Case Study

KP Snacks

KP Snacks is a leading snack food manufacturer in the UK, with 8 production sites and over 700 employees nationwide. Their flagship factory in Billingham, Teesside, is KP’s largest site and a major employer in the region. This state-of-the-art facility produces iconic British snack brands including McCoy’s, Hula Hoops, Butterkist, and Pom Bears.

In addition, the Billingham site manufactures biscuits under the United Biscuits brand, including household names like McVitie’s, Jacob’s, and Crawfords. With its impressive production capabilities and breadth of popular brands, the Billingham factory is critical to KP Snacks’ success.

To increase cleanliness standards, KP Snacks partnered with Samsic over 10 years ago to provide cleaning services at the Billingham site. Samsic’s cleaning teams service the offices, washrooms, canteen, mess hall, laundry, and locker rooms. By delivering excellent cleaning and hygiene, Samsic helps ensure product quality, safety, and efficiency at this premier KP Snacks facility.

The Benefits

The partnership between Samsic and KP Snacks at the Billingham site has been a resounding success, as evidenced by the continuation of the cleaning contract to what is now over a decade of service, and the client’s own satisfaction. KP Snacks rates Samsic’s cleaning performance at a commendable 4 out of 5 based on their own rigorous quality audits. This is a dramatic turnaround from 10 years ago, when the site’s cleaning repeatedly failed inspections prior to Samsic’s involvement.

Samsic’s quality and consistency are driven by engaged employees working smaller and more impactful hours in clearly defined roles. The on-site Contract Manager, promoted from Supervisor due to early successes in revamping processes, ensures open communication between the cleaning team, Samsic management, and KP Snacks. Regular meetings and audits through Samsic’s ECAT platform enable rapid resolution of any issues.

The team works efficiently around the site’s busy production schedule, utilising cutting-edge scrubber-drier technology at night and mopping between shifts. This facilitates thorough daily cleans and deep cleans as needed, keeping the factory floor immaculate.

Beyond robust processes, Samsic empowers its Billingham staff through its Learning Management System. This provides free training courses relevant to each employee’s role and personal development and beyond, including mental health, management skills, and more.

With positive structure, high engagement, and hands-on management, the Samsic team consistently delivers exceptional cleaning services that meet KP Snacks’ high standards. This exemplary performance has made Samsic an invaluable long-term partner.

The Challenge

Prior to Samsic’s process changes, KP Snacks’ Billingham site faced several cleaning challenges including inconsistent quality, unmotivated staff, and inoperative labour hours.

Previously, four full-time cleaners worked 8-hour shifts. These long shifts caused quality to deteriorate as motivation waned. Covering absences additionally required overburdening other members of the team with shift durations longer than their allocated 8-hours. Despite then restructuring the shifts, ongoing high turnover impeded stability and engaging the team became imperative.

Health and safety are paramount to operations in a food production factory, with grease and chemicals present on-site that could cause injuries. Thorough, timely cleaning around hectic production schedules and shift changes is vital yet difficult as to minimise accidents, with each cleaning task needing to be completed three times daily while working around client staff breaks and shift changes. Deep cleans can often be difficult to perform with the amount of people on-site using the communal areas at one time.

Fire safety and proper PPE are essential given the risks. Additionally, surprise audits and visits from KP Snacks’ own customers can occur, making inspection-readiness perpetually required.

The Solution

To strengthen team structure and oversight, Samsic appointed an existing team member as an on-site supervisor. Their familiarity with KP Snacks’ operations enabled them to collaborate with Samsic and KP management to revamp shifts for flexibility. Within a year, this supervisor was promoted to Contract Manager to drive further enhancements.

A new shift model, utilising part-time cleaners to cover mornings, afternoons, evenings, and weekends, was introduced. Work is delegated across meaningful site zones to assign ownership. Each team member also now receives a detailed job specification outlining responsibilities, standards, and expectations.

Alongside optimised shifts and role clarity, Samsic prioritised relevant training. All staff are now kept up to date in their British Institute of Cleaning Science accreditations, and new machinery orientations are commonplace to maintain quality standards.

New machinery was also introduced to KP Snacks, including the industrial ICE scrubber-driers, and personalised site-specific training was arranged. These powerful units readily tackle the grease and grime common in food factories.

The combination of a collaborative promotion from within, flexible scheduling, targeted training, and the latest equipment enabled Samsic to assemble an expert cleaning team. Their structure, skills and tools equip them to consistently deliver the highest standards required in this demanding environment.

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