Supermarket News Column: October Highlights
OCTOBER 2024 – Supermarket News
Writing about October almost feels like I’m penning an annual report given the breadth and depth of activity. Last month, I wrote about the role NZFGC plays in advocacy, as a strong voice of FMCG, and I wanted to use this month’s column to give readers insight into our other activities. NZFGC membership is voluntary, which isn’t the case for all industry organisations, and this keeps us focused on delivering what’s in our members’ best interests and supporting them to be the best they can be.
Driving industry best practice
NZFGC’s working groups have, for a long time, been pivotal as forums for discussion, advocacy and action, making a tangible impact across the industry. They’re set up to tackle key industry issues, each currently chaired by one of our board members. These include the Health and Regulatory group, which focuses on technology, nutrition and health in relation to communications, advocacy and voluntary or regulatory policies to improve the health and wellness of New Zealanders, while our SME group brings together operators to look at smaller supplier issues. The Supply Chain group works on logistics and efficiency, how to promote industry best practice – such as our ‘Winning in Summer, Winning Together’ summer stock availability programme, while the Sustainability committee focuses on actions we can take to move towards a more circular economy, contributing to initiatives such as the Plastic Packaging Product Stewardship scheme and improving recycling and food waste outcomes. Additionally, the Talent and Diversity group fosters attraction, retention, diversity and talent development within the sector and the Industry Relations group monitors industry relationships and looks for opportunities for issues resolution. These groups ensure the NZFGC remains proactive and responsive to how our members see our industry challenges.
Ensuring supplier voices are heard
Our advocacy is core to NZFGC’s mission – representing food, beverage, and grocery suppliers and manufacturers through various policy-making processes. From competition regulation to food safety, this month we’ve submitted on the Grocery Supply Code of Conduct review, proposed impost increases to imports and exports, proposed definitions of gene technology and breeding techniques and the proposed policy options for commercial infant food composition and labelling. Feedback has informed positions for upcoming agenda items at the Codex Committee for Food Labelling meeting next month in Canada and we’ve engaged with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) on several key food related issues members have raised with us, all ensuring that industry concerns are properly considered in policy-making processes.
Sharing insights for Industry
We hosted a well-attended Wholesale Supply Inquiry webinar with the Commerce Commission team, followed by a Q&A for members. Also on our agenda for October was a webinar to launch our campaign on ‘making this Summer the best stocked yet’ – supporting suppliers to plan early for steady product availability over the break. We worked with the Ministry for Women to seek views on the design for gender pay gap reporting. This tool, announced by the Government in June, aims to help businesses understand, share, and take action to close their gender pay gaps. To round off the month, we hosted a Digital Labelling Webinar with GS1 New Zealand highlighting the importance of aligning online product information with actual product labels.
Building Connections and Future Leaders
Several times a year, our Talent and Diversity Working Group hosts a Future Leaders Networking event, and this month guest speaker Lisa King, founder of AF Drinks, shared her career journey and what influenced her entrepreneurial path. It was fantastic to see such a strong turnout of emerging FMCG leaders coming together, it’s what this is all about.
While October has been a big month, just around the corner we have our biggest FMCG event of the year, NZGFC’s annual conference taking place 11-13 November in Wellington, our capital city at Tākina. But more on that in next month’s column…
