Background
First Milk is a British farmer-owned dairy co-operative, owned by around 700 farming families across the UK. Everything they do starts with a shared commitment to enrich life every day to secure the future, and a dedication to producing food in a way that considers the planet, animals and people.
As a predominantly Business-to-Business (B2B) organisation, First Milk specialise in manufacturing and supplying a wide variety of dairy products and ingredients, working with many leading businesses in the dairy and food sector as a long-term supply partner. The co-operative is deeply committed to regenerative practices, placing a strong emphasis on responsible sourcing and supply chain management. They operate the largest regenerative farming programme in the UK dairy industry and are a certified B Corp.
First Milk is a highly operational business. The constant supply of the raw material (milk) that drives the production process means that any production line shutdown for cleaning and maintenance periods must be planned well in advance and strictly adhered to. Operational management is lean and highly proceduralised, focused on maintaining the highest quality standards. One of First Milk’s core values is ‘better every day’; the business is always looking to improve and is receptive to change, but historically this change has been driven by continuous improvement initiatives, rather than project-based changes.
The Challenge
First Milk is a geographically disparate business with sites in the Lake District, Haverfordwest and Shaftesbury. It is embedding the BV Dairy business who joined the First Milk family in 2024 and further embedding a changed business unit structure to ensure consistency of values and working practices. The acquisition of BV Dairy, several major capital equipment replacements in the creameries, and a major IT project that impacts most areas of the business have required significant investment. First Milk identified that the business did not have the depth or breadth of project management skills required to manage these projects and deliver the changes successfully with minimum impact to business-as-usual. In addition to this, First Milk identitifed that, as a functional organsiation, smaller projects that had been identified as part of the annual business planning cycle were not being given the required priority and their time-to-value was longer than expected. A lack of visibility of projects and project management skills was identified as being a factor in this.
Our Approach
First Milk contacted Parallel Project Training through a referral from another of our clients, and selected us through a competitive selection process to partner with them to help develop project management skills across the business. First Milk had three core requirements:
1. To raise the awareness of project management and its benefits across the business;
2. To equip those team leaders and managers who would be managing workstreams on key business projects with the practical skills to be able to do this with confidence; and
3. To ensure that any training provided acted as a first ‘stepping stone’ to future, more advanced and possibly qualification-based training.
Central to Parallel Project Training’s proposal to develop project management training bespoke to First Milk’s needs was our commitment to carrying out a ‘Discovery Day’ at one of First Milk’s creameries. Our Head of Training Delivery, Ruth Phillips, donned a white coat, white wellies and a hairnet, and was given a comprehensive tour of the First Milk creamery in West Wales. This developed a good understanding of First Milk’s business, its operations, and culture, which helped with the design of the training workshops.
Parallel Project Training identified a two-step programme that would meet First Milk’s needs. A series of half-day, virtual project management awareness workshops would be offered to staff across all business units. This workshop would introduce the concept of project-based working, give a high-level overview of the steps involved in delivering a project and discuss key skills and behaviours for those participating in project work. A second two-day, practical project management workshop was developed to meet the needs of team leaders and managers who would manage workstreams and smaller projects. Topics covered included the end-to-end project lifecycle (using linear, iterative and hybrid approaches) and governance gates, together with practical approaches to managing risk, change, stakeholders and project transition in a lean 24-hour operational environment. It also focused on the people aspects of project management required to coordinate effectively across varied stakeholders and manage team members from different functions.
In order to ensure that delegates gained confidence in the practical application of what was taught, each participant was asked to identify a project that they were currently working on that they could use as an example during the workshop exercises. This approach was extremely successful, with projects as diverse as the implementation of a new drainage conveyor, the development of a new cheese product, the upgrade of fire prevention measures in the creamery, and research into the impacts of regenerative diary production, all being projects worked on during the training sessions. This combination of First Milk- specific examples and industry best practice helped participants apply the methods immediately. As one of the participants commented, ‘The course has given me a great start on how to kick off and manage a project in a practical manner. Too many courses are theory and Gantt charts and not how to apply them. This was different.’
All of the concepts explored in the training workshops were rooted in best practice project management so that any delegates wishing to progress with their project management development could seamlessly progress to more advanced courses and the APM suite of industry-recognised qualifications, including the Project Fundamentals Qualification (PFQ) and the Project Management Qualification (PMQ).
Outcomes and Impact
The bespoke programme has strengthened consistency across teams by giving employees a shared language and a clearer understanding of how to approach project-based work. People across First Milk now see project work as part of their job role and have the confidence to identify new initiatives as projects and apply their skills to manage them to successful completion. As the training was given in mixed business unit groups, it has also helped increase participants’ business networks and has supported the integration of BV Dairy into the First Milk family.
Project Management is now recognised as a specialised discipline in First Milk. The major capital projects that are underway have a much wider pool of confident and skilled resources to draw on, which has not only created more effective project teams, but has also raised levels of constructive challenge and the implementation of governance practices to ensure more robust solutions.
“Parallel quickly became more than a training provider; they became a trusted partner. Ruth invested time in understanding our business, our people and the outcomes we wanted to achieve, enabling them to deliver a programme that felt truly tailored to First Milk. The impact on participant confidence and project management capability has been clear, and I would not hesitate to recommend Parallel to other organisations seeking a collaborative partner for learning and development.” Sally-Ann Kirk, First Milk HR Business Partner
Looking Ahead
As First Milk continues its regenerative journey, the role that project-based working will play will only increase. Project management skills will be an important aspect of many roles across the business – from operations, new product development and to commercial business units. First Milk and Parallel Project Training share many core values, including a commitment to do the right thing, which includes a focus on people development.
First Milk has made some ambitious commitments for the future, including a pledge to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2040 at the latest, with a target to reduce carbon footprint at farm level by 50% by 2030 and achieve net zero in milk transport and processing by 2035. Parallel Project Training looks forward to continuing our partnership with First Milk and contributing to the strengthening of its project management capability as it works towards these targets. We look forward to working together with First Milk to enrich life every day to secure the future.