Food and beverage’s skills crisis shifts toward technical talent

More than one-third of food and drink sector workers are aged 50 or older, according to Dame Fiona Kendrick, a Skills England board member and former chair and CEO of Nestlé UK & Ireland.

What has changed in food manufacturing hiring?

For years, the main issue was a straightforward shortage of workers. Manufacturers struggled to fill vacancies across production lines, warehouses and supply chains.

Temporary labour covered part of the gap. It also brought higher recruitment costs and persistent concerns about workforce availability.

Attracting workers remains difficult. The bigger concern is securing technical skills for increasingly automated plants. Demand for engineers, maintenance technicians, food scientists and data specialists now outpaces supply as investment in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and advanced manufacturing accelerates.

The mismatch is most acute in manufacturing, engineering, production and supply-chain roles.

Dame Fiona Kendrick said: “These shortages are no longer simply a workforce challenge. They’re constraining growth and investment, technology adoption and affecting manufacturers’ ability to expand and compete internationally.”

Her warning also reaches manufacturers’ ability to feed a growing population. Food and drink businesses compete with aerospace, automotive and advanced manufacturing for the same talent. Those sectors can often pay higher salaries.

The recruitment bottleneck is now about technical capability, not simple headcount.

What happens as experienced workers retire?

The concentration of older workers creates a succession gap, meaning too few prepared replacements for departing staff. Many of these employees are approaching retirement.

Experienced employees may take decades of technical and manufacturing expertise with them, while manufacturers also risk losing operational knowledge, the practical know-how needed to keep plants running.

Many manufacturers are developing talent internally rather than relying on an already constrained external labour market. Engineers, maintenance technicians and production operatives remain among the hardest positions to fill. Engineering skills are in demand across almost every industrial sector.

For employers, succession planning is now a retention issue, not only a hiring strategy.

Which skills offer the strongest market value?

Modern food and drink production requires specialised knowledge, experience and training. Automation, meaning machines or software performing production tasks, has made working environments more sophisticated.

Kendrick does not see a simple lack of people as the main constraint. She points to a disparity between workers’ abilities and employers’ needs. Closing the gap requires better alignment among education, training and industry requirements.

She said: “As routine tasks are automated by AI, there will be a need for workers who are able to manage automated systems, analyse data, and troubleshoot equipment.”

Technical expertise in robotics maintenance, automation and programming should become increasingly valuable. Automation alone will not close the gap. Problem-solving and leadership also matter as manufacturers manage complex technological change.

For individual workers, the market signal is specific: employers need people who can run advanced systems, analyze data, troubleshoot equipment and help organisations adapt to new technology.

Technical fluency and problem-solving are becoming the strongest combinations employers need.

Why are young people missing the opportunities?

Public perceptions have not kept pace with major investments in automation and advanced manufacturing. Many young people remain unaware of food and drink manufacturing’s opportunities and have not seen the modern factories operating today, Kendrick said.

Manufacturing sites frequently sit away from population centres and industrial estates, limiting public visibility. Parents, teachers and peers shape career choices, yet most have little direct industry experience of factories, technical roles or working conditions in the sector.

Available roles extend well beyond production. Engineering, data analytics, sustainability, food science and product innovation all sit within food and beverage manufacturing.

Unless manufacturers attract more young people, they risk greater workforce pressure as experienced staff retire.

Better career visibility could widen the applicant pool for technical roles in food manufacturing.

What does inaction cost?

Kendrick warned that skills shortages can lower productivity, raise operational costs and reduce investment in innovation. Companies unable to secure the right talent may struggle to increase output, implement new technology and remain competitive.

Sector investment remains below pre-pandemic levels. Planning delays, energy costs and wider economic uncertainty already weigh on business confidence. Without skilled workers to support future technology, manufacturers may delay automation and other productivity-enhancing investments, widening the competitive gap with rivals at home and abroad.

The skills gap can therefore hold back output, technology projects and investment at the same time.

How will the workforce change over the next decade?

Factories will require fewer employees performing repetitive manual tasks. More workers will oversee automated production systems, analyze complex datasets and solve technical problems. The future workforce will also need leadership and problem-solving skills as organisations adapt to new technology.

The decisive question for the next decade is whether manufacturers can build internal career paths before their most experienced workers retire and technical knowledge leaves with them.