The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

AML Foods yesterday said it will increase entry level wages to $250 per week by next year while aiming to retain 75 percent of its existing workforce.

Kimberly Bodie, the BISX-listed food and franchise group’s vice-president of human resources, said it had recently increased its entry level weekly wage to $230 from the mandatory $210 minimum wage and, by 2023, plans to take this to $250 per week.

She said: “Just recently we’ve honoured our employees by increasing our entry level minimum wage salary. So, as of January, our employees would have been able to benefit from an increase to $230 per week in their salary.

“That is something that we are truly doing to say that we appreciate our employees. We realise that every day they come in and they give their best foot forward to serve as our communities.”

Ms Bodie added: “We will continue to do that to show our employees how much we appreciate them. So, from our executive team, our entire management team, we are definitely thrilled because today we’re honouring our employees.

“But this is an everyday thing, just to show our employees that we truly appreciate all that they do for our communities, and servicing them on a daily basis. We were at minimum wage, which is $210 per week, and so as of January 1, 2022, salary increased to $230 per week, and in May 2023, we will increase our minimum salary to $250 per week.”

This increase in the entry level wage comes as the Government eyes an increase in the minimum wage. AML Foods said its staff complement has been relatively stable, and Ms Bodie added: “We have retained about 75 percent of our employees throughout the pandemic. Last year our turnover rate was exceptionally high, but definitely over the past two years we’ve been able to retain our employees.

“We’ve done a considerable amount of recognition and awards and ‘thank you’ initiatives to prove to our employees that, through the past two years of them working hard during the pandemic, our company truly appreciates all that they’ve done. So we’ve definitely shown our employees over the past two years during this time that we truly care about them.”

Ms Bodie said AML Foods was not immune from inflation’s impact with certain grocery items set for a price increase in the coming weeks. She said: “Definitely in some of our grocery items we’ve seen inflation. Grocery is our largest department in the store, and so we’ve definitely had a challenge with sourcing some of our branded grocery items in particular.

“As you have a difficulty sourcing items, definitely some items will be a bit inflated, but we’re ensuring that we try to mitigate as fast as we possibly can on passing down that high rate to our customers.”