Talk to Susan Barratt about Natures Way Foods and one word will crop up more than most: people. Investing in your staff, building the right team and creating a positive culture is key to business success, according to Barratt – and, given the meteoric rise of Natures Way during her 11 years at the helm, you would be foolish to argue with her logic.
“Every business is about its people and if you don’t have the right people, you won’t have the right business,” she says with conviction. “This means employing great staff, energising them and investing in their careers. But it goes beyond this: you also need the right balance between staff.
“Having a mix of men and women is absolutely critical because we approach problems in different ways,” she says. “As a company, particularly at senior levels, we are pretty balanced between male and female staff. I think it helps that I am a woman.”
Barratt likes to think that as a female CEO – one of only two in the FPJ Big 50 Companies, along with Susie McIntyre at Kettle Produce – she has inspired other women to enter the industry. “There is still an old school network, and sometimes you’re not accepted because you’re a woman,” she says. “That doesn’t happen very often but it still sits there in certain parts of the industry – and that’s fine. Let them get on with it.”
The fact that the industry is still dominated by middle-aged men is not entirely surprising, Barratt believes, as “these things take a while to change”, but change is underway, she insists. The main challenge, according to Barratt, is to encourage more young people – of both sexes – into an industry that, at present, is under-promoted.
In April last year, Barratt was appointed trustee of food and grocery think-tank IGD – an organisation she feels privileged to be a part of. Although her main responsibilities lie in advising on how to manage the charity’s finances, she has also been involved in a programme called Feeding Britain’s Future to educate young people about the sector. “I’ve gone into schools to talk about opportunities in the industry and children don’t understand how many different jobs you could have in a business like ours – as an accountant, an engineer, an IT technician. There are myriad different roles.”
Responding to this need for more young talent, Natures Way launched a third apprenticeship scheme in 2016, for operational staff, the first batch of whom will complete the course later this year. The scheme adds to existing programmes for food technologists and engineers, and is very much in keeping with the Natures Way mantra that everybody in the business should have the opportunity to develop.
The firm’s relatively flat structure and inclusive environment help to ensure that everybody feels valued. But following the Brexit referendum the company’s migrant factory workers needed reassurance that they were welcome. “June 23 was a difficult day in the business,” says Barratt. “We’ve got a lot of eastern Europeans working here and many people wondered what Brexit meant for them. We spent a lot of time reassuring them that they are highly valued members of our team.”
Beyond such worries about access to migrant labour, Natures Way has felt costs expand as unfavourable exchange rates push up the price of imports. Coupled with the introduction of the National Living Wage, this has put pressure on the business to continue to grow. “Although the retailers are all celebrating a pretty reasonable Christmas, there’s not a huge amount of growth out there,” Barratt explains. “If you haven’t got growth and your cost base is increasing, you’ll find yourself in a difficult situation. That’s why we have to grow. It’s the only way to swallow up the price pressures.”
Given the relentless rise of Natures Way during Barratt’s time at the helm, you certainly wouldn’t bet against her to weather these challenges. When Barratt joined the business in 2005, Natures Way had a turnover of £68 million – a figure that today stands at £160m. The key to success, says Barratt, has been following the consumer – delivering the right products in the right way to meet their changing needs. “A bag of salad is not enough for them now,” she says. “We’ve moved into bowls and trays – a market that we drove back in 2010. And the market for fresh convenience food and complete salad meals is growing exponentially at the moment.”
The other cornerstone of the company’s growth has been the steady and continuing support of its owners, the Langmead brothers. Ever since they launched the business 22 years ago, the Langmeads have been happy to invest, and this consistency of ownership has given the business stability to grow.
But it is change, rather than stability, that energises Barratt. “There’s a speed, a pace and an energy about working in fresh produce that I really enjoy,” she says. No week is the same as the last and success is determined by your ability to react to new challenges.” This, according to Barratt, is what separates those that belong at the top of the game. But her driver in all this is the people. “I want to do the best I can for the business – the people that work here, our customers and our consumers.
“I want to run the best company in this space,” she continues. “And I think I do.”
New year, new factory
Work is underway on a fourth manufacturing site at Natures Way Foods. The Drayton facility, which sits alongside the company’s Runcton and Merston factories in Chichester Food Park, will prepare and pack dressed salads and food-to-go products. With construction work ongoing, the site is due for completion in the spring.
The factory, forecast to cost £8m, will have capacity to handle 200,000 units a day. In total, the company’s four sites will be capable of processing 150m salad bags, 50m salad bowls, 50m food-to-go salads and 50m pots of prepared fruit a year.
