'Bumps in the road' likely during transformation of meat plant

Chair apologises for issues over lack of supply

The scale of change needed at the meat plant is ‘significant’ and there will be ‘bumps in the road’ as it happens.

That’s the message from Isle of Man Meats which has come in for severe criticism after supply issues.

Just before the Easter weekend a number of Island butchers took to social media to complain that they hadn’t received their supplies of meat as expected.

They were critical of a lack of communication and leadership at the government owned facility and were forced to apologise to customers who couldn’t order what they wanted.  

In response Isle of Man Meats apologised telling Manx Radio there had been recent breakdowns of equipment, which was more than 30 years old, which had resulted in slower processing times.

You can find out more HERE.

Nigel Davis is the chairperson of Isle of Man Meats: 

On Friday (5 April) Andreas Meat Co. said it was closing down its website ‘with immediate effect’ because no pork or beef had been delivered from the plant.

The following Saturday, however, and the company had this thank you message for two 'superheroes' from the IOM Meats:

And stock issues aside something else has also caused concern amongst Manx Radio listeners – the fact meat at the plant is being ‘skipped’.

Mr Davis has acknowledged this has been happening but explained why:

A damning report – published in 2022 following a two-month audit of the Braddan facility – identified a raft of issues.

These included a lack of training, supervision, sporadic attendance, discipline, training, productivity, sales and morale.

Mr Davis says work is continuing to address the problems that were found but he believes change won’t happen overnight:

You can listen to the full interview with Mr Davis in this episode of NEWSCAST.