Growing award-winning business Latimer’s Seafood in Whitburn is exploring new opportunities and boosting efficiency thanks to Supply Chain North East.

Last July, husband and wife duo Robert and Ailsa recruited seven new members of staff over the busy summer period to simultaneously support business growth and local young people.

In December 2019 the firm continued their existing work with t Supply Chain North East and began working alongside their dedicated advisor Jim Barr on a new project.

Over the last couple of months, the team have been able to leverage Jim’s expertise and benefit from the Supply Chain North East’s comprehensive support.

Work has focused on looking at the issues they were facing with the layout and process flow and how these could be addressed as part of  upcoming building work and integration of a new counter fridge.

In addition to adopting new processes, Jim created a new rota procedure through the development of a bespoke and comprehensive spreadsheet which helps to cut down the amount of indirect time managing payroll, holidays, and absence.

Reflecting on the  support they have received, Ailsa said: “The work completed on both layout, flow and the rota process has been excellent, making a real difference to helping the business operate more effectively and efficiently. Jim Barr has been excellent at supporting and advising us during his sessions here, we cannot praise him highly enough.”

Jim is looking forward to seeing the measurable impacts as a result of the newly implemented processes. “The collective benefit to the business of both the layout and the back-office admin processes is a significant saving in terms of time and allows the owners to focus in on more value-added activities to grow the business but also make it more efficient. This way they are working on shaping the growth plans, and not caught up as much in the day to day running of it, which will be crucial in the future success of the business.”

Supply Chain North East brings together four key partners to work with over 800 businesses through to 2021, supporting them to identify opportunities in new and existing markets. An integral part of the North East Growth Hub, Supply Chain North East is delivered across the region by RTC North, Generator, North East Automotive Alliance (NEAA) and North East Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC).

Supply Chain North East is a multimillion programme aimed at revolutionising the way SMEs diversify their offering and embrace new markets. The programme has received more than £3m of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund, which is part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020.

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