Contrary to fears of its early demise, industry leaders have given the Fresh Produce Consortium’s Eat in Colour campaign the thumbs up, despite it failing to hit its initial fundraising targets.
A meeting of the FPC and campaign sponsors resulted in a willingness to push on with the campaign, regardless of the more limited funding.
Organisers had hoped to raise £500,000 a year for the proposed three-year project, but despite attempts to rally the industry to the cause by FPC chief executive Nigel Jenney, the campaign is thought to have only managed to raise half the amount it was aiming for.
Dick Brighten, past president of the FPC, said it was confident the funding will increase: “We’re not revealing the exact amount we’ve raised so far because we are hoping that it could soon change. We’ve got some very big companies on board already, but we’ve also got some very big players waiting in the wings.”
The FPC is continuing to play its cards close to its chest, but said it is likely to reveal the names of those supporting the campaign - thought to be more than 20 organisations - as well as the amount raised, in the coming weeks. Confirmed supporters include two of the UK’s leading retailers, Tesco and Asda.
Brighten said the meeting last week proved a big success, with the sponsors already signed up pledging unanimous support to push the campaign forward, in spite of the funding situation. “We do have enough money to run a very substantial campaign,” he said.
The entire industry had been asked to pledge support to the campaign, with companies expected to pay between £250 and £25,000, depending on size. However, the FPC’s ambitions suffered a set-back when Jenney was taken seriously ill before Christmas, which combined with the resignation of president Alan McCutchion, for personal reasons.
The next step will see the formation of a campaign management board, which will be made up of senior management representatives from the sponsoring companies. A statement said: “[The board] will represent the views of multiple retailers, independent retailers, UK grower/packer/suppliers, importer packer/suppliers, the wholesale sector, the foodservice sector and the FPC.”
The FPC’s council will oversee appointments to the board, which is intended to be operationally independent, and a chairman will be appointed from outside the supporting groups.
Brighten said: “There are several names being discussed for the role of chairman, although nobody has been approached just yet, but everyone involved is keen to make this happen as quickly as possible.”
Members of the board are expected to be announced within the next four weeks and its first duty will be the appointment of a PR agency to run the project.
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