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RETAIL, CONSULTING AND TECHNICAL SERVICES
Well done to Ash, new BDM
McDonalds – preferred suppliers for food safety audits
Heathrow Airport - work expanded to risk compliance audits across all
managed and tenanted areas
Goals Soccer Centres – food safety consultancy and audit programme
Gather & Gather – food safety audits at Lloyds Bank premises
Unilever T2 – labelling compliance across eight countries
Barilla – olive oil supplier audits
Isagenix – labelling compliance work for sports nutrition powder
Renewals
Greene King – retail food safety audits
Prezzo – retail food safety audits and food quality testing
AGRICULTURE
Waiting for news on two big tenders:
Quality Meat Scotland (QMS)
Universal Feed Assurance Scheme (UFAS)
SPAIN
IBERIA Airlines – supplier auditing and micro-testing
Grupo VIPS – implementation of FSSC 22000 across their restaurant
chains
New Business Wins
Top News
Welcome to our new UK Managing Director
First impressions from Rob Chester
NSF Business Insights Winter 2016
INTERNAL DISTRIBUTION ONLY
Events
HR News
RETAIL, CONSULTING AND TECHNICAL SERVICES
Takeaway Expo 2016, 27-28 September, 2016
The Restaurant Show, 3-5 October, 2016
Compass Group Supplier Conference, 21-22 September, 2016
AGRICULTURE
Cream Awards, 15 September, 2016
GLOBALG.A.P. Summit, 27-29 September, 2016
Farmers Guardian British Farming Awards, 20 October, 2016
Coming up:
Food and Farming Industry Awards, 11 December, 2016
SPAIN
Fruit Attraction exhibition
New starters
Jo Pugh, new RTS Account Manager
Duncan Parkinson, Crops Scheme Manager
Emma Sully, Helen Blackwell and Abby Condon in Ag
Personal news
Congrats to Will Smith on the birth of his daughter
Bitesized training dates
Updates
RETAIL, CONSULTING AND TECHNICAL SERVICES
Working with the FSA to help shape the future of regulation in the UK
People Profiles: Getting to know Jackie Healing, Consulting &
Technical Services Director
A Day in the Life of…Adam Longford. Would this be a job for you?
Food fraud training in South Africa
AGRICULTURE & CERTIFICATION
NSF Traceable Down standard approved by Debenhams
Two new BRC modules now available for our clients: Imports to the US
and food safety culture
Certification renewals standing up despite heavy competition in
Crops and Beef & Lamb
New NSF Scottish office in Edinburgh – meeting rooms available
NSF Kitchen Compliance package launched
Association of Labour Providers (ALP) and NSF help stamp out modern
slavery
‘Raised Without Antibiotics’ – our new verification programme
‘Non GM Verification’ – EMEA provides consultancy and support for
exporters to US
Introducing our Training Services by Dawn Fassam
Health and Safety Update by Steve Wood
Winter is coming!! Important news for car drivers
New developments and initiatives
Welcome to our new UK
Managing Director – some first
impressions from Rob Chester
Well the top news is still the arrival of our new UK
MD, Rob Chester, although he has been in post
for over a month now and most of us already
know quite a lot about him. Here he is talking
about his impressions after his first few weeks:
“First off, I am really pleased with the way
people have responded to my request for
feedback and warts-and-all views of the
organisation. I have spoken or communicated
with over 100 people and I think this has given
me a really good handle on what make us tick
in the UK business. I am now working to set out
some clear principles of how we work together
as we go forward. So a big thank you to all of
you and can I say again how pleased I am to
be leading the team here.
My next move now will be to talk to clients and
understand in a similar way what they like and
don’t like about us and how we can improve
our service to them in the future. My working
principle is that as a company and as individuals
we should be “easy to do business with”.
We start as we mean to go on and I am determined that we will be an open and transparent
business where information, good and bad, is shared as a matter of course. I said I would talk about my
strategy for the future at the Christmas conference and my thoughts on this are already taking shape.
Following on from the successful town hall event, I look forward to updating you further on the new vision
and strategy soon.
So, Christmas is almost here and everyone deserves a good break. A very big thank you for all your hard
work this year and roll on the famous Christmas party – I’m only a little bit scared!”
NSF Business Insights Winter 2016
INTERNAL DISTRIBUTION ONLY
New Business Wins
Retail, Consulting & Technical Services
We’ve been storming in the last few months and well done to Ashvini Pancholi-Dhillon (Ash) who
moved to the position of Business Development Manager in August and has already made an
impact, getting a lot of interest from small businesses and mid-sized chain brands in the retail,
casual dining and foodservice sectors. We are also gaining new business from existing clients,
which is a great testament to all the teams involved.
McDonalds – We
have been
accepted as a
preferred supplier
by McDonalds for
food safety
audits. This means that we can
now pitch for work with the large
McDonalds franchises, so it is a big
opportunity for us. We have
previously been doing work in the
supply base, but this is the first
chance to work directly with the
restaurants.
Heathrow Airport – We have
worked with Heathrow for quite a
few years, carrying out their food
safety and health & safety audits
in the airport food concessions.
Now we are working across all the
areas they let out to tenants,
including workshops and offices,
carrying out operational risk
compliance audits, in areas such
as health & safety, legionella,
electrical compliance, building
safety etc.
Goals Soccer Centres – Goals is
the world’s largest operator of
dedicated 5-a-side centres with
over 500 synthetic surface pitches
across 47 FA accredited centres.
We carried out a consultancy
analysis of their food safety policy
and procedures in their clubhouse
bar and food areas, led by Jerry
Houseago, and will be auditing all
their premises this year, followed
by a twice-yearly audit
programme. We won the work
after being recommended by a
former client who now acts as a
consultant.
Goals plan to open new centres
across the UK and USA, so NSF is in
a very positive position.
Gather & Gather
– This is another
existing client for
whom we have
been doing supply chain work.
They are the contract catering
division of the Mitie Group to
whom Lloyds Bank has outsourced
all their catering facilities. We
carried out food safety audits
across their offices in October and
are confident that more work will
develop from here.
Unilever T2 –
This tea
packaging
company is an
Australian
subsidiary of
Unilever. It exports all types of tea
to the EU, Hong Kong and China.
Jerry and Bob pitched for the
work, which we are carrying out
jointly with Euroconsultants, to
complete the labelling
compliance work for 12 of their
products across eight countries.
Barilla –
We are
conducting audits of their olive oil
suppliers to ensure their controls
are sufficiently robust. Olive oil is
one of the products that has
recently come under the spotlight
as being very vulnerable to food
fraud.
Isagenix – This US producer of
sports nutrition powder has
appointed NSF to do the labelling
compliance work for its exports to
the UK.
Renewals
Greene King – has reappointed
NSF to carry out their retail food
safety audits.
Prezzo – We faced tough
competition with this renewal, so
very well done to the team. Our
relationship is progressing well,
from initially doing only food
safety audits in their restaurants, to
now also assessing food quality –
to ensure it meets customer
expectations and Prezzo’s
specifications. Our safety auditors
now have to assess the look and
taste of the food, ordering a
random selection of dishes – nice
work if you can get it.
Updates
Retail, Consulting & Technical Services
We have submitted two big
tenders recently – to Quality Meat
Scotland (QMS) and to Universal
Feed Assurance Scheme (UFAS) to
undertake assessment and
certification activities on behalf of
their schemes. We will hear the
outcome of QMS in December
and UFAS after Xmas, plus another
smaller tender for Biofertiliser
(PAS110) – fingers crossed for all!
IBERIA Airlines (part of the IAG
Group alongside British Airway) -
We have won their second party
supplier auditing programme and
will also be providing their
catering services with a food
micro-testing programme through
a sub-contracted laboratory
service in Madrid.
Grupo VIPS – one of the largest
Spanish catering groups with more
than 300 stores in Spain and
Portugal. They are the sole
Starbucks licensee for the Spanish
and Portuguese markets.
Following successful completion of
a consultancy project and HACCP
validation exercise, we have been
commissioned to develop a
roadmap to implement FSSC
22000 in their restaurant chains.
Helping the FSA to shape
the future of regulation in
the UK
Regulating Our Future is a
major FSA project to redesign the
whole regulatory framework in the
UK, to ensure it keeps pace with
innovation in the food sector,
makes best use of new
technologies and is fit for the
future. For example it must also be
able to adapt to our new
relationship with the European
Union.
The programme also includes the
Food Hygiene Rating Scheme
(FHRS). The FSA is proposing to use
third party providers such as NSF
to deliver the FHRS scheme and
to introduce paid-for (by food
businesses) elements in the
system. This is potentially a huge
opportunity for NSF Retail Services.
The FSA has been carrying out
consultations with consumers,
manufacturers and retailers this
year and Michelle Hardy-King’s
team has been closely involved.
On 09 September we invited
about 20 of our retail clients to
meet the FSA at a forum held at
Eynsham Hall. A feather in our
cap is that both the FSA’s CEO,
Catherine Brown, and their
Director of Wales and Local
Delivery, Nina Purcell, thought it
was important to be there, along
with several other FSA
representatives.
The all-day session discussed the
reasons for change and what
form that might take, as well as
what works well now and what
should be done differently. The
meeting was judged by all to be
very productive and has
cemented our already strong
relationship with the FSA.
The programme continues with
two pilots involving our clients and
ourselves to assess the approach
and calibration of audits carried
out by different providers and
how to apply and manage the
programme consistently. MHK has
also been invited to sit on the
expert advisory panel to the
programme. It seems that the FSA
really value our input and advice.
Agriculture and Spain
Getting to know
Jackie Healing
Our new CTS Director, Jackie
Healing, has hit the ground
running in her usual energetic
style. An old friend of NSF, or CMi
as we then were, Jackie says she is
very pleased to be part of a
company that she has always
respected as a client for its
innovation and insights combined
with a pragmatic commercialism.
And, of course, to be working with
such a nice bunch of people!
Jackie will be heading up her CTS
team of Jerry Houseago, Dianne
Waite and Mandy Lucas. She is a
longstanding technical expert
who has worked across a broad
range of food and non-food
sectors in supermarket retail and
has very deep knowledge of
responsible sourcing – in other
words a commitment to ensuring
that the food we source in the
supply chain is safe, quality and
fairly and ethically produced.
“I really believe we have a strong
responsibility for the food we eat
and a duty to customers to ensure
that everyone involved in buying
and selling food gets a fair deal. I
am passionate about bringing
sustainable food to the mass
market.”
Facts about Jackie
Recently returned from
Australia where she for worked
for 10 years
Is strongly solutions oriented
Believes in building great
working teams and trusting
them to do their best
Has hands-on experience of
running a pub with her husband
An animal lover, she has been
riding since she was six years
old and has competed in two-
day eventing
Has a rescue dog called Benny
who is 18 months old, weighs 39
kilos and is 10 ft long – it was a
bit of a surprise when her sweet
little puppy grew up. It turns out
that what she believed was a
whippet cross is actually a bull
mastiff/greyhound cross!
Jackie’s mantra: “We must all be
the best we possibly can.”
Something that she applies to
work, rest and play.
A Day in the Life of…
Adam Longford
Adam is
often
better
known as
the son of
our much
loved
former
receptionist,
Joy, who
retired 18 months ago. However,
never in his mother’s formidable
shadow, he has forged a rapid
and successful career in Retail
and Technical Services at NSF,
thanks to his evident talent and
drive. Formerly Team Manager
South West, Adam has now
moved to Team Manager
Midlands after his excellent
performance in his first manager
role. He works in Steve Nelson’s
operations team.
We asked Adam to tell us what a
typical day looks like in his new
job. Would this be a job for you?
First thing, I check my emails,
contact safety advisers who
haven’t been in touch the night
before to say they are safely
home, and run a system sweep.
Then I make sure that the audit
records are uploaded, schedules
sorted out and all the admin is in
order. This takes me about an
hour.
At about 9 am I probably set off
to carry out an unannounced
audit, for example at Costa
Coffee, and this takes me through
to about 11.30.
I will often then do a shadow
inspection with one of my safety
advisers. The aim of a shadow
inspection is to assess the adviser’s
knowledge, how well they deliver
the audit, their report writing, and
how well they give feedback to
the client and build a rapport with
them. After that I have to
complete a report form. One
copy goes to the adviser and
another is uploaded onto the
GRIP system (Global Resource
Integrity Portal) which is our
management tool for integrity
and enables all NSF divisions to
share information on employee
qualifications, training and cali-
bration. Employees are also able
to log onto this to view their own
progress throughout the year.
After about 3.30 I will drive home
to do more admin. Once a week I
send an update to Steve Nelson
on team progress that week,
including movement of work,
annual leave and sick leave. I also
have to provide WFST (our
external fire safety service
provider) with a weekly tasking
sheet to ensure that all the fire risk
assessments created are in the
process of being completed by
assessors.
Then a final check of the emails
and a look at my texts to make
sure my team are safely home
before signing off for the day.
The food industry in South Africa is
still getting to grips with the impact
of food fraud on the consumer
following the ‘horsegate’ scandal.
Woolworths, a top end retailer in
Southern Africa, approached NSF
Africa in July to provide food fraud
training for their suppliers,
requesting that the UK’s Kevin
Swoffer conduct the sessions.
AIG, Woolworths’ insurers,
provided the funding and in
October four one-day workshops
were run for 250 supplier
representatives. The course
feedback was very positive and
Woolworths is impressed with the
training outcome. Requests for
additional supplier training
workshops where received and a
useful overview was also provided
to their buyers and commercial
managers at head office.
Food Fraud Training in South Africa
NSF Traceable Down
Standard
The NSF
Traceable
Down
standard has
been
approved
by
Debenhams, following a
presentation to their ethical
trading team by Mandy Lucas.
Mandy has now also been invited
to present to the Debenhams
category technologists.
This is an important profile raiser
for us, as we are the first into the
UK market. The next step will be
ostrich feather certification.
Renewals It’s a busy time of the year as we
work through many of our farm
certification member renewals. It
looks like our figures are standing
up well despite facing direct price
competition in both our Crops
and Beef & Lamb sectors. By and
large our clients remain
convinced of our superior
customer service, long heritage
and good reputation in the
market place, so well done to the
team in the field.
Food Certification –
new BRC offers
The BRC ‘FSMA Preventive
Controls Preparedness Module
and Guidance for BRC-Certified
Facilities’ is an additional
voluntary module now available
to help manufacturers comply
with the new requirements for
imports into the US.
The BRC Food Safety
Culture Module is part
of the BRC’s
Culture Excellence
programme. It
analyses the culture in the
workplace and is carried out in
addition to the food safety audit.
An effective culture drives the
right standards of behaviour and
attitudes at all levels of the
business. This module provides an
understanding of a site’s
culture and the areas for action.
New Scottish Office – meeting rooms available
The NSF branding is now proudly
displayed on the windows of our
new office at The Rural Centre,
Ingliston, Edinburgh, the furniture
has arrived and we have started
to use the space for both
customer and internal meetings.
There are also two other meeting
rooms – a board room and a
larger training room – which are
available for use free of charge.
For further information or to use
the facilities, please contact Tim.
NSF Kitchen Compliance
package launched
We have just launched our ‘NSF
Kitchen Compliance’ service for
small businesses. This is a one-stop
food safety and health & safety
compliance package aimed at
businesses with less than 10 sites.
For an annual fee businesses get
access to services including:
food, health and fire safety
manuals and support
e-learning for CIEH accredited
courses
the NSF helpline
food poisoning investigation
support
compliance audits for FHRS
NSF Online
account management
support.
The service is similar to that
provided for Just Eat partners,
who have their own tailored
package.
For more
information
ask Craig
Adams or see
brochure here.
New developments and initiatives
Retail, Consulting & Technical Services
Association of Labour
Providers (ALP) and NSF help
stamp out modern slavery
Modern slavery is very much in
focus at the moment following
the introduction of the Modern
Slavery Act and the provision of
an extra £33 million by the Prime
Minister to crackdown on illegal
practices. ALP is the specialist
trade association for labour
providers, which aims to ensure
good practice in the provision,
use and management of labour
in the supply chain. ALP has
partnered with NSF to develop a
new scheme called Clearview, a
certification scheme for labour
providers, focussing on the
conditions faced by un/low skilled
workers who are recruited and
supplied by the labour providers
to work in the supply chain.
NSF provides the scheme
management, administration and
registration. It is very good news
for us to be seen at the forefront
of this important initiative.
Agriculture & Certification
Introducing our Training
Services
In March this year Dawn Fassam
took on the new role of Head of
Technical Services and Training,
reporting to Jerry Houseago, with
the mission of bringing together all
our various training work in
Retail and Supply Chain services
and developing a full UK training
offer.
Although we are not widely
known for our training services, in
fact we offer both nationally
accredited certified training
through CIEH, and as a training
centre for Highfield, as well as a
range of bespoke courses. Our
courses range from Level 2 Food
Safety for kitchen staff right
through to Gold Standard training
for Tesco managers. As an
accredited training provider for
BRC, we also train international
auditors in specific auditing skills
including HACCP and food fraud.
The biggest project and feather in
the cap for Dawn and her team is
the training they are doing for
Morrison’s to complement our
supplier audit work. We provide
three different courses for their
suppliers.
The team are currently gearing up
for a big marketing push next
year, with the help of Chris Slack
and Alex Davey-Turner and there
are several new courses in the
offing. If you get the chance
when you are out and about do
mention this new facility to your
clients.
Dawn and her team – Sophie
Atlas (senior training coordinator),
Kate Griffin and Licia Corby-Brown
(training coordinators) now have
their own office in Unit 22
between Accounts and IT and
said they will be pleased to host
visitors. Dawn let slip they have
treats box, so get down there
quick!
Agriculture
‘Raised without Antibiotics’ Governments around the world
are trying to raise awareness of
the accelerating spread of
microbial resistance due to the
widespread use of antibiotics in
both animal and human
treatment. Globally, antibiotic use
is split roughly evenly between
animal and human use. NSF’s new
Raised without Antibiotics
standard has been trialled with
large poultry suppliers in Thailand
for an Asian customer and there is
interest from other processing
customers too. It is to be formally
launched in Thailand soon.
The UK meat industry is not
expected to adopt this standard
as it is actively pursuing a responsi-
ble use approach and already
claims that UK livestock now ac-
counts for less than 37% of total UK
antibiotic usage.
See infographic on how antibiotic
resistance spreads here
Non GM Verification – big business
in North America
Consumer polls in 2015 found that
93% of Americans and 88% of
Canadians support labelling of
genetically modified organisms
(GMOs). Over 36,000 products in
North America are now registered
as ‘Non GMO Verified’ of which
about 20% are imported into the
US from other countries. For
exporters to North America non
GMO verification therefore
represents both an opportunity
and, increasingly, a competitive
requirement.
NSF EMEA
can now
provide
consulting
support and
guidance for
EMEA food
businesses
who require
Non-GMO Project Verification to
export finished food products to
the US market, helping them to
understand the issues, how to
comply and how to prepare for
verification. We can also assist
businesses that only need to
ensure legal compliance in the US,
where disclosure of GMO/Non
GMO on packaging is still
voluntary at the moment.
Update on HS at
Long Hanborough
Following my report to the board
of directors on our current health
and safety management, there
are several action points for
everyone to consider:
Whilst as a business our operations
are relatively low risk and the
record of employee safety is high,
with no serious accidents, injury
and ill health, we must make sure
we meet the legal requirements of
the Health and Safety at Work Act
1974 and associated regulations.
There are some key areas of our
health and safety policy that are
currently under review and we
need to ensure that our risk
assessment processes are
updated for all areas of the
business.
A key to improving safety
standards within our organisation
will be training and instruction for
employees so that our safety
policies are better understood. We
will update induction training to
include specific risks such as
manual handling, use of display
screen equipment, driver safety
and travel safety and any other
key business risks as they arise.
During October we provided fire
warden training at the Long
Hanborough offices to improve
our standards of fire safety. Thanks
to all that volunteered and those
attending.
We are also working to improve
safety standards and procedures
for external contractors who work
on our facilities and premises,
improve internal procedures for
accident reporting and update
our provision for first aiders.
We appreciate that there is some
work ahead for us all to reach
these goals and that it will require
everyone’s co-operation.
I am available for any health and
safety advice and can be
available to attend your team
meetings to give safety
presentations and updates as
requested, so please do not
hesitate to contact me:
Our overall aim is to ensure that
we have good health and safety
practice within the business. The
benefits will speak for themselves –
a safer work environment, lower
impact from accident and ill
health and ensuring that your
safety is paramount whilst working
with NSF.
Health & Safety Update – by Steve Wood
NSF safety committee
meeting
The NSF Oxford safety committee
meets four times a year to discuss
health and safety arrangements
for both office and field based
staff.
We discuss any health and safety
actions raised internally and follow
up on accident and incidents to
improve safety standards. It is your
mouthpiece for raising concerns
as to how NSF manages safety
and to request amendments to
our company policies etc. These
need to be sent to the board of
directors for approval.
If you have any HS concerns or
issues please contact:
raise it with your safety committee
representatives: Karen Collins, Tom
Wood, Steve Bennett, John Brown,
Lorraine Cooper, Fiona Roberts,
Kevan Dickinson and Sue Pimm.
Accident/Incident reporting
procedures
As a reminder, please continue to
report any accidents or ill health
caused at work and any work
related potential accidents,
incidents or near misses.
Our accident book is currently
located on reception and must
be used to detail accidents/
incidents with 24hrs.
We also have an accident report
form that can be downloaded
from our health and safety web
page on the UK intranet, for use
by those who are not office
based.
Please contact:
for any further assistance.
Winter is coming!! Important
news for car drivers
Tom Wood, our fleet
management assistant, has made
available winter driving safety
packs, which are free to all lease
and registered grey fleet vehicle
drivers, so please make sure that
you pick up your complimentary
pack by arrangement with
We can also offer a discounted
winter pack to all other employees
and a sample is available in
reception. If you are interested in
purchasing one please get in
touch with Tom.
Grey Fleet Commitment – our
driver safety commitment also
includes employees who drive
their own vehicles for company
business on a regular basis. If you
drive on behalf of NSF, please
ensure that your driver and
vehicle details have been sent to
Tom Wood, so that we have them
logged on our driver safety
systems.
As a general reminder – NSF
regards driver safety as
paramount and an updated
company car policy is on its way
to all drivers.
Can we remind all company
drivers that it is your responsibility
to ensure your vehicle is well
maintained and to practise safe
driving, especially following any
festivities over Christmas.
We have started updating our
HS website – just click on the tab
at the top of our UK intranet
page. A massive thanks to Suzie
Marston who has helped
develop this.
This is your one-stop location for
any HS information you require,
including company policies and
procedures and other useful links
such as first aid, HSE information
and guidance, AA Drive Tech
and Simply Health.
We will continue to update this
page as and when new policies
and procedures are approved
by the board of directors.
Any additional feedback is
always welcome:
First aid training
19 January 2017 We have a one-day first aid at
work course to boost our first aid
provision at Long Hanborough.
Volunteers welcome, please
contact [email protected].
Web page news!!
Takeaway Expo 27-28
September, 2016
This is the leading event for
takeaways and restaurants, held
at the ExCel London and
attended by over 300 suppliers of
all kinds to the sector. Just Eat was
the principal sponsor and their
stand took pride of place at the
centre of the exhibition hall. We
were delighted to be invited to
share their stand alongside their
team, to meet and update their
restaurant/takeaway partners
and give them advice.
We provide food safety services
to their 27,000 plus restaurant and
takeaway partners, with a focus
on improving their FHRS scores.
The aim is to bring the takeaway
sector into the 21st century and to
help them compete effectively
against the giant chains like
McDonalds and Burger King. Just
Eat also now have a number of
groups on their books, including
Papa Johns and Domino’s. Now
that we have been working with
Just Eat for a year our contract
allows us to target partners who
need help directly.
Their MD, Graham Corfield, spoke
at the conference on market
trends, the future of delivery, the
food sector and health. It could
not have been better for our
profile.
Events
Retail, Consulting & Technical Services
Compass holds a big conference
every year at the ExCel centre. It is
an opportunity for their supply
partners to meet Compass Group
contacts, to give suppliers an
update and network. This year
there was a full programme of
speakers, workshop sessions and
networking opportunities across
the two days. Although we have
attended in the past it was the first
time NSF has exhibited there. It
was a great opportunity for us to
raise our profile with both
Compass personnel and suppliers.
Compass has been a very big
client for us for over 12 years. We
provide a number of different
services, including three food
safety technical placements in
their Brakes distribution
departments, a complaints
investigation service at Compass
sites, supply chain services and
second party audits.
The Restaurant Show
3-5 October, 2016
We also shared a stand with Just
Eat at the Restaurant Show, in
order to meet their territory
managers, partners and some of
the catering associations they deal
with. For example, recently we
were with the Asian Catering
Federation to promote our work
and help them understand the
importance of FHRS and the
impending prospect of mandatory
score displays.
Compass Group Supplier
Conference, 21-22
September, 2016
We have been involved in a number of events large and small this year, all of which are a lot of
work for the teams involved – big thanks are due to Jo Bailey, Alex Davey-Turner, Julia Summers
and to our managers and field teams who attended the events and manned the stands.
Our three biggest events in the autumn season are the Cream Awards and GLOBALG.A.P.
Conference in September and the Food & Farming business Awards in December. This year we
also sponsored the Farmers Guardian British Farming Awards.
Agriculture
Cream Awards,
15 September, 2016
Once again NSF sponsored the
Food Chain Marketing award and
hosted the finalists at the Awards
dinner.
The winner was the Organic Milk
Suppliers Cooperative (OMSCO)
for their Kingdom Cheddar, which
is mainly exported to the US.
The runner-up, Yorvale Ltd, won
for their kefir, a creamy fermented
milk product a bit like yoghurt.
Tesco was commended for their
Fair for Farmer’s Guarantee which
guarantees every pint of milk they
sell is 100% British. It also gives
customers information on the fair
price Tesco pledges to pay to its
dairy farmers. This will potentially
have a very positive impact on
the 600 British farmers who make
up the Tesco Sustainable Dairy
Group (TSDG).
GLOBALG.A.P. Summit,
27-29 September, 2016
The theme of the summit was ‘The
Future of Farm Certification’ and
marked 20 years of their global
assurance partnerships and 15
years of Good Agricultural
Practices (GAP) certification.
GLOBALG.A.P. is one of the
world’s biggest farm assurance
standards and the summit is our
most important networking event
for international certification,
when the Agriculture and
Certification teams have the
opportunity to meet both
suppliers and specifiers.
We sponsored the breakout
sessions and had a high profile
position for our pop-up display
stand and marketing material.
The summit was opened by Prince
Pieter-Christiaan van Oranje-
Nassau, of the Dutch royal family,
and as NSF was one of the
sponsors, he was pleased to
meet the main celebrities there,
Amanda McCarthy and Rob
Evans.
Above : Tim Green with Nic Parsons, TESCO Fair
Price for Farmers
Farmers Guardian -
British Farming Awards,
20 October 2016
NSF sponsored the Outstanding
Contribution to British Agriculture
award for the first time this year.
The winner was Donald Curry or
Lord Curry of Kirkharle. He is
Chairman of the Prince’s
Countryside Fund and has had a
distinguished career including
as Chairman of the Meat and
Livestock Commission where
he met our own Tim Green
who knows him well. When
making the award Tim ruefully
reflected on the fact that
Donald is now in the House of
Lords while he hasn’t moved
on from selling farm
assurance!
Food and Farming Industry
Awards, 11 December, 2016
One of our most prestigious
events, NSF will be presenting the
Champion Sustainable Farm
Practices award at the dinner to
be held at the Houses of
Parliament on 11 December. No
doubt competition internally to
get a seat at our table will be
intense – as always!
Other events
We have also been active in
supporting smaller livestock events
throughout the UK as this gives us
valuable profile at grass roots in
the farming community. We
attended the Royal Highland
Show in June, where we used the
opportunity to meet scheme
owners and farming union
representatives, helping to
develop our relationships. We
sponsored the Arable Event in
Shropshire in June and our
managers also ‘walked’ the
Livestock Event at the NEC in July,
keeping up important contacts
with customers and influencers.
On the calendar are:
03-05/01/17 Oxford Farming
Conference, Oxford
12/01/17 Nottingham Farm
Conference, Sutton Bonnington
15-16/06/17 Cereals, Boothby
Graffoe, Lincolnshire
Tim Green is continuing his series
of talks at agricultural colleges
around the country over the next
three months, explaining farm
assurance and flying the flag for
NSF Agriculture.
SPAIN - Fruit Attraction,
Madrid, 5 -7 October
The Fruit Attraction exhibition is an
annual event for the fruit and
vegetable industry, particularly for
Spanish producers and distributors,
producers from Europe and Latin
America. NSF Spain did not exhibit
but it was a great opportunity to
network with existing and new
clients and other industry
contacts. HR News
R.A.B.I. Welly Week 2016 –
(Royal Agricultural Benevolent
Institution )
Thank you to all of you who
supported ‘Wear Wellies to Work’
day on Friday 04 November and
to all of you who donated – we
collected a grand total of £74.51.
As you know names were put into
a hat and the winner of the
calendar was Peter Lay –
congratulations to him.
Charity News
Above : Tim Green presenting Lord Don Curry with his award
Jo Pugh, our
new RTS
Account
Manager,
joined the
team on 19
September.
Reporting to
Gail West-
wood-Payne, Jo will be
responsible for the management
of several accounts within the
team and has significant industry
experience having worked for
local authorities as well as the
WSH Group (owners of Baxter
Storey, Benugo and Searcys
amongst other food service hospi-
tality brands).
Duncan
Parkinson took
over as Crops
Scheme
Manager on 03
October but
has been
working for NSF
since the start
of 2016. He has
been involved
in reviewing and recruiting new
assessor support and has also
played a large part in training and
coaching existing NSF assessors
through their Red Tractor exams.
Duncan says, “I am enjoying the
challenge of my new role. Since
2011 I have worked in agricultural
quality assurance at both assessor
and management levels across
crops and livestock schemes.
Coming from a mixed farming
family, I have always lived and
worked within agricultural
communities.”
Duncan has a passion for Rugby
League, cricket and exercise and
has had some success showing
sheep at local and national
shows.
Helen Blackwell - New Livestock
Team Leader
I joined the team on 30 August,
after working for NSF since
January 2016 in
the RCTS
division of the
business. I spent
the prior eight
years in retail
management,
during which
time I also
completed my
degree in
international business. I look
forward to working with you all
and learning all you have to offer,
so that my team can support our
assessors and admin team to
provide the highest levels of
customer service to our scheme
members.
Helen
Abbie Condon - New
Customer Service Team Leader
I joined NSF at
the end of
July as a
customer
service team
leader within
the Crops and
Produce
section. I’m
new to the
industry, but in the short time that I
have been here I have learnt so
much already.
Having previously worked for a
very successful equestrian sales
website for eight years I look
forward to taking on this new role
with my usual enthusiasm and
vigour to ensure a smooth, effi-
cient and happy working
relationship between the fantastic
and dedicated administrators,
assessors and members alike.
Kind regards,
Abbie
Emma Sully, Harper
graduate, returns to
NSF Agriculture
Hello all!
I have
re-joined
NSF as
Technical
Operations
Assistant
after
completing
my degree
at Harper Adams University. I look
forward to working with you all
again and getting to know any
new assessors who have joined
since my placement year.
My role will include liaising with
assessors, office staff and certifica-
tion managers, as well as helping
to ensure we meet scheme specif-
ic KPIs, including the delivery of
audits on time.
It’s good to see you all again!
Emma
New Starters
Bitesized Training
Sessions run between 12 and 1pm
in the training room. Further dates
will be published in the New Year.
You can join a session on
BlueJeans, or if you miss a session
you can catch up on You Tube.
For details go to the intranet.
If anyone would like to run a
session, please just let us know.
No topic too small, all ideas
welcome.
Personal news
Will Smith - daughter no. 3
arrived on 18 September.
Josie was born at 6.04 am
weighing in at 9lb 7oz.
Congratulations to mum and
dad.
