The football joke that launched Ian Hill’s career at Andrews Meat Industries
Fifteen years ago, Ian Hill wasn't planning a career in food manufacturing.
After years working as a chef and running his own restaurant in Alexandria, Ian’s first child was born and the hospitality lifestyle wasn't sustainable. But it took first division football to get him out of the kitchen.
Playing for St Michael's alongside business owners and executives, Ian often joked that if someone could land him an office job, he'd make himself available for more first division games. One teammate took him up on it, encouraging him to apply for a role at Andrews Meat Industries.
"I went into the interview thinking, 'I'm never going to get this job. I'm not an account manager, I barely knew how to turn a computer on,'" he laughs.
Ian walked away with a new career.
"The funny part is, I only ended up playing five games in first grade before I was straight back to the reserves," he says. "But it was definitely worth it."
Ian moved up the ranks and is the General Manager of Creative Food Solutions (CFS). He leads a team of more than 70 people and helps drive one of the biggest growth areas of the Andrews business.
The CFS operation has evolved hugely since it first launched more than 17 years ago as a ready meals manufacturer supplying major supermarket chains. It’s now the largest sous vide facility in the Southern Hemisphere, producing everything from ready meals and slow cooked proteins to foodservice products, export lines and even human grade pet food.
Ready meals remain an important part of the business but Ian has helped steer CFS into new markets.
"We've pivoted into export, foodservice and pet food," he explains. "It's about future-proofing the business and not having all our eggs in one basket."
The strength of the wider Andrews Meat Industries and JBS network backs that growth. While JBS is renowned globally for supplying premium raw meat, Ian sees CFS as an opportunity to add value before those products leave Australian shores.
CFS develops cooked protein products for export markets across the United States, South Korea and the Middle East. It also creates tailored solutions for major foodservice and quick service restaurant brands, helping Andrews Meat Industries provide customers with an end-to-end offering.
Working with global brands including Costco, IKEA, Subway, and Grill'd, Creative Food Solutions has grown well beyond its ready-meals roots. For Ian, it's a great evolution for the business.
But ask him what he's most proud of and Ian will tell you it’s his team and creating an environment where people genuinely enjoy coming to work.
"I want people to have somewhere they want to come, not somewhere they have to come,” he says.
That view is reflected in the business. Ian's operations manager started in the packing room before working his way up through the ranks. His production manager began as a line leader, while his logistics manager also started on the factory floor.
"The team is everything," Ian says. "The opportunities I've been given here are the opportunities I want to pass on to the next generation."
Ian's passions outside of work are a little different. Born in Birmingham, England, he's a lifelong football (soccer) fanatic who captains his local over-45s side in Sydney and coaches his son's team. In fact, his love of Aston Villa runs so deep that he named his son Aston.
Food, of course, still plays a central role in family life.
"Football and curry, that's where I'm from," Ian laughs.
Plus, having married into a Sicilian-Calabrian family, meals around the table are non-negotiable.
Creative Food Solutions might look very different to the business Ian joined all those years ago, but one thing hasn't changed; it's always been about the people.
For a chef who once thought he had no chance of landing an ‘office job’, it's a belief that has served him – and Creative Food Solutions – wonderfully.
