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Ian Wright CEO is joined by Jayne Almond Julie Byers and James Hawkins to discuss and look back over the recent party conferences

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CMS - Labour shortages: the role of ESG in attracting and retaining your workforce

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues have risen in prominence in recent years. Climate change and environmental factors have been at the forefront of these developments. The pandemic has shifted the lens to look at how the other aspects of ESG operate. The S is about how organisations treat their workforce and their behaviour in business relationships,

In this webinar/Podcast, we look at ways in which employers can take a holistic approach to building a sustainable workforce, touching on diversity & inclusion, workforce engagement, fair working practices and looking at practical steps to progress that agenda.

Catriona Aldridge, Partner in the Employment team at CMS

Catriona has a keen interest and regularly works on many people issues relevant to the food & drink industry. Over the last year she has been heavily involved in advising a range of clients on their pandemic response, including implementation of furlough, hybrid working arrangements, vaccination issues and management of mental health. She also authored an article on the impact of COVID-19 on the gender pay gap, as part of the employment team’s “Diversity in 2020” series, looking at the impact of Covid-19 across the spectrum of diversity issues.

Recording of the  FDF webinar on 20/10/21

The FDF Podcast is sponsored by Clarke Energy 

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Grant Thornton - Practical strategies to tackle labour shortages within your food & drink business

The UK food and drink sector is battling a unique set of challenges that have coalesced to create fundamental labour shortages, placing huge pressure on businesses – both large and small. Grant Thornton’s specialist team will share insights on how to tackle these challenges, both from a people perspective, as well as an operational and production perspective.

They will also share highlights from a recent report on labour shortages they published on behalf of FDF, NFU and 10 other industry bodies, including the key asks we have put to government to help enable the sector to transition to a new future. The session is designed to be informative and practical, enabling you to take these insights and implement them within your business.

Recording of FDF Webinar hosted on 20/10/21

The FDF Podcast is sponsored by Clarke Energy 

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Omron - Meet your new co-workers: how robotics is helping UK manufacturers overcome workforce challenges

Recording of FDF webinar hosted on  20/10/21

The FDF Podcast is sponsored by Clarke Energy

Human workers have been fundamental to the continued growth of British Food Production.  However, after the perfect storm of Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, UK Industry is faced with, potentially, it’s biggest challenge yet: a massive shortfall in workers needed to keep the wheels in motion. 

Robotics, however, offer an increasingly attractive way out for producers across the supply chain.  From inbound ingredient handling to outbound logistics (and everything in between), the plethora of opportunities to fill gaps left by unfilled vacancies on your shop floor is boundless. 

Presenter

Stuart Coulton

Having worked for OMRON for 13 years, Stuart is passionate about empowering businesses to solve complex challenges with high-impact robotics and automation solutions. As Market Development Manager, he has built a sustainable brand for OMRON in the FMCG sector by gaining a deep understanding of the key market challenges, as well as delivering a coordinated communication strategy to aid the development of innovative solutions

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This podcast explores how food and drink businesses ensure that they are sourcing commodities sustainably. 

At the FDF, our members use a vast range of ingredients, a number of which could be classed as forest risk commodities, which they want to ensure are sourced sustainably so they can ensure the environmental, social and economic security of their products. This has resulted in a number of innovative solutions and collaboration, including through certification programmes. This podcast pulls together themes discussed previously on palm oil, soya and the bigger picture. 

 Hosted by Emma Mansbridge the podcast features Emma Keller, Head of Sustainability at Nestle UK&I, and Olivier Zwolsman, Responsible Sourcing Manager at Ferrero.

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Dominic Goudie and policy colleagues will be updating FDF members on the latest industry issues. 

Recorded 19/10/21


The FDF Podcast is sponsored by Clarke Energy

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This podcast focuses on sustainable soya and is part of a wider series on Sourcing Sustainable Commodities.

 Emma Mansbridge and Jonathan Gorman discuss the main concerns concerning the sustainable sourcing of soy and what businesses are already doing. However, there is always room to go further and this podcast also explores the importance of collaboration across the supply chain, with government and across sectors and how we cannot think about commodities in silo’s given their importance to climate change and biodiversity.

 

A short bio on Jon – Jonathan Gorman is a Technical Director at Efeca and helped to lead the development of the UK Sustainable Soya Initiative.

The FDF Podcast is sponsored by Clarke Energy

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Sustainability: Skills and training for Net Zero

This podcast led by Emma Piercy, Head of Climate Change & Energy Policy is with Rosina Watson and Kenisha Garnett from Cranfield University, and Mark Corbett, Innovation and Skills Policy Manager at FDF.

 The podcast explores the skills and training requirements for companies in the ‘green transition’ to Net Zero, the role of Universities in helping the food and drink sector decarbonise, and the newly launched Masters apprenticeship on sustainability at Cranfield:

https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/som/postgraduate-apprenticeships/sustainability-apprenticeship 

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The Food and Drink Federation are delighted to host a timely event on the National Food Strategy, to consider the Government’s upcoming Food Strategy white paper for England due in early 2022.

The panel session features

- Stuart McCallum, Partner / Head of UK Food and Drink Sector, RSM UK
- Ian Mace, Head of Public Affairs and Policy, Associated British Foods plc
- Jayne Brookman, PhD. Acting Director, North-West CLC region
      European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Food

 Caroline Keohane, Head of Industry Growth, FDF is the moderator

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The Food and Drink Federation are delighted to host a timely event on the National Food Strategy, to consider the Government’s upcoming Food Strategy white paper for England due in early 2022.

Guest speakers include:

- Alex Dawson, Practice Lead - UK Politics and Policy, Global Counsel
- Stefano Agostini, Chief Executive, Nestlé UK and Ireland
- Ian Wright, FDF CEO and Co-Chair of the Food and Drink Sector Council
- Jayne Brookman, PhD. Acting Director, North-West CLC region
European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Food
- Stuart McCallum, Partner / Head of UK Food and Drink Sector, RSM UK
- Ian Mace, Head of Public Affairs and Policy, Associated British Foods plc
- Caroline Keohane, Head of Industry Growth, FDF
- Kate Halliwell, Chief Scientific Officer, FDF