Abbygale Julies

Abbygale Julies has been a resident of Atlantis since birth and is passionate about her community. As a single mother to two children – a 9-year-old and an almost 2-year-old – she certainly has her hands full. Despite her responsibilities and busy life outside of the factory, she’s one of the 80+ women working at Khanyisile Fishing who pour their heart and soul into their jobs.

She smiles as she talks about the wonderful people she works with and how they band together to create products that are as aesthetically pleasing as they are delicious.

“We’re a family here at the factory. We work together as one,” she says.

After leaving a demanding job as a cashier, Abbygale began working at Khanyisile Fishing in the crumb department and has been employed here for almost five years. The change was welcome, and she has since worked her way up within the department, stepping up as one of the team’s most trusted and experienced machinery operators.

“Operating the machines is my superpower. I really enjoy it!”

She speaks about how there’s always an opportunity to grow when working at KF and how she has big dreams of climbing the ladder of success and one day stepping into a role with even greater responsibilities. She’s relieved to work at the factory and says that opportunities are extremely limited in Atlantis at the moment, due in large part to the effects of the pandemic. 

“This is one of the only factories that has work for people. I assume this is because there are lots of people sitting without work right now.”

Abbygale takes great pride in what she does and says that she always feels excited when spotting a KF product in the freezers at the shops.

“It feels good to see the products in the shops. I always tell my sister – ‘you know what? We made this! You must buy it so that you can taste how good it is!’” And unsurprisingly, her sister always asks for seconds.