Cultivate Talent case study on brining together Vivergo Fuels operational teams under a business creed and leadership culture

1. Cultivate Talent
Case Study
Vivergo Fuels
Vivergo Fuels was formed in 2007 as part of an exciting Joint Venture between three companies namely BP,
British Sugar and DuPont. It was created to deliver an advanced technological bio-refinery, with the ability to
produce a significant proportion of the total UK forecasted biofuel demands from 2011 onwards. This innovative
bio-refinery will be based at Saltend near Hull which, when made fully operational later this year, will have
around 70 full time employees which will make Vivergo Fuels the 5th largest ethanol producer in Europe. This
bio-refinery will process 1.1 million tonnes of animal feed wheat each year, creating 420 million litres of
bioethenol and 500,000 tonnes of animal feed
Business challenge
Vivergo Fuels had a challenging construction and delivery plan to ensure that the
bio-refinery was completed and commissioned ready for production in 2011. It was
vital for the business that this schedule was met to fulfil both their business and
target market commitments. Vivergo Fuels recognised that there was need to build
a cohesive operational management team from the newly recruited employees and
secondments from the three partner companies. Being a start up business they
wanted to create a new leadership and management ethos which befitted an
innovative bio-refinery.
Our approach
Cultivate Talent worked with Vivergo Fuels to create a tailored Management Development Programme to
deliver the leadership behaviours and team management capability required for this high profile start up
manufacturing business. It was a programme designed around the practical leadership needs of operational
managers working with 24/7 shift patterns and teams. This process culminated in all the operational teams
(50 people) coming together for a day where managers led their respective teams through tasks, and then
carried out debriefings relating learning to how they would work back in the business in real situations.
Client testimonial Client contacts
“Adrian and Mark produced a program that took VFL's business creed and
Andy Bulman,
translated it into an interactive and experience based programme that
Operations Director,
gave managers the opportunity to practice newly learnt techniques in a
Vivergo Fuels
safe environment before implementing them back in the business.
The impact of the programme has been a focused approach by managers Adam James,
to develop their individual teams and as a result the business has seen a Mill Commissioning Manager,
step change in performance of each team. “ Andy Bulman, Director Vivergo Fuels
For further information please contact:
Adrian Woodstock Mark Thompson
adrian.woodstock@cultivatetalent.co.uk mark.thompson@cultivatetalent.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 7769 650960 Tel: +44 (0) 7917 305290