About me

My name is Adam Buckler and I am employed as a Boning Hall Production Supervisor at ABP Shrewsbury. I am 22 years old and joined ABP Shrewsbury on the apprentice scheme in 2012. This scheme lasted 12 months and during this time I was trained and mentored in all aspects of deboning and trimming of beef carcasses to customer specifications.

As well as the butchery side of the role I spent one day per week developing my functional skills (Maths/English) along with food industry regulation (Food hygiene / health and safety) I feel that I am contributing to the company during my time here and that I have a lot more to offer and learn.

How I came to work at ABP

I have always had an interest in working with meat products as I spent time working in a butchers shop in France. During a holiday to England I saw the adverts for the ABP apprenticeship I researched the business and made a decision that this was the place for me to improve my skills and forge myself a good career.

Apprentice completion

Once I had completed the apprenticeship scheme I was integrated into the fore quarter, de-boning and butchery team at Shrewsbury. I very quickly became one of the team and felt that I was respected by my colleagues for the skills and enthusiasm for the job. Whilst in this role, I gained a greater understanding of what was required and why products had to be trimmed correctly and felt that I had more to offer the business.

As a result I approached the production manager and asked what I could to do to progress to being a supervisor – once the requirements were shown to me I started to ask for more opportunities. To help me with this, I was invited to start work earlier each day and sit with the supervisors whilst they went through the daily production and manning plans as this would give me a better understanding of what the supervisor role was about – I also stopped behind after my daily role was completed to get a good understanding of how the shift finished

When staffing allowed, I was taken off the butchery lines and was shadowing the supervisors through their daily duties and was then given the roles of checking that butchers were trimming their products correctly. Each line consists of two supervisors and when one was on holiday I was taken from boning and trimming operations and given the role of supporting the supervisor –it was then that I was promoted from butchery to a line charge hand and given the extra responsibility of supporting the supervisors – even when I was on boning duties I was also responsible for ensuring products were de boned correctly by my colleagues. Whilst I was a charge hand, I also assisted the apprentice trainer with training new recruits.

After a year of being a charge hand, a position for a production supervisor became available.  I had no hesitation in applying for this role and was very excited to accept the offer. I was concerned that my colleagues would perceive me in a different manner now that I was a supervisor, but I need not to have worried as all the staff were supportive of my new position and worked with me. I was also given the responsibility of training operations graduates when they were on the kill and bone graduate programme.

Whilst in this role I feel I have learnt a lot and matured within myself, I have also had additional ongoing training (Food safety level 3). During my time at ABP I was invited to speak at the Skills Show held in Birmingham where I spoke about my experiences at ABP. This was something that I really enjoyed doing.

What my manager said about me

“From the very beginning of Adam’s career at Shrewsbury it was quickly noticed by management and supervision that Adam was someone who had the drive and potential to succeed, he knows what he wants and was very quick to make his ambitions known to us. He is keen to take on new challenges and works hard to achieve the correct result. I envisage a long and successful career for Adam within the business.”