A Herefordshire based business will lead the way in demonstrating labour saving techniques to help the horticulture industry offset the shortage of seasonal workers.
Fruit growers, Haygrove based near Ledbury, has been announced as an AHDB ‘Strategic SmartHort Centre’ and will host a series of workshops this year for other local horticultural businesses.
Consultancy, Fedden USP, will run training to drive business improvement, while sharing insight on practical management and methods of implementing Lean practices in horticulture. Businesses attending the events should expect to see labour and productivity improvements of between 25-40%.
Angus Davison, Chairman, Haygrove Ltd, said, “Berry growing is about labour, yield and price. Yield is good. Price is bad. Labour must be the focus. We therefore happily support this initiative by AHDB. We are keen to listen, share and learn.”
Haygrove will help demonstrate how labour efficiency tools and techniques can be used on a daily basis in any horticultural business, regardless of the crops they grow or whether they have two-or-200 employees.
Grace Emeny, Senior Knowledge Exchange Manager at AHDB said: “Haygrove will be a brilliant ambassador for our SmartHort programme. We’re looking forward to seeing the impact of their projects that develop throughout their year as a Strategic SmartHort Centre on production efficiency and labour management. Crucially they will be sharing that insight with other local growers and we’re grateful for the honesty and openness they will be bringing to these events.”
Hayley Campbell-Gibbons, Chair of AHDB Horticulture, said: “Labour can account for up to 70% of production costs for some horticulture businesses. In recent years, some areas have seen a 30% shortfall in seasonal workers, putting huge strains on businesses and leading to increased wage costs to attract and retain the best workers.
“The Strategic SmartHort Centres are one of the ways we’re putting practical advice and information out to growers to help them deal with this significant challenge and we hope many businesses in the area make the most of this opportunity.”
Local businesses attending the workshops can expect a hands-on, practical learning experience and will cover:
Process mapping and waste identification
Practical problem solving using a technique called Plan, Do, Check, Act
How to encourage continuous improvement across the whole organisation
Visual management boards and metrics to check improvements have worked
The first workshop will take place on 4 and 5 September 2019 at Haygrove, Ledbury. To find out more and to book your place, ahdb.org.uk/events
You can hear more about the Strategic SmartHort Centres on AHDB’s latest podcast, listen here: bit.ly/SmartHortPodcast
To find out more about the AHDB’s SmartHort campaign, visit ahdb.org.uk/smarthort.