issue 2
Professor David Hughes The Importance of Sharing Business Values with Value Chain Partners
Winners! IT Vendor of the Year Coles Supermarkets in Australia names Muddy Boots the ‘IT Vendor of the Year, Category Winner’!
50% Reduction in Time Spent on Label Checks Muddy Boots helps Huntapac maintain its position as a trusted supplier of quality produce.
Software Solutions for Traceability Jeff Goulding discusses the importance of traceability, B2B social networking and the fast adoption of new technologies.
Professor David Hughes
“If members in a value chain don’t share the same values on sustainability and don’t walk their sustainability talk, then the result is just ‘green wash’ manifested as corporate website wiffle waffle!” Read more on Page 5.
Welcome Dear Readers, Welcome to the arrival of the second edition of the Muddy Boots magazine, which coincides with another landmark milestone; the recent arrival of the 7 billionth birth on the planet. This once again throws the spotlight on the rapid ascent of the global population and highlights the enormous pressure it is placing on our planets resources to feed, clothe, shelter and provide energy for a rising population. The challenges are complex and we face an urgent task to stabilise the growth in population and adopt more sustainable technologies and lifestyles, if we are to enjoy ‘sustainable development’ on a very crowded planet. Today we demand more trust and transparency within food supply chains to help us make the right decisions that align with our values as consumers. Technology and the role it plays in facilitating supply chain information is rapidly changing and will play a significant role in driving the agenda for sustainable sourcing. This theme is touched on by a number of our articles in this issue including our lead article on Pages 5 & 6 written by Professor David Hughes, an Emeritus Professor of Food Marketing at Imperial College London, who explains why it is important to share your business values with your value chain partners. His topical articles are always thought provoking. We self indulge and celebrate our recent success in Australia; Winning the Coles Supermarket ‘IT Vendor of the Year, Category Winner’ for the implementation of our quality assurance software to deliver consistent quality across Coles’ 742 Australian stores. This recognition of our work is proof that quality management can directly impact business efficiency. Find out what Conrad Harvey, CIO at Coles, had to say about us on Page 7. Jeff Goulding, Farm Services Director at Muddy Boots, shares some key extracts from his recent presentation at the SOFHT conference. On Pages 9 & 10 he discusses software solutions for traceability, B2B social networking and the importance of supplier collaboration. I hope this issue stimulates some thought, and as always we would be pleased to hear from you on your news and views... Join in the conversation @MuddyBootsLtd. Best wishes Jonathan
Jonathan Evans Managing Director Muddy Boots Software
Contents Page 3: What’s new? Latest news from Muddy Boots & Q&A with the Muddy Boots Project Manager in Kenya.
Page 4: Fresh Thinking. Read the Word on the Tweet and Dates for your diary.
Page 5,6: Professor David Hughes explains why it’s important to share your business values with your value chain partners.
Page 7 WINNERS! Muddy Boots wins the Coles Supermarket Award ‘IT Vendor of the Year 2011, Category Winner’!
Page 8: How Muddy Boots has helped Huntapac maintain its position as a trusted supplier of quality produce.
Page 9,10: Jeff Goulding discusses software solutions for traceability, B2B social networking and more...
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What’s New? During the last edition of the Muddy Boots magazine we told you about our move into our new offices in Herefordshire and we announced our plans to build further resource capacity during 2011. True to our word, we have increased our staff numbers by 25% throughout the year, with a further 25% growth anticipated for 2012. We are also very excited to have opened our first office in Melbourne, Australia. This follows continued growth for Muddy Boots in Australia and New Zealand and the new office will be the regional base for sales,
Some of the most recent members of the Muddy Boots team!
It’s Gold for Muddy Boots! We have been a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for the past 5 years and we are pleased to announce that our Gold status has been successfully renewed for another 12 months. This means that we have maintained a level of achievement and expertise that ensures we deliver solutions that are aligned with industry best practice. - ‘
Meet The Team Member... Kanyi Gikonyo Project Manager, Kenya Business Administration Degree, Major in Global Management. Prior to that Help Desk IT training. I manage the business process for support escalation to UK, project documentation and communication with clients throughout the process, Working with a great team locally, as well as in the UK, selling uniquely positioned software in the market. Moving from PC Based to Web based solutions is ingenious, innovation at its best!
My greatest achievement has been the implementation of an end-to-end traceability solution into one of Kenya‘s leading vegetable exporters, and the satisfaction of seeing the results of improved business efficiency and the enthusiastic adoption by the people using it.
Human rights advocate on psychosocial disabilities. Social change on discrimination, disseminating the right information to dispel stigma and encourage participatory inclusion into society. For now, I want to see how far I can grow within Muddy Boots as I am not growing any younger!
Fresh thinking Word on the
weet!
It’s amazing what you can say in 140 characters! SoilAssociation If farming were like the stock market, a farmer would sell farm on rainy a.m. & buy it back on sunny afternoon jonneal_IGD 96% of Irish shoppers say price is important when choosing a food store. 96% mention quality and 84% ethical standards #checkout11 SainsburysPR If suppliers do not meet our social and environmental standards, we will cease to do business with them #20by20
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Dates for your Diary To Meet Muddy Boots
ADAS UK Vegetable Conference 8 Feb 2012 East of England Showground, Peterborough, UK Masstock Smart Farming Event 9 Feb 2012 Bishop Burton College, Beverley, UK CIES Global Food Safety Conference 15 – 17 Feb 2012 Orlando, Florida Precision Farming Event 7 March 2012 East of England Showground, Peterborough, UK Cereals Event 13 – 14 June 2012 Boothby Graffoe, Lincoln, UK Fresh Connections 26 - 28 June 2012 Melbourne Exhibition Centre, Australia
Fast Facts 71% of the UK’s countryside is in agricultural production - IGD
In 2010, food & drink accounted for 15% of UK manufacturing output - IGD
40% of American food produce is wasted
In the last 3 days, ‘Traceability’ was mentioned 98 more times on Twitter than Google news
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Professor David Hughes The Importance of Sharing Business Values with Your Value Chain Partners David Hughes is Emeritus Professor of Food Marketing at Imperial College London. He travels the world talking to businesses, trade associations, governments and at conferenceson global developments in the food and drink industry. Ahighly sought-after speaker wherever he goes, he has an unparalleled knowledge of global food issues and opportunities.
Twenty years ago and more, I was talking with the Head of Technical Services for J Sainsbury (then, the #Number 1 UK grocery retailer) and asked him “what are principal characteristics that you look for when choosing a food manufacturer as a private label supplier?”. Straight off, Geoff Spriegel said “we want a company that shares our values on food safety. If they don’t, it’s hopeless trying to teach them. “If they understand and are sympathetic to where we are coming from, we can work together to improve food safety performance in manufacturing and throughout the supply chain”. Remember, back in the late 1980’s, HACCP and related control processes were leading edge, even esoteric, in the food industry. Spriegel’s words were wise then and they apply right now, but the present challenge is to establish sustainable value chains. If members in a value chain don’t share the same values on sustainability and don’t walk their sustainable talk, then,
the result is just “green wash” they look us in the eye and say “Were manifested as corporate website you that stupid? Didn’t you know what the consequences of your wiffle waffle! actions would be?”. So, what do I mean about sustainability? I haven’t a fancy Yeah, yeah, David, dream on. That’s all definition for you, and there are good “green” stuff, but who’s going to multiple elements to sustainability, pay for us doing things differently – but isn’t it just common-sense to our customers, consumers? Who’s conserve resources which are going to make a start and won’t they expensive and in short supply and for be at a competitive disadvantage? which demand is accelerating – like Anyway, it doesn’t matter what we do because the big boys – like China and oil, water, and land, for instance? India - will just carry on regardless In the face of mounting scientific and screw things up! Nonsense – sustainable business evidence on greenhouse gasses and adopting their impact on global warming, practices just makes cold, hard shouldn’t we work together to reduce commercial common sense. our carbon footprint? In civilised 21st Century societies, shouldn’t the Here’s why: primacy of market forces be tempered by the social and • In my professional lifetime, I’ve environmental consequences of our never seen such a consensus from key commercial activities on Planet Earth, stakeholders in the food and drink its peoples, animals and plants (I industry on the need for industryinclude, here, the shared wide action on resource conservation; trade association responsibility that our industry has governments, for consumer health)? If we carry on bodies, international agencies, special with our current profligacy, are we interest groups, consumer activists, ready to face our grandchildren when leading global manufacturers and
retailers are all calling for action NOW. The implicit threat from government is that if the industry doesn’t get its act together, then regulations will be imposed – on carbon reduction, water use, waste disposal, and so on. The CEO of the world’s largest retailer, Wal*Mart, modified the corporate mission to wit: “Saving people money so they can live better starts with low prices but it doesn’t end there. “It extends to being a leader in how we take care of our world.” Green wash? Well, Wal*Mart has sustainable agriculture goals for its suppliers and has made promises on salt, fat and sugar reduction in its private label products. In characteristic retail fashion, pressure is being placed on suppliers to respond – those suppliers who do not sign up to retailers’ sustainability agendas will face the spectre of de-listing.
Danone and others are leading the • But, be assured, “The Green Train charge. has Left the Station”. For those with precious brand assets and who aspire Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, says; to a premium position in the market, “We are already finding that tackling customers will simply expect that sustainability challenges provides their favourite brands will have new opportunities for sustainable impeccable credentials relating to growth: it creates preference for our much more than just taste – but on brands; builds business with our retail the environment, animal welfare, customers; drives our innovation; health and nutrition, treatment of grows our markets; and, in many smaller-scale suppliers, etc. cases, generates costs savings.” Why Consumers will have burgeoning wouldn’t it – save carbon, save interest and the technology at hand money, reduce waste, reduce costs – to check that food industry players it’s common-sense. are delivering on their promises and if they don’t, woe betide! • More recent price spikes for food commodities and a perception that This is the decade where the claim future raw material prices may be “Sharing Values in Sustainable Value higher and more volatile than before, Chains” is emerging from its incipient, has focused manufacturers’ attention amorphous tree-hugging stage into on the longer-term security of their simply the way that profitable firms supply chains. Will adequate supplies with a long-term future will of high spec. raw materials be undertake their day-to-day business. available in the future – e.g. cocoa Twenty years ago, the wise Dr. from Fairtrade sources, grain which is Spriegel from Sainsbury’s was spot GM-free, MSC-endorsed seafood? on – if your value chain partners don’t Again, those principally concerned share your values on consumer are companies with great brands that centricity, great tasting products, and have values inter-woven with the a comprehensive embracement of quality and social integrity of the raw sustainable business practices; start materials that comprise the physical looking right now for new partners. product.
• Only a minority of consumers are actively changing their shopping behaviour as a result of their concerns about “green” issues…FOR THE MOMENT. But a head of steam is building, not least in countries that have relatively high household incomes and, thereby, the latitude to Promises made to consumers about seek so-called credence attributes in brand values cannot be compromised the food products they purchase. when supply availability tightens. Inter-dependency between raw Increasing transparency in supply material suppliers and their bigchains occasioned by the advance of branded customers will grow and phone-based technology is becoming value chain members will and must the enabler for the shopper; point share common values to safeguard your i-Phone at a product’s RFID chip the precious shared asset which is the using a “GoodGuide” app., for brand. example, and receive an immediate reading on the product performs rela- • Is the high integrity value chain tive to competitors on taste, nutrition, approach the model for all food social and environmental criteria. industry members? No. Bog standard, traditional commodity • Food industry participants with the markets will continue to flourish, greatest level of commitment to albeit at a price discount vis-á-vis rolling out a more sustainable closed-ended value chains where business future are those who have longer-term supply arrangements are most of their corporate value tied up in place. Individual businesses will to the value of their brands. No decide which is in their best surprise, then, that Unilever, Nestlé, commercial interests.
Professor David Hughes, Professor of Food Marketing profdavidhughes@aol.com +44 (0) 7798558276 http://www.profdavidhughes.com/
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Breaking News Winners 2011 IT Vendor of the Year Category Winner Muddy Boots has won the inaugural ‘Coles Supermarket IT Vendor Award 2011’. This follows the implementation of a quality management solution that improves the consistency and quality of fresh produce throughout their 742 Australian stores.
Muddy Boots Software has been named Coles IT Vendor of the Year 2011 - Support Category, beating the competition of 3 other finalists. Greenlight Quality Control from Muddy Boots, which was implemented across Coles’ distribution centres in September 2010, was recognised by the Australian retailing giant for providing a support system that created the greatest service improvement, cost saving and enabled the greatest increase in business income over the past 12 months. Coles Supermarkets is a leader in Australian food retailing, with more than 11 million customer transactions a week. Jackie Healing, Head of Quality, Policy and Governance at Coles supermarkets comments; “Greenlight QC from Muddy Boots has given Coles first class product quality monitoring and performance reporting capability. This helps us focus our efforts in partnership with our suppliers, to achieve our objective as Australia’s leading supermarket for quality produce.”
Jonathan Evans, Managing Director at Muddy Boots Software talks about the award win; “It is fantastic to get this sort of recognition from one of our key customers and this award is proof that quality management can directly impact business efficiency.
partnerships that have made the most meaningful contribution to the success of Coles IT over the last 12 months. Muddy Boots was recognised as being simple to operate and easy to understand with good customer training and on-going support.
“It has been a great experience working with Coles. They have been quick to spot the opportunity to improve their quality processes and eager to use the data to drive change for the benefit of suppliers and their customers. We are grateful for this recognition of our work and we very much look forward to developing our longterm partnership with Coles and playing our part in supporting continuous improvement.”
Congratulations on winning the inaugural Coles IT Vendor Support Award in Melbourne. The award is testament to the partnership we have with Muddy Boots, and the levels of service we receive in the support of our implementation of Greenlight QC.
The Coles IT Vendor Awards celebrate those achievements and
Conrad Harvey, CIO Coles Australia
50% Reduction in Time Spent on Label Checks Huntapac has been using Muddy Boots’ CropWalker software to manage grower records since 2002 and identified a further need to implement a mobile electronic solution that would manage quality control in the pack-house more efficiently. They selected Greenlight Quality Control (QC) from Muddy Boots as having the best ROI and it has delivered by halving the amount of time spent in label checks each week. Huntapac Produce Ltd. specialises in growing, packing and distributing a variety of organic and conventional vegetables, brassicas and salads to major UK supermarkets. The company has a reputation for supplying high quality produce and needed a software solution that would assist with improving the efficiency of quality control processes and reduce the time spent on inputting data. “Traditionally we were using pen and paper to collect all data in the pack-house,” explains Stephen Shields, Technical Manager at Huntapac Produce Ltd. “We had 2 members of staff that would manage label checks, one of which was working on this full-time, and therefore the impact of this process in terms of time and money was huge. Muddy Boots’ Greenlight QC eliminates this challenge by halving the amount of time the business spends on label checks per week.” In the last week Huntapac has completed 1,800 label checks,
which would have previously taken approximately 60 hours to complete; 40 hours for the QC to validate the label information and a further 20 hours for the Print Room manager to verify the validation. Using Muddy Boots’ Greenlight QC, these label checks have been reduced to 1 minute per check, making a total of 30 hours spent on this process in the last week; a reduction of 50% on traditional methods. “In addition to this significant time saving, we are now given greater visibility on the performance on quality control processes throughout the business, resulting in improved management efficiency. Traditionally, if produce was rejected, a full report would have to be generated and members of the management team would be individually contacted. This process would take time; there would be a delay in sharing the data and on busy days we were always playing catch-up. Therefore, complete visibility of the
current business status was a real challenge. “We can now instantly generate an inspection report on the produce, take pictures on the hand-held device as evidence and send the report straight to the management team and supplier. This instant alert has improved the communication both internally and with our suppliers and has allowed us to identify which areas of the busIness are working well and which areas need improving.
“Greenlight QC will keep quality control inspections consistent throughout the business and will help us maintain our position as a trusted supplier for quality produce.” Stephen Shields, Technical Manager, Huntapac Produce Ltd
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Article Software Solutions for Traceability Jeff Goulding, Farm Services Director at Muddy Boots was invited to speak at The Society of Food Hygiene and Technology’s (SOFHT) annual conference in Oxford. He discussed software solutions for Traceability and the growing demand for Total Quality Assurance.
I have been invited to talk about traceability in the food industry and I am going to address this in light of some of the new technologies that are emerging and in the way we are all interacting with this new technology. Business to Business (B2B) Social Networking - Know your brand! Social sites really are changing the way people do business. News channels refer to Twitter or Facebook as reliable sources of information and I’m told HR professionals are using these services to manage staff members. Revolutions are started and successfully executed through
social networking sites. These online platforms are increasingly becoming the communication tool of choice and the ubiquitous nature of the net allows the instant sharing of information across the world. If in doubt, here are a few stats; • Twitter and Facebook now have 100m and 750m active users respectively • 42% of all Twitter users are aged 35-49 years • 50% of people mainly access the net through their smart phones • 47% of which are using apps • The adoption of smart phones has been accompanied by an increase in the volume of mobile data transferred over the UK’s mobile networks. This increased forty-fold between 2007 – 2010
gained significant momentum in that time. We’re now using Twitter to interact with our customers, find new business opportunities, find out the latest industry news; we’ve been invited to attend events, received business enquiries and received job applications, all via Twitter! What’s really becoming clear is the increasing pace of adoption of these new technologies; It took 15 years for half of the UK population to get a mobile phone and 14 years to get multi-channel TV. Newer technologies such as online catch-up TV and social networking websites reached this landmark in just 4 years.
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Businesses within the food industry must start to utilise these emerging technology platforms to manage In the last 3 days (up to writing), growing pressures relating to food ‘Traceability’ was mentioned safety, quality and traceability. 171 times on Twitter; that’s 98 more mentions than Google news! ‘Fresh Produce’ was Tweeted about more than 1,200 times, ‘Food It was from this thinking that we set Certification’ mentioned 93 times about developing ‘Facebook for Food’, and 804 Tweeters were debating called it ‘Greenlight Supplier ‘Sustainable Food’. Exchange’ and introduced it to one of our customers; UNIVEG. Founded in @MuddyBootsLtd has been using 1987, UNIVEG’s reputation depends Twitter for 12 months now and has on providing customers with
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Technology (certainly new technologies) has a key part to play for retailers and brand holders. It not only has the capacity to reduce cost and increase competitiveness, but also provides greater visibility and transparency of the provenance and the practices involved in the production of our food products; a vital ingredient to those who wish to manage risk and maintain brand reputation. Subsequently, our brands are used by worldfamous brands such as Unilever, Marks & Spencer, Coles Supermarkets in Australia and Sainsbury’s.
consistently high levels of service and quality. With a vast and diverse supply chain, now spanning 25 countries worldwide, the internet provided a solution to the growing challenge of managing compliance in globalised supply chains.
The Number 1 factor impacting profitability in the food industry, certainly in the fresh produce sector, is the quality of the product. There’s no doubt, if you are able to improve the quality of your produce in just a small way, your bottom line will In a sense UNIVEG is using one form improve in a big way. of social media to connect with its global supply base. Due to There’s long been a level of increasing demand for compliance, expectation on suppliers to the company needs solutions which provide documented evidence of can help suppliers to fulfil different complete ‘product due diligence’. customer requirements effectively It’s a given. There’s no competitive and reduce demands on resources advantage here. However, retailers both for UNIVEG companies and their and brands are waking up to the suppliers. The company believed cost of poor and inconsistent that harnessing technology could quality. This is a competitive area, facilitate higher levels of and an area we believe technology traceability into the data pool and can play a big role in delivering enable suppliers to take an integrated approach to responsibility for the management quality assurance. of due diligence information, as part of a more efficient supplier We’re not just talking ‘right first approval process. time’, but right every time! This is a concept referred to as Active In order to manage compliance and Quality Chain, where the the integrity of information better, methodology, process and Muddy Boots has developed measurement practices are all Greenlight Supplier Exchange, which consistent and are aligned acts as a private and secure, cloud- through a common technology based, B2B networking system. This platform; where there is not only brings together UNIVEG’s supplier transparency on what is community online, and enables expected, but greater visibility centralised collection of compliance on what’s coming through. From and assurance data, which is instantly farm, to factory, to DC, to store and and automatically accessible to all finally to the consumer… the product UNIVEG companies. is being assessed and reassessed to ensure the product is meeting the Through the individual supply chain specification at each point. profiles, UNIVEG businesses will be ensuring the able to connect their supply chain Fundamentally, members, facilitate supply chain expectations of the retailer are traceability and work towards the conveyed and fulfilled throughgoal of being able to identify and out your supply chain is a huge monitor supplier conformance more strain on the food industry, particularly with complex globalised effectively. supply chains. Supplier and retailer collaboration is key to ensure the Active Quality Chain product specification is available and Driving Greater Visibility adhered to throughout the supply chain. I want to switch tack and introduce you to another Muddy Boots concept There’s an App for that! around product traceability; an idea that is already meeting with interest This Active Quality Chain process is currently being adopted by the most within our retail customers.
forward-thinking grocery retailers. In their pursuit for the most efficient and quality-assured supply chains,retailers are recognising that if everyone in the supply chain adopts a standard approach to quality assessment, efficiencies through traceability can be found. And when we say everyone, we mean right through to the customer; retailers want to engage with their customers and demonstrate that they are listening. Mobile technology is ramping up faster than ANY other technology. Shoppers use mobile websites for price comparisons, product information and reviews. So how can they be engaged further in this Active Quality Chain process? We could have an app for that! When you’re at home simply scan the product and tell the retailer what you think! The end result is complete transparency and traceability of your product performance, literally from farm to fork. So, where are we heading and where do we need to go from here? We’ve got to better understand consumer behaviour and their changing buying habits. We’ve got to embrace the power of new technology and its huge potential for helping our industry meet the growing need from consumers for traceability, food safety, quality, provenance, and sustainability. We need to open our minds to the influence of business networking through the Internet. But don’t take my word for it, listen to someone who knows better than I... “The Internet is becoming the market square for the global village of tomorrow.” Bill Gates Chairman and Co-Founder, Microsoft
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