An Inspiring Tale of a Food Business That Lives It’s Values

When a production worker at savoury snack factory Calbee UK in Deeside, north Wales, heard that a café serving supermarket surplus food was opening in nearby Buckley, she was keen to get involved.

But she didn’t just sign up as a volunteer. She told her employer about it, and now they are one of the cafe’s regular supporters, donating their own products and releasing staff to volunteer at the café in the company’s time.

It’s just one example of their commitment to make a positive and lasting difference to local people.

When we get involved with a local project we don’t just give money and walk away, explains Mags Kerns, Human Resources Manager and Community Champion at Calbee.

We want to offer personal support, to get under the skin of a project. The café is great because they are making such a contribution to the community, bringing people together and relieving loneliness, as well as serving meals on a Pay As You Feel basis so everyone can afford to eat there. We’re glad to be part of that.

Values are very important to Calbee UK, which was set up two years ago as a subsidiary of a Japanese company.

Calbee Inc was founded in 1949 with the aim of tackling the malnutrition that was afflicting post-war Hiroshima. It was a particular emphasis on calcium and Vitamin B which gave the company its name. The Deeside factory supplies vegetable-based snacks under the brand name Yushoi to most of the main supermarkets, as well as Marks and Spencer’s Eatwell range.

The bulk of its ingredients, especially peas, are sourced from the UK, although some such as rice are imported.

Deeside was a perfect location for us, says Managing Director Richard Robinson, and we’re really excited about our growth plans here.

The Japanese and Chinese are really investing in food businesses in the UK and Calbee is a great sign of how global the food industry now is.

He also acknowledges generous support from the Welsh Government, who helped them to source their premises and set up an apprenticeship scheme, besides investing in the facility which began production in 2015. Calbee, which now employs 50 people and is still only at about 25% of its capacity, is on course to turn over £65m by the end of 2020, and wants to become one of the UK’s best savoury snack suppliers.

Clearly, performance and success are important to the company, but their vision is much broader than that; they also want to have a leading role in supporting the industry voice on health and well-being and it’s clear that they see money as being in service to people, rather than the other way around. Values run through all we do, says Mags.

We’re proud of our low-fat, high-protein products that are not just tasty but healthy too. And it’s really important to us to be a responsible employer, as well as contributing to the community.

Sometimes this attitude shows up in small ways that make a big difference. All staff are known as colleagues rather than employees, which reflects the company’s flat structure and helps to create a sense of collaboration in the workplace.

When a colleague is rewarded for exceptional performance they are given a day off that is, time to spend with their families and friends rather than a cash bonus, neatly demonstrating the company’s priorities. They are also encouraged to volunteer for the local community in company time.

Our colleagues and their families are partners in our business, as their values statement has it. And they pay well too, as an accredited Living Wage Employer, another reason they have no problems recruiting staff and absenteeism is minimal.

People knock on our door with their CV, says Mags. Of course, they don’t always have the skills we need, but working with Coleg Cambria we are able to offer apprenticeships that lead to a qualification in Food Manufacturing Excellence. In fact, all our staff take it, right up to management level, because it’s important we have a shared understanding of what the factory is about. And we’re glad to be supporting the development of food skills in Wales generally.

Calbee could have some encouraging lessons for the food industry in general. As it takes a stand for shared values centring on human dignity while also achieving healthy growth and profitability, it shows how business can be a force for good.

Together we laugh, learn and love what we do, they say on their website. Who wouldn’t want to be part of a workplace like that?

Author: Jane Powell

Jane is a freelance writer and education consultant based in Wales, UK. She is interested in how an approach based on values can help us find common ground from which to transform our food system, and she can be found at www.foodsociety.wales.