130 jobs up for grabs at Black Country factory
A food company that supplies supermarkets and restaurant chains is recruiting 130 full time staff in the Black Country.
Avara Foods has positions open across all operations at its site in Brierley Hill, including production, technical, engineering, planning and stores.
The factory in Navigation Drive, which previously operated five days a week, is now running seven days a week, following a huge increase in consumer demand.
Production records have been smashed, with the factory producing hundreds of thousands more units of product than in 2020.
Production capacity has leapt 30 per cent and with the summer months particularly busy for Avara Dudley handling seasonal barbecue foods, more staff are required to help it keep pace.
The company has invested more than £6 million in protective measures across its UK-wide operations, which also include a factory in Hortonwood, Hadley, Telford, to keep colleagues safe during the coronavirus pandemic.
These include screens and curtains installed along production lines to create physical barriers, floor markers in shared spaces to aid social distancing, and staggered shift start and finish times to reduce the number of staff coming into contact with one another.
Canteens and break areas have spaced out seating and perspex dividers and additional cleaning regimes have been enacted in high traffic areas and more hand sanitising stations installed across all sites. There is temperature checking of visitors, new starters and daily random temperature checking.
Mick Hillson, site manager, said: “We’re well-established here in Dudley, and this latest recruitment drive is evidence of our ongoing commitment to the area. Our factory is very important to Avara’s wider operations, and I’m pleased we’re expanding. I look forward to welcoming new colleagues to our friendly and enthusiastic team as we continue to enjoy growth. We understand many people are facing uncertainty but want them to know with a variety of full and part-time positions, both permanent and temporary situations and a broad spectrum of roles available, we’re a local employer they can look to for a new opportunity.”
Avara supplies chicken and turkey products. It was established in 2018 as a 50/50 joint venture between Cargill and Faccenda.
The company operates a fully integrated supply chain across agriculture, processing and distribution, with approximately 7,000 staff.
