Crawshaw to create 300 Yorkshire jobs with £25m investment

Rotherham-based Fresh Meat and Food-to-go retailer, Crawshaw Group PLC, is planning to create a job boom in Yorkshire over the next several years.

By 2022, Crawshaws Group will invest £200m into its business, opening 200 stores and creating 2,500 jobs. Over the next 18 months, 15% of these jobs will be based in Yorkshire as part of a £25m investment.

The retailer’s growth strategy is already underway with the recent opening of its new stores in the Leeds Merrion Centre and Bolton town centre.

The stores are already a huge success after exceeded customer footfall and sales expectations, with customers being able to buy value priced meat, freshly prepared on the premises by qualified butchers or buy from the food-to-go menu, freshly prepared by qualified cooks.

By Christmas four more stores will open , which will see the retailer’s operations grow from 22 stores to 39 within just nine months. A further 15 stores are planned by the end of 2016.

This rapid expansion plan was started with the acquisition of the Gabbbotts Farm portfolio in Manchester. Acquired by Crawshaws for £3.9m, Gabbotts Farm operated 11 stores with a similar proposition, which are now under the Crawshaw Group.

Spearheading this ambitious growth plan is the new CEO, Noel Collett. He joined the Crawshaw Group five months ago, after spending over 12 years at Lidl as the UK’s COO. During this position, he was widely credited as being responsible for transforming Lidl from a low-cost brand to a high-quality retailer, growing the discount chain from 200 to 600 stores.

He joined the German retailer in 1998, after obtaining a first class honours degree in Business and Hospitality at Bournemouth University and is determined to experience the same success with Crawshaw.

Noel said: “I am thrilled to be involved in what I believe is the most exciting and scalable project on the current retail landscape. Our target of 200 stores is just the tip of the iceberg, with our unique fresh meat and food-to-go proposition, there’s nothing to say that this scalable model can’t reach 500 or 1000 nationwide. We have recently opened new stores in Leeds Merrion Centre and in Bolton town centre, and the response from our new customers gives us great confidence for our future openings, so clearly we’re eager to continue to build the momentum and deliver our expansion plans.

“We have some fantastic people in our business and we are now looking to grow our team considerably, so recruitment is clearly a key focus for us at the moment. We are searching for 450 management positions, 400 butchers, 900 general assistants and we’re investing heavily in helping young people gain employment by taking on 350 apprentices. Our new stores show how our approach is working, we’ve already filled 30 new positions and are developing an intensive training programme, ensuring all new recruits receive outstanding training with transparent career opportunities. We’re looking to recruit local people, from those who are just stepping onto the career ladder, to those with decades of experience, we’re keen to hear from anyone who has a real passion for retail and wants to be part of a dynamic,fast growing company.”

The business operates a unique distribution strategy, which will work in unison with the proposed increase of factory outlets. For every 60 news stores, a 1300 sq metre distribution centre will be opened to serve its needs, and will also operate a factory retail outlet store, selling to the public, businesses and wholesalers.

Noel added: “It has always been a personal ambition of mine to be a CEO of a PLC food retailer, so my decision to join Crawshaws is a considerable endorsement of the business and the scale of the opportunity. We are all extremely excited by the rapid expansion plans but are also acutely aware of the challenges and pitfalls such an aggressive roll-out strategy presents. We are hard at work ensuring that our people are ready to continue to offer our customers the great value products with great personal customer service that they have become accustomed to.”