Full Interview: CGF Talks to David Haines, Group CEO, Upfield

As a new member of the Consumer Goods Forum, my expectations are twofold. First and foremost, Upfield is a new company focused on the world of plant-based nutrition, and as this company evolves over the course of the next few years, I think it's quite appropriate that customers, consumers, and all stakeholders hold us to the values, expectations, and beliefs that the business isn't just about making money for one stakeholder. It's about our responsibility to the environment, our responsibility to society, and that is, if you will, one of my core beliefs that I believe we will be taking forward as a company. The second expectation is that the Consumer Goods Forum has a series of values and expectations, and we at Upfield, having looked and thought about this carefully, are very happy to be held to those values and expectations as we go forward. The third area is the whole message and consideration of sustainability in plastic—which is my favorite subject—plastic-free, and getting this company out of plastics around the world, frankly with every product that we sell anywhere in the world. We've set ourselves an ambitious target to hit that in a number of years. And finally, the fourth point is at a personal level. I'm looking forward to meeting and working with the professionals, the experts in the Consumer Goods Forum, wherever they be, whatever they happen to do, as an enriching part of my career, part of my life, and as part of my curious nature.

I really enjoy what I do, and I believe in transforming this company, Upfield, into the world's largest plant-based nutrition company. It's a very rewarding exercise across multiple fronts. There's clearly the opportunity of consumers around the globe—great tasting, natural products—but another part that I believe in strongly and passionately is about moving Upfield away from any plastics. It's something I've believed in for many years, not just recently because it's popular in certain markets, but I believe that the opportunity we have to reduce our carbon footprint, to get out of plastics around the globe, is a huge opportunity. To do that, working with industry peers in the Consumer Goods Forum, working with various constituencies around the globe, I think is part of our wider responsibility in society to move this agenda forward and take the lead on some of these big issues. Sometimes, if you're fortunate enough and humble enough to take these roles seriously, I think it's just about doing the right thing, and if I can participate and help lead that process in any small way, I'm very happy to do so.

Purpose, I honestly believe, is at the top of the agenda for all of us as we get out of bed every morning. Why are we, in fact, doing what we're doing? And I believe that Upfield has a clearly defined purpose as a company. It's what convinced me to come and do this role at Upfield—that this clearly defined purpose around great-tasting, natural products, free from plastic. I think it's a motivating factor. It's a reason to get out of bed in the morning to come and do what we do at Upfield, wherever we are, whatever role we have. And I think it's a fundamental reason to do what we do in terms of sustainability, something I've believed in for many, many years throughout most of my career, which hasn't been in the UK—it's been mostly in continental Europe. The things that we should do should be sustainable for the world in which we live and the world around us. I've always believed, and passionately believed, that the sustainability agenda is something we have to take seriously and we have to implement as a group of industry leaders in this industry, in the food industry, but also in other industries candidly, so that what we do is okay for the generations that come after us—many generations, multiple generations. I really hate to see what we've done to some of our oceans. I've tried to do my bit in previous roles, and I'll try and do my little bit here in terms of getting us out of our plastic packaging as quickly and properly as we can. I think that's just something that we need to do.

Collaboration—you can't do it on your own. The world is an integrated place across markets, across geographies, across supply chains, across customers with various stakeholders. We need to be part of an ecosystem that solves this issue together. We can take a lead role and do what we can do, of course we can and we will, but we need other people on board as well—other stakeholders, our consumers, our customers, our partners, our suppliers. It's a complicated ecosystem, and we're very happy, coming back to our purpose, to take our lead role as we go forward and create a new company, an insurgent company that challenges the norms of these kinds of things—not like some of the big food companies, to be honest, more like an insurgent startup—and we'll be challenging and take our lead.

Food waste is a real issue, and I think there are a number of things that consumer companies can do to educate consumers, to make them aware of the issues. There are things that we can do in our own processes as well. But in terms of a consumer perspective, awareness creation and communication around the issue is top of mind. In terms of recyclability, again, awareness of the issue—many markets have systems that are in place. In fact, I was involved in the original launch of DSD in Germany in the early '90s, where recyclability was introduced. That system works quite well and has worked quite well for a number of years, but like everything, we can improve everywhere across the globe. And again, I think that at Upfield we'd like to take a leading role in helping educate our consumers about these issues and doing what we can to improve the recyclability of our products and the products that we use, and the products that consumers use. It's our responsibility to help our consumers and to guide our consumers in this direction as we go forward.

Industry cannot solve the waste problems on its own. It's a large ecosystem in which we operate—various stakeholders, and whether it's our supplier base, our customer base, consumer base, there's a lot that we can do to help guide the conversation. But we can't solve it on our own. We all need to work together and to collaborate to solve this problem. We at Upfield are already a hundred percent recyclable, and that is a great claim—not everybody can say that of themselves—but I honestly think that's not enough. I think that recyclability is one thing, but some of these issues which recycle—and I know we promote them in our marketing—but I think much better than recycling is avoidance. We are planning to be plastic-free within a number of years. We're reviewing our processes, we're discussing with our suppliers, we're talking to our customers around the globe to do what we can. But at the end of the day, it's going to take a joint exercise by all of these stakeholders—a little bit every day by everybody, and we'll get there in the end. It's a passionate belief of ours and part of our purpose of the company. Upfield is to be plastic-free within a number of years, as fast as we possibly can.