News Archive

Skills Salvaged as Brewery Closes

Everybody understood the business reasons for closing Young’s Ram brewery in Wandsworth in 2006. The company was spreading its wings, but after an unbroken 425 years of brewing on the site, emotions were running high; it was as if a family was breaking up.

In the inevitable round of redundancies the Young’s HR team, supported by outplacement specialists from The People Development Team, made sure that production was not undermined by the upheaval and as many as possible of those with precious food and drink industry skills stayed within the sector.

The decision to sell the Ram Brewery site was taken after a two-and-a-half-year review of brewing operations in Wandsworth. This criticised the site’s traffic congestion, layout, lack of space, out of date buildings and equipment and raised some health and safety issues: it was time to move the business into a new era, with modern, spacious brewing facilities and a wider network of pubs.

Most of the £69 million capital released by the sale will go towards expanding the company’s pub estate and all Young’s beers are now being produced in Bedford by a new business, Wells & Young’s Brewing Company, set up in a joint venture with the Bedford independent brewers Charles Wells. The new company offers more space, modern plant and economies of scale – it is now the third biggest producer of cask ale in Britain.

Production under pressure

There’s no doubt that the old Young’s brewery was an extraordinary place. Despite the looming redundancies, workers pulled out all the stops to meet some tough production challenges that were crucial to the successful transfer to Bedford.

“The labeller at the new Bedford brewery couldn’t handle our bottles, so we had to build stocks of bottled beers to give us the leeway to transfer our own labeller to the new plant,” explains Ken Don, Young’s head brewer. “We had three months to build up an extra month’s stock, which meant increasing production levels by almost 25 per cent.” At a time of low morale this was a very tall order: “To motivate people we offered them a generous bonus linked to percentage increases in efficiency levels – and we met our targets.”

Looking after people – and the business

The pressure was on for HR, who put this deal in place as well as managing the people side of the redundancy process, working flat out to make sure that people were looked after and that they kept the business running smoothly despite such major upheaval.

“We don’t like losing people,” explains HR Manager Gail Khan. “Young’s has always been like a big family. We have always helped each other out. This was no different.

“We had to be very sensitive to the fact that many of our employees had never worked anywhere else. Everything in their lives was connected with the brewery. They were losing much more than their income. They were losing their whole support structure. Because this was a family business, many families had both fathers and sons leaving the company together.”

Careful planning and management, a generous redundancy package, early consultation with the unions, strong communications and professional support from outplacement specialists The People Development Team (PDT) were all critical to the success of the closure of the Wandsworth site and transfer of production. Most important of all was a determination at executive level to ‘do the right thing’ and treat people fairly and with respect.

“There was a good understanding of why this closure was happening, and we did everything we could to support our employees,” says Gail. “The general feeling was ‘we’ve had a good run and been treated well so we can’t complain’. On the last day we got hugs, kisses and thanks from people as we handed over their P45s before joining them at the pub for a farewell drink.”

Creating choice
The decision to use an outplacement consultancy was driven partly by limited internal resources but also because Gail recognised the importance of The People Development Team’s expertise in helping people to understand the value of their skills, present them to potential new employers and enhance their prospects with extra training.

“They offered a first-rate service and we heard nothing but positive feedback from the employees who saw them,” she says. “PDT managed their resource centre and consultancy clinic opening hours to ensure that the lines kept running. They provided a useful, impartial sounding board for employees venting their feelings, and were also able to maintain perspective, having helped others go through similar exercises before. Their courses were practical, equipping employees with skills which will stay with them beyond their next job. It was gratifying to find that the vast majority were going on to another job, or had actively taken the decision not to."

One of the main consultants from PDT working on the Young’s contract was Ellie Hughes. “Encouraging individuals to participate when they are going through high levels of emotion, stress and anger can be difficult,” she comments. “We achieved a 98% take-up rate at Young’s and even those employees who were initially highly resistant, have worked with us successfully to achieve their aspirations.

“A lot of our focus is on supporting individuals through the emotional change experienced when going through outplacement, especially building self esteem and motivation for the future. We also help people to explore options for their futures and create greater choice.”

This goes way beyond the practicalities of writing a CV and applying for jobs. Ellie explains that it is about working with people to identify and achieve their aspirations: “Whilst at Young’s, we helped a number of individuals achieve what they would class as their ‘dream role’ and in a couple of cases, these were roles that they had wanted to secure for a number of years.”

Contact Information

Michael Hardman
The Ram Brewery
High Street
Wandsworth
London
SW18 4JD
T: 0280 875 7000
michael.hardman@youngs.co.uk

www.youngs.co.uk

Carolyn Causton
The People Development Team
47 Baldock Street
Ware
Hertfordshire
SG12 9DH
T: 07909 743822 / 0800 107 1856
carolyn@people-development-team.com

www.people-development-team.com/outplacement