ith a career spanning several decades, Sainsbury's top-fruit technologist Theresa Huxley is not only a familiar face, but also a popular one, among British growers and suppliers alike.

Never scared to get out into the fields, Huxley attributes the success of her 18-year career at Sainsbury's to maintaining a 'close relationship' with growers.

Brought up on a mixed dairy farm in Shropshire, Huxley developed a keen interest in horticulture from a young age. 'I'll always remember helping out with growing in the fields when I was younger; that passion never really leaves you,' she explains.

After finishing a degree in environmental science at Newcastle University, Huxley followed that up with a PhD at Reading University and hit the ground running after her project using micropropagation to speed up the production of strawberries secured backing from East Malling Research in Kent.

'After my PhD I wrote a lot of grovelling letters to retailers and was fortunate that my letter to Sainsbury's happened to land on the right desk. You could say I didn't come in through the traditional graduate process,' she recalls with a fond smile.

Since joining up with the retail giant, Huxley has been somewhat of a chameleon, working as a technologist in everything from leafy salads and root veg to carbonated soft drinks. She currently heads up the retailer's top-fruit division and when pressed on her greatest achievement, proudly replies: the Concept Orchards.

Huxley helped Sainsbury's set up its first Concept Orchard in 2006 to address the problem that English farms were only producing around 20 tonnes per hectare of apples, a level of only a third of leading European competitors, and Huxley says they helped last year's apple season, in which 38,000 tonnes of British apples were sold, to run longer than ever before.

'Working with our growers and establishing Concept Orchards to develop new varieties, we're able to extend the British season and provide more home-grown apples up and down the country. The orchards have helped Sainsbury's sell the most amount (62) of apple varieties out of all British retailers.'

With the aftermath of this season's notoriously bad weather still prominent, Huxley concedes that the fresh produce industry is currently one of the most challenging environments she has experienced, and believes it is now time to invest in the future.

'We need to make this industry sexy again. If we don't get young people interested in agriculture then come 2020 there won't be much produce as the next generation of growers will not have the right kind of knowledge to work on commercial crops.'

Huxley's fears seem to be valid with the British Society for Plant Pathology (BSPP) stating in a recent report that the teaching of plant science is currently lost or greatly reduced at 11 British universities and colleges, and Huxley would like to see the Institute of Horticulture chartered to give more students an incentive to launch a career into the fresh produce industry.

Despite the impact of the recession still hurting trade, Sainsbury's has increased its share of the grocery market by 0.4 percentage points to 16.8 per cent on the last count, according to Kantar Worldpanel. There are also a number of interesting dynamics taking place at the value end of the retail spectrum, but Huxley feels the recent success of the discounters – Aldi now has a record share of three per cent – is not sustainable and won't threaten the big four.

'Yes, customers are now more price conscious, but Sainsbury's has the right mix of premium and value lines,' she points out. 'It is very easy to buy pockets of cheap fruit that a grower wants to get rid of and discounters are not properly planning at the moment. They are spot buying – that's why they have lots of cheap products and an unsustainable business model.'

A passionate gardener, Huxley's hobbies are not too far away from her nine to five. 'I grow a lot at home, enjoy walking through the countryside and love attending apple days where I can get an insight into unusual varieties. It's a dream job in that my passions are all connected to my role.' Huxley's next big challenge will be working with Sainsbury's growers and producers to move towards the retailer's commitment to double its amount of British-sourced produce by 2020, and she admits that creativity is a must.

'We have to think outside the box on how we do it so I'm setting up contact between growers and producers of products such as pies and juices as getting as much food to implement British-sourced fruit as possible will help us reach our targets.'

Working with growers and lowering specifications of damaged fruit has been key to minimalising damage to this year's top-fruit crop, according to Huxley, and she believes this year's low yields and bad weather will be a 'one off'. And with her career at Sainsbury's approaching the two-decade mark and despite a workload heavier than ever before, Huxley's passion for the fresh produce industry shows no signs of fading.

'I do a day in the office and then do an apple walk and that's where I meet the real people. I've always loved agriculture so this job really is a dream come true.' —