What It Does: Bakkavor is involved in the production, distribution, and marketing of fresh foods, including desserts, salads, prepared fruits and vegetables, sauces, ready meals, soups, pizzas, and dips.
Mission: Bakkavor's mission statement is to produce and develop great-tasting, commercially viable, and innovative food products that offer convenience, freshness, and choice to people around the world.
Size and Presence: Bakkavor employs more than 16,500 workers across 22 locations in the UK.
Best Known For: Bakkavor is best known for supplying its fresh foods products to every renowned grocery retail brand in the UK, including big names such as Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury's, M&S, etc. The company is also best known for supplying fresh food to international food brands across the globe.
The Good Bits: Bakkavor is widely regarded as a great place to work. The employees are friendly and warm. The management staff is understanding and easy to work with. The pay is good.
The Not-So-Good Bits: the job entails long working hours.
In 1986, Bakkavor came into existence when a couple of siblings named Lyour and August Guðmundsson founded a business to produce and export cod to Scandinavia. They also diversified into the sales of convenience foods. In 1997, the firm acquired Katsouris Fresh Foods. 8 years later, Bakkavor purchased Geets.
The global financial crisis in 2008 severely affected the company's finances, forcing the co-founders to approach the firm's bondholders. In 2009, the co-founders reacquired a significant stake in their company from Exista, their investment firm. Bakkavor was no longer listed on the NASDAQ OMX in Iceland the following year.
Two years later, the Guðmundsson brothers were tried for fraud because of their ownership of Exista. In 2014, the company restructured by selling off its South African assets as well as a large stake in its Italian operations. In early 2015, Bakkavor purchased B. Robert's Foods, a prepared food manufacturing company in the US.
In 2016, Bakk AL Holdings bought shares in Bakkavor, resulting in the former owning 89% of the company's shares. The following year later, the company had its IPO on the London Stock Exchange. As of today, Bakkavor has operations in multiple countries across different continents. Its global headquarters is located in London.
Bakkavour stands fast to specific values, and this makes its culture unique. The company aims high, works hard, and never shifts grounds on the quality it offers to its customers. Bakkavor treats its employees with respect and fairness. This builds trust for each other. Collaboration is also a big part of the company's culture. With the mindset that everyone is on the same side, employees frequently collaborate with each other to get the job done.
Bakkavor also believes in diversity and inclusion, which makes it an equal-opportunity employer. Its policy of diversity applies to its recruitment process, employee benefits, and safety practices. The company has a laid-back working environment that makes freshers and interns feel at home.
Bakkavor's industry placement programme is a paid 1-year programme targeted at undergraduates. It seeks to equip them with relevant skills in various operational areas in the firm. Undergraduates' performances are periodically reviewed, and they gain valuable experience throughout the duration of the programme.
The company also offers higher and advanced degree apprenticeships to school leavers who want to work and study. These programmes enable them to earn a living while studying for recognised qualifications. Finally, its graduate programme is a 36-month programme targeted at new graduates. It's a comprehensive training scheme which nurtures them into seasoned professionals.
Bakkavor pays its fresh graduates an average annual salary of £30,000.
Bakkavor is on a mission to reduce food waste by half across the supply chain by 2030. The firm also intends to achieve net zero emissions by 2040.
There have been scandals, but none have been widely published.