Annual Review 2009: Leading from the front

FDF: Steered by our members

By Jonathan Bye, Managing Director, Vimto

FDF places great value on its SME members, who form 68% of our total membership. During the year we have re-doubled our efforts to provide services which reflect the differing needs of smaller food and drink companies.

As the SME representative on FDF's Executive Committee, I have worked closely with FDF's member services team to review what our SME members most want and value from membership.

As SME's often have limited resources, we have focused our efforts on providing services that help companies to be more competitive through relevant and timely information and lobbying activity on the issues that matter most. For example, FDF's Sales Directors' Forum (formerly GTLC) has had increasing participation from SME members at our meetings with senior retail trading directors.

We launched a hotline for SME enquiries and a monthly SME Bulletin along with a range of exclusive discounts on professional services through our Commercial Partners.

We continue to give SME members a voice on key issues and successfully lobbied for the creation of a supermarket ombudsman. Looking ahead, we will continue to develop and improve our services, including hosting an annual event dedicated to SME food and drink manufacturers.

Our priority is to make a difference for our smaller members, as well as the larger ones, helping to underline our position as the voice of UK food and drink manufacturing.

Jonathan represents FDF's SME members