HR strategy in an uncertain context: Southern Foods Limited
Author: Carol Woodhams, Manchester Metropolitan University
Southern Foods Limited (SFL) manufacture and supply customised menu items to the food
industry. Their range includes a number of savoury and sweet sauces, marinades and
stuffings in a chilled or frozen form, which are developed in partnership with the food retailer.
Their range of savoury sauces alone encompasses some 65 different varieties from
standards like cheese and bolognese to the more exotic spicy mango salsa and Szechwan.
SFL occupies a fully integrated processing plant near Chichester town centre and employs
250 people.
The increase in convenience food production and growth in the takeaway food sector has
impacted very profitably on the business. The company has developed a line of relishes and
sauces that Frankie’s Hot Dog Restaurants Ltd (the market leader) currently use.
Frankie’s is an American fast-food chain of global proportions. Big Dogs (their premier
product) are now on sale in over 100 countries. They open approximately 100 new
restaurants a year in the UK alone. Restaurants vary in size from large inner-city restaurants
over several floors, which employ many hundreds of staff, to small units located in railway
stations, staffed by only a handful of operatives.
Although Frankie’s are the purveyors of fast-food meals, they have very little in common with
the hospitality sector and much more in common with retailers. There is no menu flexibility,
no locally determined specialities, and no need for catering expertise. The company is proud
that the quality and ingredients of its individual food items are completely uniform throughout
the UK, and vary little across the world. For this reason Frankie’s tend to emphasise singlesupplier
relationships, and have a very high level of determination over the quality, costs and
ingredients of their finished products. The Frankie’s emphasis on standardisation of product
extends to production of their Relish Pot for their chicken (Chickie Dog) range. This menu
item, which is particularly popular with children, offers a barbecue-, tomato- or curryflavoured
Relish Pot accompaniment. For 15 years these pots have been manufactured at
SFL.
That is not to say that Southern Foods have a contract with Frankie’s. Although the company
has had to make considerable changes to its production processes, it has no written contract
that confirms the relationship between the massive American giant and the smaller UK
company. And although Southern Foods is delighted with the business that is coming its
way (Relish Pot consumption is currently running at 350 million per annum), there is a price
to pay in terms of both the lack of security in the relationship and in the demands that
Frankie’s has placed on the Southern Foods production processes.
In order to ensure the consistency and quality of the Relish Pot, Frankie’s imposes rigid
standards on both the production process and employee behaviours at SFL. The company
has had to install three new Austrian-manufactured machines that have cost £1 million each
to buy, ship and install. In addition, the company is required to demonstrate its continued
commitment to Frankie’s by showing continuous development and investment in this sector
of its business. Quality is measured by statistical process control. There is also an enforced
emphasis on continually increasing the efficiency in the production capabilities in terms of
reducing the cost per case and increasing the output per head. In line with the ‘Big Boy Way’
(the corporate philosophy of the American giant) a continuous improvement team measures
all aspects of the process. Data must be kept up to date at all times to fulfil the demands of
the Big Boy quality inspectors, who frequently drop by unannounced.
In practical terms, this demanding and unstable relationship between customer and supplier
has meant that a corner of the factory in Chichester has become a micro-reflection of the
American company itself. This corner is known as the B’s Unit. The specialised nature of the
training means that staff who work in the B’s Unit are dedicated to it alone and are the most
highly skilled workers in the factory. To keep costs down, staff have been cut to the
minimum. At any one time two mixers, three machine operators, one palleting employee and
one unit leader staff the corner. The machines run for 16 hours a day over two shifts. The
B’s Unit employees (14 in total) generally regard themselves as the best in the organisation
and are highly committed and intrinsically motivated. In the main, they work hard. They are,
however, somewhat disgruntled that they are paid the same as lower-skilled workers, and
morale is showing signs of dropping. At the present time, nonetheless, productivity is slowed
only when employees are sick or on leave, for they are not trained in each other’s work.
Cover from within other areas of the factory is not allowed under the terms set by the US
organisation.
Current scenario
Two weeks ago the Big Boy inspectors dropped in with information on a new business
strategy. They are intending to introduce special promotions of hot dogs influenced by
international cuisine and they are requesting that Southern Foods become involved in the
development and production of shorter runs of promotional relishes (the first of which will be
sweet-and-sour). The potential benefits for the business are substantial, particularly if any of
the promotional relishes become part of the permanent menu.
The managing director has called a board meeting to make clear the implications for the
business. He has decided that there is not enough stability in promotional relishes to justify
the purchase of a fourth machine. Instead he has decided to ‘sweat’ the current assets even
harder. He has decided that the B’s Unit must operate for 24 hours a day, that one of the
three machines should be devoted to promotional relishes, and that more efficiency in labour
costs must be made. He wants times of slow production to be eliminated. He has decided
that he can afford only another six staff to cover the additional production requirements,
particularly because he now considers that the B’s Unit staff should be on an enhanced
reward package. He also wants to be able to return to the current shift pattern in the case of
the relish promotions not being continued.
You are the Human Resource Director. You have been given a week to come up with
innovative ideas that might help solve the business problems identified in the case
study and also to identify areas of potential dispute within the workforce and with the
unions.
You have decided that pursuing a strategy of human resource flexibility can solve
many of the issues raised by the managing director.
• Provide a comprehensive and critical review of the relevant literature relating to the key
HR issues reflected in the case study, focussing upon flexibility but also recognising
the issues in respect of employee relations and training.
• Provide a full set of recommendations detailing how to address the problems stated in
the case study.
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