Here you'll find news stories sharing events, successes and updates from colleagues across our group
To submit a story to share here please send your article to colleaguecommunications@ipn.co.uk Don't forget to include photos (attached as jpeg files to ensure we don't sacrifice image quality!). You can find some tips on taking photos in our internal brand guidelines in the colleague hub.
HR Excellence Awards (2024) - Inspired Pet Nutrition are finalists!
Wagg Treats have been busy in the Kitchen……
Well, the Kinmel Ops team, together with the Nutrition, Marketing, Packaging, Social and Design teams certainly have….!
This week, Wagg Treats has an exciting new launch…..a limited edition ‘Great British Bakes Collection’, which is inspired by the Nation’s love for all things baking and desserts. With Wagg Treats Peanut Butter Cookies already in our top sellers, we didn’t want our furry friends to miss out on baked treats- so we have designed a range of three treats that are ‘The desserts we love, designed for dogs’.
The range is available in Vanilla Cheesecake, Carrot Cake and Apple Pie. They have been made responsibly with no added sugar- all the sweetness comes from natural sugars (apples, carrots, and honey). We are launching the campaign with a whole host of exciting activity across Social, Influencer Activity, the Wagg Website and PR.
Big call out and thank you to all who made this possible…..it has been a quick turnaround, and should whip up a storm this autumn!
IPN supports Amazon’s first Pet Event ‘PetFest’.
Last weekend (14-15 Sept 24) members of the Commercial team supported supported Amazon’s first Pet Event ‘PetFest’. Senior Account Manager, Nick Connolly thought this is definitely something worthwhile sharing with the wider business and we couldn't agree more!
Amazon Pet Fest was located in Haggerston Park, London for two to welcome all pet lovers and their families for a free celebration of all things-pets! With live music, food and expert workshops designed to have a pawsitive impact on your pet parent journey. All four-legged companions were welcome for pamper sessions, agility courses and much more.
One of our brands, Barking Heads, had an interactive stand welcoming all pet owners to learn more about the brand with knowledge from our team and engagement in fun games. We also had a Wellness Centre where our animal Behaviourist, Adam, gave talks and interactive sessions on the best approaches to looking after your dog. We even had Doga! Yes that’s right… Doggy Yoga which brought people from far and wide to participate in.
The weather was amazing and there was a ton of engagement into the brand – a weekend well worth it for IPN.
Mike Walsh raises money for STAND - North Wales
Operations Manager (Kinmel), Mike Walsh is walking 177 miles for charity and ascending the equivalent of Everest over 8 days.
STAND North Wales is a non profit company supporting and representing families, children, young people and young adults in North Wales that have disabilities and additional learning needs. STAND NW provides training and support for professionals, parents, carers to help support education around disability. It is important to continue raising money and awareness to create these opportunities for inclusion and STAND- "Stronger together for additional needs and disabilities" North Wales
Mike is taking on a huge challenge to raise as much money as possible to support this amazing cause. They will travel to Chepstow to start their Offas Dyke walk early the next morning. They will walk the Offas Dyke path which is 177 miles from Sedbury Cliffs to Prestatyn Beach in just 8 days, walking just over 22 miles per day!! with total elevation of 9,806 metres- (This is more than climbing Mount Everest at total elevation of 8, 848 metres ). They will be carrying full kit with them which is approx 13kg as they camp the whole way!! Mike says "We aim to raise £1,500 but whatever people can do to support this cause and our challenge is hugely appreciated"
IPN Kinmel goes 12 months Lost Time Injury Free!
Keeping colleagues safe is a huge priority for IPN and one that our leadership teams across the patch are immensely passionate about. This week saw a huge milestone surpassed for the Kinmel Operations team - 12 months without a LTI (Lost Time Injury)! A LTI refers to a workplace incident which results in a colleague being unable to work. Most importantly, LTI’s impact the colleague’s health and wellbeing but these have a negative impact for the company in lost productivity. To have such an achievement, takes a dedicated team who have the safety of both their colleagues and themselves as their number one priority.
Chief Operations Officer, Anthony Stones said ‘Ensuring the safety and well-being of our team members has been my top priority since joining the operations team. This achievement reflects the dedication and effort each of you has put into maintaining a safe working environment. It is through your unwavering commitment to following safety procedures, looking out for one another, and addressing potential hazards proactively that we have been able to reach this milestone. This accomplishment is a testament to our collective commitment to safety, diligence, and teamwork. A huge congratulations to every one of you at Kinmel for this remarkable achievement!’
Head of Health, Safety and Environment, Russ Doherty said ‘In 2019, Kinmel had a Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) of 7.19. This meant that approximately every three months, over seven colleagues were injuring themselves to the extent that they couldn’t come to work the following day. This now sits at zero. It fills me with great pride to be celebrating this achievement with you. Every one of you have, and will continue to have, a huge part to play in making Kinmel a healthy and safe place to work.’
From a personal point of view, this is one of the greatest achievements of my career and I am so very proud to work in a team that dedicates time and effort to ensuring IPN Kinmel is a safe place to work and holds this as a priority. A year without a single LTI is a huge achievement and should not be underestimated – many businesses, some far more mature than our own, struggle to achieve such a feat. A big, big thank you to every one of the Kinmel team and our colleagues in support functions, for playing a part in our safety journey. We must, however, continue to keep up the attitude and energy towards safety whilst introducing additional tools, techniques, and systems to continue to ensure we continue to have less incidents year on year.
Here’s to another 12 months!
Dom
"A day in the life" of at IPN Kinmel
In April the Leadership team at Kinmel spent two hours on the factory floor, the heart of our operation, conducting ‘a day in the life of ’. This initiative is part of our site You Said We Did action plan and the purpose was to spend time with colleagues understanding what different roles involve in more detail and to get closer to quality and health and safety opportunities in a "Go Look See" style, as these are important to us. The team split up and focused on different areas of the factory to ensure that all areas were covered.
General Manager, Dom Whelan, says;
‘Our ‘Day in the Life of’ was a fantastic opportunity for the Site Leadership Team to spend time away from our computers and support our colleagues that work in the most important areas of our business – our factory floor! It was great for the Kinmel Senior Management Team (SMT) to spend two hours working in different areas including our Bakery, Warehouse, Wet Packing and Hand Pack stations to understand some of the challenges that working in these areas bring and help produce our wonderful products. During the session, over 20 Hazard Observations were raised, quality checks supported and new relationships were formed. There was a downside though – The two hours the SMT ran our production lines produced some of worst OEE% figures in the history of IPN Kinmel – I’ll need to think of better places to put the team next time!’
The ‘day in the life of’ will now be a monthly occurrence, while we are out and about don’t be afraid to talk to us and tell us what’s going well or not so well and how we can improve. We hope that the operations team enjoyed this as much as we did and we are all looking forward to the next one.
Project EFFIE Update - FIK commissioning begins
Lot’s happening as another phase of the project nears completion. This month, the Fresh Ingredients Kitchen commissioning has started. We have successfully produced the first 2 products on the line and now move into the Qualification phase, where we test out the rest of the products and ensure we have repeatability.
Project EFFIE Update - The support centre is getting closer!
Another busy month in the bag! Lots has been happening around the site as you will have noticed. The support center is nearing completion and you can read more about that further down the update.
The mechanical installation on the Fresh Ingredients Kitchen is completion and the huge task of pulling in all the cables is about 50% complete. By the time the next newsletter comes out we will have made our first products on the line!
The tank farm is almost watertight, at which point we will pause the project briefly as discussed in last months update.
Project EFFIE Update
It’s been a very busy month of commissioning on the Concetti line and there is still work to do before completion, however the team have now successfully wrapped some of the finished products. The building works around the perimeter are nearing completion and you will notice that there is now tarmac and parking spaces in what will be the new car park. Equipment has arrived for the Fresh Ingredients Kitchen and installation is well underway in there as the building itself nears completion.
Team Commercial obsess about our customers and revamp their Retailer Brand Day!
Unlike previous brand days with retailers, which can often be dry, all-day meetings around the boardroom table in Thirsk, we challenged ourselves to do things differently and engage our customer in a way that’s more in-keeping with our brand and the industry we work in.
The Pet Crazy Team creating "Wagg Corner"
With little to no experience in painting and decorating, the Pet Crazy team haven't let that stop them. Read more about Wagg Corner - their project to make the best use of the space we have available to us to provide an area for colleague collaboration, informal chats or just a place to take some time to chill!
Our new wet plant begins to take shape
As many of you may have noticed, there have been some subtle changes in our wet plant over the last six weeks – a new filler, a new fourth retort and eight brightly coloured robots.
Commercial Deployment Day
