Annual Review 2009: Leading from the front
"Our ability to harness the
collective efforts of our
members has helped FDF
strengthen its position as
the respected advocate
of the UK's largest
manufacturing sector"
Melanie Leech, FDF Director General
Throughout the past year FDF and its
members have continued to show real
leadership in the ways in which we have
collectively responded to the many
challenges facing our sector. 
As you
will read elsewhere in this report, the
year was dominated by recession and
economic uncertainty, but our sector
delivered tangible progress in improving
its environmental performance under the
auspices of our ground-breaking Five-fold
Environmental Ambition.
At the same time,
members continued to respond positively
to equally complex issues such as obesity
and are now leading the world in terms of
the provision of clearer nutrition information;
changing the recipes of popular brands; and
their efforts to improve employee wellbeing.
Our ability to harness the collective efforts
of our members in these very different
ways has helped FDF strengthen its
position as the respected advocate of the
UK's largest manufacturing sector.
Last year
I said that I wanted this organisation to be
an influential, well-informed and proactive
partner with whom Government was keen
to work – and I am delighted to say that
we are delivering against that important
objective.
The health debate understandably remains
a challenging area for our members.
Nevertheless, we have seen a change in
the quality of the conversations we are
having with Government and I believe we
are now forging a constructive partnership
that is clearly focused on finding ways of
working together to make a real difference
for consumers.
We are always keen to work with other
stakeholders on matters of mutual concern
– and during the year we co-signed a letter
to the Board of the Food Standards Agency
with consumer organisation Which? and
the Trading Standards Institute calling for
food fraud to be a clearer priority within the
Agency's new strategic plan. Thanks to this
intervention, the change was implemented
following a discussion by the FSA Board.
I am also delighted that our efforts to
inform politicians and Government
officials about the economic and strategic
importance of our sector appear to be
paying off – and our importance to the UK
is now fully reflected in important policy
documents, such as Defra's Food 2030
vision.
Clearly, there is more to be done, but I
think we are well placed to capitalise on the
growing appreciation of the role we play in
underpinning the UK economy.
These encouraging changes are thanks,
in part, to the decision we made in 2007
to restructure around three priorities (food
safety and science, health and wellbeing,
and sustainability and competitiveness).
We now have Steering Groups led by the
chief executives of member companies,
providing an invaluable strategic overview
to our activities in these areas and ensuring
that we deliver tangible results for the wider
FDF membership.
I would like to thank those who chaired
our Steering Groups during the year – Jim
Moseley of General Mills, Salman Amin
of PepsiCo and Fiona Dawson of Mars
Chocolate UK – as well as our Treasurer
Paul Freeston of apetito and Jonathan Bye
of Vimto, who runs our SME Forum. They
give willingly of their time and expertise
and their support is greatly appreciated.
Towards the end of the year we took the
decision to split our work on sustainability
and competitiveness to provide an even
stronger focus on the very different
activities we are undertaking in these
two areas of policy. As a result, we
have created a new Competitiveness
Steering Group, chaired by Nick Bunker
of Kraft, which will oversee FDF's efforts
to educate politicians and policy makers
about our sector's economic and strategic
importance as well as promoting food and
drink manufacturing as a career destination of choice throughout 2010. John
Sutcliffe
of Associated British Foods has kindly
agreed to chair our new Sustainability
Steering Group while Fiona is now leading
our work on health and wellbeing.
This structure allows FDF to focus clearly
on the issues of most concern to the
industry, delivering proactive responses
to policy developments, while ensuring
that we deliver the best possible value
for members. And that was vital during
the economically turbulent period under
review in this report. As you will read, we
have scored some notable successes for
our members across all our policy areas
in the past year.
I am particularly proud
of our successful efforts in pressing for
Government measures that we felt would
provide tangible support for our members,
such as the trade credit insurance package
or the introduction of a supermarket
ombudsman, while lobbying against extra
burdens being placed on companies, not
least through new employment regulations.
FDF and its member companies continue
to lead from the front. We have achieved
much in the past year to be proud of. And
I am sure that our collective efforts will
continue to make a real difference in 2010.
In this review
FDF: steered by our members -
- By Jim Moseley, Managing Director, General Mills UK
- By Fiona Dawson, Managing Director, Mars Chocolate UK
- By John Sutcliffe, Chief Executive, ABF Grocery
- By Jonathan Bye, Managing Director, Vimto
- By Paul Freeston, Chief Executive, apetito
Industry in action:
More information