News & Downloads

Food Sector: Is it too busy too improve?
As someone who has worked with many, many Food companies around the world on their Continuous Improvement and Business Transformation journeys, there is not a lot that surprises me or unnerves me. As the old saying goes “I probably have seen it all”. I have worked across Branded Name and Own Label Food Manufacturers across [...]
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Webinar: Beyond Lean – Towards Behaviour Based Improvement
Join Jeff Williams for a thought-provoking webinar where we will look at the future of sustainable Enterprise Excellence through investing in people development and behavioural based change. Join us if you would like to understand how to put people at the centre of your programmes for operational improvement and efficiency in order to drive sustainable [...]
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Supporting the Salvation Army

S A Partners are proud to support the Salvation Army in all the good work they do. At this time of year their work in helping the most vulnerable people in society is even more invaluable. The Salvation Army work in 131 countries, demonstrating Christian principles through practical support; offering unconditional friendship, and very practical […]

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S A Partners Helps High Profile Retailer Host Op Ex Supplier Conference
Jeff Williams, Global Business Development Director  and Head of Food & Drink Sector for S A Partners was a key note speaker at a high profile Retail & Supply Chain event in London recently. Over 80 key suppliers and their representatives attended the conference which focused upon the power of Operational Excellence to deliver improved [...]
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Bel UK and the BOOST Programme
Bel UK are over two years through their improvement journey with S A Partners, and have called this programme 'BOOST', and the intervention has been around Lean improvement and Strategy Deployment. In this video Michelle Bamford (Technical and Regulatory Manager at Fromageries Bel) and Esther Horsman (Head of Supply Chain at Fromageries Bel) briefly explains [...]
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Congratulations to the Food Manufacture Award Winners – ABP UK and Synergy Flavours

S A Partners are delighted to congratulate our clients ABP UK and Synergy Flavours – both were winners at the prestigious Food Manufacture Annual Awards held 7 Nov 2018 in London. ABP Beef had an amazing evening – they were the big winners for 2019 receiving 3 awards and a commendation: ‘Food Manufacture Company of […]

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World Wide Fruit Awarded M&S Gold
S A Partners congratulate Worldwide Fruit Ltd. on the award for ‘Gold’ recognition against Mark & Spencer Plan A Food Sustainability framework.. View the full video case study below explains their CI journey. Over the past 6 years, a team of 24 Yellow Belts, 21 Green Belts, 4 Black Belts and 1 Master Black Belt at [...]
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Jeff Williams ‘on tour’ in Australia  

Jeff Williams, Global Business Development Director & Head of the Food & Drink Sector for S A Partners, is travelling down-under to Australia next month to present at 2 high profile Food & Drink related events. The first is for the Business SA Food who deliver the Federal Government Entrepreneurs Programme and Food SA, based in […]

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World Wide Fruit CI Case Study Video
Senior team members of World Wide Fruit talk you through their successful Continuous Improvement Journey. The team talk you through the practicalities of implementing CI from the early stages, and how the improvement has lead to significant improvement in their operations. If youd like to find out how S A Partners can help your business, [...]
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Congratulations to our first successful Master Lean Coach in 2018

We are delighted to announce that we have our first successful Master Lean Coach for 2018 – Malcolm Watson – Group Lean Manager at ABP Beef. This is a rare achievement indeed. Those who seek to achieve the Cardiff University Lean Competency System Level 2b – Master Lean Coach certification are few and far between. […]

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Jeff Williams Presents at the Avondale’ Supplier Conference

We are delighted to report that Jeff Williams, Partner at S A Partners and Global Business Development Director was invited to present at the Avondale’ Supplier Conference 10 April 2018 in Northern Ireland. Close to 100 delegates attended from all over Ireland, UK and Europe. S A Partners are supporting Avondale on their Improvement journey […]

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Strategy Deployment Case Study

This food company is based in the UK and has 3 sites employing Established in the late 1980s and around employing around 350 people (Part of a wider – global group of companies). They produce authentic, premium, specialist products for food service and retail sectors. The focus for the work was on 1 site  and the […]

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Jeff’s Bloopers
Jeff Williams is a partner at S A Partners, and also the head of our Food & Drink sector. He's directed some fantastic CI interventions at clients all over the world who've provided excellent testimonials as a result, but occasionally things don't always go to plan. This was certainly the case during Jeff's recent filming [...]
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Webinar: Engage your Colleagues on Lean
Being a ‘lean business’ isn’t the result of a single initiative or project, it requires a business culture aligned with constant improving to reap long term benefits. To do this, you need to keep colleagues across all levels of the business engaged around your lean journey & culture. In this short webinar, SA Partners’ Jeff [...]
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Lean Certification Success at Dale Farm
Congratulations to the Dale Farm team on successfully achieving their LCS Level 1b and 1c accreditation.  Their projects presented by the team were excellent – delivering real performance improvements and increased customer value. The team were delighted to be presented with their certificates by Nick Whelan, CEO of Dale Farm (pictured centre). We wish them [...]
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Food & Drink 2018 Video
2018 saw great results for all of our clients in the Food & Drink sector. The improvements gained will help towards planning for the uncertainty of Brexit, and what this may bring to the sector. Jeff Williams, Food & Drink Sector Head has produced a new sector video for 2018, and in it highlights the [...]
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S A Partners and the Lean Productivity and CI Summit

Jeff Williams, Head of Food & Drink at S A Partners, recently attended the Lean Productivity and Continuous Improvement Summit in Coventry where he delivered presentation to attendees. The summit was held on the 7th November at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry, and was organised by Industry leading Publication Food and Drink Business Europe. Food and Drink Business Europe has over 20 years’ […]

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Welsh Government Minister for Skills Shows Interest in Training Offerings
Dr Toni Whitehead was recently an expert panelist at the Welsh Government sponsored  ‘Invest in Skills : Invest in Growth‘ conference for the Food & Drink sector in Wales which was attended by over 100 people. Dr Toni Whitehead was recently an expert panelist at the Welsh Government sponsored  ‘Invest in Skills : Invest in Growth‘ conference [...]
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M2030 bee launches S A Partners Maturity Assessment
Assess your lean maturity using an S A Partners simple self-assessment: In partnership with M2030 bee. For a long time, we’ve been at pains to explain that the real sustainable advantages from applying lean thinking isn’t related to what tools you use, or the myriad of acronyms that accompanies lean, they come a focus on [...]
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The Food Manufacture Excellence Awards 2017

The Food Manufacture Excellence Awards 2017 Shortlist includes a number of our clients. We would like to congratulate all nominated companies and look forward to this prestigious awards event which our Head of Food & Drink – Jeff Williams, and Head of Retail & Distribution, Richard Lynch will attend in London on November 1st. For […]

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Brexit Checklist for the Food & Drink Sector
An open letter to the government, signed by leading food and drink manufacturing representatives, outlines 10 priorities they claim are needed to protect the supply chain during Brexit talks. The Food and Drink Federation were joined by the British Meat Processors Association, the British Poultry Council, along with 23 other organisations, in urging the government [...]
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Food Manufacturers Excellence Awards 2017

We are pleased to announce that, as usual, S A Partners will be attending the Food Manufacturers Excellence Awards which take place on Wednesday the 1st November at the London Hilton on Park Lane. Those attending will be Jeff Williams, Sector Head Food & Drink, Richard Lynch Sector Head Retail & Distribution plus guests. The […]

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Implementing a Successful Continuous Improvement Journey
Senior and Team Leaders of Musgrave Distribution Centre in Fonthill Ireland, look back at the past few years of their successful CI journey. They focus on health and safety, behaviours, purpose, standard work and leader standard work. The team talk you through the practicalities of implementing CI from the early stages, and how the culture [...]
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A Sustainable System of Continuous Improvement (CI)
What is Continuous Improvement? How does it work? How can you implement Continuous Improvement successfully and sustainably? In this paper Jeff Williams, Head of Food and Drink Sector at S A Partners, answers all these questions and communicates the importance of building business-wide sustainable systems of Continuous Improvement (CI), which goes beyond the traditional focus [...]
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Food & Drink Sector and the State of Play so Far

We’ve decided to produce an infographic for the Food and Drink Sector explaining what the state if play is so far, and it all looks very good indeed.  If your organisation is in this sector, and you’d like to find out more about how S A Partners can help, then you can contact our sector […]

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Jeff’s Top Tips for a Continuous Improvement Journey
Jeff Williams recently attended the Asda Sustainability Conference which was held on January the 13th with great success. At the Conference Jeff went through what sustainable continuous improvement looks  like, and covered the key essential points on what is needed to implement  a Continuous Improvement journey that is sustainable, and that delivers real, measurable results. He also covered [...]
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S A Partners Attend Asda’s Sustainability Conference
The new year started with a bang as Jeff Williams, Head of our Food & Drink Sector at S A Partners was invited to run a break-out session workshop at the Asda Supplier Sustainability Summit on how to embed improvement journeys within Food & Drink businesses and supply chains. Over 400 delegates attended the event [...]
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Implementing a Lean Strategy for a Major Manufacturer
To see the full case study, use the download link provided. The client had a strong leadership vision and strategic plan for the development of the organisation which clearly identified the ambition to grow a continuous improvement and lean operating mentality across the organisation. Secondarily there was a requirement from one of the major customers [...]
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Food Awards Dinner
The Food Manufacture Excellence Awards take place this Wednesday, the 2nd November, at the prestigious Hilton Park Lane Hotel, London. S A Partners are pleased to support this event and our Heads of Sectors for Food & Drink – Jeff Williams, and Retail & Distribution – Richard Lynch will be attending. The awards have been [...]
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What has lean done for you? Phil Shelley, Becketts Foods

In this new monthly feature we interview a Lean advocate who has travelled along a personal Lean learning journey. It covers when they first learned about Lean Thinking, what happened next and how their career has changed. In this month’s edition we focus upon Phil Shelley, Lean Enterprise Director, Becketts Foods, ‘Meat & Poultry Manufacturer of […]

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Vimto Lean Business Improvement & Transformation
To see the full case study, use the download link provided. Nichols plc is an international soft drinks business with sales in over 85 countries, selling products in both the still and carbonate categories. The diversification of the business is a major contributor to their consistent growth. Brands such as Vimto benefit from three distinct [...]
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Focus on the Food & Drink Sector for February

Could your operations reduce costs by 10 to 15% at the same time as boosting productivity, improving customer satisfaction and creating a healthier, safer working environment for employees? Welcome to the world of waste reduction through lean manufacturing.

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Expertise in the Food & Drink Sector

We’ve been recognised for our thought leadership and expertise in the sector as Jeff Williams has again been invited to speak at the prestigious Middle East Operations and Maintenance (OMAINTEC) conference in November 2015.

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The foodmanufacture.co.uk publishes a podcast by Jeff Williams

Listen to this podcast recorded by the Food Manufacture website where Jeff, food & drink sector head, explains how organisations should implement continuous improvement on a sustained basis

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