About John West Foods

The Senior Management team create standards of excellence for others to follow. The complex change that John West has gone through over the last 6 years, could have been overwhelming; however, the Senior Management team have set interim goals so that people can achieve small wins as they work toward larger objectives. The senior management team foster collaboration and build spirited teams. They actively involve others. They understand that mutual respect is what sustains extraordinary efforts; they strive to create an atmosphere of trust and transparency. To maintain determination and motivation within the crew, the senior management team recognise contributions that individuals make. It is recognised that in every winning team, the members need to share in the rewards of their efforts. To ensure this the bonus scheme was revised. By changing the parameters of the scheme the senior management team have been able to capture a wider proportion of the business. Paul is like no other business leader. He is inspirational and has transformed JWF’s way of thinking over the last 6 years. Paul is down-to-earth, accessible, inspirational, honest, innovative, open, warm, challenging and funny. JWF ‘feels like family’. Paul’s door is always open to all at John West and he makes it his business to get to know each team member. Paul is a lively character with a distinctive Irish accent. This requires Paul to clock up more air miles a year than Richard Branson. However, Paul never lets his constant travelling and demanding role get him down and he is always readily contactable. Paul has been the driving force at JWF to remain untouched by the challenging, turbulent market conditions within the industry sector. He embraces the heritage of the brand and yet encourages and nurtures innovation.

The initiatives JWF have are the charity of the year, the donation of hampers for raffle prizes and donating to the food banks local to Liverpool and their warehouse in Mendlesham. For the charity of the year, this year every department has taken a month and come up with their own fundraising ideas, this has been very successful as they feel that they are helping rather than the committee telling people how to raise money. This year the company have done bucket collections dressed as pirates, Charity bike race on the Mersey ferry, tuck shop, several monthly raffles, dress down days, and coming up they have a charity shiverpool, charity weight loss and a Christmas fare! They have raised approximately £5k this year. They donate John West Hampers upon employees requests and these are used as raffle prizes they are donated to local schools, football teams, charity events that are relevant to the employee. They also have a variety of appeals that the employees will pursue, this year they are collecting hats, scarfs, gloves and old coats for a local homeless charity. They also do the Advent calendar appeal were they ask people to donate an advent calendar for local homeless children. JWF have also donated left over food from events within the office such charity lunches to the local homeless.

JWF’s parent company, Thai Union recently went through a rebranding exercise with the intention of realigning its corporate identity and strengthening its ever-growing presence in the Seafood Industry. Once a small supplier to the world’s major seafood brands, Thai Union has grown to be a major processor and brand owner, supplying a large percentage of the world’s ambient seafood, using different names and logos. As Thai Union’s 40th anniversary approaches, it has decided to bring closer together all of the companies which are owned by TUF directly or indirectly through a new corporate vision, mission, values and master-brand. The CEO was intent on having different values - 3 for attitude (passionate, humble, respectful) and 3 for action (responsible, collaborative, innovative). The value “humble” is an interesting one, not usual for Western businesses – but one which the CEO, Thirapong, holds very close to his heart. He wants everyone in this business to stay grounded and to be mindful that as they grow to an even bigger organization, there are still larger organizations than JWF. This, he claims, will enable the company to grow, evolve and be sustainable for many generations to come. Thirapong delivered a speech earlier in the year, which was viewed via live-stream by more than 35,000 employees of Thai Union globally, demonstrating his aspirations for Thai Union and explaining his feelings about a “humble” organization which was well received by everyone.