Future of the UK Food System

Minette Batters made history as the first female President of the National Farmers’ Union in 113 years, advocating for over 46,000 farming businesses through Brexit, COVID-19, and the Ukraine war. She collaborated with four Prime Ministers and six Defra Secretaries before stepping down in February 2024. A successful tenant farmer, she built a diversified business with beef cattle, crops, events, and hospitality.

Sarah has over 25 years of experience in the retail and food sectors. She leads IGD, an influential organisation that has shaped the food industry for 120+ years, reinvesting profits into initiatives benefiting industry and society. Previously, as Group Quality Director at Tesco, she oversaw product safety, sustainability, agriculture, and compliance, driving collaborative change to mobilise the food and consumer goods sectors for long-term improvement.

Jack Bobo is the Executive Director of the Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies at UCLA, where he leads interdisciplinary efforts to improve food systems communication, reduce polarization, and promote sustainable, nutritious, and equitable food futures. He is also a member of the advisory board and an Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham’s Food Systems Institute. Jack is the author of Why Smart People Make Bad Food Choices, a book that unpacks how our food environment has fuelled the global obesity crisis and highlights the role of behavioural science in tackling food policy challenges.

Adam joined Cranswick’s Fresh Pork business in 1991 and was appointed to the Board in 2003 as Managing Director of Fresh Pork. He was appointed as Chief Operating Officer in 2011 and then Chief Executive in 2012. Under his leadership, Cranswick has continued to expand and become a major player in the food processing industry. Adam was a committee member of the British Pig Executive between 2005 and 2013. 

Kari has a track record of driving performance in both retail and branded FMCG businesses. She spent more than 20 years at Tesco where she held the role of CEO of Tesco Ireland for four years and spent three years as UK Commercial Director. Prior to Tesco, Kari held marketing and leadership positions at SC Johnson, Wella and Superdrug. Kari is a member of the WiHTL Advisory Board and of the Policy Issues Council at IGD. She also currently serves as a Non-Executive Director at Topps Tiles plc.

Henry Dimbleby is a leading voice on food systems, health, and sustainability. He co-founded Leon, growing it into a £100 million business before its 2021 sale. As a government advisor, he authored the School Food Plan (2013), introducing free meals and cooking lessons, and the National Food Strategy (2021), praised for shaping policy. He was Defra's lead non-exec board member (2018–2023). Now, he leads Bramble Partners, investing in food businesses driving systemic change.

Alex Freudmann has been Managing Director of Food at Marks & Spencer since November 2022. He has 22 years of retail experience, starting at Tesco (2003-2009) in commercial roles, then spending a decade at Coles in Australia, where he led Grocery and later became Director of Fresh Foods. From 2020 to 2022, he led Dan Murphy’s, Australia’s leading BWS retailer, focusing on new store formats and its shift to online. Originally from Shropshire, Alex studied Modern History at Oxford and later attended Harvard Business School (2019).

Gordon was appointed UK Food Managing Director at Tesco in June 2025. He has overall responsibility for Fresh Food, Packaged goods, Fuel & Tobacco as well as the Group Commercial Operations and Supply Chain teams. Prior to that he was the Commercial Director for the Packaged division for over three years (Feb 2022 - May 2025) and also led the Booker Fresh Food team as Director of Trading for two years (Mar 2020 - Jan 2022). 

Charlotte Hill OBE became CEO of the Felix Project in 2022. She previously led Step Up To Serve (2014–2020) and UK Youth (2010–2014). After studying Political Science & Philosophy at Birmingham University, she worked for Richard Burden MP and later for Rt. Hon. Harriet Harman QC MP. She was a Parliamentary Advisor for the NSPCC before working in Australia and Cambodia in government relations, communications, and education. She joined UK Youth in 2009.

As President of Danone in the UK & Ireland, James leads a passionate group of 2,500 'Danoners' who are focussed on delivering health through food to as many consumers, patients and shoppers as possible. With over 20 years’ experience in Danone, James worked across many regions of the world before returning to the UK and Ireland business in late 2021. He is a strong believer in the power of the collective. Whether that’s harnessing the power and energy of internal teams or convening groups externally to bring health more firmly onto the agenda. 

Kelly is a researcher specialising in food systems, and their related policies and governance arrangements. She has a particular focus on efforts to develop more systemic, coherent, food policymaking, and the different methods and practices which can enable these. She has a PhD in food policy and a Masters in food and nutrition policy, from the Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London. 

Dalton’s retail career began with Jardine Matheson in buying and operations across New Zealand, Australia, and Spain. He spent seven years with Walmart in Brazil and Germany before becoming CEO of Brown Thomas (2005) and COO of Loblaw (2007). He led Wm Morrison Supermarkets (2010–2015) and daa plc (2017–2022). In 2022, he became CEO of Greencore, the world’s largest sandwich maker. He holds degrees from University College Dublin, Harvard Business School, and Bradford University.

Simon became Chief Executive of Sainsbury’s in June 2020, leading efforts to refocus on food through the Next Level strategy. Under his leadership, Sainsbury’s launched its Plan for Better, committing to Net Zero by 2035, and invested heavily in colleague pay and customer value. He previously served as Retail & Operations Director and has 30+ years of industry experience, including senior roles at Marks & Spencer and Boots. He also holds leadership positions in IGD and Diversity in Retail.

Nicola Robinson has 25 years of experience in food, drink, and retail, holding director roles at Mondelez, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Kettle Foods, and Tesco. She has also led her own consultancy, working on strategic projects for global brands. In 2024, she became director of Alliance Food Sourcing, collaborating with IGD, Fareshare, and The Felix Project to tackle UK food insecurity. With 34 active partners and growing, she’s driving industry-wide impact on food supply.

Andrew has spent 26 years with Bidcorp primarily developing  business in the UK, as well as businesses in Turkey, the Middle East, the Baltics and Spain. He became CEO of Bidfood in 2014, and sits on the global leadership Foodservice Group within Bidcorp, Bidfood’s parent company.

Andrew also has responsibility for Bidcorps other businesses in the UK, Bidfresh (fruit and veg, fresh meat and fresh fish wholesalers), Bidcorp Manufacturing business, Caterfood Buying Group, and Snowden and Bridge Imports business.

Ranjit is President of Boparan Holdings Limited. He founded the business in 1993 and has more than 30 years’ experience in the food industry. Ranjit is particularly skilled at business turnarounds and growing businesses, both organically and through acquisition. Notable acquisitions include Northern Foods and Brookes Avana in 2011.  

Ranjit has many business interests and has a very diverse business portfolio across the wider Boparan Group. 

Anna became The Food Foundation’s first Executive Director in 2015 after five years at DFID, where she led nutrition policy and global initiatives to tackle undernutrition. She has worked with Save the Children and UNICEF, supporting programmes across Africa and South Asia. Awarded an OBE in 2014, she advises on food policy, serving on the London Food Board, Veg Power, and the International Food Policy Research Institute. She was Chief Independent Adviser for the 2021 National Food Strategy.

Rhian leads IGD'S continuous UK insight programme exploring shopper, retail developments and eating out. An experienced researcher with nearly 20 years of experience, Rhian regularly presents to audiences of different sizes on the topics shaping the industry. 

Richard Watson became CEO of Nestlé UK & Ireland in 2023. He serves on the Food and Drink Federation Board and the UK Government’s Net Zero Council, representing the agrifood sector. Since joining Nestlé in 1996, he has led Purina in Northern Europe and Nestlé Confectionery UK&I. He now oversees Nestlé’s UK & Ireland operations and sustainability goals, advancing the company’s 2021 commitment to a regenerative food system that supports farmers and environmental restoration.

Professor Chris Whitty is the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England, the UK Government’s Chief Medical Adviser, and head of the public health profession. He is a practising NHS Consultant Physician at University College London Hospitals, and undertook clinical training and medical research work across the UK and in Africa and Asia, as well as training in economics, law and an MBA. Prior to his role as CMO, he was Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) at the Department of Health and Social Care, Head (CEO) of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), CSA at the Department for International Development, and interim Government Chief Scientific Adviser. He was Professor of Public and International Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Gresham Professor of Physic. 

George Wright has 35+ years in retail and grocery, holding leadership roles at Unilever, Tesco, Coles, M&S, JLP, and RHM, often driving business turnarounds. He has extensive international experience, including in Europe and Australia, and led a global innovation program for Unilever. As Fareshare CEO from 2023, he strengthened operations, industry ties, and government funding. Now, he consults for retail and supports charities, including the Coronation Food Project Advisory Board.

Tom has approaching 20 years’ experience as a research and insights professional across a range of sectors, including retail, hospitality, technology and media. He is a storyteller and is passionate about starting with the end in mind when it comes to insight – ensuring we put our clients at the heart of everything we produce. 

Nick Miles has over 20 years’ experience researching grocery retail around the world. He leads the team responsible for IGD’s insight coverage and specialises in helping business understand global and regional trends, channel and retailer strategies, store operations and format development.

Lauren Woodley is Head of Nutrition and Sensory Science at Nomad Foods, Europe’s leading frozen food company which owns brands including Birds Eye in the UK. Winner of the 2020 FDF UK Registered Nutritionist of the Year, she is passionate about nutrition, health promotion and great food. Throughout her career working in the food industry, Lauren has championed healthy sustainable eating, positive behaviour change and nutrition education, with the purpose of empowering positive choices for all. She regularly contributes to external publications and events on topics including sustainable eating, healthy innovation, product reformulation and the nutrition policy landscape.

Toby Pickard helps brands and retailers future-proof their operations by updating on industry developments. He has over 18 years’ experience, transforming companies such as P&G, Coca-Cola and Musgrave, and was awarded the Top Retail Expert by RETHINK Retail in 2025 and the 2024 RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencer.

Dr Michael Green leads EY's UK Climate & Nature practice, with over 15 years of experience working in climate change, adaptation planning, decarbonisation and decision-making. He has significant experience assessing climate risk and conducting scenario analysis and financial materiality assessments on behalf of corporate and non-corporate clients; this is alongside decarbonisation strategy development, including working with governments and corporates to develop decarbonisation and corporate net zero plans. Michael has coordinated major climate projects on behalf of the United Nations, EBRD, World Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank, together with major infrastructure owner/operators, UK Committee on Climate Change, Environment Agency and DEFRA. He has previously contributed to the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3) and UK National Adaptation Programme (NAP).

Matt is focused on building strategic resilience across the UK food system, supporting organisations and government to respond to disruption including climate risk and geopolitical shifts.

Nigel joined Booths in November 2015 having spent his career to date in the food retail sector with Safeway, Tetley, Asda and Greggs.

Within Booths Nigel is a member of the Board and leads the Executive team. He is also a member of DEFRA’s Food and Drink Sector Council, a Trustee of The Creative Health Trust UK and is a Marketing Lancashire Ambassador.

Aoife Dillon is a Principal Scientist at Fera Science specializing in crop protection with over 20 years of international experience managing field trials and regulatory affairs for biopesticides and biostimulants across Europe, the USA, Africa, and Asia. She has contributed to shaping EU regulations, worked on invasive pest management, and holds a BSc in Applied Ecology and an MSc in Biological Crop Science.

Sarah has built her career across the agrifood supply chain, from grain trading to leading supply chain strategy as Head of Supply Chain at Openfield. With a strong grounding in both practical farming and commercial strategy, she works to bridge the gap between agriculture and consumers, and champions more sustainable, resilient food systems. A speaker at global forums including the Financial Times Global Food Systems Summit, Sarah holds a first-class degree in Food Supply Chain Management and has trained with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. She continues to apply her expertise through advisory work and on her family’s progressive mixed farm in Rutland.

Roy Horgan is Senior Executive Vice President of Strategy, Marketing & Communications at VusionGroup, the global leader in digital solutions for physical retail. A passionate entrepreneur and retail innovator, Roy is the founder of MarketHub, a pioneering technology company that transformed how retailers leverage data to improve in-store performance and shopper engagement. MarketHub’s success and disruptive approach to retail technology led to its acquisition by Vusion, where Roy continues to shape the future of the sector on a global scale.

At VusionGroup, Roy leads the company’s strategic vision, brand development, and global communications, helping retailers worldwide digitise their stores, enhance customer experiences, and build more sustainable, data-driven operations. His expertise bridges the entrepreneurial agility of a startup founder with the scale and influence of a global retail technology leader.

Pauline Monin brings over 15 years of experience in the technology sector, with a strong focus on consumer electronics, Smart Metering (IIoT), and Retail IoT across diverse roles encompassing product management and marketing. As the Head of Product Marketing at VusionGroup, Pauline leads collaborative efforts with R&D teams, driving initiatives that redefine the retail landscape through emerging technologies such as Computer Vision, Data analytics, and AI. Prior to her role at VusionGroup, Pauline held senior management positions at leading firms, including Itron, Inc. and PNY Technologies, Inc., where she honed her expertise in technology, product development, and strategic marketing.

Catherine is on a mission to bring circular living to every board room and every home.

Catherine has spent her career building coalitions globally with businesses and governments to drive system transformation, with particular expertise in the food, packaging, textiles and fast-moving consumer goods sectors.

Drawing on her background at Fairtrade and the Coop, Catherine has led WRAP’s Behaviour Change and Business Programmes functions, and in 2025 has stepped up to be our CEO.

Emma is Head of Sustainability for Nestlé UK&I, focusing on delivering the ambitious net zero climate commitment and driving the business to be a force for good. Prior to joining Nestlé, Emma led a team at WWF on food system transformation and before that was in Unilever’s sustainability team working on bringing the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan to life. She also holds a doctorate in supply chain sustainability.

At IGD, Graham is a trusted partner for expertise and insight, working to unite and inspire everyone to deliver a thriving food system. He works with a group of clients and speaks on a variety of platforms, bringing IGD’s robust, independent insights to multiple cohorts.

EY teams help shape the future with confidence and develop answers for the most pressing issues of today and tomorrow. In order to survive and grow in an increasingly competitive and accountable business environment, organizations are required to report not only on their financial performance, but also their nonfinancial performance.

Ignoring sustainability and climate change risks and stakeholder concerns around these issues is no longer an option. EY’s global Climate Change and Sustainability Services teams understand the evolving pressures surrounding these challenges. As a result, they can help companies to respond by understanding and evaluating the broader value impacts and outcomes, identifying the opportunities, and supporting the reporting of nonfinancial performance risks to their stakeholders.

VusionGroup is the global leader in the digitalization solutions for commerce, serving over 350 large retailer groups around the world in Europe, Asia and North America. The Group develops technologies that create a positive impact on society by enabling sustainable and human-centered.

Mondra is transforming how the UK food system decarbonises and becomes more resilient.
The Mondra supply chain intelligence platform enables retailers, suppliers, and brands to measure and reduce the environmental impact of food products at scale. Our Digital Twin technology unlocks actionable insights across critical dimensions - from LCA and climatic volatility to regenerative farming practices, geopolitical disruptions, and global events. We empower collaborative action, data transparency, and regulatory alignment, helping the industry achieve Net Zero, ESG compliance, and long-term resilience. Mondra supports the BRC Mondra Coalition - uniting the UK’s leading grocers and suppliers behind a shared sustainability standard.

Brands like Coca-Cola trust dijuno.ai to provide the strategic guidance that cuts decision time from days to minutes. Because in FMCG, the real cost of slow insight is not the time lost to routine analysis. It is the missed window to act.

dijuno.ai flags performance shifts as soon as data refreshes, digs into the root cause instantly, and gives you a prioritized action list in minutes.

It is like giving everyone on your team their own strategic advisor, on demand, 24/7. So they are equipped to win in dynamic, volatile times. Find us on stand 8 to learn more.

Foods Connected is an award-winning cloud-based software platform based in Northern Ireland. Our end-to-end software solutions simplify the food industry supply chain, optimising spend and unlocking the data food and drink manufacturers, retailers, food service providers and other food businesses need to excel.

Fast to roll out and even easier to use, our tools help our customers manage and report on traceability, product lifecycle management, procurement, quality control and sustainability. 

Utilised by hundreds of leading food businesses globally, including ten of the world’s largest retailers, our customers call us “innovative”, “adaptable” and “efficient”.

GroceryAid is a charity that provides free and confidential financial, emotional and practical support to industry colleagues 24/7, 365 days a year. 

Working in partnership with hundreds of supporters across the trade, we help colleagues within the grocery industry from: Multiple Retailers, Wholesalers, Convenience Stores, Independents, Manufacturers and Service providers. 

Conker's Perfect Supplier transforms supplier-retail partnerships by delivering instant customer insights. Commercial teams receive critical alerts, sales reports, and stock reports within 10 minutes of Conker’s software agents collecting the data. This speed advantage enables better intra-day decisions, improved revenue management, enhanced product availability, and reduced waste. The system feeds precise data to Supply Chain and Promotional Evaluation tools 365 days a year. With AI-powered analytics, National Account teams gain control over customer relationships. Suppliers can focus on strategic partnership excellence rather than information management challenges.

CHEP is a global leader in supply chain solutions, operating in over 60 countries. Using a share, repair, and reuse model for pallets, crates, and containers, it helps businesses cut costs and reduce environmental impact. CHEP’s circular approach tackles emissions, waste, and single-use packaging while enhancing supply chain resilience through data, scale, and collaboration. Trusted by top brands, it serves consumer staples, retail, automotive, and manufacturing sectors. Part of the Brambles Group, CHEP manages ~347 million units via 750+ service centres and employs around 11,000 people, with major operations in North America and Europe.

CACI empowers FMCG brands with advanced data & location analytics, forecasting, and network planning. Our tools help field sales teams, category managers, and analysts make smarter, data-led decisions that drive commercial success.

• Optimise strategy with proprietary data and insight

• Forecast performance and stay ahead of demand

• Scale with ease through flexible, integrated solutions

Trusted by leading FMCG brands around the globe, we simplify complex data to unlock growth.

Growing Kent & Medway is a £42.1million research, innovation, and enterprise cluster, with government funding provided through UK Research and Innovation’s flagship Strength in Places fund.

It invests in sustainable innovation to enable produce horticulture and plant-based food businesses to grow. The programme is led by Niab, a leading UK crop science organisation, with research partners including the University of Kent, University of Greenwich, and Canterbury Christ Church University.

Active since 2021, Growing Kent & Medway has invested £8.6 million in the region’s research capabilities, created 262 collaborations between research organisations and businesses, and funded over 100 sustainable innovation projects.