People Stories

In a time when employee health and safety is everything, Premier has embedded this into #ThePremierWay with a belief that it is our responsibility to share our learnings with the broader industry and engage with unions and community bodies.

While safety protocols like employee wellness screening, masks, sanitization procedures and shutting down our plants every 7-14 days for a deep clean, have become part of our standard operating procedures, we have underpinned this with awareness and education initiatives that are reinforced daily through posters, videos and continued training.

Complacency is our biggest risk. Once employees return to their homes, these sanitation and safety habits need to continue. Premier has provided employees with masks, sanitisers and educational materials to use at home.

As we move forward, we believe the key enabler to both employee and community wellness is education and working in collaboration with our employees and their communities. This is #ThePremierWay

In celebration of International Women’s Day, we recognise the role of women in building diversity and inclusivity. We asked some of our rising stars what they thought women brought to the table in the business environment and found some inspiring views.

“Embrace who you are. Being a woman, you have your own talents and perspective. You don’t have to compete with men by acting or dressing like them. As a woman, we bring our own talents, and I believe we have the amazing ability to pull people together through communication and creating a shared vision”, Elizabeth.

“Diverse teams outperform homogeneous teams, whether all-male or all-female teams. We need individuals with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and styles of leadership expressing different opinions. It is important to bring different perspectives and opinions to the table and avoid stereotyped behaviours”, Sibongile.

“A more diverse workforce will naturally lead to a more inclusive culture, and when a company’s culture feels fair and inclusive, women and underrepresented groups or individuals are happier and more likely to thrive”, Jane.

Premier FMCG is committed to upskilling our employees by expanding their skills across multiple disciplines to improve career progression and provide a platform for promotion. With 30 learnerships to develop multi-skill disciplines across the bakery division completed in March 2020, Premier FMCG expands its programme with an additional 75 learnerships in 2021.

Multi-skilling benefits both employees and the employer and extends beyond the classroom into the workplace with relief shifts, on-the-job coaching and a collaborative working environment. In this way, Premier FMCG delivers on its agenda to empower employees in our operations to build a pipeline of future leaders.

As we enter a new decade, it’s worthwhile reflecting on the contribution our employees have made to our business. Together, we celebrate over 500 years of combined service with long service awards given to Premier employees with 10 years or more. A big congratulations to everyone. We at Premier thank you for your loyalty to the company. We will continue to value the contribution you make.

A special mention goes to Lava Pather, with 45 years of service, who said in his speech that his father also gave 48 years of his working life to Premier. His father retired in 1973, and Lava started a year later to continue the legacy, thereby collectively working an astonishing 93 years of service to Premier … WOW!

Top performers come together every year to receive tribute for going above and beyond. Attended by senior executives, the Star Awards is an annual event, where leaders thank the teams and individuals who have impacted Premier in a positive way.

The first round of awards went to five employees who showed continuing commitment through 40 and 45 years long service. After celebrating the many years of service and the deep experience these individuals have brought to Premier, the evening recognised the rising and enduring stars within multiple functions that included Customer Service, Sales, Marketing, HR, Supply Chain, Finance and IT. The best performers in the Grocery, Milling and Bakery businesses were also recognised by their peers.

Teamwork is a core part of #ThePremierWay. In the team awards, high performing teams were recognised for health and safety, Invocoms, the best depot, the best innovation project and the most effective continuous improvement project.

The evening closed with the highly contested Grocery, Mill and Bakery of the Year Awards with HPC UK, Kroonstad Maize Mill and Pinetown Bakery snagging these coveted spots!

With South Africa earning the number one ranking for the unhealthiest country in the world (Business Insider US)1, there is a need to increase focus on a healthy lifestyle while balancing the realities of a time starved nation.

In South Africa, over 28% of adults are obese which is the highest obesity rate in sub-Saharan Africa (Business Insider US)1. As this fast becomes a national crisis, “Making eating whole foods a way of life” has been selected as the theme for National Nutrition and Obesity Week.

Blue Ribbon Squares, with its convenient lunch offer, recognised the growing need for healthier food choices for the whole family. Launching Multiseed and Oats and Wholewheat variants, the new Blue Ribbon health Squares variants combine portion control, low GI and high fibre so that families have access to healthier, convenient choices.

As we enter National Nutrition and Obesity Week, let’s all work together and address this growing issue by making little choices every day that will build a healthier future for all.

Source: https://www.businessinsider.co.za/most-unhealthy-countries-in-the-world-ranked-2019-3

As we celebrate Heritage Day, it is a time to reflect on our culture, traditions and diversity that make us uniquely South African. Within the melting pot that is South Africa, Iwisa would like to encourage all South Africans to embrace our diversity while building a positive future for all.

Bringing the past and the present together, Iwisa has launched an innovative #MogoduMonday sampling campaign into the restaurant market, so that time pressured South African’s can taste Iwisa’s quick cook samp in select local restaurants. Celebrating who we are over a warm plate of food, bringing people together and building community relationships is part of what makes Iwisa a brand of today and the future. Happy Heritage Day!

Premier employees walked for a good cause when they joined the Waterfall Freedom Fun Run to support the “Keep Girls in School” campaign. 487 participants donated two packs of sanitary towels as an entry fee, which were matched by Lil-lets, resulting in 2161 packs of sanitary towels being collected. This donation will cover the needs of 150 Grades 8 - 12 girls for a year at Jiyani secondary school in Tembisa.

Lil-lets and Dis-Chem will continue to support the “Keep Girls in School” initiative as this provides some of the most basic necessities to young women to attend school so they can graduate and reach their full potential

At Premier, how our employees experience the culture and “The Premier Way” are important to us.

Checking in each year to measure how we are performing allows us to improve what we do, starting with each team, business unit and rolling up to our leaders.

This year, 96% of Premier employees completed our People Survey with positive year on year progress across all elements, particularly at an employee level. The most positive movements were around health, safety, wellness and continuous improvement, and some elements relating to Employer of Choice. Areas that we continue to work on are Leadership Culture, Performance Management and supporting initiatives includes Coaching for Performance, Supervisory Development and other critical skills development programmes.

Whilst we are encouraged to see that there are signs of our climate and culture being experienced more consistently throughout the organization - building a culture of innovation, growth and high performance is not a one-day game. For the rest of 2019 and onwards, will continue to focus on our people who will help us build our products and brands.

Employees take part in Premier’s Wellness Day with Discovery Vitality and The Pink Drive providing mammogram testing, pap smears, testicular screenings and general health checks. A guest speaker from The Pink Drive shared information about cancer awareness, educating our employees on early detection and how to support family and friends. “At Premier, we care about our employee’s overall health and wellness which is one of the reasons why we promote various wellness initiatives across the business”, says Siobhan O'Sullivan, the Group Strategy & Marketing Executive of Premier.