Nairn’s Oatcakes are hiring

We were casting about for some good news when we found that there is at least one Edinburgh employer who is hiring.

Nairn’s oatcakes have had an upswing in orders and are trying to ensure that they will be able to keep supermarkets stocked with their oatcakes by recruiting temporary staff. These new starts will be trained as bakers ‘firing’ the oatcakes, or as staff who pack the oatcakes for distribution.

Nairn’s have two factories one at Peffermill, and a separate one in Newtongrange which makes gluten free products.

They realise that they will in the future have shifts to cover, if some of their existing staff fall ill and are unable to work, even temporarily. The company has decided it needs to be prepared and is recruiting and training up 20 new employees in readiness for these temporary roles.

Managing Director, Martyn Gray, is realistic about the need to hire right now.

He said:”We’ve seen a significant increase in demand for our products. We are recruiting on the basis that we may need some extra staff in the future when the virus takes hold.

The business will training around 20 people now and as you might imagine they have already had lots of enquiries. The new temporary staff will be brought in for training to bring them up to speed in readiness for shifts.

Martyn explained: “There are some specialist jobs like bakers and specialist packers where it is difficult to bring people up to speed quickly, so they need to do some initial training with them.

The environment at Nairn’s is already pretty sterile, but the company has put extra measures in place . Everybody gets their temperature taken as they arrive at Nairn’s. They have increased the number of wipedowns carried out during the day, cleaning doors handles and other surfaces.

Martin concluded: “We also have extra sanitisers both in the factory and in the offices.

“We have a clean environment anyway, but we are upping the level of what we do. I suppose we are in a fairly unique position as the supermarkets are extremely busy at the moment and we are trying to ensure we can fulfil the orders both now and in the future.”