Delivering high quality meat for the UK's retail food service, wholesale, manufacturing and export sectors for more than 60 years, abattoir giant ABP is now on the front line of the biggest labour crisis the country has ever witnessed.

Having recently visited the Ellesmere full integrated processing site, I have seen for myself the extraordinary number of staff required to get food onto consumers' plates. ABP employs more than 6000 people across the UK, with 1100 employees at the Ellesmere site alone, so the company places a lot of importance on recruitment.

Like many other businesses in food and other manufacturing areas, ABP has been impacted by the recent labour shortages and is working to alleviate the problem, introducing a number of initiatives to attract new colleagues, including increased wage rates, referral schemes and improved benefit packages.

Forward thinking, ABP has also engaged with local and national partnerships, including a strong relationship with Youth Employment UK, to encourage workers to the industry and to offer them a career development pathway.

"ABP is modern, progressive employer and I don’t think it is a case of British nationals not wanting to work for ABP, however, we do employ a large percentage of foreign nationals," said Steve Thompson, Category Director for ABP. "Our industry is complex and requires a number of butchery skillsets that are just not available in the UK at present.

"We invest heavily in careers because we understand that it’s an investment in our future as a company," he said. "The range of skills required in a business like ours is huge; so we’re looking for people of all levels and abilities to work in roles spanning everything from finance, IT and marketing to agriculture and the production line."

ABP offer three distinct pathways for prospective employees: early career and apprenticeships; graduate programmes and experienced and skilled roles.

"It is a daily struggle to find staff, but ABP are so focused career development and visiting schools and colleges to get the youngsters through the door – then the difficulty lies in retaining them," said apprentice mentor, Pete Horton.

"I find it is so important to get youngsters on board so that we can spend the time with them and train them up. The only way to learn is through experience. The majority of butchers take pride in their work, it is a detailed role and getting that niche skill is valuable."

Harry Pritchard, who joined ABP as an apprentice butcher in 2018, commented on his role: “I worked hard during my apprenticeship and enjoyed learning all aspects of knife skills and all the different processes within ABP from farm to fork. I believe my aim of becoming part of the management team is achievable with hard work, dedication and support from the great team of people at ABP."

Harry has been awarded the Institute of Meat 2019 Best Meat Processing Apprentice of the Year.