Mowi Scotland team providing 500,000 meals a day
Mowi Scotland is managing to deliver a steady supply of salmon to retailers, providing 500,000 meals a day during the coronavirus crisis.
Although many of its employees are working remotely, as a food producer the company has a number of key workers across different departments.
Mowi Scotland’s head of HR, Joanna Peeling told the firm’s newsletter, The Scoop, that those meeting the government’s definition of key workers included staff directly involved in producing feed for salmon; farmers who are responsible for the fish in their care; and processing teams, along with those supporting them with vessels and logistics.
Additional health and safety measures have been put in place for these employees, such as adjustments to shift start and finish times, so that there is a clear break between one group of people leaving and the next arriving.
Other new arrangements include break adjustments, to enable social distancing to be practised in communal areas, such as kitchens and canteens; and installing additional hand sanitisers to enhance existing handwashing facilities.
All non-essential business travel and all non-essential visits to farm sites has been stopped as well, said Peeling.
Mowi is working to update all workers regularly with clear and comprehensive information on work related risks in their area.
There are regular team briefings, with updated information and health posters on display across all sites.
‘Both the UK and Scottish governments have reiterated the vital role that food producers play in the wellbeing of the nation, and have said we should, if possible, keep going,’ said Peeling.
‘Obviously, for staff that can work from home, we have done everything we can to make this transition as seamless as possible, providing new equipment, hardware and software as quickly as we can source it.
‘The supply chain for technology comes largely from overseas so, for example, new laptops or mobile phones are not easily available at the moment, but it is an ongoing process and we are prioritising according to the business critical nature of each request.
‘In addition, we are asking managers to be as supportive and flexible as they can in finding ways to allow those with caring responsibilities to carry on working.’
The company said it is supporting individual working arrangements for key workers who have no access to childcare, and offering support for those who usually ‘car share’ on their commute.
‘Of course, it will be a considerable time yet before things get back to normal, but in the meantime we’ll continue to take our responsibilities, both as an employer and as a supplier of food, extremely seriously,’ said Peeling.
About 60 to 70 per cent of the company’s production supplies the domestic market, and 100 per cent of output from its big processing facility at Rosyth is destined for the UK, said a spokesman.
Ben Hadfield, managing director of Mowi Scotland, said the domestic market has been great because retail sales have been strong as people stock up.
And there is no indication that consumers will stop buying salmon, because having a nice meal to look forward to is one of the things still possible during the coronavirus crisis.
Hadfield said that was great for Scotland, but globally the collapse of food service in Asia and the US was a challenge.
The response to the crisis from the whole sector had been good, he added, including from the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation, government and SEPA – ‘it just shows how a crisis can focus the mind’.
But he reserved the highest praise for his dedicated staff at Mowi: ‘The team here just gets on with it, they’re fantastic,’ he said of all those who have been working remotely after the office shut down, even before the nationwide lockdown.
And he said special thianks should go to ‘the guys and girls on the farms and in the processing plants who are doing a great job’.
‘They’ve still got to go out and work and produce fish with all this uncertainty – we’re all very grateful and full of admiration for what they’re doing.’
“We’re all very grateful and full of admiration doing” for what they’re