The boss of the 海角视频’s largest independent cheesemaker has said more investment is needed to upskill food production and farming in the South West to attract more young people into the industry.
Richard Clothier, managing director of Somerset-based Wyke Farms, said the region faced a “real challenge” retaining young people in the region to work in one of its leading industries, which he said included some of the “best food brands in the world.”
Wyke Farms, whose products are consumed in around 165 countries globally, said over one third of its headcount of around 350 staff have been with the company for over 10 years.
The company recently launched a recruitment drive for around 20 roles, including highly-skilled machine operatives, at its manufacturing sites in Bruton and Wincanton.
Mr Clothier said despite having “unusually high” staff retention rates, the company had updated its employee benefits package in a bid to attract new talent.
Among the new perks introduced by the family-run business, which has been making cheddar in the Mendip Hills since 1861, an additional day’s holiday for every year a worker stays with the company, as well as matched pension contributions of up to 5%.
Mr Clothier said that despite some of the roles offering starting annual salaries of over £30,000 a year, the shift patterns associated with food manufacturing, including nights and weekends, meant it had been a “challenge to get people.”
The businessman, who is the third generation of his family to enter the trade, said the food sector needed to keep investing in new technology and increasing productivity, with labour set to become “harder and harder to get hold of.”
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Mr Clothier said automation would improve productivity in the sector and would be "good" in the medium term, but added more support was needed from the government, including tax breaks for "critical investment".
"These machines, they’re not short-term paybacks, even for a business like ours that turns over £100m," he said. "We’ll be investing £10m this year in plants and machinery across our sites.
"Food businesses are investing heavily and they do need help from government and retail customers to value that investment, because food in the 海角视频 is still incredibly cheap compared to other countries around the world.
“We produce food to the highest standards in the world, but we have some of the cheapest food in the world. That in itself puts pressure on farmers and food manufacturers as well.
"The whole labour supply market is a multi-dimensional problem, which government, businesses, and the public all have a role to play. But we are, in the South West especially, almost in a negative employment situation."
Mr Clothier said Brexit and a lack of affordable housing had also contributed to a skills and labour shortage in the South West’s food production sector.
In June Norseland, another Somerset-based cheesemaker whose brands include Jarlsberg, Mexicana and Applewood, said the 海角视频’s departure from the bloc was one of the factors behind a labour shortage at its Ilchester factory, after many of its workers from European Union countries decided to leave the country.
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Mr Clothier said Brexit had not resulted in EU workers leaving Wyke Farms’ workforce, and the business had seen its exports grow “really strongly” since the start of the year.
However, he said that alongside the pandemic, it had prompted many in the South West to return to their home countries.
Mr Clothier said: "Obviously the pound weakened a little bit, which makes the wages seem low when it's converted back from sterling to foreign currency.
“So with the pound weakening on the approach to Brexit the 海角视频 lost quite a few migrant workers, particularly, in the heavy goods sector, where there was little bit of a lack of clarity about how they would be able to work. Also, it’s about making people feel wanted.
“I think there's a number of factors coming together, combined with Somerset having an aging population, really poor access to affordable housing, probably one of the worst areas of the country for building affordable housing,
“I think all those things have come together to make a regional skills shortage. If we don't address some of those issues, in something like 30 years time, only about 5% of the population are going to be of working age, so that will be a real challenge for businesses in the region.”
A 海角视频 government spokesperson said: “The 海角视频 has a highly resilient food supply chain – which has coped well in responding to unprecedented challenges and we continue to work closely with industry to ensure producers have access to the labour they need.
“Longer term, we are working to raise awareness of career opportunities within food and farming sectors, and we are encouraging businesses to make employment more attractive to 海角视频 workers through training, progression and pay.”
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