Blog

5 November 2019

Leading the way in sugar by Dr Mark Carr, CEO of AB Sugar

Despite the many challenges facing the sugar industry, our group of businesses remain resilient. Our focus is clear, and we will continue to drive performance improvement through all that we do. This is paramount for not only financial and operational performances but also for improvements in health and safety, progress against our 2030 sustainability commitments and in becoming the supplier of choice for our customers too.

An important part of this journey is recognising the efforts of all our stakeholders. We are continually looking to work in partnership with suppliers across our value chain from growers through to our customers; and will continue to do so in the years to come. Co-creating value remains one of our priorities and we are looking to the future with confidence and ambition.

Celebrating industry firsts

As we strive to continue leading the way within the sugar industry, it feels opportune to highlight a selection of industry firsts that we have achieved this year. From publishing our first interactive, global sourcing map enabling us to unlock transparency in the supply chains of our industry; to launching The Innovate Irrigation Challenge, a global call for ideas to find solutions to tackling water loss through irrigation in agriculture. The Challenge demonstrated our ongoing focus to adapt our way of thinking and look outside-in for new ways of working and finding solutions.  

Furthermore, we built on our ‘Thriving and Healthy Communities’ pillar by planning the expansion of our ‘Making Sense of Sugar’ campaign to help us reach our commitment of providing access to objective scientific advice on sugar, the diet and health to over 25 million people around the world. We have also further stepped up our awareness around modern slavery through online staff training, publishing our Modern Slavery Statement and sharing our animated video across all channels.

Amongst the many challenges of the past 12 months, it is rewarding to see our businesses recognised internally, externally and with our customers. From Azucarera’s approach to health and safety (H&S) taking the top prize at the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) 2019 Food and Drink Manufacturing H&S Awards; to two British Sugar employees being nominated at the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Awards in the categories ‘Food and Drink Engineer of the Year’ and ‘Rising Star’. Additionally, AB Sugar’s Head of Advocacy was recognised at this year’s BusinessGreen Leaders Awards for leading the Group’s approach to sustainability through the ‘Global Mind, Local Champions’ framework and for Azucarera to be recognised by NESTLE for its environmental work on solar irrigation in association with AIMCRA.

Looking ahead

I strongly believe that the knowledge we have today, determines our strength for the future. Our long-term competitive success will be achievable through remaining focused on cost, performance and acting as a responsible and sustainable business.