Raglan Food Co entered the Ministry for Primary Industries Good Employer Awards for the first time this year, in the Employee Development category.
Although proud of their efforts towards creating a positive workplace culture, they knew as a relatively small company there would be tough competition – and were delighted to be named as one of the finalists (alongside Constellation Brands NZ, Legendairies Ltd, and Kairoa Dairies Limited). Co-founder Tesh Randall was beyond thrilled and surprised to hear at the Awards night that not only had they won the Employee Development category, but they also took out the Supreme Award as the night’s overall winner – with the judges feedback that they stood out from the rest in their commitment to being an exemplary employer!
MPI credited Raglan Food Co’s win to how they go above and beyond for their team. Their implementation of a clear career growth framework with transparent pay levels was recognised, with many team members having gone from entry-level roles packing boxes to taking on key positions within the company over time like their Production Manager, Operations Manager, Quality Manager, Dispatch Manager and Warehouse Manager. Unique company-wide benefits also helped them stand out, such as a team health & wellbeing fund, profit share program, fair wage policy, flexibility to work a 4-day week, engaging team events, paid volunteering opportunities, regular training & workshops, personality coaching sessions, weekly deliveries of healthy juices, cakes provided for team birthdays, and even a paid day off on their ‘work anniversary’.
“Raglan Food Co is committed to the Raglan community. We took on considerable risk building a 800m2 factory here in 2020 after making the decision that we didn’t want to move operations to a larger city like Hamilton or Auckland – it was important that we continued providing work opportunities to the people living here,” says Tesh.
It’s not just the crew that benefits from how Raglan Food Co runs their business either; they also donate product to their local Food Bank weekly, and last year introduced the RFC Community Fund giving $5,000 worth of grants yearly to worthy causes and organisations in the community.
“Our team of yoghurteers are the loveliest bunch of humans you’ll ever meet – over the last nearly 8 years we’ve gone from producing in a small community kitchen with my Mum, brother, sister and some hippie friends of ours, to building a full-scale factory employing a crew of 30 people, and we’re so proud of how far our team members have come along the way,” said Tesh during her acceptance speech at the Wellington Beehive awards night, also thanking the judges and MPI for their support.
