programme for its chilled production divisions Solway Foods also in Worksop and The Pizza Factory in Lenton Lane, Nottingham.

However, the opportunities aren't just in chilled. Other large firms have openings in the bakery category. One recruitment consultant says Warburtons, Allied Bakeries (part of Associated British Foods) and Hovis, part of Premier Foods, all have vacancies as they expand and consolidate.

Of course, if you want to look to the future, the small-to-medium-sized (SME) players need watching too. Karen Wright says there are many burgeoning microbreweries and ethnic food firms.

"We're noticing a growth in Afro-Caribbean food,"​ she says. "We have one of the largest Jamaican pattie producers in the country Cleone Foods. Then there's Spice Time, which is big in frozen Indian cuisine."​ She adds that rapeseed oil is also "coming through quite strongly" and that the microbrewery sector "seems to be having a boost".​

Karen Davies, chief executive of regional food group Heart of England Fine Foods (HEFF), mentions similar trends. She also singles out "clusters of new chocolate businesses setting up".​

With so many developing firms in the region, it's no surprise that a host of ancillary services have grown up to support them.

Funding for training and development is funnelled through the RDAs AWM and the East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA).

Collaborate to innovate​

In the East Midlands, the Food and Drink Innovation Network (iNet) delivers EMDA's strategy for food manufacturers. Based at Southglade Food Park, Nottingham, the organisation is managed by a consortium led by the Food & Drink Forum, which includes Food Processing Faraday, Nottingham University, Nottingham Trent University and Lincoln University. Southglade offers high grade food manufacturing space for SMEs.

The iNet aims to help academic institutions and local food and drink businesses collaborate on innovation, particularly in the field of engineering. During its first two-year phase, starting in 2008, it supported more than 300 businesses. Innovation Support Grants were given to 57 firms, and cash was provided for nine university collaboration projects.

The iNet aims to increase its advisors. "We are very pleased to be starting a second phase of the Food and Drink iNet, and intend to continue supporting firms in the region via a number of channels," ​says iNet director Andrew Butterwick.

Separately, the Food and Drink Forum runs regional food group East Midlands Fine Foods, which supports speciality food producers, orchestrates events relevant to the industry and offers training, manufacturing, engineering and technical backing. For example, it offers a free half-day assessment to firms looking to improve their processes and production, or achieve Safe And Local Supplier Approval (SALSA) or British Retail Consortium accreditation.

"Accreditation can open the doors to new business," ​says Food and Drink Forum md Fiona Anderson. "The Forum's experts can also help with automation, simulation innovation, new product development (NPD), project management, lean manufacturing and in a range of other areas."​

Bite-sized skills workshops​

HEFF helps SMEs hit technical standards, says Karen Wright. "We launched the HEFF hygiene and food safety standard, recognised by Waitrose, two years ago as a benchmark for food and drink producers in the region. We work with producers on BRC and SALSA."​

She says HEFF, which generated more than £4M through its work with SMEs in the past three years, also organises regular, bite-sized skills workshops, working with third-party partners such as Campden BRI. "For example, we recently ran a workshop on shelf-life testing."​

Like the iNet, HEFF also offers facilities, including chiller units for start-ups and growing SMEs in the West Midlands at its base, the Shropshire Food Enterprise Centre owned by Shropshire Council. The site plays host to 12 production units and a taste kitchen, which firms can hire for NPD work. HEFF also offers it to schools to give schoolchildren a taste of working in food catering or production.

Summarising the Midlands' training needs, Fosh says: "Employers are particularly keen to have training that directly impacts on their business efficiency and the effectiveness of their staff. They want more productivity/efficiency-based training, which includes continuous improvement and lean manufacturing programmes."​

Karen Wright speaks also of the urgent need to train more food technologists a nationwide issue and equip people for highly skilled, artisan roles, for example in bakeries, ice cream makers and cheesemakers.

The Midlands region clearly represents a central pillar of the UK's food industry. It is also witnessing some intensive training and staff recruitment. But it remains to be seen how these activities will hold up as we enter a new period of financial constraints.

Facts and figures​

• Net value of food, drink and tobacco manufacturing: £4.19bn
• Number of people employed by food and drink manufacturers in the region: 86,400
• Top category employers: West Midlands (WM): bakery, meat; East Midlands (EM): bakery, beverages
• 17% of industry workers have no qualifications, compared with 8% in the EM
• Skills gaps affect 25% of the WM manufacturing industry, versus 15% in the EM
• 52% of WM workers are process, plant and machine operatives, versus 44% in the EM
• Counties with the highest concentration of food and drink manufacturers: Staffordshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire
• In the WM, 42% of the workforce will be eligible for retirement in the next 20 years, versus 33% in the EM
• In the WM, 20% of the workforce are aged 1629, versus 38% in the EM

Impressive growth
​

The West Midlands has seen impressive developments in terms of training provision. "We are continuously looking to strengthen and develop our network in the region to give employers access to the very best training facilities," ​says Justin Fosh, director of skills at Improve.

"The most recent addition to the network is Harper Adams University College, home to the West Midlands Regional Food Academy (RFA)."​

Established with finance from Advantage West Midlands and Harper Adams in October and run by director Ralph Early (see above), the RFA was officially opened last December.

Using the food processing facilities in the RFA and the laboratory at Harper Adams, students get to grips with food processing and preservation. They can also gain hands-on experience in making cheeses and beers, baked goods and other preserved foods.

The purpose-built food product development and sensory evaluation facilities help them develop skills in new product design and development. They can also gain insight into specialised products such as fresh produce, ready meals, confectionery and snack foods, and more traditional fare, such as cured and smoked meats, jams and preserves.