Industry Sectors
Greater Lincolnshire’s Agri-Food sector is feeding the UK!
Did you know Greater Lincolnshire produces one eighth of England’s food? It grows 30% of its fresh produce, 18% of its poultry, and processes 70% of its seafood. In addition to this, it also excels in food logistics with 30% of UK food travelling though south Lincolnshire.
The region is feeding the nation, which is why growth in the Agri-Food sector is so important, not only locally but for the whole of the UK. The Agri-Food industry employs over 75,000 workers in departments like agriculture, food production, farming equipment, distribution and packaging. Greater Lincolnshire’s Agri-Food sector is diverse and vital, which is why it’s such an exciting industry to be a part of.
Agri Food
The agri-food industry employs over 75,000 workers in things like agriculture, food production, farming equipment, technology and distribution…
Examples of new innovations:
It is such an exciting time to be in the industry as there are huge amounts of innovation going on. Innovation is happening from farm to fork and is utilising some groundbreaking technology to do so. Some examples of innovation within Lincolnshire’s agri-food sector include the development of harvesters for crops that are traditionally picked by hand, such as soft fruits, broccoli, and cauliflower. There are huge amounts of innovation looking into how to reduce carbon emission throughout the food chain, including increasing efficiently and using alternative fuels, and into alternative proteins such as extracting high grade protein form out grade potatoes. We are at a turning point of the technological revolution, and this needs a vast array of jobs to support it, some of which may not traditionally be associated with the agri-food sector.
Some job areas you might not have thought you could do in agri-food:
There is a huge range of job roles available in the agri-food industry spanning many different disciplines. These include genetics, biotechnology, microbiology, robotics, computer science, artificial intelligence, computer vision, engineering (mechanical, electronics, embedded systems etc) GIS and remote sensing, procurement, marketing, PR, finance, new product development and more!
- Would you like to see food products you have helped to create on supermarket shelves?
- Would you like to see machines you have helped designed out working on farms or in food factories?
- Would you like to see people living healthier lives because of your work in the agri-food sector?
This is all possible within Greater Lincolnshire’s agri-food industry.
Employers in Agri Food
Strutt & Parker
Helping people lead the lives they aspire to, we aim to ensure our people achieve their own ambitions.
Strutt & Parker
Our people are approachable and trustworthy - true specialists, for whom reputation, relationships, innovation and service is balanced with intelligence, knowledge, professionalism and a thoughtful approach to work.
Graduate Programme
Strutt & Parker’s residential, rural, development and planning teams will continue to operate under the Strutt & Parker brand, whilst the commercial arm of the business will operate under the BNP Paribas Real Estate brand.
Every year we hand-pick a number of Graduates who we believe have the ambition and talent to play a key part in the future of our expanding business.
Respect
As a partnership we have a culture of respect for each other’s knowledge and expertise. We educate, train and nurture our people, and actively engage in social programmes.
Trust
One of our core values is based on the trust placed in us by our clients and by our colleagues. We actively seek to avoid conflicts of interest. Over the changing landscape of the past 125 years, we have grown and developed into new disciplines.
True Partnership
The partnership between ourselves, our staff and our clients has always been at the heart of what we do. An encapsulation of our beliefs, it informs how we conduct ourselves as a business and as individuals.
Delivery
We ensure we deliver our services diligently, creatively and intelligently, with an absolute focus on our clients. We like to celebrate our past successes, whilst keeping our focus on the future.
Professional
We apply the highest standards of expertise to all our activities to achieve the best results. Our working environments are fun and friendly, while also professional and hardworking.
Involvement
Ours is a collaborative environment which encourages ideas, innovation and discussion. Supported through the opportunities of progression and personal development, our people tend to stay with us for many years.
Worldwide Fruit Limited
Many organisations claim people are their greatest asset, but our Investor In People silver award in March 2014, and the FPC Fresh Awards Best Place to Work award in June 2014 confirms staff really are at the top of our agenda.
Worldwide Fruit Limited
As our name implies we are an international fruit marketing and distribution Company. We source products globally, from over 1000 growers worldwide ensuring continuity of supply 365 days of the year
Established in January 2000, we are an award winning business supplying top Quality fruit to the UK's leading supermarkets.Specialising in apples, pears and avocados and with offices in Spalding, Lincolnshire and Whitstable, Kent, we employ in the region of 250 staff and turnover £114 million per annum.
Product is sourced from top quality suppliers in the UK, New Zealand, South America, South Africa, USA and Europe. Our Packhouse at Spalding handles 4.4 million cases per annum which equates to 52.8 million packs.
Many organisations claim people are their greatest asset, but our Investor In People silver award in March 2014, and the FPC Fresh Awards Best Place to Work award in June 2014 confirms staff really are at the top of our agenda.
Our four Company values were chosen in consultation with our people and they chose - Passion - Quality - Innovation - Together.
Our Company mission is to be "Customers First Choice". With the introduction of a coaching culture and the development of a lean production system, continuous improvement is how we do business.
Uncle Henry's
All of our efforts would not be possible without our dedicated team who are local people themselves and are essential to our business success. We recruit people who are passionate about food and our business. Over the years, we have established managers of the three core budget departments; shop, café and butchery. We invest in their training and development and make Uncle Henry’s an enjoyable place to work. Training requirements are tailored to the individual at management level and our front of house team have an on-going customer service development training programme.
Uncle Henry's
Uncle Henry’s is a farm shop, butchery and cafe located next to the village of Grayingham. It is part of a family arable and pig farming business and is managed by Emma Blandford, daughter of owners Steve and Meryl Ward. We major on great taste and sourcing local. Our shop and butchery offer the full range and we are proud to support over 45 Lincolnshire producers; our local food heroes! We see ourselves as a hub of local food and an outlet for local food businesses to showcase their product.
We produce and make many of the products that we sell ourselves and we’re always developing new lines to add to our range. All of our pork is home reared and we buy in beef, lamb & poultry locally and butcher it ourselves. Our butchery team cure our own bacon and ham and produce many added value cuts and products including our BBC One Show Award Winning Lincolnshire Sausage. We have been working with the Lincolnshire CO-OP for over a year now, initially wholesaling our cooked ham and pork into their stores under the Uncle Henry’s brand and this year expanding our range to include Caramelised Onion Sausages, Lincolnshire Sausagesand our home-cured Traditional Short Back Bacon.
All of our efforts would not be possible without our dedicated team who are local people themselves and are essential to our business success.
We recruit people who are passionate about food and our business. Over the years, we have established managers of the three core budget departments; shop, café and butchery.
The staffing that is below management level is based around setting up full and part-time positions. These give member of the team hours that they are comfortable working and benefit the business through acquiring a flexible workforce that can respond to periods of high customer demand. Our young weekend team are a valuable part of the business and are expected to take a high degree of responsibility whilst benefiting by building up key life skills.
We invest in their training and development and make Uncle Henry’s an enjoyable place to work. Training requirements are tailored to the individual at management level and our front of house team have an on-going customer service development training programme.
Aside from staff training around our customer care requirements, we hold a team brief each morning to discuss any previous challenges and what’s happening throughout the day ahead. We are continually building staff product knowledge and are helped by suppliers coming into store for samplings.
We also have our own monthly mystery shopper which is an invaluable tool for continuous training and development and provides a great opportunity to reward good service.
Our plan for this year, in order to grow our business further, is to focus on continuing to attract both new and also our regular loyal customers but also to promote the great value of our fantastic food offer to our customers. We are continuing to grow our image as a destination for all age groups and working with key partners such as Visit Lincoln over the past year is a key element in our strategic planning process as we continually work on achieving this.
Vertivore Farm
Vertivore produces high quality, year-round salads, herbs and plants. All our produce is home grown in our vertical farm which strictly controls its environment using LED lighting technology and a climate controlled system..
Vertivore Farm
This year Vertivore has hit a big milestone; after two years researching and developing the concept of vertical farming the planning application for our first commercial scale site (in Crowland, Lincolnshire) has been approved. We anticipate starting construction late 2019, with the aim of being operational by 2020.
Our vertical farm has been designed to ensure consistent quality and improved taste. Each of our plants is treated to five-star accommodation throughout their lifespan. Bedded into the finest substrate our seeds begin their journey in a cozy germination chamber. Then, not wanting to cramp their style, our herbs and salads are transplanted into trays where they are remotely shunted and spaced. This allows them to spread their leaves and mature into the young plants they were destined to be.
Inside of the climate chamber, the crops enjoy the benefits of 'summer' all day every day. Under the glow of LED lights they are fed the perfect cocktail of nutrients, each tailored to their very own needs. And why stop at one layer? The trays are vertically stacked making optimum use of space, in fact, space enough for a micro-brewery
What is a Vertical Farm?
An efficient and productive vertically-arranged indoor growing facility using LED lighting and a climate controlled system to provide optimum crop growth.
A consistently high standard of fresh, healthy and sustainable produce can be supplied to the market 365 days a year.
Why is This Important?
With the global population expected to exceed 8.5 billion and the UK population forecasted to exceed 70+million by 2030, the strain on farming is worsening. Soil is becoming unsuitable for healthy crop production and space for agricultural land is running out. In the UK, we are experiencing warmer winters, drier summers and more extreme events which are affecting crop growth.
The environmental impact of current agricultural practices is huge, using around 70% of available freshwater, and with 95% of fruit coming from abroad, each item on the supermarket shelves travels approximately 1500 miles before reaching the end consumer.
The destruction of ecosystems and impact of pesticides is causing further damage to our world and the food we eat.
There is an urgent need for new innovative agricultural solutions to be propelled into the mainstream…
Benefits:
- Grown & harvested 365 days a year, delivery available daily
- Carbon footprint reduction through UK grown produce, reducing time in transit and time to reach the customer
- Uses between 70-95% less water than traditional agricultural practices
- Pesticide free produce
- Eliminates agricultural runoff
- Closed system – No more weather-related crop failure
- Automated operations maximise efficiency
- Consistent, high quality supply of produce & improved taste
- Contaminant free environment through growing & packaging
Water Management Alliance
Whether you work for us as a digger driver or as a member of the senior management team, there will be a considerable variety of challenges in your diverse workload and you will be offered real opportunities for career development.
Water Management Alliance
The Water Management Alliance
The Water Management Alliance (WMA) is a group of like-minded Internal Drainage Boards (known as IDBs) operating in the Anglian Region. We are building resource and capacity in the Anglian region in order to meet the challenges of climate change, sustainable water and flood risk management. The WMA works closely with our IDB’s, partners, communities and individuals to secure new funding streams and deliver innovative approaches at a local level.
We welcome partnership approaches and aim to deliver value for money projects using local expertise and experience.
Did you know Internal Drainage Boards…?
- date back some 900 years and are one of Europe’s oldest water management organisations.
- have statutory powers to undertake flood defence and water management works.
- aim to manage water levels and flood risk management for people and wildlife sustainably and aim to limit impacts of flood and drought within their drainage districts.
- are collectively one of the biggest managers of freshwaters and wetlands in the UK.
- manage drainage districts that cover 10% of the land in England and Wales.
- manage and maintain over 500 pumping stations, 22,000 km of watercourse and numerous sluices and weirs for people and wildlife.
The Water Management Alliance works for and on behalf of other Flood Risk Management Authorities as well as community groups, NGO’s and landowners. We also deliver significant flood risk management benefits and enhanced environmental outcomes on the ground. Our members are all independent and democratically accountable statutory bodies who seek to protect some 548,000 hectares in East Anglia.
The WMA Eastern Drainage Boards include the Broads IDB, East Suffolk IDB and the Norfolk Rivers IDB.
South Holland:
This includes some of the most fertile arable land in the world and is widely recognised as the bread basket of Britain. The area is home to around 60,000 people, a thriving local economy and an increasingly popular tourist destination that attracts visitors from around the country. The area is both locally and nationally important and worth the cost of defending and protecting, now and in future.
Although the entire area is at considerable theoretical risk of river flooding and inundation from the sea, the actual risk is substantially reduced by the work that we do in partnership with Local Authorities, the Environment Agency and Natural England.
The area's full watershed catchment area draining to the Drainage District is the same as the Drainage District, which means that we can provide a better service than we might otherwise be able to: this is because we are not compelled to take surface water from outside the Drainage District that we have no control over. This gives us an advantage in being able to protect the people of South Holland and reduce the risk of flooding.
If you choose to work for the WMA or any of its Member Boards you will be joining an organisation which is striving to provide employees with a positive employment experience. Whether you work for us as a digger driver or as a member of the senior management team, there will be a considerable variety of challenges in your diverse workload and you will be offered real opportunities for career development.
To find out more about the WMA follow them on @The_WMA
Spaldings Limited
One of the UK’s leading agriculture and groundcare specialists. Known for our exceptional quality and comprehensive aftersales service, we supply agricultural tools, supplies, replacement parts and machinery to thousands of customers, earning a reputation for service, quality and reliability
Spaldings Limited
Since 1956, they've have been supplying farmers, estates, contractors and local authorities with a comprehensive range of agriculture and groundcare products becoming Europe’s leading distributor of agricultural equipment, parts and tools. And they are still based in Lincoln.
They have a 40-strong Field Sales team backed by 30 telesales staff and 7 Customer Service personnel. All of our people are experienced in sourcing the right product for the right customer, and are always happy to lend their knowledge and expertise to help you find the agricultural supplies you’re looking for.
Operating out of a 50,000 square foot warehouse and serving over 30,000 Agricultural and 4,000 Groundcare customers in the UK and Ireland, Spaldings has grown to become one of the largest agricultural dealers in the UK. And, with over 60 years’ experience dealing in farm and groundcare equipment, we can help your business source the tools, supplies and equipment it needs quickly and efficiently.
Branston
From our sites in Lincoln, Scotland and the South West, we supply retail, wholesale and food manufacturing customers with fresh and ready prepared potatoes. We do all this with the help of dedicated and professional potato growers who deliver the high standards we demand, day in, day out.
Branston
Still a privately owned company, over the years we’ve continued to grow, invest and succeed. We’re as focused as ever on our fresh potato business, while continuing to build on the success of our innovative prepared vegetable ranges. From our sites in Lincoln, Scotland and the South West, we supply retail, wholesale and food manufacturing customers with fresh and ready prepared potatoes
Our Main Board members have a wealth of experience – from farming right through to retail – and they continue to set the strategic direction for the business. They’re supported by the Executive Board, whose diverse range of expertise helps them to take that direction and work out how to turn the plans into reality. And the whole thing is underpinned by the 700-strong team of people who keep everything moving – day in and day out.
Whether running our factories and offices or looking after our growers and customers we’re all passionate about what we do and about how we do it. From maintaining our stringent Environmental Policy to ensuring that we provide safe and ethical working conditions for everyone in our supply chain through the UK Modern Slavery Act, everything we do is guided by a shared vision of ‘How we do business’. Supported by our values, this is what drives our actions every day.
The relationship we have with every single one of our suppliers is incredibly important to us and we pride ourselves on our ability to develop partnerships based on mutual trust. It’s an extremely important part of our approach to business.
We work with all sorts of suppliers: specialist niche growers supplying very small quantities, family farms, large farming businesses supplying huge tonnages, growers supplying in tight seasonal windows and overseas suppliers filling the gaps that our home crop cannot fill.
Househam Sprayers
Househam Sprayers is the UK's largest manufacturer and supplier of top quality self-propelled and trailed agricultural crop sprayers and amenity sprayers.
Househam Sprayers
Designed, built and tested in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, our range of self-propelled machines uses ground-breaking technology to deliver a specification not often found on other machines available in the crop spraying market.
Furthermore, all Househam self-propelled machines have been designed with low weight and even weight distribution in mind. This minimises soil compaction and allows the machine to be used throughout the year, minimising weather delays and reducing the risk of diseases taking hold.
Househam is dedicated to producing leading edge technology which is designed to offer maximum efficiency and ' future-proof' our ever expanding range of sprayers. Customers are supported around the globe with an experienced network of service engineers and dealers', ensuring help and assistance is but a phone call away. Providing world class technical innovation, research and development and testing and manufacturing services to deliver exciting, effective and efficient concepts for our global customers.
With over four decades of success within the agricultural sprayer market, Househam is able to combine cutting edge technology devised by some of the industry's best engineers with precision manufacturing and speed to market.
The Vision of Househam
The challenges faced by agriculture are massive. The ever increasing world population relies on the food agriculture produces and this represents a challenge for the industry, globally, unlike any other industry has hitherto faced.
However, bringing more and more land into agricultural use can have detrimental effects of the environment by encouraging deforestation, which releases more CO2 into the atmosphere, and the draining of natural wetlands both of which increase the risk of flooding.
By protecting and improving the vast areas of soil currently under cultivation and maximising its productive capacity with advances in plant breeding, nutrient management, crop protection products and innovative application technology, we should be able to go a long way towards producing higher volumes of food which is healthier, safer and produced in a more environmentally friendly and sustainable manner.
Our aim is to use new and innovative technology to enable us, as leading manufacturers of crop sprayers, to produce machines which enable growers not only to apply crop protection products very accurately, but also to help protect soil structure by reducing soil compaction. Our links with the leading agricultural research bodies and our continuing dialogue with practical farmers and contractors helps us to produce leading edge crop sprayers which meet the needs of users around the world.
Gadsby's Bakery
Our dedicated team sell, produce, pack and deliver the 80,000 retail items we sell every day, six days a week.
Gadsby's Bakery
Southwell is our home, and has been from the very start. For over 50 years we’ve been kneading, beating and mixing, and our range has grown into a wide and varied selection of traditional and continental breads, hand finished confectionary and irresistible cream cakes.
Our dedicated team sell, produce, pack and deliver the 80,000 retail items we sell every day, six days a week. We also keep our ovens fired up 24 hours a day to ensure only the freshest quality baked goods are delivered to our customers.
You'll find our range on the shelves of stores from Liverpool to Grimsby, Sheffield to Peterborough, and in over 230 co-op food stores throughout Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
