Success story: Abergavenny Fine Foods
Background
Abergavenny Fine Foods is a family-owned Welsh food producer with over 40 years of expertise. Best known as the UK’s leading maker of fresh goats’ cheese, the company also creates a wide range of vegetarian, plant-based, and free-from products for retail, wholesale, and export markets worldwide.
Strong partnerships with farming experts, combined with a focus on innovation and emerging food trends, have secured the company’s reputation for quality and market leadership.
Abergavenny Fine Foods contacted ZERO2IVE when they were looking for support with waste reduction and process efficiency.
Support from ZERO2FIVE
Following a one-day visit to the factory, ZERO2FIVE’s waste experts produced an initial waste diagnostic, providing an overview assessment of the waste produced across Abergavenny Fine Foods’s manufacturing processes.
This led onto a second project which saw ZERO2FIVE focus on the waste created during the production of two of the company’s most popular product lines to identify potential waste reduction solutions.
ZERO2FIVE’s waste team followed the two products through their manufacturing processes on the factory floor with key focus areas including raw materials, forming, frying, packaging, waste disposal and staff engagement. ZERO2FIVE conducted random weight checks across each stage of production, took photographs to highlight areas of visual interest, and interviewed production operatives to gain their first-hand insights.
Using company data, waste streams were also ranked by weight from highest to lowest, with associated costs calculated based on per-kilogram values. A traffic light system was applied to each waste stream to assess the potential for production operatives to have an impact on their reduction.
Benefits of the support
As a result of this focused look at two of Abergavenny Fine Foods’ product lines, ZERO2FIVE produced a detailed report outlining all of the waste sources that were discovered and actionable recommendations.
Proposed waste reduction solutions related to line maintenance and set-up, production operative engagement and training, improved waste segregation, and the introduction of additional standard operating procedures. Abergavenny Fine Foods has already implemented a number of these recommendations.
ZERO2FIVE plans to deliver additional waste support to Abergavenny Fine Foods and has recently completed a warehouse audit looking at opportunities for waste reduction in the company’s incoming raw materials.
ZERO2FIVE also plan to deliver waste culture training to production staff to explain their role in preventing waste and the benefits of doing so. An academic waste expert at Cardiff Met University also plans to conduct a feasibility study looking at potential repurposing options for the company’s liquid waste.
Simon Ramskill, Head of Procurement UK, Frostkrone (parent company of Abergavenny Fine Foods): “Our projects with ZERO2FIVE are showing real promise, especially with the focus on waste control and sustainability. The HELIX Programme continues to prove its worth to the world of Welsh business and our continued relationship with ZERO2FIVE has a real feeling of collaborative benefit to both parties.”
Get in touch with us
If you’d like to find out more about how we can help your business or have any questions about the support we can offer, then please get in touch.
