Dispatch Operative - FTC

Riverford Organic Farmers Ltd; Buckfastleigh; On-site; GBP 18,000 - 25,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

33 days holiday pro rata

30% off veg boxes

Generous company pension

Annual profit share

Employee-owned

Job summary

Riverford Organic Farmers Ltd. is seeking a Dispatch Operative to join our production team on a 6‑month fixed-term contract. You will join a friendly, employee‑owned business and help ensure accurate loading and delivery preparations for weekly UK dispatches.

Role requires experience in production/warehouse settings, good English, and the ability to work evenings in a refrigerated environment. Benefits include holiday, pension, and profit sharing within our co‑owner structure.

Qualifications

• Experience in production/manufacturing or warehouse environments.
• Proficiency in reading/writing English.
• Strong time management and organisational skills.
• Experience with manual handling preferred.
• Experience working in refrigerated environments.

Responsibilities

• Load pallets onto lorries and ensure correct pallets are loaded to the correct lorries.
• Verify contents are present and correct for dispatch.
• Collaborate with other departments to ensure smooth dispatch operations.

Skills

Production/warehouse experience

English literacy

Time management

Manual handling

Refrigerated environment

Job description

Work with us at Riverford, and join a thriving employee‑owned business as a Dispatch Operative…

Be part of a inclusive and friendly production team

More than just a veg box….Riverford are mad about organic veg. It’s at the core of everything we do. We love to grow it, pack it into boxes, and deliver it to around 70, 000 homes across the UK every week.

This takes loads of brilliant people – and working here makes you a ‘co‑owner’, since Riverford is employee‑owned. Success means much more than just profits; we want this to be a place people enjoy coming to work, and a business our co‑owners feel proud of!

We offer a bucket load of benefits….33 days holiday pro rata (including bank holidays), 30% off veg boxes and our online shop, generous company pension scheme, annual profit share (at least 10% of all our profits are split equally between all co‑owners)

Delivering even greener veg - We’re in the process of swapping diesel vans to electric, with the ambitious goal of being 100% electric vans for low‑emission deliveries to our customers!

This role is a 6‑month fixed term contract, 39 hours per week - Working Sunday-Thursday, 2.30pm – 10.30pm, which is inclusive of Bank Holidays.

Pay: £13.90 per hour. Plus, an additional 71p per hour when hours exceed 8pm

What you’ll be doing

We sell a wide variety of outstanding organic food and drink through our website. When an order is placed, it goes to our Dispatch Team, who make sure that our customers receive everything they’re expecting.

Every day we load up to ten full lorries, which are sent to a number of different hubs across the UK. As our warehouse/dispatch lorry loader, you’ll make sure that the correct pallets are loaded, safely and sensibly, onto the correct lorries, and that all the contents are present and correct.

Dispatch is a challenging, fast-paced department. You’ll need to be a dynamic, assertive person who can adapt easily and thrive under pressure. Excellent communication skills are a must, too – you’ll be collaborating with other departments across the business.

What we’re looking for

• Proven experience of working within a production/manufacturing or warehouse environment
• A good standard of English literacy; written, verbal and numeracy skills
• Good time management and organisation skills
• Experience of manual handling preferred
• Comfortable working in a refrigerated environment

At Riverford, we value quality service and our production team play a key role in our mission. If you’re looking for a job where you can make a difference and join a friendly, supportive team, we’d love to hear from you!

Application Process - We'll be reviewing applications throughout the duration of the advert and may choose to bring the closing date forward; therefore, we'd encourage you to apply at your earliest convenience.

AI & Recruitment at Riverford - AI can be helpful for checking spelling, organising your thoughts or communicating clearly. If you use it, please keep your CV and application honest, accurate and true to you—we want to get to know the real you. As part of our recruitment process, AI helps compare CVs with the job criteria, but it never makes hiring decisions.

We’re always keen to support co‑owners to develop their careers at Riverford and would normally encourage internal applications for opportunities like this. However, given the time of year and the importance of maintaining stability as we head into our busiest Christmas trading period, we ask any co‑owner who is interested in applying to first have a conversation with their manager about whether their current role could be successfully backfilled and whether sufficient training time would be available before the peak season begins. This reflects the operational impact that secondments and internal moves can have across the business at this critical time of year, rather than any change to our commitment to developing talent from within.