Alan Forrester

Alan has been involved in the Fresh Food Sector since leaving University.

His experience spans produce Multiple retail buying as well as instore management and he has worked in Fresh produce and flower imports, growing, preparation and distribution. Having spent five years working overseas in Holland and Hong Kong he has travelled extensively in the key fresh produce global growing regions building lasting relations with growers and exporters.

Throughout his career Alan has operated as the Managing Director of a number of businesses in property, flower and fruit farms and latterly at Greenyard Fresh heading the UK division with five sites in the UK, at peak, 1,500 colleagues and a revenue of £210m.

The UK business, grown through acquisitions, joint ventures and restructures, became recognised as an industry leader with significant expertise in a number of key categories.

During his time with Greenyard he spent five years working on the Fresh “EXCO” team.

“EXCO” had the responsibility to define the strategy and retail business development plans for Greenyard’s €3.2bn fresh produce business from Germany to Italy and the UK.

Alan has also acted as a regional counsellor for the CBI and has been part of the FPC for 6 years and President for three years. The role within the FPC has proved to be extremely rewarding, working with a small, but dedicated and dynamic team actively delivering for all sectors of the membership and industry.

Over the past 4 years the FPC has been working to support government departments in the planning and definition of all the industry needs, pre and post, Brexit. Despite the relatively small scale, I see the FPC as building a strong reputation withing key government sectors; crucial to ensuring clear communication and understanding of the challenges and solutions need to minimise the impact of Brexit changes on all fresh produce businesses from 2021.