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Government and businesses must work together to tackle UK's productivity challenge

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Tutbury factory line

Responding to reports that the UK’s economic recovery has been hit by a fall in UK workers’ productivity, Nestlé UK and Ireland Chairman and CEO, Dame Fiona Kendrick said:
 
“It is disappointing to see these figures but Government and businesses must continue to work together to address Britain’s productivity challenge so that we can compete with our rivals around the world. The UK’s food and drink sector has been a quiet success story and has increased productivity by 11 per cent* in the last five years through investment in both people and new technology.

"At Nestlé, we put our people at the centre of raising the performance of our business and the technology they use. We recognise that in order for our business to prosper, we need to empower our people to identify improvements and drive efficiency.

"By supporting our employees in developing the skills that they need to use new technology, we have been able to make strong productivity gains across the business, while empowering our workforce. I am determined that we at Nestlé will do all we can to help meet the productivity challenge that we have here in the UK.”
 
Notes to editors:
- *In the last five years, the food and drink sector has increased productivity by 11% compared with 0.6% for the economy as a whole http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/datasets-and-tables/data-selector.html?cdid=DJL3&dataset=prdy&table-id=4
- In February 2016, Nestlé released Productivity in Practice, a series of insights into how the company has increased its productivity. The insights follow the core themes of investment; people and technology; employee empowerment; talent pipeline development; employee health and wellness and infrastructure.
- Dame Fiona Kendrick is a member of the Productivity Leadership Group, chaired by Sir Charlie Mayfield. In her capacity as President of the Food and Drink Federation, Dame Fiona sponsors a project as part of that group looking at how skills investment and talent pipeline development in the food and drink sector can contribute to solving the UK’s productivity problem.