For as long as I have worked at The MBS Group, our characteristically red presentation folders have contained a quote from our founder, Moira. It reads: “Over the years it has been a huge privilege to have worked so closely with a range of clients. What has been exciting for me is to have watched so many of our candidates grow to become leaders in the retail and consumer industries. Whenever we start a new search, I still get the same thrill, because I know that I am finding the industry leaders of the future.”
Without doubt, one of the joys of a job in executive search is that you get to know the personal stories behind some of the most inspiring and successful leaders across the consumer sectors, as well as getting to watch how their careers develop.
“You can pursue a huge range of careers within food and drink – and together, we’ll show that it’s a place where each individual can make an impact.”
I was reminded of the quote this week as the UK’s food and drink industry came together to launch a new campaign showcasing the vibrancy of a career in the sector. Called Mmmake Your Mark, the initiative is convened by IGD, the insight and impact organisation, on behalf of the Food and Drink Sector Council (FDSC, a formal industry partnership with government). It is backed by over 50 companies across the sector from Aldi and Associated British Foods to Waitrose & Partners and Unilever.
Launching the campaign, IGD CEO Sarah Bradbury explained that “food and drink is the largest private sector employer in the UK, representing over 4 million talented people. This campaign harnesses that scale, uniting our industry to celebrate what makes it so dynamic and rewarding. You can pursue a huge range of careers within food and drink – and together, we’ll show that it’s a place where each individual can make an impact, with great opportunities for development and progression.”
There is undoubtedly a mismatch between the importance and opportunities of the food and drink industry and the prominence of its profile amongst those looking to start their careers. Perhaps at the height of the pandemic, the concept of an industry ‘feeding the nation’ during a time of crisis saw awareness and understanding of the importance of the sector at its peak – but outside of lockdown, does fuelling the population have the gravitas and visibility it surely deserves?
As Daniel Zeichner, the new UK government’s Minister for Food Security & Rural Affairs puts it, ‘food security is national security, and the backbone of a robust food supply chain is a skilled domestic workforce. Attracting bright new talent to the industry is vital for the future of UK food and this campaign showcases the UK’s food and drink industry as a vibrant place to work.’
“The IGD’s campaign centres around three pillars: possibilities, purpose and progression.”
Of course, our worldview at MBS is focused on senior leadership, so the campaign prompted me to take a look at how the sector is viewed for those at the beginning of their careers. A cursory glance at the careers services websites of a handful of universities around the UK was telling: though as many as one in eight jobs in the UK are in the food and drink sector, I didn’t find it listed as a sector to develop a career in on any of them.
Seeking to boost the profile of the industry, the IGD’s campaign centres around three pillars: possibilities, purpose and progression.
Possibilities
Speaking recently to the CEO of one of the UK’s largest listed food businesses, he highlighted the difficulty they are facing recruiting those with engineering backgrounds into the company. Again, looking at various careers resources for engineering graduates, the obvious sectors like energy, industrials, automotive and tech are given prominence – but the food and drink sector offers a wealth of different functions, some more obvious than others. As the campaign puts it, ‘from farm to fork, science to sizzle and tech to taste… anything is possible’.
“The sector’s appeal isn’t only apparent through the prism of functions, but also the movement within and into the industry.”
From the headhunter’s perspective, the sector is a rich source for leaders with interesting career histories, with as many different routes to the top as you can think of. Take Sarah for example: before becoming CEO at IGD last summer, her career spanned buying, category management, marketing and, latterly at Tesco, she was Food Technical Director then Group Quality Director.
The sector’s appeal isn’t only apparent through the prism of functions, but also the movement within and into the industry. There’s the well-trodden path between retail and manufacturing, perhaps best illustrated by moves such as CEOs Steve Murrells from Co-op to Hilton and Dalton Phillips from Morrisons to Greencore or, in the other direction, Dave Lewis from Unilever to Tesco.
Indeed, there are also prominent examples of senior leaders in the sector who have come from outside food and drink: Sainsbury’s Clodagh Moriarty, who sits on the grocer’s Operating Board as Chief Retail and Technology Officer, joined the business from Bain & Co where she consulted across multiple industries in 2010. Meanwhile, Shirine Khoury-Haq, who joined the Co-op as CFO and has been Group CEO since 2022, came to the sector from the world of insurance.
Purpose
When you return to the principle of feeding the nation, it’s easy to see how a career in food and drink intersects with purpose. It is at the heart of some of the biggest challenges of our times, from security and climate change to health and wellbeing.
It is this sense of purpose and passion that led Franco Fubini to quit his job in financial services almost 20 years ago and set up fruit and veg supplier Natoora, and it all started with a peach. Then living in Manhattan, he was visiting his local grocery store, Citarella, in the Upper East Side when he overheard another customer asking for peaches – in December.
A passionate home cook, he spent a lot of his free time sourcing the very best ingredients becoming increasingly interested in the connection between seasonality and flavour. Natoora quickly became supplier to a host of the best fine dining restaurants across London and New York, as well as selling to consumers through a host of stores, on Ocado and online.
Franco’s story is one of dozens built on and driven by passion for food and drink and its impact on all of us, and is set to be told in his new book, In Search of the Perfect Peach: Why flavour holds the answer to fixing our food system, published next month.
Progression
Progression is the third pillar of the campaign, highlighting the industry’s ability to catapult individuals’ careers from almost any level. Both the supply and retail side of the sector have historically been known to generate ‘shop floor to CEO’ paths to the top. Today, M&S’s Stuart Machin is perhaps the best-known CEO to have started the career on the shop floor, while there are many more examples of leaders who joined the industry via graduate schemes.
Meanwhile, companies in the sector – perhaps most notably The Co-op – are working very hard to ensure that the food and drink sector is at the forefront of delivering opportunities for social mobility.
As the Mmmake Your Mark campaign builds momentum, we look forward to tracking the back stories and trajectories of the future leaders of the sector. For more information on the campaign, follow it on LinkedIn. I’d love to hear your thoughts.