1485 Ltd
Production Manager - Chilled Food Challenger Brand (High Care)
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Role - Production Manager | Chilled/High-Care Food Manufacturing
Salary - £50,000-£57,000 (Working 8am-4pm Sun-Thurs)
Location – East Midlands – Commutable to Leicestershire
Somewhere in a chilled production hall right now, 50 dedicated, hardworking people across two sites are turning out great food, occasionally despite the systems around them rather than because of them. They don't need a boss who watches from a clipboard. They need someone who knows people's names, remembers whose kid just started school, and still gets the numbers to add up by the end of the week. Could that someone be you?
We're looking for a Production Manager to take the reins of a fast-paced, high-care chilled food operation running close to round the clock, seven days a week. You'll be building the systems, sharpening the processes, and raising the bar day by day, as well as being someone the team would actually want to grab a brew with.
What you'll be doing
- Owning day-to-day production across two high care sites and a permanent team of around 50
- Getting under the skin of the numbers: efficiency, waste, downtime, quality, and using them to spot what's actually going wrong, not just firefighting the symptoms
- Bringing proper structure, systems and discipline to an operation that's outgrown its current setup, with the bakery as your biggest opportunity: strong products, a good team, and real scope to bring consistency and control
- Coaching supervisors and operatives, tackling embedded bad habits head-on, and holding people accountable, fairly, directly, and without making anyone cry in the walk-in fridge
- Working hand in hand with quality, planning, procurement and warehouse to keep everything flowing
- Championing food safety and quality standards (BRCGS, HACCP, GMP) without turning into the person everyone hides from when they see you coming
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Who we need
Someone who has done proper high-care chilled production and knows the difference between running a shift and running an operation. A charismatic, visible leader who treats their team like people, not resources on a rota, and who understands that a "well done" costs nothing and buys a lot of loyalty. Someone who spots the same problem happening for the third time and actually fixes it, instead of shrugging and moving on. Detail-oriented, straight-talking, genuinely likeable, and allergic to mediocrity.
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The practical bits
- Salary up to £57,000 depending on experience and with small amount of wriggle room to stretch for a superstar
- Working pattern Sunday to Thursday, roughly 8am/8:30am to 4pm/4:30pm
- NEST pension, 30 days holiday, and a bonus scheme tied to business performance (not guaranteed, but there if the business does well)
This is a challenger brand business that makes great food and has huge potential still to unlock. It just needs a leader the team will follow because they want to, not because their contract says so. If that's you, let's talk.
All applicants will receive a response.
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