A look at the economy and food market with insights into what to expect over the next 6-12 months.

UK food shoppers have faced a surge of inflation over recent years, with some encountering serious hardship. Currently, inflation seems to be easing, but there is little sign that prices will fall, so hardships will continue. New headwinds are already starting to build and businesses cannot be complacent - they need to build a better food system, or risk a return to turmoil.

James' role at IGD is to help businesses anticipate and cope with strategic events, including economic pressures, geo-political change, social developments and environmental stress. James has worked with clients across the entire grocery industry as well as with non-industry groups such as government departments, financial businesses, and NGOs. James joined IGD in April 1999 and has served in several roles, becoming Chief Economist in 2004. Prior to joining IGD, he worked for Hillsdown Holdings, Northern Foods and Rank-Xerox.

What to expect in 2024 and beyond

With 30+ years’ experience of working in, developing, analysing and commentating on the UK foodservice/hospitality industry, Simon is acknowledged as the leading analyst of the market and recognised as an expert in making sense out of all the data and insight available; Simon is now making sense of the future as Founder of Future Foodservice, a forecasting and advisory business.

With a career founded in operations, managing hotels & restaurants, and with Pret A Manger through the late nineties, Simon moved into marketing and development with Compass Group. At which point Simon completed a Postgrad diploma in Marketing, enabling a move into strategic marketing and market intelligence.

Simon worked with management consultancy Allegra Strategies, developing Allegra Foodservice as a leading source of market intelligence; This was sold to William Reed Business Media where Simon created and led MCA from 2014 to 2019, merging the data, insight, news and events businesses.

Simon stepped down from MCA in order to launch FutureFoodservice, providing unique foresight for the whole spectrum of the hospitality and foodservice market.

The most recent future foresight report that Simon has written is ‘Future Foodservice - 2030 Vision’ which incorporates detailed forecasts for each sector of the UK market, and longer term trends.

State of the Nation – a portrait of the Foodservice industry in Great Britain today

A presentation detailing the performance trends and underlying consumer dynamics driving the out-of-home eating market in Britain today. The insights are sourced from CREST, the currency for Foodservice industry decisions in Europe and across the world.

Seton Leung is head of Circana’s UK Foodservice group (formerly known as The NPD Group). Prior to her UK role, Seton was leading Circana’s Foodservice and Toys businesses in Australia. Seton has 20 years of experience in client management, FMCG category management, and retailer and shopper consultancy. She is a specialist in managing shopper data to drive actionable insights, shopper proposition and category planning.
Prior to joining NPD, Seton held management positions at Aimia, Inc., Pernod Ricard, and Nestle Waters.

Are shoppers becoming less frosty towards Frozen Food? An overview of how the circumstances of the last few years have affected what we buy, how we shop, and what we can learn from past shopper behaviour to infer future trends.

Lewis is an expert on shopper and consumer behaviour within the Grocery sector. In his day to day role at Kantar, he regularly supports a variety of frozen food manufacturers, using data insights to develop category / brand strategies, listing arguments, NPD opportunities and identifying areas for potential growth. Kantar is the global leader in continuous consumer panels, supporting the UK’s leading retailers and manufacturers in making successful, data driven decisions.

Food and Drink Trends in FMCG & Retail for 2024 and Beyond

Charles is a Co-Founder, a fourth generation foodie, an expert in food futures and a ‘champion of change’. Cooking at his mother's side in the kitchen is where Charles' obsession for food began!

He and his business thefoodpeople are known for shifting the future of food and drink by harnessing the power of trends. Charles has spent the past 30+ years in the food industry working across all sectors including food service, fine dining, hotels, food brands and food retailing.

Turning the Dial on Frozen – Opportunities to increase the temperature at which we store frozen products

Exploring the opportunity to increase the temperature at which we store frozen food products and how, if delivered at scale, it could revolutionise the frozen industry and deliver substantial energy use and cost reductions.

Sam Fulton is Group Corporate Affairs & Sustainability Director for Nomad Foods (NYSE: NOMD), Europe’s leading frozen foods company and owner of brands including Birds Eye and Green Cuisine. She joined Nomad Foods in 2020 from Apple where she led Corporate Communications across Europe.

Prior to this she spent over 20 years in senior UK and international corporate and brand communication, sustainability and advocacy roles for some of the world’s largest food and consumer goods businesses, including Unilever, McDonald’s, Nestle and Kellogg and at PR consultancy Ketchum. She has led a number of industry associations, co-ordinated multi-stakeholder programmes focused on issues such as zero waste and sustainable sourcing and has extensive crisis management experience.

Your Surplus Stock – unlocking the potential

Company Shop Group looks at surplus differently and is committed to fundamentally changing the way businesses think about it. Using its industry leading capabilities and expertise, it provides innovative solutions for handling surplus stock – including all chilled and frozen categories – creating a financial return on stock that would have otherwise gone to waste. More than that, in thinking differently it helps businesses provide meaningful support to some of Britain’s most deprived communities.

GARY STOTT, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, – COMMUNITY SHOP

Gary is Executive Chairman of Community Shop having been part of the team who trailblazed the UK's first social supermarket chain in 2013. For thirty years, he has worked across multiple sectors finding award winning new ways to deliver positive social impact. Gary has experience across the commercial, community, voluntary and social enterprise sectors and is also Chair and Non Executive Director of several food access organisations.

LEE WOOD, TRADING DRECTOR, COMPANY SHOP GROUP

Lee has over 30 years’ experience in the FMCG sector, having started his career working for the family frozen food retail business – working up from the shop floor to buying director. Following the sale of the business he undertook several consultancy roles within food manufacturing, followed by five years with Grampian Country Food Group. Lee joined Company Shop Group in 2002 and helps leading food retailers and manufacturers to build sustainable routes to redistribute their stock.

Warming Up Freezer Cabinets

Energy use by retail freezer cabinets contributes significantly to Ice Cream's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and reducing these emissions is essential to reach net zero. Warming up freezer cabinets can be part of the solution, providing benefits for the planet, retailers and the industry as a whole. Early pilot results are encouraging and industry wide change will be needed to move forward.

Jeremy Harrison is the Head of Sustainability, Ice Cream and joined Unilever in June 2023. Jeremy holds an Ecology Degree (Edinburgh University), an MBA (IMD, Lausanne) and a Masters in Sustainability Leadership (Cambridge University). Prior to joining Unilever, Jeremy worked across several sectors such as FMCG (Diageo, P&G, Maxxium), Business Consulting (PWC), Agriculture (Syngenta) and Sustainability (Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)) in roles extending across Business Development, Marketing and Sustainability.

Trade with Europe.

We will give a view from the coalface of exporting to the EU with examples and advice on avoiding some of the pittfalls, common mistakes and how to overcome hurdles to ease the journey of goods to and from the continent.

Peter has been working in international trade for most of his career. He spent over 15 years promoting UK Food and Drink Exports across DACH and CEE from the British embassy in Vienna. For the past seven years he has been responsible for business development at roswel.

roswel is an Austrian chilled and frozen transport and logistics specialist. The UK has been at the very heart of our business for over 20 years. Despite Brexit, we remain committed to the UK, helping our customers navigate the processes and keeping the flow of goods going with minimum disruption. We run our fleet of multitemp vehicles to and from the EU every week. We also offer a range of storage and logistics solutions from our HQ in Wels.

Northern Irish Border.

Robert will cover the customs and border processes linked to exporting and importing as well as the Windsor Framework simplifications, labelling requirements and the use of the ‘green lane’.

Robert is the CEO & Founder of the EORI Group of companies who provide expert customs advice and brokerage 24hours a day, every day.  EORI are part of the Trader Support Services consortium as w ell as being one of the largest independent customs agents in the UK today.   Before Brexit, Robert ran the customs and freight terminal at the Port of Dover and prior to that was Freight Director of P&O Ferries and Commercial Director of EurotunnelPlus.   Robert was award UK-Ireland Business Person of the year 2023 by the All Ireland Business Foundation.