-
Who's ready for EPR regulations?
An Introduction to the new Extended Producer Responsibility Regulations GIMA Day Conference – 17th Feb As members of GIMA, MorePeople attended their day conference on 17th February which focused on the new Extended Producer Responsibility Regulations (EPR) that are scheduled to come into effect in 2023. EPR is a regulatory tool that requires producers to be substantially responsible for their post-consumer product.Josh Remi from Ecoveritas provided an informative presentation on the coming changes.EPR regulations intend to make businesses responsible for the full cost of managing all packaging they place in on the market – a very relevant topic for our industry and many others.The current Packaging Waste Regulations (PRN System) began in 1997, which are now extremely out of date and don’t reflect the online world we now live in. The new regulations are being redesigned to make producers financially responsible for 100% of the costs associated with packaging waste management. For example, when thinking about growers, they will have to consider imports and their secondary packaging sold to retail customers, as imported packaging will be chargeable.The main points businesses should be preparing for are;· There will be increased financial incentive to use packaging that is widely collected from households for recycling, as well as increasing recycled content in packaging· Mandatory recyclability labelling on packaging for brand owners & importers· Additional data will need to be collected and reported, such as reporting actual packaging weight· Data reporting requirements are also likely to become more complex, possibly requiring quarterly submissions· Reporting will have to be separated between England, Scotland, Wales and Norther IrelandWe were also joined by Wessex Packaging who showcased some of their innovative packaging solutions using less plastic and more recycled materials. With the rise of inflation, increasing costs from brexit, soaring fuel prices and the complications from the pandemic, EPR brings another reason for businesses to encounter higher costs and further price increases for consumers! The main takeaway point of the day was that businesses need to be prepared - they need to do their research on EPR, and get their data and reporting ready. Thanks to GIMA for an insightful day, we’re sure we’ll be hearing more about EPR over the coming months.
-
Meet the team - Morten Andresen
Morten has worked at MorePeople for 10 years, he’s now an Associate Director and looks after commercial roles in the midlands and North. What did you want to be when you were at school?I wanted to be an ice cream man…ice cream on tap. No brainer really. How did you get into recruitment? MorePeople had helped me on a couple of occasions to find roles and it had always interested me. After a few years working in industry, I gave Guy a call to see if there were any opportunities for me at MorePeople and the rest is history! What do you specialise in at MorePeople? My team and I specialise in Commercial and Technical roles in the Midlands and North of the UK. We’ve never been busier and the opportunities here are massive at the moment! What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve faced since working at MorePeople? Accepting that things don’t always go the way you want / expect them to. We are dealing with people’s livelihoods all the time. It’s not about me, it’s about them. It took a bit of time for me to really appreciate that. Something on your bucket list you’re hoping to tick off soon? Taking my children to Lapland this Christmas. Hopefully they will have time to see Father Christmas after I have spoken to him! We are keeping it a big surprise so can’t wait to see their faces! The best piece of advice I've ever been given is…..? Control what you can control. Don’t stress about what you can’t. Cats or dogs? Dogs obviously. Soo much better than the little devil creatures…Want to get in touch with Morten to see how he, and his team can help? Click here!
-
Ride For Freedom 2022
We’re proud to be supporting Gordon Miller and Ride For Freedom once again in his bid to raise awareness and end modern slavery. Gordon is the founder and team leader of Ride For Freedom, whose mission is to harness the universal appeal of cycling to raise awareness, educate and forge partnerships to end modern slavery, whilst also providing remedy to survivors. Gordon holds 2 Guinness World Record titles! He set the record for the “Greatest distance covered by an electric bicycle in one week” In October 2021 and in 2020, Gordon set the record for the "Largest GPS drawing by bicycle (individual)”. He achieved this by cycling 620.5 miles (998.7kilometres) around England, from 18 September-2 October 2020, to spell ‘end modern slavery’. It’s shocking to find out there are more than 40 million women, children and men worldwide in some form of slavery on any given day, according to the Global Slavery Index. The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) 2020 Report notes that “within Europe’s soccer industry alone, it is estimated there are 15,000 human trafficking victims each year”. Gordon comments; “Many of those trafficked in sport are youths. They are falsely lured to Europe by promises of the opportunity of trials with professional football clubs that will lead to untold riches. It’s an under-reported crime that needs a light shining on it.” So, this year, from 28 April-15 May 2022, Gordon will lead a 2,500km cycle between the 18 German Bundesliga League football clubs. The Ride For Freedom German Bundesliga Cycling Tour 2022 will start in Munich and finish in Berlin, traveling via cities including Stuttgart, Dortmund and Leipzig. The tour will raise awareness of modern slavery and specifically child trafficking in sport. You can find all about Gordon and Ride For Freedom here, as well as how you can get involved and support his next amazing ride for freedom!Watch the Riding For Freedom documentary here!#EndModernSlavery #RideForFreedom2022http://rideforfreedom.org.uk
-
Meet the team - Will Thomson
Will has been working at MorePeople for 6 years, and is an executive consultant. He currently heads up our operations recruitment in the south. What did you want to be when you were at school?Fighter pilot How did you get into recruitment? Fell into it like most people I think…I did a few ad sales roles before selling recruitment advertising and then it seemed like a natural progression to make more cash essentially! What do you specialise in at MorePeople? Operations – but what we call operations actually covers more than just typical production; Engineering, H&S, Warehouse, Logistics, CI and so on. Essentially anything that involves the actual ‘doing’ within food. What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve faced since working at MorePeople? I think we all face the challenge of attracting the best people to our vacancies in a candidate lead market but personally, I would probably say the early part of Covid where everything just stopped was definitely the biggest challenge. Something on your bucket list you’re hoping to tick off soon? I would love to swim with whales or do a parachute jump. The best piece of advice I've ever been given is…..? If you don’t know how to do something, say you can and figure out how later. Cats or dogs? Hmm dogs. Although more than one is too many. You can find Wills contact details here!
-
Food & Drink Trends 2022
As the experts in what consumers want and what it means for global markets, we tuned into Mintel’s recent Webinar on ‘What the 2022 Global Consumer Trends mean for the food and drink industry’ to see what trends Mintel are predicting for this year, and how this will be reflected in the food and drink industry.With the pandemic still the forefront of many of our minds, (although hopefully not for much longer), businesses are still navigating through this strange terrain managing their customers, clients and employees. ‘The pandemic, economic fluctuations, and local and global events in 2020-21 have caused consumers to form new behaviours, attitudes and values.’ Mintel have identified 3 main trends within the food and drink industry. In Control ‘The pandemic has caused and exaggerated feelings of precariousness and financial insecurity and consumers are looking for a sense of control. Therefore, consumers need clarity, transparency, flexibility and options to make decisions that suit their changed needs and circumstances. ‘ Eating healthy will be a priority – great news for the fresh produce industry! The pandemic has boosted us to look for diets that work best for us, and mainly those that improve our immune systems.We’re likely to see clear and simple messaging from brands that are free of jargon to help avoid indictments of in-authenticity and gives a sense of trust, enabling the consumer to have complete control of their decisions. Enjoyment everywhere After a turbulent few years, consumers are seeking sources of joy and happiness, food and drink can help consumers escape boredom and create memorable moments. Mintel expects to see more brands creating joyful and playful formulations with their well-known products and finding different ways to showcase them. Flexible spaces 48% of UK consumers who work remotely find it difficult to manage work and leisure boundaries at home, and consumers are re-imagining the purpose of the spaces they spend their time. Mintel expect to see brands gamifying food and drink as more customers spend time in the digital realm, and design more ways for consumers to interact with brands at home, away from the home and online. We’re looking forward to working with our clients throughout 2022 and seeing how these predictions come to light, and what changes are made to best accommodate them. https://www.mintel.com/global-consumer-trends/
-
A January to shout about...
A January to shout about… January typically has a bad rep – blue Monday, the long wait for pay day, festivities being a distant memory. But January blues don’t apply at MorePeople - we were straight back to it complete with two days training, and hard work pays off…we just achieved a record month! On top of that amazing triumph in itself, we also celebrated promotions within the team. After nearly 3 years, Sarah steps up to Team Manager, specialising in recruitment within the growing and horticulture sector. Lawrence was also promoted to Team Manager after being with MorePeople for nearly 3 years. Lawrence specialises in recruiting for roles within Operations in the North & Midlands area. After 10 years with MorePeople, Morten has now been promoted to Associated Director within Commercial. We even saw some new members of the team complete their first deals! Amy, Rae and Jake are smashing their way through their MorePeople training. January sets us up for rest of the year to follow suit, with exciting changes coming up – watch this space. Our CEO Andy Fitzmaurice states; ‘Setting out our stall for 2022 and the year ahead, January has been superb on lots of levels. What a great team! Our best month ever and some really stunning individual performances. It sets up our growth plans in the best possible way. We can’t wait to build on that success and momentum in the rest of Q1 - there’ll be more new hires and exciting announcements to come too!’ Want to join us? Find out more here!
