The RE:fresh Partnership has lined up a series of hard-hitting industry leaders to be interviewed on-stage during this year’s Re:fresh Conference 2006.
There are now less than two weeks before the conference, at the London Marriott on May 11 and we would like to throw open the invitation to readers to participate in the interview by submitting your own questions in advance, by email, to Tommy Leighton at tommy@fpj.co.uk.
Time constraints dictate that we cannot ask every question, but we will select the most pertinent and include them during the day whichis split into five separate sections: suppliers, production, foodservice, wholesale and retail. The interviewees line up as follows:
• Suppliers - Laurence Olins, managing director, Poupart
• Production - Richard Hirst, chairman, NFU Horticulture Board
• Foodservice - Nigel Harris, managing director, Fresh Direct
• Wholesale - Gary Marshall, chairman, New Covent Garden Tenants Association; Nicholas Saphir, author of the 2002 report on the future of London’s wholesale sector
• Retail - Ed Garner, communications director, TNS Superpanel
For each sector, the interviews will follow a presentation, by Grant Thornton’s (GT) Duncan Swift, in which he will look at the sector-specific results of an in-depth industry survey carried out by the Re:fresh Partnership and GT in the early part of this year. As part of a high-value delegate fee of £199, each delegate will receive a free copy of the survey report - Fresh Thinking: insights into the present and future state of the UK fresh produce industry, available after Re:fresh 2006 for £299. A copy of the new Re:fresh Directory will also be provided to delegates.
The second part of each of the day’s five, three-pronged sessions will feature a DVD presentation of views on the relevant sector from 26 industry representatives, filmed in February and March. The DVDs will also be available to delegates.
See page nine for a conference programme or download it from www.refresh.eu/conference.
