Northern Foods Case Study
Pennine northern foods - committed to its employees, customers and shareholders
Northern Foods plc is one of the UK's leading food producers with revenues of £888.5 million (2006/07) and around 11,000 employees based at 20 sites across the UK and Ireland. Sales to its top five customers; Asda, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco - represent 76% of total revenue.
Northern Foods aims to deliver services through a low cost, high performance business model have engaged JOMC to implement behavioural safety (BS) at all their UK sites over the next 2 years. JOMC has developed a tailored intervention for Northern Foods which involves site by site assessments, the development of site steering groups, engagement and training of managers and the implementation of a "Train the Trainer" model. The total process is supported by an embedded champion from Northern Foods who continues to drive the culture change.
This extensive intervention follows a very successful 12 month pilot at the Pennine site during 2006-7. This site prepares "ready meals" for M&S, and found that over a 12 month period Lost Time Accidents were reduced from 7 to 2, with employee engagement continuing to have a positive impact on different areas of the business.
Savings in excess of £100k have already been made from improvements that can be directly attributed to the new BS process. The 'Train the Trainer' model has proved so effective that the style and approach of the JOMC training has been transferred to the site's induction process, resulting in cost savings and a more effective initial induction for all employees.
Northern Foods - Pennine Site has demonstrated signifi cant commitment to its employees, customers, and shareholders in embarking on this work. There have been many positive reactions already with Northern Food staff being "More aware that we are creating a Health & Safety Environment" and reports that "Trainers are enthralled by their chance to create that environment."
