Annual Review 2010: Promoting a British Success Story
"We will always seek
to make a positive
contribution, and to offer
ideas and solutions not
just challenges" - Melanie Leech, FDF Director General
Published: May 2011
Making a positive contribution
Reflecting on last year it is clear that despite the
continuing challenge of the economic environment, FDF
and its members have again showed real leadership at the
heart of key political and policy debates.
FDF strives for continuous improvement as an
organisation. As part of this, last year FDF commissioned
a survey of our stakeholders so that we could better
understand how effective we were in representing our
members' interests. Amongst the findings was a clear
message that our stakeholders find us easy to work
with and constructive in our approach.
That reflects our
philosophy – our members want to be part of the debate,
and part of the solution to complex political and social
issues such as obesity and climate change. We know that
these issues can only effectively be tackled in partnership,
and that true partnership requires robust debate between
differing points of view, and compromise in reaching a
clear agenda.
This review shows how far we have travelled – as FDF
and with other partners – in some of the key debates
last year. And how FDF delivered on our aspiration to be
a constructive contributor to the debate.
Being easy to
work with and constructive does not mean we will not be
prepared to stand up for members' interests – even when
we have to deliver messages that politicians and decision makers
find uncomfortable. Take for example our call for
greater government leadership in setting a strategy for
food – highlighted in our President's section of this review.
But we will always seek to make a positive contribution,
and to offer ideas and solutions not just challenges.
Our achievements in 2010 were of course in no small
measure thanks to our outgoing President Ross
Warburton. I would like to thank him for his leadership
and support in the last two years, and previous to that for
many years service to FDF as our Treasurer.
I would also like to thank those who chaired our Steering
Groups during the year. Jim Moseley of General Mills
continued to steer our Food Safety and Science Steering
Group with great skill and I am delighted that he has
taken over as FDF President from 1 January 2011. Martin
Douglas of Cargill kindly agreed to take over the reins of
our key technical steering group. Fiona Dawson of Mars
Chocolate UK led FDF's input into the Public Health
Responsibility Deal with great skill and I am delighted that
so many FDF members were part of the launch of the
Deal in early 2011.
John Sutcliffe of Associated British Foods chaired our
new Sustainability Steering Group through another
year of achievement – we out-performed our Five-fold
Environmental Ambition targets in key areas and in
December set ourselves new more stretching challenges.
We also recognised the need to lead by example in other
areas such as responsible sourcing of raw materials and
encouraging the development of life-cycle thinking.
John retired towards the end of last year and Nick Bunker
of Kraft agreed to move across to take the helm at the
Sustainability Steering Group after a year of significant
progress raising the profile of our economic contribution
through the work of the Competitiveness Steering Group
(CSG).
Paul Grimwood (Nestle) has now taken over the
chairmanship of the CSG and I look forward to working
with him as the Government's continued focus on
economic recovery and growth provides real opportunities
for our sector.
Our Treasurer Paul Freeston of apetito and Jonathan
Bye of Vimto, who runs our SME Forum, complete the
FDF leadership team of elected member officers. All our
elected officers give willingly of their time and expertise
and their support is greatly appreciated.
With our members' help we achieved a great deal in 2010.
I look forward to the challenges – and achievements – of
2011.
Next page: An industry we can all be proud of
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