27 Apr 2022
by Meat Business Women

‘Spotlight On’ with Amy Witham

Karro Site Director, Amy Witham is the star of a new episode of Spotlight On

A day in the life of style video, Amy takes viewers around the factory and gives the inside track on what her role entails. Managing the entire site and overseeing sixteen hundred employees, Amy’s role comes with huge responsibility.

Viewers see first-hand what it takes to keep a factory of that scale up and running, the day-to-day activity to ensure that orders are kept on track and get an insight into the different job roles around the site.

Amy talks about the importance of equality at every level in the organisation and much of her role is dedicated to supporting employees across the site, including their first female abattoir apprentice that was recruited onto the scheme. Ionela Bacioiu (known as Dana) was recently awarded Best Abattoir Apprentice, at the Institute of Meat (IoM) and Worshipful Company of Butchers Annual Prize-giving in March 2022.

In the video, Amy talks about supporting Dana throughout her apprenticeship journey and undertaking some of the modules to support her.

Meat Business Women membership marketing manager Rebecca Fearon says: “Amy does an incredible job of showcasing her role and challenging outdated stereotypes about working in the meat industry, which is so important in helping to change the perceptions of what jobs are available to the public and particularly in helping to recruit new, female talent into the sector. Showcasing the different career paths available to women is an important step in attracting new talent, as our gender report showed that people perceive there to be a lack of visible female role models in the industry. We’re delighted that Amy is supporting our campaign by providing us with a glimpse into her role at Karro.”

Amy’s video is also available to view on YouTube here.

Meat Business Women’s ‘She Looks Like Me’ and ‘Spotlight On’ initiatives aim to challenge stereotypes about working in meat and put a human face to the sector at a time when it faces increased public scrutiny and pressure to become more diverse. Last year, a report commissioned by Meat Business Women revealed women make up just 36% of the meat industry’s global workforce and hold just 5% of chief executive roles.

Meat Business Women has created a digital toolkit, including social media visuals, to help meat businesses and individuals upload their own #shelookslikeme content, humanise the jobs they do and more widely promote career opportunities in their sector. The toolkit is free of charge and available here.

Meat Business Women members can access enhanced resources here.