“A day in the life”

What is your role within Moy Park and could you outline your responsibilities?

I am currently Director of Complexes for the Fresh Business Unit, working between our four facilities in Dungannon, Ballymena, Ashbourne and Anwick. I have responsibility for end to end supply chain – that’s from hatchery, to feed milling, broiler farming through to primary processing, cutting and assembly. At that stage, my colleagues in despatch and logistics send product through to retailers and onto supermarket shelves.


Can you provide a brief overview of your career to date?

I joined Moy Park’s Graduate Management Trainee programme in 1991, after completing my degree in Combined Social Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast and have been working with the company ever since. I spent my first eight years working in our coated operation at our Craigavon site – progressing from Operations Graduate to Department Manager, Shift Manager and Assistant Factory Manager. 
After our Dungannon site was upgraded in 1999, I was transferred there and progressed through a number of roles, eventually becoming Director of Operations, Primary Division in 2009, which then became Director of Complexes, Fresh Business Unit in 2018.

Describe a typical day at work.

It is probably a bit of a cliché, but no two days are the same. On a normal day, if travelling to a Northern Ireland Complex, I leave the house at 6.30am. I spend around 6-8 days days per month at our two complexes in GB, and those days see an earlier start! I try to be in the office for 7-7.30am, and spend the first hour catching up with the team to assess the overall processes of the past 12 hours. The rest of the day quickly fills up with meetings, reviews and forecasts of operational performance, and looking at short and medium term plans for the Complex. While I try to concentrate my focus on the specific site I am at each day, I remain in constant contact with all four Heads of Complex to monitor progress and see if they have any issues. 


How has Covid-19 changed the way you work?

As is the case with workplaces across all industries, Covid-19 has forced us to adapt and change our way of working. Over the past three months, I have had much less direct face-to-face contact with my teams. Meetings now regularly take place digitally, using video conferencing technology, so I have been able to keep up to date regularly with the teams in GB despite travel restrictions. Pre-Covid, I tended to dedicate each day to the specific complex I was at. Now, our meetings are much more cross-functional. Looking to the future, like many workplaces we will embrace flexibility in how we communicate and work – but we can’t forget we are a business that works best when we are collaborating and working within a strong team environment.
On the operations side, as the pandemic approached, we got the team together to see how best to reimagine processes at our complexes to keep our teams safe. Safety is a condition at Moy Park, and we wanted to ensure that our people were in a safe environment as they continued their really important work of feeding the nation. Within production, we worked together to identify challenges at each site, and trial different solutions that would work for each complex – while sharing best practice and ensuring consistency of approach where required. This approach brought about an industry leading response, with measures introduced including installation of Perspex screens on the production line, additional PPE, staggering of break times, and scanning the temperature of those entering the complexes. Having all sites being part of the solution has been the key to our Covid-19 response. 


What are the most challenging aspects of your job?

The food supply chain is large and complex – and disruption at any point of that chain can risk causing real problems. We have to always be ready to adapt and respond to any issues or crises that may arise – Covid-19 is a case in point. I have responsibility and accountability for some 6,000 employees and am always conscious that we are making decisions for these people who rely on us.

What are the most enjoyable aspects of your job?

To paraphrase Hannibal Smith from the A Team, I love seeing a plan come together! The process of the team gathering, coming up with a blueprint, developing the project, then seeing it go live is so satisfying. Seeing that vision being realised gives great comfort and motivation.

What is the biggest misconception about your job?

My job is much more than just taking a bird into a facility and selling the finished product. The food supply chain is more complicated than many people realise. Managing various parts of that chain is like spinning plates, and I have to ensure that if one plate falls, it doesn’t take the others along with it. 


What advice would you give to someone who wanted to work in the food industry?

Agri-food is a strong and growing industry here, and it provides the opportunity to build a successful business career within Northern Ireland. Through Moy Park I have been able to spend nearly 30 years working for a leading UK and European company, while being based in Northern Ireland.

Working in operations may not be for the faint hearted, but you are well looked after and are constantly achieving goals. It is very rewarding and open to multiple skill sets. As an operations manager you need to have the drive to succeed and be able to get the best out of people. You are always learning about other people’s lives and come to realise that in management, the same approach doesn’t work for everybody.


What are you most looking forward to doing when lockdown lifts?

I was lucky enough to be able to juggle my work career with playing rugby and, latterly, through roles in rugby administration. I am itching to get back to watching Ulster play at a packed Kingspan Stadium. Hopefully we won’t be waiting too long!