Worldwide Fruit Ltd - The Core - Spring/Summer 2017

SPRING/SUMMER ‘17

CONTENTS

A word fr om our ceo

01 a word from our ceo 02 THREE BUSINESS WINS 03 THIS SEASON’S NEWS 04 the fruit logistica lowdown 05 gregG wallace & supermarket secrets 06 jazz refresh 08 Waste not want not

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LL, XWE

STEV

CEO

09 packaging innovation 10 supplier management 11 currency matters 12 meet the grower 13 Back and forth 14 your voice counts 15 outside the WFL FRUIT bowl 16 recipeS 18 competition

WELCOME TO OUR NEWSLET TER I’m really pleased to be able to write the introduction for our new, improved newsletter. We’re acting on the feedback that we could improve our communication within the WFL team. I hope you enjoy reading this new format.

The start of 2017 has been really strong for WFL as we’ve gained business with customers. When we’ve tendered and won business the feedback has been as much about our positive, open culture and the skills of our people as it has been about price. The next few months will see us working on our plans to manage this extra business without ever taking our eye off our existing business. It will be a challenge but I have no doubt that we’ll get it right. I really want to thank you all for your support so far and I look forward to a bright future ahead.

THREE BUSINESS t: , righ y irwin o t t t lef ear, ka turner dy goo and lee e r i cla e wood i will

It must be true what they say about good things coming in threes as WFL received a trifecta of positive news in January.

“While the sales teams will often get the plaudits for these incredible wins, credit has to be shared around each and every WFL team member so we thank you all for your help, support and hard work. Let’s ensure this is just the beginning of a record-breaking 2017.”

— Steve Maxwell

WINS Firstly, after 10 months of working through a VCA process with Sainsbury’s, we’re delighted to announce that the proposals were well received and from the next European top-fruit season, WFL will be supplying 75% of Sainsbury’s imported top-fruit.

With little time to digest this incredible news, CEO Steve Maxwell was then informed by Waitrose that we had been successful in winning 100% of the retailer’s top-fruit business, an agreement which commenced in March.

And just when you’d think January couldn’t get any better, Lidl did we know that there was one more surprise in store for WFL, when, that’s right, Lidl confirmed they would be taking four top-fruit lines in this forthcoming Southern Hemisphere top-fruit season, including JAZZ™.

Thanks for all the hard work!

NEWS 02

THIS SEASON’S NEWS JAZZ™ SUMMER SAMPLING SEASON The JAZZ™ apple team will be on the road again this summer sampling Southern Hemisphere JAZZ™ apples to consumers at BodyPower (12–14th May) and the BBC Good Food Show (15–18th June) at Birmingham’s NEC Centre.

GOOD CAUSES WFL Production Manager Gill Brown was on hand to present a cheque for £500 to the Sue Ryder Hospice in Peterborough, whose staff spent many hours with and cared for Gill’s husband Alan, who sadly passed away in February.

Alan had many friends at WFL and he will be sorely missed by all. A true gent, he often worked at the JAZZ™ tasting shows, working tirelessly and always with a smile on his face.

WFL pass on all their sincere condolences to Gill, Dom, Kim and the family.

Money raised from the proceeds of shelf life fruit boxes sold to WFL staff is donated to various worthy causes throughout the year and the Sue Ryder Hospice was the latest recipient.

The total amount of money raised over the last four years is now £9,000, which has been distributed to 29 good causes, so keep up the good work.

It will be the team’s second time exhibiting at the BodyPower event, which has grown into the most celebrated and comprehensive fitness event in the UK. The BBC Good Food Show, on the other hand, is a second home to the JAZZ™ team who have been travelling to Birmingham biannually for nearly 10 years now.

The events will help the brand reach and sample to over 200,000 consumers this summer and, as usual, will provide the perfect platform to get the core JAZZ™ message across.

This year’s shows will hold added importance as the stand will showcase the new JAZZ™ logo and branding to the masses.

If you’re interested in donning a JAZZ™ t-shirt and apron and working at the show with the team then get in touch with Gary Harrison for more information.

BBC G OOD FO OD SHO W 03 NEWS

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£500 do sue r nated to t yder h h ospic e e

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APPLE ENVY IN HONG KONG Team Kent helped provide the people of Hong Kong with a special treat this February after working with Mike Soulsby from Turners & Growers during December and January to ensure the safe export of UK Envy™ apples to Hong Kong.

It was the third year this had been achieved and with the help of the experienced team at Mansfields, the fruit left the UK on the 5th February and arrived safe and sound on the 14th February.

With many variables and logistical issues to overcome, the team have to be credited with a first-class performance as the fruit arrived in the finest condition. Top job team!

WELCOME SID TO WFL

WFL AND NATUR AL TROPIC HOST M&S VISIT TO SPAIN

Over the past year, Technical Administrator Simon Bell has been working on the problem of creating one main database for all supplier technical information, which can be accessible and functional across the whole business.

On Monday 13th February, Mark Everett, Shara Jones and Samuel Cliff hosted an M&S Avocado visit at Natural Tropic in Vélez-Málaga. WFL were joined by Prudencio Lopez Martinez, (General Manager of Natural Tropic), Kenneth Meijer (Sales Manager for Natural Tropic), Charlotte Curtis (M&S Agronomist) and David White (M&S Buyer).

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Natural Tropic currently supplies WFL with organic avocados, which are sourced for the M&S Twinpack plus the Mini and Baby lines as conventional fruit. They are a young company located in the Vélez-Málaga region of Spain and currently own and farm 65 hectares of Organic Avocados. Natural Tropic is investing heavily in orchard expansion and 18,000 trees have now been planted on Finca Natural Tropic in the last three years. Natural Tropic also farms mangos, kumquats and cherimoya.

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Left to Right: Mark Everett David White Samuel Cliff Kenneth Meijer Shara Jones Charlotte Curtis Prudencio Lopez Martinez

The answer was SID – a user friendly interface with a back-end MS access database. In layman terms, SID is one central location where information such as grower’s details, packer info, due diligence details, tracking, approvals tracking and much more can be updated and stored.

Reporting is the greatest asset of the database with staff now able to access vital data at the click of a button. In fact, a task that would have taken approximately eight hours to complete now takes 45 minutes using SID so this will save the business countless hours of administration every year.

SID Training is currently being rolled out to all who could benefit and is being communicated via the various teams and managers.

Ethical Trading Administrator Thade Harms, who uses the new database on a weekly basis, says: “A huge thanks to Simon as I know it’s not been an easy job but SID has made an immediate impact on our work and efficiency. It means we can find data quickly, helping us react to situations faster and better, plus we can be more thorough in our work.”

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THE FRUIT LOGISTICA

LOWDOWN

by Neil Griffith, WFL Team Procurement

Whenever you go away on a business trip there are always colleagues, family and friends who seem to think you’re off for a three-day leisure break or rambling countryside retreat packed with free time, beer and as much food as you can eat. Fruit Logistica I can ensure you is not even in the same universe. It’s non-stop, it’s tiring, it’s an absolute fresh produce beast but a very rewarding one.

Fruit Logistica takes place at the Messe Berlin over 34 Halls and meeting rooms with an overall area of 117,472m2, that’s sixteen and a half football pitches or 1½ x Queengate shopping centre in Peterborough. With 2,884 exhibiting companies and organisations from approximately 83 countries and over 75,000 visitors from 130 countries, it’s no surprise it’s the biggest event in fruit. A trade show spread over three days with all the key growers under one roof, the first Fruit Logistica show in 1993 had just 110 exhibitors in one hall 4,000m2 and a mere 1,014 visitors.

Fruit Logistica never fails to amaze me with the sheer size, number of people and innovation on show. While it was hard going with 24 supplier meetings, an incredible amount was learnt and achieved. To listen to both the M&S and Waitrose presentations first hand in the presence of the growers provided an amazing insight into the message that the big supermarket teams are communicating to their supply base.

Fruit logis tica at messe berl in

Afternoons spent with the Waitrose buyer, the Italian cooperative VOG and the M&S technologist and growers of the latest blush pear varieties Cheeky and Qtee were fascinating and clearly highlighted the aims and goals of the premium quality retailers.

So is the visit worthwhile and more than just a jolly in Germany? Very much so. All the key suppliers and buyers are in one place and it’s the perfect environment to learn, build relationships, do business and broaden product and supply chain knowledge. As for it being a holiday, I’m not saying there isn’t time for the odd, well deserved stein, but as usual I came back needing a holiday.

Show highlights 1. Meeting with the Northern hemisphere growers to appraise the season so far and to progress any improvement plans 2. Meeting with the Southern hemisphere growers (South Africa and South America) to agree previous season issues, discuss programme volumes and offers ready for the summer 3. M&S and Waitrose presentation - amazing insight into the communication between supplier and retailer 4. Networking, building relationships and spending time with the buyers and technical teams

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5. Targeting, finding and meeting potential packaging suppliers and international haulage companies 6. Attending the re-launch of the JAZZ brand

GREGG

WALLACE

… AND SUPERMARKET AY SECRETS VISIT APPLE W

Avocado facts

Excellent source of hearthealthy monounsaturated fats, which help stabalise blood sugar levels

Have more soluble fibre than any other fruit, which means you stay fuller for longer

A great source of lutein, a carotenoid which works as an antioxidant and helps protect against eye disease

Contain useful minerals such as iron, copper and folate

Big trend in the UK’s growing health and brunch scenes

Contain more potassium than bananas

Helps lower cholesterol

GregG Wa EVERET llace WITH M T AND D ARK AMIEN GRAY

Gregg Wallace, one of the world’s most famous greengrocers, not to mention MasterChef extraordinaire, spent the day at the WFL Apple Way site with Asda Avocado Buyer Damien Gray on Tuesday 26th July 2016 filming the Asda Avocado Story.

e line h t n tars o s r u O

As part of a feature for Gregg’s BBC series ‘Supermarket Secrets’, the visit focused on the journey of the very much on-trend avocados from tree to consumer. The show will highlight the efforts put in by WFL in order to deliver the Asda Avocado Traffic Light System and the perfect ‘Ripe and Ready’ avocado.

While following the journey of the avocados from arrival at WFL, through to storage, ripening and over the Aweta Grader, Gregg also enjoyed a selection of avocado based dishes over lunch. His comment on the avocado brownies was “Wow”. The plan is for the series to air in late Spring/Summer 2017 so keep your eyes and ears open for more information.

worki the pa ng in ck hou se NEWS 06

It was 1984, Wham were Top of the Pops, Hallo Dandy was winning the Grand National and Andy Gray was scoring a dubious goal for Everton in the FA Cup Final at Wembley, when someone over in New Zealand thought of crossing the Braeburn and the Royal Gala. This was no thought crime, this turned out to be the thought of a genius as just over 10 years later, after a huge research programme, a special, unbelievably crunchy and juicy hybrid was born and picked to be the chosen apple.

In 2002, the chosen apple was named JAZZ™ and two years later the first New Zealand grown JAZZ™ apples landed on UK shores to be enjoyed by British consumers for the first time. With the largest ever single apple plantation programme at the time taking place in 2006, over 200,000 JAZZ™ apple trees were planted covering some 200 acres in Kent, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Sussex. The British JAZZ™ story had begun and UK consumers could begin to enjoy an apple that is always refreshing and always juicy 12 months of the year.

What followed next was a concerted campaign to drive trial and awareness of this special apple variety through retail promotions, press campaigns, sampling events, social media and digital activities. Team JAZZ™ was even created to help up-and-coming sports stars and was successful in helping to fund the then unknown Helen Glover, who went on to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals.

07 SPECIAL FEATURE

Didier Gro Gary H ven, ENZA C ontine arriso nt Sal n, W Marc es Ma Le Prin FL Comme nage rc ce, T& G Eur ial Manage r, ope M r, anage r.

Fast forward another 10 years and the JAZZ™ apple has become a phenomenon and a favourite for the supermarkets and UK consumers. With 125,000,000 JAZZ™ apples eaten in the UK in 2016, that’s two for every man, woman and child, it’s no surprise that JAZZ™ is the fastest growing apple variety alongside Pink Lady.

Furthermore, the brand has become a core and treasured part of the WFL business and highlights how the company can build, nurture and grow fresh produce products and brands. In the last financial year, sales of JAZZ™ accounted for over £24 million of the company’s turnover with British JAZZ™ sales now making up 20% of all worldwide JAZZ™ sales.

To celebrate 10 years of British grown JAZZ™ apples and to give the brand a refresh, T&G developed and launched a new logo, branding and a global website in February which can be visited at www.jazzapple.com. The big question is – what will the next 10 years hold in store for JAZZ™?

Jazz apple facts

Fastest growing apple variety in the UK alongside Pink Lady Just recently pipped Golden Delicious to become the UK’s 6th most popular variety in the UK

125,000,000 JAZZ apples were eaten in the UK in 2016. That’s two for every man, woman and child

Now sold in Aldi, Asda, Booths, M&S, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and Lidl as of May

The JAZZ UK social media channels are leading the way with the most followers worldwide

JAZZ is grown in Australia, Austria, Chile, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, the UK and the USA

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Voted Tastiest Apple at the National Fruit Show in 2012 and 2014

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FEATURE 07 SPECIAL FEATURE 08

BEHIND THE SCENES WASTE NOT WANT NOT

by Miro Vala, CI and Sustainability Manager

At WFL we generate a lot of waste. This not only has a major impact on the environment but also affects our finances so we are always looking for innovative ways of minimizing or eliminating waste.

Miro V ala CI & Su stainab ility M

anager

We’re incredibly proud that our Apple Way site has been a ‘Zero waste to landfill’ site since June 2011 but we can always do more so here’s a list of our achievements over the last year.

• In 2016 we redistributed 33 tonnes of edible fruit to Fareshare charity, who distribute surplus food to the UK wide network of charities.

• All our fruit waste generated during the storage, ripening and production process is sent to feed pigs on farms in East Anglia.

• Last year we redistributed 1628 boxes of shelf life fruit amongst WFL colleagues. The amount of boxes is equal to 13 tonnes of fruit. Each box raises £1 to the WFL fund dedicated to support various charitable activities supported by our staff.

• We are on the way to achieving our long-term 2017 waste reduction target of 8.46 tonnes of general waste per tonne of finished product. This has been achieved by being more productive, delivering more fruit product from our Apple Way site and by being better in segregating recyclable and reusable materials.

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• 16,020 plastic avocado crate were reused by the local farmers in 2016, which is approximately 5,450 tonnes of plastic. These crates would otherwise be shredded and recycled consuming extra energy.

• In 2016 WFL reused 22,435,040 fibreboard liners into customer crates avoiding the use of a significant amount of plastic bubble wrap while protecting the quality of the product during transportation to retail stores.

If you have any other ideas on how we can reduce waste, we would love to hear from you.

09 BEHIND THE SCENES

our was on f te is F e arm s in eding t he east ang pigs lia

PACKAGING INNOVATION

By Vance Johnson, Materials & Development Manager The role of packaging in fresh produce has changed hugely in the last few years. Whether for protection, shelf-life extension, regulation, visual impact or all of the above, it’s no longer just what’s on the inside that counts anymore.

Packaging innovation is rife and this is being driven by consumers, retailers and the government. As consumer lifestyles have changed, so have concerns for quality, safety and food waste. There has also been a growing desire for fresher, more convenient produce for the busy, time-poor consumer and ready to eat packs that will encourage kids to eat more fruit.

WFL has always been at the forefront of packaging innovation in fresh produce and it’s something we can be very proud of. This has meant keeping up with world trends and working closely with our customers and suppliers to continuously improve the look and functionality of packaging, while making packaging as environmentally friendly as possible.

The Importance of Packaging in 2017 1. Adds value and can increase consumer satisfaction 2. In-store and on-shelf impact 3. Brand strengthening 4. Helps fruit retain eating quality and reduce food waste 5. Can be used to monitor produce and environment changes during storage 6. Used as a tracking tool to provide traceability and showcase provenance 7. Anti-theft prevention 8. Allows unique identification and communication with consumers

At WFL our packaging and materials continue to evolve.

All of our materials are consumer recyclable (where local authority facilities exist) and where possible, our products are made from recycled content – with the exception of EPS (Expanded polystyrene).

Innovation remains a credible strength for WFL and during 2016 we were given the opportunity to review the M&S artisan top tear range of packing. We put forward various options that are still under consideration to go commercial in 2017 so watch this space. It’s this collaboration and communication with retailers that not only means we are a leading light in the fresh produce industry but also have the trust and relationships with customers to continue to be so.

hnson Vance Jo ent Manager

opm s & De v e l Material

BEHIND THE SCENES 10

SUPPLIER MANAGEMENT

by Willie Wood, Senior Technical Manager As a global importer of apples and pears working with 58 suppliers and 160 pack houses, managing and getting the best out of suppliers can be a difficult task but it’s incredibly important.

It’s pretty simple really but if we use the best suppliers and their performance continues to improve, then our service, efficiency and profitability will undoubtedly improve as well. If our suppliers provide bad quality fruit and a poor service, our business will suffer.

Our aim has always been that all fruit arrives at Apple Way with less than 10% defects. This guarantees that we can pack and dispatch our produce efficiently while providing our retail customers with excellent, consistent high quality fruit 52 weeks of the year.

Due to these standards and requirements, suppliers are a vital cog in our business so it’s important that we work closely with them to reduce mistakes and improve processes. This can only be done if the best information technology and systems are in place.

In the last year, we have been working to a focused strategic business objective of ‘Developing Sourcing Excellence’ through improving our systems and work practices. This has included streamlining how we monitor, measure and track the performance of our suppliers, looking at how we categorize suppliers, developing scorecards and performance league tables, while also looking at new systems to protect food safety.

Due to a number of mitigating factors, delivering our quality standards every week of the season can be challenging so as a team we are always looking to upgrade and improve, both our supplier and fruit quality information gathering, plus analysis and reporting systems.

Our suppliers are now all marked on four key areas – quality, compliance, commercial and how they do business ethically. From this data, a league table is produced which means we can clearly see top, mid-table and poor performers at the click of a button as the season unfolds.

These systems and this data enable us to make wellinformed business decisions and ensure our suppliers’ targets are aligned to and measured against our customers’ requirements. From a product management perspective, it is equally important for us to communicate effectively with our suppliers on the quality of fruit we receive.

Simon Carter and Tony Brown, our apple & pear product managers, have recently agreed quality performance targets with all our apple and pear suppliers for this coming Southern Hemisphere season. They are also actively communicating to suppliers to ensure that they are both prepared and are actively developing their own quality management systems and processes. The holy grail is to get the quality correct at source with the least amount of re-handling at Apple Way. We look forward to updating you on how we get on.

How we Manage Our Suppliers 1. Dedicated monthly meetings take place where supplier performance is discussed and reviewed in full.

2. Both the suppliers’ targets and our customers’ targets are discussed and our product managers, technical managers and procurement teams prioritise their focus and pinpoint the hot spots which need close attention 3. Our supplier scorecards measure all areas of performance and help generate seasonal performance league tables.

4. The fact that we score our suppliers against a number of performance measures means that we have continuous open dialogue with them which is essential for improvement.

5. This open dialogue is two way with us receiving detailed and informative business improvement plans and ideas from our suppliers.

11 BEHIND THE SCENES

CURRENCY

MATTERS

by lee pickard, accounts manager

Whether you’re buying goods from abroad, going on holiday, sending money across borders or even shopping in the local supermarket, you have most likely been affected by moves in currency exchange rates.

To put it simply, an exchange rate is the value of one country’s currency against another. These values can be affected by inflation, interest rates, release of economic data, political events or even extreme events such as earthquakes.

The UK woke up to find they had voted to leave the EU, a decision which became commonly known as Brexit.

Immediately the British pound fell from €1.34 to €1.24 and at the time of writing, stood at €1.17, a fall of 13%. The fall against the USA Dollar was from $1.49 to $1.34 and has settled today at $1.25, a fall of 16%.

Exchange rates affect the price WFL pays for fruit purchased from overseas. The company will need to purchase in the region of €32 million Euros and $9 million USA dollars each year. The rate at which we can buy this currency will be one of many factors affecting the profitability of the company.

what can we look forward to in 2017?

Mainly more political events that will create uncertainty in the currency markets. America will be breaking and forging new trading relationships, Europe will be watching the outcome of key political elections: Netherlands 15th March, France on the 23rd April and 7th May (Frexit?) and Germany 22nd October. WFL will be keeping a keen eye on these key events and adapting our currency plans accordingly.

Only time will tell if we’ve got them right.

There are a number of ways we can protect against currency movements: • Forward contracts, where we agree to buy currency at a fixed rate in the future. This gives us some certainty and protects a weakening pound, but we would miss out on better rates if the pound strengthens.

• Currency options, known as vanilla options. These allow us to protect the current exchange rate and also buy when the pound rises to an agreed higher level. This gives us some certainty, but will have some risk. For example buying double at the lower protected rate when the pound has strengthened above the higher rate.

• We have the option of negotiating higher selling prices or lower purchase prices for the fruit, or even switching the country where we purchase from. Higher selling prices will often mean higher prices in supermarket which increases food inflation.

• Another option we have would be to buy at the current market rate each week, the spot market, and have no cover in place for currency movements.

Pound plunged against the dollar after the brexit vote How many dollars one pound buys

In reality WFL applies a combination of the above during the year and measures the result against having no protection in place (i.e. buying only when the invoice is due to be paid). Our forward protection policy generally outperforms doing nothing.

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2016 BEHIND THE SCENES 12

MEET THE

GROWER Each issue we want to show our thanks and appreciation to the legendary growers behind our incredible produce.

Without their dedication, hard graft and perseverance, we wouldn’t have a business.

This month we raise our apples in salute to Jeremy Linsell of Braiseworth Orchards in Suffolk. Jeremy has been in the business of growing apples for many years now and was one of the first growers in the UK to be entrusted with JAZZ™ when they were brought over from New Zealand over 10 years ago. The dedication Jeremy and his team put into producing the healthiest trees and crop year onyear is phenomenal and this was recognized when he starred in a Waitrose advertising campaign with Alan Titchmarsh.

BRAISEW ORTH ORCHARD S WAS ON E OF THE F IRST JAZ Z GROWER S IN THE UK!

TEAM s ’ Y M JERE T WORK A HARD JEREM Y, SALUTE WE YOU!

13 PEOPLE

BACK AND FORTH

with… teresa dolby – line manager and carol maddison – operative Q: What do you remember about your first day?

U K YO THAN OUR Y FOR MENT I M T COM

CAROL I remember my first day quite well, my first boss was John Green and I was given the important job of making tomato boxes on a big stapling machine. It was my first proper job after finishing school so I remember being very nervous. The hardest part was getting used to the hours as we worked 07:00–15:00 five days a week and we had to work every other weekend until midday. The kids have it easy nowadays.

TERESA I first started as an agency staff member and was an operative on the Omori line with Rex Storey as my line leader. Ten hard months later I was lucky to be given the job as line leader for the handline under Rick Davey’s tutelage. I remember my evening shift was from 15:30–22:00 but the team were immediately welcoming and you could have a laugh with people in the pack house.

Q: Why did you chose to work at WFL/Geest?

CAROL The dream was to work in a shop but the pay and prospects just weren’t up to scratch so I applied for a job at Geest, which was a big employer in the town. I never really looked back but it’s amazing to have witnessed how the company has developed and progressed.

TERESA I was enjoying my time as an agency staff member when Rex recommend that I apply for the line leader role. I think he probably just had enough of my questions and wanted me gone as he used to call me nosey because I wanted to know everything.

Q: What jobs have you done over the years?

CAROL Operative and poly bagging in the print room.

TERESA Operative on line, label checking, line leading and then I’ve been a Supervisor for 13 years.

Q: Any proud moments?

CAROL I’m incredibly proud to be able to say I worked for the same employer for nearly 50 consecutive years so I must have been doing something right. It’s a shame I won’t get the half century but it’s been a great ride.

TERESA My proudest moment was to be asked to be Supervisor, at the time I was only covering and wasn’t expecting it.

Q: Why do you think WFL has so many long servers?

CAROL It’s a good place to work, people are always treated fairly, the pay is competitive and there are prospects to develop and grow. Whilst working at WFL I have had both parents and my husband pass away and the company were very supportive during these times.

TERESA It’s a rewarding place to work with friendly people and the company has been very accommodating over the years.

TOP 20 WFL LONGEST SERVERS Team member

Yrs service

Carol Maddison

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Anne Sharman

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Keith Butterworth

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Julia Grainger

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Martin Simmons

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Gary Harrison

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Paul Tennant

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Gary Maltby

37

Garry Parker

36

Luciana Hunt

36

Mark Gaunt

36

Stewart Inglis

35

Kevin Duffy

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Geoff Briggs

32

Gill Brown

31

Neil Griffiths

29

Peter Lellow

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Catherine Moulis

28

Sara Highwood

25

Gordon Clark

25

PEOPLE 14

YOUR VOICE COUNTS

WFL’s colleague forum ‘Your Voice’ has been in session for over 10 years now. The forum is a vital cog in the WFL wheel so that everyone is heard and we can work together in improving the way the company is run on a day-to-day basis.

Since its inception, it has helped bring about a number of important changes which you will benefit from today and has also played a key role in helping to organise a number of golfing days and social events.

Below are some of the forum’s most important achievements over the last 15 years so if you have a suggestion, query or recommendation, don’t stay silent as we want to hear from you.

get in to uch if you have a concer n you’d lik e to rais e

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15 PEOPLE

OUTSIDE THE WFL FRUIT BOWL

… w o n k o t g Gettin n a m d e R t r u C

CURT REDM A

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Curt started at WFL at the tender age of 16 in the sales, Q: When did you start orders and processing team. Nearly 14 years later and he is playing guitar? still a core part of the company. Having progressed to become Apple Way’s Prophet System Champion, here’s what he gets I first picked up the guitar when I was 15. I was a late starter up to when he isn’t religiously championing systems. because I was playing keyboards up until then. I always enjoyed playing keyboard, but didn’t really start taking music seriously until I picked up the guitar.

Q: What do you enjoy, out of work?

I mostly spend my time doing something related to music. I love playing guitar. I’m usually playing or writing music for a couple of hours, most nights. If I’m not playing music, I’m often listening to it, or drooling over pictures of guitars that I don’t own, yet. I also watch a bit of TV, when I fancy a break from the music. Favourite shows are Impractical Jokers, The Walking Dead, Family Guy, American Dad and Pawn Stars.

Q: Who do you admire in the guitar world?

Angus Young from AC/DC has been a big inspiration for me.

He has a huge stage presence and is an amazing guitar player. AC/DC is definitely my favourite rock band

Q: Best Gig The best gig I’ve been to would have to be first seeing AC/ DC in 2009. The atmosphere was amazing and the sound was awesome. An amazing show!

Q: Worst gig I’ve never been to a gig that I didn’t enjoy in some way or another.

Q: What bands are you in now?

I’m in two bands at the moment. I have a dance/pop/rock/ function band with my dad and one with my mates called The Boobonyx. We play the likes of Bon Jovi, The Killers, Kings Of Leon, Billy Ocean, Erasure, Ed Sheeran, AC/DC, Pink Floyd etc. We’re out most weekends at one of many local venues in and around Lincolnshire, or playing private parties/weddings.

Q: Is it true Curt that you were named after 70’s soul legend Curtis Mayfield?

Yes, it is true. Dad was wondering what to call his upcoming bundle of joy and browsed through his record collection looking for inspiration and came across a Curtis Mayfield album. “That’s it!” he exclaimed, and I was forever going to be Curtis!

for info on curt’s m www.fac ebook.co usic visit: wwww.f m/boobo acebook nyx .com/the mollgri ps

PEOPLE 16

Here’s a decadent and indulgent avocado dessert created by the Happy Skin Kitchen blog that is healthy and packed with amazing plant goodness. Simple to make, it will satisfy your chocolate cravings and thanks to the avocado will keep you fuller for longer.

Avocado keeps you fuller for longer

Chocolate Chip Mint Smoothie 17 RECIPE

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Serve in a bowl and top it with favourite toppings like granola, fresh berries and mint leaves.

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Toppings: Fresh mint leaves Cacao nibs Fresh fruit (such as strawberries) Granola Coconut chips

Method: Place all the ingredients (apart from the toppings) into a blender and blend until smooth and creamy.

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Ingredients: 1 frozen banana 1/2 avocado 1 tbsp of almond or cashew butter 1/2 cup of brewed cold Peppermint Tea 1/3 cup of almond milk 2 tbsp of raw cacao powder

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Ingredients: 12 freshly picked mint leaves 2 shots white rum Ice 1 shot apple juice 1 shot freshly squeezed lime juice Dash of sugar syrup 2 thin JAZZ™ apple slices 2 small segments of fresh lime

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For an al cohol fre e version sim ply substit ute the 2 sho ts of rum for 100ml gin ger Ale.

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Here’s a refreshing cocktail created by cookery writer, Dan May – perfect for Spring/Summer

Method: Place the mint leaves in your glass and gently muddle with a fine pestle to lightly bruise the leaves.

Add the Rum and about enough ice to ½ fill the glass and mix together.

Add the apple juice (I juiced 2 JAZZ™ apples for this recipe) and the lime juice and sugar syrup and mix together.

Fill the glass with ice, stir and add the JAZZ™ apple slices and lime segments.

Garnish with fresh mint leaves and serve with 2 straws.

RECIPE 18

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