AN award-winning Scottish company believes signing up for the living wage has increased its visibility to the general public.

Stockan’s, who manufactures its Orkney Oatcakes in the harbour town of Stromness, became an accredited living wage employer in February this year.

Since then the company has been voted Scottish Food Manufacturer of the Year at The Food Awards Scotland 2018.

“Adopting the living wage could only have helped us achieve this great award, which was voted after all by the public,” said Irene Archer, fourth generation of the family run company.

“Since committing to the living wage we have received positive appreciation from our employees and the company enjoys low staff turnover, high attendance and engagement.”

Archer said the decision had not been taken lightly.

“It involved conducting an internal review, examining the financial impact to the organisation, planning and implementing changes to staff responsibilities,” she explained.

“We already had a strong corporate social responsibility policy within the business but wanted to improve it further. Our strengths included provision of excellent customer service, employee health and safety, food safety and quality, with commitments ranging from encouraging healthier food choices to modifying our operations to consider wider environmental implications.”

The company looked at several ways to develop long term working relationships within the team and ultimately decided that this was the way forward.

“We have a core of more than 25 highly valued and skilled staff who are our prime focus,” said Archer. “Many have been with us for over 20 years, six of whom have celebrated 25 years of service and one has been with us for 40 years. Staff loyalty therefore is something we recognise as a great strength to our company.”

The company is very proud of its Orkney heritage and the islands are central to its operations, with the oatcakes baked and shipped from the islands to customers all over the world.

“As a small business we appreciate that it is important to hold onto fully trained employees with their knowledge of products and processes and this is especially the case on Orkney where the unemployment rate is very low,” said Archer. “When we do have to recruit I’m sure that this certification will prove valuable in terms of attracting new staff.”

Historically Scottish oatcakes were a staple food and were eaten with every meal rather than bread. Stockan’s is famous for baking traditional triangle shaped Scottish oatcakes as well as a range of rounds. All their oatcakes are made with wholegrain oats, are high in fibre, have a low GI and are suitable for vegetarians.

The Westminster Government’s so-called “living wage” is merely a new minimum wage rate for staff over 25-years-old. It was introduced in April 2016 and the rate is £7.83 per hour as of April 2018. The government rate is based on median earnings while the Living Wage Foundation rate of £8.75 is calculated according to the cost of living.

The accreditation programme in Scotland launched in April 2014. It is an initiative from The Poverty Alliance, in partnership with the Living Wage Foundation, and is funded by the Scottish Government.

More than 25,000 people in Scotland have had a pay rise thanks to Living Wage Scotland.