Poultry giant Avara Foods’ long-serving CEO Andy Dawkins is to step down at the end of the month, some 40 years after he started working in the chicken industry.
Dawkins joined protein giant Cargill after leaving university in the mid-1980s. He then moved to Faccenda Foods in 1998, becoming MD of the poultry processor in 2009, before being appointed CEO of Avara Foods – a joint venture between Faccenda and Cargill’s UK poultry business – on its launch in 2018.
He has been appointed as a non-executive director of Avara Foods Holdings as one of three representatives of the Faccenda family, and hands the reins of the supplier over to Chris Hall, Avara’s previous chief operating officer, who has taken on the CEO role.
“I will have an opportunity to support Chris and his team going forward as well as keep in touch with the many Avara friends and colleagues that have become a big part of my life,” Dawkins said.
Hall also boasts a long career in the food sector, having joined Northern Foods as a graduate, before moving to Sun Valley Foods in 1993. After a spell at Grampian Foods from 1998 to 2000, he rejoined Sun Valley and remained with the business, in its various guises, until its successor Cargill UK formed the JV with Faccenda.
With Avara having reported a fall in turnover and losses of just under £50m in its most recent accounts – due to the loss of a key supermarket supply deal and the closure of two production sites – Hall said the business had been “in a recovery programme” of late, with a big focus on improving efficiency.
“It’s been very painful,” he told The Grocer. “We’ve closed sites and lost valuable colleagues, but the good news is that plan is now bearing fruit. It’s on track and we have supportive shareholders. We are now seeing that optimism come back into the business and are looking forward at sustainable growth.”
The transition between Dawkins to Hall was described by the latter as “broadly evolutionary”. The pair “shared the same core values and principles, so I want to build on that”, he added.
“I clearly want to improve our financial results too and get us back to pre-inflation and pandemic levels.”
“A key area of growth is in added value, where we have invested in state-of-the-art production at our Wednesbury site – we’ve already grown that business from approximately 120 people to almost 550, despite our reorganisation,” he said.
Another key area Hall promised to champion was on food security and pushing for a “level playing field” against imports produced to lower standards, he added.
“Some 50% of the chicken we consume is imported. I’d like to produce more chicken in the UK, but I’m realistic that won’t happen overnight. What we do need to do is make sure we don’t go backwards on that figure,” Hall stressed.
Stocking density switch
It comes as Avara last month announced it had completed its switch, across all broiler farms, to a lower chicken stocking density of 38kg/sq m, down from the previous industry standard of 38kg/sq m.
The switch reflected commitments “by the majority of UK retailers to sell their core range of fresh primary chicken, a key purchase for over 90% of UK consumers, to birds reared at a lower stocking density and cements Avara’s position as a leading UK supplier of high quality, natural and sustainable protein”, the supplier said.
Just Asda and Iceland, of the established major supermarkets, are yet to make the commitment to lower stocking densities.
“Switching our programme to a lower stocking density is another step forward in quality and higher welfare with our customers, supplied here in the UK to standards shoppers can trust,” Hall said.
“Our retail customers have made a commitment and we know, through our insight, that consumers are increasingly interested in the welfare and sustainability credentials of the food they buy.”
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