A View From the Top: Ian Wright, chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation on the Brexit threat

Wright took the top spot at the industry body just in time to see food and drink become a key battleground in Brexit

Wright lives in rural Rutland with his wife of 30 years, who encouraged him to take the job at the Food and Drink Federation after 14 years at Diageo (Courtesy Photo)

Ian Wright, the 60-year-old chair of the Food and Drink Federation, once described himself as a “comprehensive school boy from Maidenhead who gave up science in 1974 and who once scored 8 per cent in a physics exam”.

That schoolboy has come a long way. Wright took the top spot at the non-profit, which represents UK food and drink manufacturers, in 2015 after a long and happy stint at Diageo, the world's largest producer of spirits and beer. He was just in time to see the food and drink industry become a key battleground during Brexit.

Food and drink has been intertwined with the UK’s decision to leave the EU from the start. Remember the woman on Question Time who claimed she changed her vote in the 2016 referendum after seeing a straight banana in a shop? Or when Tim Martin, chief executive of J D Wetherspoon, announced that the pub chain would only sell British booze after Brexit?

Then there are the sobering tales of the chlorine-washed chicken imports that will start flooding in from the US, food shortages and canned food being stockpiled.

Wright isn’t surprised. Food, he says, has always been a measure of national security: “The Government’s first duty, from ancient times, is to feed his or her people. The British food system is the envy of the world, with the most amazing array of food and availability, but we forget that 40 per cent of food, ingredients and key goods are imported.”

He notes that farmers and growers are already struggling to employ enough workers to pick soft fruit during the harvest.

“Normally there are 80,000 workers who come in every year to do the harvest, but last year 60,000 came because of currency and better jobs in Germany and Poland,” Wright says.

Two things happened: food prices rose and a fairly large proportion of the crop was left in the ground. This year, farmers planted fewer crops and the numbers of migrant fruit pickers able to get in for the harvest dropped to 50,000.

“All of those circumstances mean the availability and fabulous choice is under threat,” Wright says.

The Food and Drink Federation was founded in 1913 to represent the UK’s food and non-alcoholic drinks manufacturing industry. The food and drink sector now makes up for 19 per cent of total manufacturing in the UK, employing 400,000 people across 7,000 businesses. Wright says members’ concerns about the food supply during Brexit can be split into in three categories: availability, quality and price.

Availability is likely to be affected by customs and tariffs on exports and imports. But currency fluctuations could also put certain goods out of the price range of retailers and customers.

Wright speaks to me on the phone looking out on his garden in Rutland, two months before talk of stockpiling makes headlines, yet he is already certain the practice will take place: “Three or four months before we leave, you will see manufacturers and other retailers beginning to stockpile ingredients, because if they can’t be sure they can get them across the border, they will do what they can to protect the supply.”

The second threat is to the quality of UK food and drink after Brexit. Wright is familiar with the debate about UK food safety standards being too high, but he is skeptical that lower standards could be imposed without upsetting consumers: ”I suspect British consumers are unlikely to accept lower standards.”

Finally, Wright rubbishes the notion that food prices will be lower after Brexit. “This notion that Brexit will lead to lower food prices is total tosh,” he says. “Anyone who said that doesn’t understand the food supply chain.”

As chief executive, Wright’s job is to communicate these concerns to the Government and to regulators. “We bring the industry together,” Wright explains. “Over the last few years, the industry has gone from a few characters shouting at each other to trying to present a common voice between farmers and growers, retailers, restaurants, caterers, and takeaways.”

The body also works with the packaging industry, since 70 per cent of UK packaging is for food; and logistics, since 45 per cent of the road, rail and air journeys are for food. Wright says most of the the vans and lorries rumbling through London in the early hours of every morning are delivering food.

Wright lives far from the rumbling lorries in rural Rutland with his wife of 30 years, who encouraged him to take the job at the Food and Drink Federation after 14 years at Diageo, latterly as corporate affairs director. “I had such a great time at Diageo,” he says. “My wife said to me: ‘You can never recreate the same experience at Diageo, but you have the experience to make a difference in a different way.’”

Though he admits he “never imagined he’d be running a trade body”, he relishes the challenge of leading the Food and Drink Federation as it sets out to maintain or raise standards in the industry during Brexit. Success, he says, will depend on the industry’s ability to convey to one group in particular that their choice is under threat: consumers.

“When we can get their voices heard, consumers will be the most important group in the Brexit debate,” he says. “Politicians, take them on at your peril.”