Pride in Princes Awards - Q4 19/20

#Proud

Quarter 4 - 19/20

Meet Our Winners

Meet our Winners Q4 19/20

The idea behind Pride in Princes is as simple as the nomination process – but it only works if you all get involved. And you do!

We received 142 nominations in Q4; that’s 142 examples of colleagues going the extra mile and 142 reasons to say thank you!

As always the panel had their work cut out to agree on the winners – it’s really useful having representatives from across the Group on the panel; everyone brings a slightly different point of view and opinion to the table. We had a lively debate but were ultimately unanimous in our final decisions.

With social distancing measures firmly in place, it hasn’t been very easy to make a fuss of our winners this time. So it’s even more important that we share their stories with you and invite you to celebrate our Pride in Princes #timetoshine.

We hope that you enjoy reading our winners stories!

"We received 142 nominations; that's 142 examples of colleagues going the extra mile and 142 reasons to say thank you"!

Thank you!

Key Worker Team Award ‘At a time when people are being urged to stay at home, I do not underestimate the courage you demonstrate every time you arrive at work. It is testament to your resilience that we have been able to fulfil our promise to keep helping families eat and drink well.’

Cameron Mackintosh, Managing Director Pride in Princes is about celebrating those colleagues who have gone the extra mile to bring our values to life – it would be remiss of us not to take this opportunity to say a very public and very sincere thank you to all of our key workers across the Group.

It is true that we are living through an unprecedented global crisis; colleagues across the Group have had to adapt their normal ways of living and normal ways of working. Our key workers have had to adapt the most – they have shouldered the responsibility of maintaining production with an impressive can-do attitude.

To our amazing colleagues

To publicly thank our key workers, Cameron and the Board have presented an honorary Pride in Princes Team award to all of our key workers across the Group.

We’re sure that you will join us in thanking them!

Thank you!

"We received 23 nominations for colleagues in PIA and were delighted to award both an individual and a team Pride in Princes".

PIA Emiliano Marrazzo was nominated 5 times by different colleagues who all value his proactive approach to improving on site system management and reporting capability – they all noted (and appreciate) Emiliano’s patience!

Emiliano is a SAP Supervisor and has been with Princes since 2009. He said "My adventure in the Foggia plant began in July 2009, when it was just built. Today I am SAP supervisor in the manufacturing area and I am ready to face with passion and determination the new challenges that PIA will face in the future. I am proud of working for Princes and to have been nominated by my colleagues for this award. That is for me a further reason to consolidate and renew the values of Princes in my daily professional and personal career".

As you might expect, the coronavirus crisis has significantly impacted on the logistics team at Foggia. It is fitting therefore that we were able to recognise the efforts of Michele Caione, Domenico Caione, Davide Finelli, Luigi Nigro, Fabio Tamburrano, Danilo Soriano, Lorenzo Sannino, Pietro Barbetta and Nicola Pitta.

Their manager Leopoldo Isoletto is immensely proud of their tireless commitment to ensure that products continued to reach customers in mainland Europe and the UK, he said ‘I was so proud that you kept breaking records, well done and thank you’.

PFBV

"We received 17 nominations for colleagues in PFBV and were delighted to present 2 individual awards".

Benedicte Moncel is a Regional Customer Services Manager (Belgium & France), she has been with the Company for 3 years and was a clear winner - with 6 separate nominations!

What came across strongly to the panel was that Benedicte is the very epitome of customer services; taking her time to understand a customers issue she is able to find proactive solutions and delivers top quality customer service. It was noted that her positive can-do attitude is "very much appreciated by her team".

Awind Alakhramsing is a Management Accountant with 21 years service, it was however for his IT support that he received 3 nominations. As colleagues in BV quickly adjusted to home working, Awind supported the team to secure remote access.

Awind said ‘"I was really surprised and also pleased with the recognition. This award is dedicated to everyone who is dedicated to their work in the current global situation caused by COVID-19. Don’t lose hope and stay safe".

BRADFORD

"We received 13 nominations for colleagues at Bradford and were delighted to present 3 individual awards".

Michaela Pickles, better known as Kayla is the Hygiene Supervisor at Bradford with 12 years service. Just before the coronavirus pandemic hit, Kayla had been tasked with reviewing the PPE stock management processes – she was therefore quickly able to source alternative supplies and maintain stock levels. What won Kayla her Pride in Princes award was that she did all of this from home on her own PC while self isolation with symptoms.

Now well and back at work, Kayla commented "I feel energised and more committed to pushing myself even further to make Princes a happy place to work with a great team behind me".

James Bennett is (in his words) a time served mechanical and electrical engineer who has been with Princes since 2015, most recently moving into a control and automation position.

James was nominated by 2 colleagues who recognised that he had gone above and beyond to resolve an issue with an IPC barcode scanner that averted a potentially major problem. It was noted that he was ‘dedicated and tenacious’. James has shared with us that he feels proud to have been nominated for an award and is ‘happy that the study and time spent on this integration has benefited the company’.

Ashley Collinson was awarded an individual Pride in Princes award in recognition of his efforts to collaborate with the Technical Team to ensure the new and complex control system was properly utilised. Once he understood the system fully, he spent time sharing his knowledge with the wider engineering team. Ashley commented "I am playing a role in a large end-to-end project in the Long Sutton facility to facilitate the production of canned ready meals. Specifically I am involved in the principal of operation and communication between the control system, MES and SAP. The particularly challenging aspects of this integration have resulted in this recognition and award which I am very grateful for. COVID-19 has brought a realm of further difficulties to ongoing projects. As part of the IT-Operations team I can proudly say that our ability to harness the changes in daily working life have caused no detriment to business as usual and project activities".

LONG SUTTON & WISBECH Jonathan Ellis was nominated by the Senior Leadership Team after he averted a payroll catastrophe!

With an IT glitch, Jonathan stepped in and managed to save hours of data input and ensured that colleagues were paid correctly and on time.

Jonathan’s calm approach and his expertise were noted and very much appreciated. Jonathan is a Multi-Skilled Engineer who joined the business in 2016; he is unassuming and asked us not to include his photo - we respected his wishes!

"We received 11 nominations for colleagues at Long Sutton and a further 12 for colleagues at Wisbech

JE

Amanda Hollis has been with Princes for 7 years; she’s a familiar face at both Long Sutton & Wisbech.

Amanda is the Engineering Stores Manager and was nominated for her efforts to secure two additional months’ worth of PPE by forward thinking as the crisis began to unfold back in February.

She identified potential supply constraints and worked to resolve them, keeping the Senior Leadership Team updated.

Amanda said ‘I really appreciate the award and am extremely proud to have been selected as a winner’.

Aurelija Kelpsaite is a Senior Technical Operator at Wisbech with 16 years’ service.

She received 2 separate nominations in recognition of her can-do attitude after stepping in (and stepping up) as a Team Leader to help run the Pack Hall department while there was a vacancy. Aurelija managed to juggle this additional work load while still finding the time to train a new team member - thank you!

CARDIFF CARDIFF "With 4 strong nominations at Cardiff, we were delighted to present 1 individual award and 1 team award".

Joe McDonagh and Alan Hughes secured a team award between them – both Site Engineers; they have been instrumental in securing production continuity at site in the midst of the challenges presented by the Cardiff Excellence Project and the site response to the coronavirus crisis.

Stuart Atkinson, Factory General Manager noted that ‘your efforts mean that service levels have been maintained’.

Alan joined Princes in 2010, he commented that "I think it’s great that colleagues’ efforts are recognised by the Pride in Princes awards and would like to thank the rest of the engineering team for all of their assistance, allowing me to achieve this award".

Joe joined the business 15 years ago, completing his engineering degree with Princes sponsorship along the way. He commented that he is "very humbled to receive a Pride in Princes award – thank you".

Faye Giles was nominated after she successfully introduced a monthly payroll process at site; it’s a complex undertaking that has resulted in significant savings both in terms of time and costs.

Faye has only been with Princes for 14 months; originally she was recruited to cover a maternity leave but has recently secured a permanent role as a HR Officer – congratulations!

EDEN VALLEY "With 4 nominations at Eden Valley, we were delighted to present Philip McKay with an individual Pride in Princes award".

Phil McKay was nominated twice in recognition of his tenacity when it comes to resolving issues – he can be relied on to get to the root cause to fix problems rather than just overcome them. Most recently, Phil has resolved 2 long-standing issues with a bottle blower and a labelling machine. His can-do attitude is much appreciated by his colleagues.

Phil joined Prince 4 years ago after serving in the Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers; he served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He told us that he is ‘very pleased to have won a Pride in Princes and would like to thank those that nominated me. I would also like to thank my entire shift who have gone out of their way to support me, even when my methods have caused them pain!’

CHICHESTER

"We had 2 nominations at Chichester – both were for our winner Keith!"

Keith Wanley is a Production Operative who sums up Pride in Princes; identified as a vulnerable member of society, Keith was advised to self-isolate as the coronavirus crisis hit – but he chose not to. Instead Keith reliably turned up to work alongside his colleagues .

The Senior Leadership Team at Chichester said "your work ethic is to be applauded – thank you’"

RLB

"And then finally at RLB we received 45 nominations and were delighted to award 1 individual winner and 3 team awards".

Jonathan Clegg, Lyndsey Routledge, Madalena Rodrigues and Danielle Sumner were nominated as a team in recognition of their collective passion to embed Princes ethical trading and human rights vision into the supply chain; by actively promoting this vision they are improving the lives of workers in our supply chain.

Supply Chain, Ethical Trading & Human Rights

Jonathan has been with princes for 29 years (he was our first graduate to be employed in our soft drinks business!) and he commented, "as a team we are really proud to receive this award for our contributions to promoting Princes’ Ethical Trading and Human Rights Vision with our supply base. We all firmly believe that this is the right thing to do and our supply base have embraced this and made positive contributions to enhance the lives and well-being of their workers".

Danielle added that she is

"proud about how Princes is championing the way forward with their ethical sustainability".

RLB

"You won’t be surprised to read that the IT service desk team have been presented with a team award. With 6 separate nominations it is right that the team’s phenomenal efforts have been recognised".

IT

Richard Billinge, Ian Spencer, Andrew Hill, Tim Johnson, Maphi Bayolo, Melanie Ttofa, Andrea Canullo, Michael McBride, Kristopher McBride & Stephen Thornley worked tirelessly to ensure that nearly 800 colleagues across the UK, PIA & PFBV were quickly set up to work remotely (usually you would expect 50 people to be working remotely at any one time).

At its peak, the team were handling 560 calls to the service desk each week (a typical week would see 250 calls).

"As a team'" Richard said 'it’s great to be recognised for a Pride in Princes award. It’s been a difficult time for everyone in the business recently due to the major changes that have had to be made. I’m proud that as a team we were able to make a major change like working from home less difficult for so many people and helping people stay safe in the process".

Chris Crowley is a Graduate Sales Executive on our Graduate Programme; he has just completed his first 8 month rotation and was nominated by his line manager because he has ‘added significant value to the team’.

Securing an oil contract for Pura at Poundland is a very real example of how Chris exceeded expectations and is testament to his positive approach.

Chris said “I feel very proud and honoured to have won a Pride in Princes Award, I was not expecting it at all so it was a really nice surprise! I’ve really enjoyed my first rotation working within the discounter channel and my team have been fantastic in supporting me through challenges posed by the current pandemic. I’m now looking forward to my next rotation in fish buying”.

Graduate Programme

RLB

"Our final team award – you might need to take a deep breath because this award is shared among a team of 27"!

Supply Chain

The Supply Chain team; Kelly Smith, Paul Ealey, Melissa Willis, Katie Fearnehough, Dominique Parsons, Tiffany Kirk, Michael Gibbs, Steve Conway, Paula Norbury, Kirsty Heraty, Helen Turnley, Jina Smith, Kieran Broadfoot, David Shaw, Stephen Fleming, Thomas Holmes, Paul Reed, Megan McVeigh, Lauren Sidwell, Graham Sampat, Christopher Rogers, Chloe Evers, Natalie Bibby, Daniela Pumlia, Callum Hough, Gina Amos and Shanna Penn were all nominated for their sustained response to the crisis.

"The team are running a 7-day operation in an effort to meet unprecedented demand – hats off to you all"!

Tiffany Kirk, Customer Supply Manager said “I feel immensely proud knowing the huge effort Supply Chain have put in over this extremely challenging time, it has strengthened us as a team and we know we will come out of this even stronger. What better group of people to share this award with #OneTeam”.

David Shaw said “Honestly, we reacted the best way possible as one team, supporting each other in all aspects. I’m really proud to have won this award as it shows grit and reliance within the team and business to overcome the biggest challenge to date”.

But perhaps the final word should go to Natalie Bibby, “the past couple of months working from home has not been easy, but we have all worked so hard to try and make the best of this situation. The whole team have pulled together and supported each other amazingly, I am so proud to be part of this team and can’t wait to be back in the office and able to celebrate our achievement properly”.

What next?

We would absolutely encourage you to get involved. As a panel we review Pride in Princes every quarter (this round will close on 30th June 2020) but essentially the scheme is always open (the Q2 round will open on 1st July 2020). Please feel free to nominate your colleagues as and when they impress you!

Remember that the awards are open to all our colleagues regardless of role, location, grade or length of service. And anyone can nominate anyone.

A thank you might not cost anything but winning an award will secure £200 for an individual colleague who has gone the extra mile and £50 for each team member who has brought our values to life (or local currency equivalent).

We know that there are colleagues right across the Group doing the right thing every day - let's celebrate them together!

We’re waiting to hear from you so please get your nominations in!