Haribo welcomed Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper MP to its £92 million factory in Castleford last week, to demonstrate the opportunities for jobs and skills that the facility is creating for local people.
As well as receiving a tour of the new facility and seeing how the brand’s much-loved sweets are made, Ms Cooper had the opportunity to meet some of the 181 new team members who work at the factory. These jobs build on the existing 540 team members at Haribo’s Pontefract factory making Haribo one of the largest employers within the local area.
The employees were able to discuss the upskill opportunities available to them as a result of Haribo’s continued investment in its workforce, including apprenticeship training, dedicated graduate schemes and working closely with the National Skills Academy and local colleges.
Herwig Vennekens, Managing Director of Haribo UK & Ireland, said: “It was fantastic to welcome Yvette to our state of the art Castleford facility and demonstrate to her our continued investment in her constituency.
“As a family-owned business, our people are at the heart of everything we do. Many of our employees have dedicated their careers to Haribo, and I believe this is because we look after our employees, invest in their careers and provide ongoing development opportunities.”
Yvette Cooper MP commented: “Haribo is a really important local employer for us as well as a success story across the country – so it is great to see them expanding and creating more local jobs. We have a long tradition of confectionary in this area and the new Haribo investment in Whitwood as well as Pontefract makes that stronger than ever. It was great to see the new facilities and talk about skills and training as well as the new jobs they are creating.”
The state of the art Castleford facility spans 32,000 sqm and is a demonstration of Haribo’s continued commitment to the local area.
