Foodpro

At the forefront of the UK’s frozen ready meal sector, Foodpro is part of the Browns Food Group, a family-run business that has consistently led the way in terms of industry innovation and service since its foundation over 30 years ago.

A continued heavy investment programme into their state-of-the-art ready meals facility in Wigan makes it one of the most advanced of its kind within the industry.

As part of this group capital investment project, Foodpro has recently completed further expansions to allow the current facilities to increase production capacity by 40%.

The company continues to respond to consumer demand by introducing new products inspired by current trends and this expansion has allowed Foodpro to further develop new innovative products into the ready meals sector.

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EATING IN, IS THE NEW EATING OUT!

Another important new technology which has become common in cold storage facilities recently is wireless Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). RFID utilises scanned tags to provide tracking information such as product movement, time spent in transit and temperature fluctuation data. At the loading dock, RFID helps manage the flow of goods throughout the warehouse, while drastically reducing labour hours. RFID tags, when integrated with an existing warehouse management system (WMS), will indicate a product’s destination, such as cross-dock movement or in-house inventory location, vastly improving throughput speed at the receiving dock. Standard loading dock procedure has always involved cumbersome bills of lading or packing slips. By removing this human element from cold storage monitoring, RFID systems minimise errors and reduce the need to open the product container at all.

Outbound shipments benefit, too. RFID tags share a product’s location from source to its final destination, no matter the method of transportation. This smart supply chain boosts product visibility throughout the cold chain improving the management of perishable and temperature-dependent products, enabling suppliers to deliver a fresher, higher quality product for the consumer.

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In a new cross-industry report¹, the UK food and drink sector is calling for a 12-month Covid-19 Recovery Visa to help alleviate the workforce shortages that are causing serious disruption across the whole of the supply chain.

The report, commissioned by an alliance of 12 leading food industry bodies, including the British Frozen Food Federation, has been sent to government ministers today highlighting the impact the pandemic and the UK’s post-Brexit immigration policy is having on the sector’s ability to recruit key workers. It highlights an average vacancy rate of 13% and estimates more than 500,000 vacancies across food and drink businesses.

In order to ensure continuity, quality and choice in our food supply both in the immediate and medium-term, the report sets out clear ways government can help the food and drink industry overcome the current workforce challenges. These include:

• The introduction of a 12-month Covid-19 Recovery Visa which would enable all involved throughout the supply chain to recruit critical roles, such as HGV drivers, as a short-term response to labour shortages.
• Commitment to a permanent, revised and expanded Seasonal Worker Scheme for UK horticulture to ensure it is flexible and large enough to meet the industry’s workforce needs.
• An urgent review of the Migration Advisory Committee’s (MAC) Shortage Occupation List (SOL) to address the lack of agri-food sectors included.

Richard Harrow, chief executive of the British Frozen Food Federation said: “Labour shortages throughout the food supply chain are creating a ‘perfect storm’ of increasing costs for our members.

“Whilst the long-term solution is to train more UK nationals, we will only avoid further disruption to food supplies and inflationary cost increases by taking the temporary visa measures this report is recommending.”