April ROUND-UP
Content A Note From Our MD 01 03 06 08 10 12 14 Fun & Events Harvest Hero Community Service Awards Sales Spilling The Beans 17 18 Transport QHSE Department 19 20 Purchasing Marketing Warehouse 16 Phil's Kitchen 22
Firstly I wanted to say a massive thank you to all of you that sponsored me for my cycling challenge across Thailand and Laos, it was an amazing experience and as a team, we raised over £219k for Mines Action Group. All in all it has been a positive start to the year after the acquisition by Bidcorp and now operating under the Caterfood Buying Group. This has presented challenges for our teams as we manage the change of products which has put pressure on all departments and also had a significant impact on our customers. You have all done a great job in adapting to this change and ensuring we are doing our best for our customers. We have achieved our budgeted numbers in January, February and March both in turnover and profit but as we move through April we are seeing some challenges around our turnover. We expect to miss our sales budget in April by around £185k. Please don’t panic about this, we have some great plans which you can read about below. The biggest challenge we face currently is a loss of customers over the past 12 months. We lost a few contracts last year (Hampshire Schools, Platinum Skies Care & IDC) through no fault of our own, these equate to around £1m in turnover per year. These were lost due to changes beyond our control, and I am not hugely concerned about this. What does concern me is when we exclude those contracts from last year’s number’s we still had 100 fewer customers trading in March 23 than we did in March 22. It is this lack of customers and also some lost basket share in existing customers that is resulting in our turnover deficit in April. I wanted to give you an update on our plans and objectives for the business over the coming months to recover our lost turnover and make sure you understand why we have had to make certain changes in the business. Many of the lost customers and lost basket shares have left us for better pricing with our competitors, better delivery times from our competitors or the fact that they can order into the evening with our competitors. A NOTE FROM OUR MD:
With this in mind we have had to re think how we operate as a business. As a Senior Leadership Team we evaluated our options and came up with a plan and ‘Project Doorstep’ was born! Project Doorstep is a sales plan covering Swanage to Portsmouth under the A31 and M27. The objective is to offer an amazing service where it is efficient for us to service. To regain lost customers and basket share we have put together a list of around 200 core commodity products at red hot prices for our customers and guaranteed those prices till September. This gives our customers real reliability on their cost of food which is a huge plus point in a time of inflation. On top of this, we have also offered new customers a 5% rebate on their spending over this time period giving them an extra incentive to maximise their product basket with us. Alongside this we have also decided to move these areas to a 10.30pm cut off and £50 minimum order for next-day delivery. I know this presents some challenges for some of our operational colleagues but hopefully by reading this you can understand why we had to take action. Working alongside our Field and Telesales teams who are driving this plan will be Phil Clark, our Development Chef and Grace Mullins who will both be targeting customers with key products that set us apart from our competitors. Many of these products will be locally sourced in line with our ethos of supporting our community. I am going to start to be more visible in the evenings for our night team soon as I want to make sure I start to interact with our whole team and understand where your challenges lie so please do come and say hello. Thank you for doing an amazing job and remember I have an open-door policy if you need a chat or have any great ideas for improving our business come and talk to me. Steve Whitwam A NOTE FROM OUR MD:
A huge congratulations to Maria Matveev, Warehouse Nights, our Harvest Hero this month, for her continual outstanding work. HARVEST HERO
Mia Gardner - Marketing Bianka Foldesi - Purchasing Shelley Kinnaird - HR Rhys Branch - Warehouse Marius Berar - Transport Alfie Sharman - Transport Kristian Beulah - Transport Stuart Bailey - Transport Gary Willcocks – Transport HARVEST HERO Special mention to this month’s nominations:
Link to vote is available on Share Point or Yammer. Nominate one of your colleagues under one of our values: Trust, Courage, Passion WHO WILL YOU BE NOMINATING FOR MAY?
Congratulations! We would like to congratulate our service award colleagues during April. Well done and thank you for your support, hard work and dedication to Harvest. SERVICE AWARDS Karen Stidston – Assistant QHSE Manager – 15 years Barry Davies – Multi Drop 7.5t Driver – 10 years James Milliner - Multi Drop 7.5t Driver – 10 years Jay Branch – Warehouse Operative – 10 years
Congratulations! SERVICE AWARDS Darren Ledwich – Transport Supervisor – 5 years Petru Hulpan – Night Team Leader – 5 years
FUN & EVENTS What’s happening... Coffee with Steve Our Managing Director, Steve Whitwam, will be in the Kitchen on Monday 22nd May at 4pm for a coffee and an informal chat. To listen to you, answer any questions you may have and any support he can offer. Stand Up to Cancer Walkies Challenge! A massive well done to Sarah Thairs and Billy, who had a target to walk 60 miles in the month of April to raise money for Cancer Research UK. Sarah has confirmed that they have completed the challenge! Amazing work! If you would like to support Sarah and Billy, you still can, please follow the link on Yammer, every penny helps – Thank you.
What’s happening... Values Training There has been some great feedback so far for the Values Training; “Was an effective course with clear objectives – made me think about the lines of communication always needed between departments”. “Great course and I thought the group participation was really good” “Really interesting insights and really enjoyed the open discussion between colleagues in the session” It was always bewildering to me why Harvest doesn’t Scream about its values, so this is a great opportunity to discuss them and ensure that they are incorporated in the way we all behave internally and externally” “It was also a great opportunity to be in the same room with other associates from other parts of the business” The values training allows us to have valuable conversations about how we reflect on our own behaviours; how we can improve our Trust in each other, have the Courage to reflect and make needed changes to Passionately deliver outstanding service to our customers! It is important that you complete your workbook prior to starting the session to get the most out of the training. The link can be found on Yammer! FUN & EVENTS
This year our charity of choice is Naomi House. Our first big event in supporting Naomi House will be taking part in the Clarendon Way Walk Sunday 4th June 2023, 26 miles of rolling countryside from Salisbury to Winchester! We will be trying to get a small team together from Harvest to take part. Time to get your walking boots out? Please express any interest in this event to HR. Grand National Sweepstake – Was a great success! Well done Kelly Barrow for having the Winner - Corach Rambler. Thank you, Ben Bridges and Mia Gardner, for organising. There are lots of opportunities coming up to volunteer for Naomi House helping at events and just remember that Harvest support two volunteering days per year! You can find all information on Yammer! COMMUNITY
COMMUNITY
Snapshot From Sales Lots happening in and around the sales teams this month. Congratulations to Kelly on her recent promotion to telesales team leader. She is already getting stuck into her new role and preparing focus activities for her team and supporting her colleagues. Welcome to Jane to the telesales team, Jane has sales experience teleselling into steel and paper industries and face-to-face in beauty and fashion sales in retail. She is flying through her induction training and can’t wait to start selling to her customers. Do say hello if you see her when you are next in telesales. She will be working alongside Kate and Sara. Looking forward to watching Jane shine in her new role. Grace is enjoying her new sales role: Fine Foods Specialist. Initially supporting Phil in completing the new brochure, building her target audience & visiting suppliers to raise her understanding of finer products. This is an important and exciting new growth area for Harvest and Grace has already got stuck in, showcasing ranges and products & selling lovely local cheeses which have led to a new listing of Winslade, a new local Hampshire Cheese. Some early successes with fine foods and upselling fresh produce into new and lapsed users. Can’t wait to see the sales growth in this fabulous category. SALES
"Best account management I've ever had" Oliver Weeks Dale Fisherman’s Haunt and Riviera Hotel (Oceana) Sara- The George Inn Carole Eddy’s and Green Grocers of Stockbridge Caroline: Havant & Waterlooville FC Dave: Short and Sweet Cafe & Num 1 The Square, Kate: Townhouse Lymington, Some new wins from the BDM team include new business wins in April. We look forward to hosting Hampshire Fare at the depot and welcoming the members. And finally, some feedback from our customers and prospects SALES Love Food - Hate Food Waste Action With The Winchester Food Partnership @winchesteruniversity "Billy & Harvest were great" David Morton "Harvest looks like the supplier for me - it alights to my values" Sarah Peach @ Portsdown Care Village
Volume of Units sold Turnover Gross Profit Margin What’s been going on in Finance? It’s been a busy month with a bank audit, budget updates, and the new payroll year beginning! Financial Results As a business, what are we keeping an eye on? The volume of items sold in March is down against 2022. This is partly due to changes in unit sizes (i.e. moving from single units back to cases), but also because of the current economic climate. Although we were ahead of budget in March, this has been driven by food inflation rather than additional units being sold. Food inflation is expected to decrease from its current high levels over the course of 2023 (expectations of 4% inflation by Q4). We are currently working on a project to drive additional volume to boost our turnover in the coming months. The margin % in March was lower than budgeted. This is because our customers are focusing on price (due to the higher costs of goods from inflation), meaning we have sacrificed some margin to remain competitive in the market. SPILLING THE BEANS
Operational Efficiency – i.e. the picking rate Operational efficiency fluctuates in line with the seasonality of our business (it improves in the busier months and declines slightly in the slower months). What we have noticed is that we have been more efficient compared to March last year. Well done to the Operations team! We achieved our Operating profit target for March, mainly through effective cost controls across the business – well done everyone and thank you! What are Finance focusing on over the next month? We’re making changes to the coding structure we use in Accounts, so that how we allocate income and costs fits better with the Caterfood reporting structure, ready for our new financial year starting in July. SPILLING THE BEANS
WAREHOUSE Tajinder Singh - full-time warehouse night picker. Victor Tagoe - full-time warehouse days forklift driver. So during the month of April all dayshifts have completed values training , two sessions have been completed by the mid to late shifts we are aiming to complete the values training on the 25th & 26th April , thanks Carl for organizing & Nikki for your flexibility of timescales. Warehouse online training which includes Health & Safety, food safety & wellbeing has now been completed by warehouse operations and the dayshift is just mid / nightshift left to complete we are currently running at 88% which shows a concerted effort has been made by all departments so thanks very much team. Richard Krieger has a new PI counter Zoltan Budai who has come from Lidl's main distribution warehouse in Nursling his main purpose will be to count stock and also to learn Richards role for his own progression, he has great forklift experience and will be a good asset to Harvest. Congratulations to Scott Martin & Lauren Woodward on the birth of their beautiful daughter Aurora best wishes to you all. Welcome to our new starters:
TRANSPORT Check your nuts! The importance of wheel nut security and general tyre checks is hot on the agenda this month, and rightly so. People often forget the dangers involved in driving for a living and it is so important that we as a team, and as a business, support our drivers as much as possible to be able to do the job as safely as possible. We've had some very tough days in Transport recently and the team have worked tirelessly to get us over the line. Thank you all once again for your hard work and support, you really are the driving force of the business! We have recently been looking at the possibility of purchasing our own vehicles instead of leasing. This would come with its own set of challenges, but certainly, something that we're excited about if it were to come to fruition.
QHSE DEPARTMENT We’ve had new signage placed around the depot – hopefully the new signage will help guide visitors and delivery drivers. There is a very important new sign, just by the new barriers in the general car park in row 1 – this is to remind us to make sure we are safe to drive out of the car park and onto the entrance roadway. Please make sure all visitors log their presence at the depot either on the iPad in Unit 9 Reception or in the Visitor Book in Unit 6 Reception. And remember, visitors, must be accompanied throughout their visit to our site to ensure security and their safety. We’ve all received a reminder via Yammer to display our car park permits on our dashboards. Those who do not have permits, please email [email protected] and one will be provided. We will be monitoring the car park to make sure permits have been displayed – the permits should help keep our depot and cars a little more safe and secure and minimise disruption when the car park is busy.
PURCHASING April has provided to another very busy month for the Purchasing Team, following on from the hugely busy start to 2023, as a result of the acquisition by Caterfood. We are now heavily in the process of ensuring the alignment of terms with our new owners and ensuring our price files are now updated to reflect these new terms. This is now the team’s main focus for the next month. The team are also continuing to review the initial code replacements for the CRG own-label products we exited, to ensure that we have the best match for the business and have begun to replace a number of the original replacements with more suitable alternatives. Luckily, these changes will be on a much smaller scale than the initial project. In addition, it will also allow us to add more Caterfood Own Label products into the business, as they come on stream. The first of the Caterfood Own Label Tenders were issued during April 2023, and the Harvest Purchasing Team are currently running three of these for the Group. The initial submissions have been received and initially reviewed with the Caterfood team, with a plan for final decisions to be made towards the end of May 2023. Volume returns have also been submitted for the next wave of Caterfood Tenders, which are likely to commence in June 2023. Finally, as briefed last month the C word – CHRISTMAS 2023, is now well and truly on the radar for the time and the initial product range review for this year’s brochure has now been completed.
We are working hard in creating some wonderful new brochures for 2023 which include the Fine Foods Brochure and 2023 Christmas Brochure. We continue to produce our in-house monthly promotions brochure which is delivered to our customers with their orders. Also, we are constantly updating our website and coldweb with refreshing new images (this is an ongoing project). We were delighted to yet again be able to deliver products to our local community foodbank FareShare Southern Central. A lovely quote received: "I just wanted to say a massive thank you for your donations. The milk is perfect for schools for break times and after-school clubs and they will feed roughly around 400 meals. PROTECTOR OF THE HARVEST BRAND MARKETING A massive congratulations to Steve Whitwam our Managing Director for completing 400km in 4 days in the Thai - Laos Cycle Challenge to raise money for MAG The peeled potatoes are great for family meals and they will feed around 300 meals. Thank you again, we are really grateful." Carri Martin, Warehouse Shift Coordinator
We had a Coronation cook off with Phil in the kitchen. He created some sweet & savoury canapes that we think are perfect for the coronation weekend. MARKETING In April we celebrated 7 years in the Totton depot, we held a Tea and Cake party for everyone to share some stories from over the years. Our talented Keiley who works in the telesales team created this amazing Totton depot cake which everyone definitely enjoyed. We are thrilled to announce that we have been named a finalist for the Solent 250 Business Culture Award We hosted a great evening for Hampshire Fare Networking Event last week. It was great to meet around 35 producers, farmers, manufacturers and businesses across Hampshire Thank you to Hampshire Fare for organising such a good evening and a big thank you to our Development Chef Phil for making such delicious Canapes and Brownies for everyone to enjoy.
175g unsalted butter 100g Mortimer cocoa powder 3 free-range eggs 125g caster sugar 125g soft light brown sugar 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract Pinch of salt 85g plain flour Preheat the oven to 170C/150C Fan/Gas 3½ and line a 20cm/8in square brownie tin. Put the butter and cocoa powder into a saucepan over a low heat, stirring frequently until the butter has melted. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for 2 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, both sugars, vanilla and salt for about 2 minutes until pale. Add the cocoa powder and butter mixture and stir to combine. Sift the flour over the mixture and use a rubber spatula to mix thoroughly. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, spread level and bake for 18–20 minutes until just firm to the touch. Leave to cool in the tin before cutting into squares. And that's it, now time to enjoy them! Mortimer Chocolate Brownie Summer Treats - this will be your new go to brownie recipe! A very quick and easy-to-make brownie recipe, made with Mortimer natural cocoa powder. Makes 12–16 brownies. Ingredients Method 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. PHIL'S KITCHEN - RECIPE
Yammer has recently undergone some changes and has evolved to Microsoft Viva Engage. Those who previously had Yammer should not be affected, as the app should automatically update – please check your phone to ensure this has been done! For those new to the app - you can keep up to date with information in real-time and download the Viva Engage App! Utilise the Free on-site Wi-Fi and don’t miss out on further discounted food just for staff, posted on Yammer by Ben Bridges, give him a follow too! YAMMER IS CHANGING TO VIVA ENGAGE! Need help getting involved email [email protected] for support.