Make your mark

Who do you think has done most to raise the profile of food and drink manufacturing over the past year? Who has been most successful at driving their business through the current recession; or in making the public aware of just how important the sector is to the nation? At Food Manufacture we are once again running our online poll to determine which individual deserves this particular accolade. We've put together a shortlist of six people we consider to have been star performers over the past year. All you have to do is visit our website - www.foodmanawards.co.uk - and register your vote.

Salman Amin, president, Pepsico UK and Ireland​

As the high-profile outgoing chairman of the Food and Drink Federation's (FDF's) Health and Wellbeing Steering Group, Pepsico's Salman Amin is best known for his leadership of the industry campaign for front-of-pack nutrition labelling. Amin has championed the cause of nutrition labelling based on guideline daily amount (GDA) labels, and campaigned to raise consumer awareness. He is also actively involved in Business4Life, the coalition of industry partners supporting the government's Change4Life social marketing programme.

Behind the scenes, he has also been part of the food industry's efforts to engage with government on issues surrounding nutrition and health. During 2008, an Early Day Motion was tabled praising the industry's work on GDA labelling, which attracted widespread support in Parliament. As a result, the Conservative Party came out strongly in favour of the GDA approach to nutrition information.

During Amin's chairmanship, the government has also focused attention on the importance of providing information on the calorie content of food, something with which the FDF is in agreement.

Amin succeeded Martin Glenn - another shortlisted Personality of the Year candidate - at Pepsico in 2005, which he joined from Procter & Gamble.

Stefan Barden, chief executive, Northern Foods​

Stefan Barden's ascent up the career ladder has been pretty meteoric by anyone's standards. An engineering graduate who held a series of senior roles at blue chip firms before taking the top job at Northern Foods in 2007 at the tender age of 43, Barden has quickly earned the respect of his peers and the City.

As rival own-label specialists Uniq, Greencore and Bakkavör have struggled to make headway in recent months, Barden has successfully recovered cost inflation, driven sales of chilled ready meals up by 6.6% in a market down by 2% and transformed the fortunes of Northern's once beleaguered biscuit business.

He has also showed his readiness to make tough decisions by ruthlessly exiting own-label business that does not deliver an adequate return. This hit the headlines last year with moves to mothball the Fenland Foods site in Grantham. More recently it was shown in the announcement of plans to close the Hull ready meals plant after failing to agree "mutually acceptable and commercially viable terms" with Morrisons.

Barden has also moved fast to meet changing consumer demands with new value products and discount ranges and boosted trade with the discounters.

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=== John Foster, md, Fosters Bakery ===

Baker John Foster is a Yorkshireman who lives by his beliefs and convictions. As a lay methodist preacher, he is ardent about justice and fair play for people. He is also passionate about the UK food industry.

Foster believes strongly in science, innovation and local sourcing: witnessed by his championing of 'The Great Yorkshire sandwich', a project involving various partners in the supply chain to put sandwiches made entirely from local ingredients by Buckingham Foods and into Boots stores. The project was no mean feat when it was first embarked upon in 2007 - not least because it meant using flour all derived from Yorkshire wheat. But, following the positive publicity it attracted, the project proved successful enough to be repeated again this year.

Foster demonstrates his Yorkshire roots in his down-to-earth approach to doing business. It's all about being very practical and seizing opportunities when they arise - and not wasting brass!

But he is also a man who walks the talk in many ways: from giving employment opportunities to ex-offenders at his Barnsley bakery to actively investing in robotics and supporting the Centre for Food Robotics and Automation (CenFRA) in Doncaster. In fact, Foster's operations director Michael Taylor is the chairman of CenFRA.

Martin Glenn, chief executive, Birds Eye Iglo​

When Martin Glenn took the helm at Birds Eye Iglo in November 2006, frozen food was regarded by many as chilled food's poor cousin. The freezer aisles, it seemed, were stuck in a 1970s time warp, epitomised by the figure of Captain Birds Eye. But Glenn, who earned his stripes as president of Pepsico UK and Ireland, was convinced there was life in the old seadog yet. Captain Birds Eye, he insisted, would be cool again. Two and a half years on, it looks like he was right.

Fuelled by the credit crunch blues, shoppers are finally returning to the freezer cabinets - and their favourite brands from the 1970s - in droves. And Glenn is on the crest of the wave. But his success (UK sales were up 6% in 2008 and group profit up 10%) is not only down to luck - or even just cashing in on the retro trend with the revival of 1970s classic, Arctic Roll. Other new products, including a pollock-based fish finger, have won him plaudits from environmental campaigners, while salmon and omega-3-rich fish fingers have lured more aspirational shoppers to the freezers.

While his decision to close the Birds Eye factory in Hull has not made him popular with unions, he has won praise for his commitment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, packaging and water use.

Stewart Houston, chairman, BPEX​

British pigs have undoubtedly risen in profile among the public over the past year. While much of the credit for this will fall to various celebrity chefs who have raised the issue of animal welfare in a raft of TV programmes and newspaper articles, it is Stewart Houston, CBE, chairman of BPEX (formerly the British Pig Executive) and executive director of the National Pig Association, that Britain's pig farmers really have to thank.

Houston has been heavily involved in the award-winning 'Pigs Are Worth It' campaign, which included a major Westminster Rally designed to promote the plight of Britain's pig producers who have to shoulder the extra financial burden of meeting higher welfare standards than many of their overseas competitors. He was also closely involved in the radio airing of 'Stand by Your Ham', a reworked version of the classic Tammy Wynette hit designed to highlight the plight of producers in a light-hearted manner guaranteed to win the popular backing of consumers.

Behind the scenes, Houston also sits on the newly created Task Force set up by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to examine ways of improving transparency in the supply chain to the benefit of all - something close to his heart. He also represents the industry and particularly producers in the EU.

Robert Schofield, chief executive, Premier Foods​

He's had his fair share of sleepless nights over the last couple of years, grappling with soaring wheat prices and spiralling debts. But thanks to a sizeable equity issue and bank refinancing back in March, Robert Schofield, the boss of the UK's largest food producer, has secured "enough headroom to dispel any talk of covenant breaches"

While many City analysts argue that he paid over the odds when he purchased RHM back in 2007, Schofield has certainly delivered on the synergies promised from his buying sprees. Restructuring within the group saw the closure of nine factories last year and the consolidation of back-office operations into a shared service centre at Manchester.

The challenge now is to prove he can deliver organic growth - and translate this into improved operating profits. Much rests on Hovis. While a relaunch has given it a new lease of life, it has yet to prove that increased sales are filtering through to the bottom line.

But with brands in the stable as big as Hovis, Mr Kipling, Sharwood's, Bisto, Batchelors, Oxo, Quorn, Branston, Ambrosia, Loyd Grossman, Hartley's, Bird's, Homepride, Crosse & Blackwell, Cauldron and Sun-Pat, he has everything to play for.