Bakkavor, the UK’s leading manufacturer of fresh prepared food, has announced it is recruiting for 1,500 food production jobs across its 23 UK factories. Bakkavor produces meals, salads, pizza and bread, and desserts for the UK’s major supermarkets, including Tesco, M&S, Sainsburys and Waitrose, and employs around 17,000 people in the UK, and a further 2,000 globally.

The company remained open for business for the length of the pandemic, working round-the-clock to produce the essential food items that could feed the nation and maintain the food supply at a time of national emergency. With the nation re-emerging from COVID-restrictions and consumer demand for fresh prepared food normalising, Bakkavor’s recruitment drive will offer a welcome boost to local communities around the UK – at the very time when the phasing out of the furlough scheme will, for many, bring economic uncertainty.

Regionally, Bakkavor is specifically recruiting for 680 jobs across its Lincolnshire sites, with a further 196 roles to be filled in Nottingham, 148 in Kent and 139 in Bo’ness, Scotland. Bakkavor is also looking to employ people in Somerset, Lancashire, Leicestershire, London, Wiltshire and Cheshire.

• Bourne, Lincolnshire 207
• Newark, Nottinghamshire 196
• Tilmanstone, Kent 148
• Boston, Lincolnshire 144
• Holbeach, Lincolnshire 143
• Bo’ness, West Lothian 139
• Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire 104
• Spalding, Lincolnshire 89
• Highbridge, Somerset 73
• Leicester, Leicestershire 53

“At Bakkavor, we’re immensely proud of our people and I would like to thank all our colleagues that have worked so hard during the pandemic to help us maintain food supply to the nation, helping to keep the supermarket shelves stocked at a critical time. As we re-emerge from lockdown, we have a wide range of jobs available at a large number of our well-established sites, all offering great career development opportunities. It’s important we continue to invest in the communities where we do business and we hope our employment drive will help many families to rebuild their lives after more than a year of lockdown,” said Donna-Maria Lee, Chief People Office at Bakkavor.

Bakkavor also invests in developing the skills of young people through its apprenticeship and graduate training programmes. Bakkavor has recently been commended by Jobs Crowd, winning the annual award for ‘Best Company in FMCG’ for its apprenticeship programme. The business also has an award-winning graduate training programme