At last month’s Natural & Organic Products Expo, Natural Newsdesk caught up with the director general of the HFMA, Martin Last, who talks here about his first year in post, opportunities and challenges for the health food sector, and the implications of upcoming elections here and Europe.
Natural Newsdesk: Martin, you are one year to the day into your role as director general at the HFMA. How would you describe your working and leadership style in the role, and what are your short to medium term plans for the association?
Martin Last: I would say that my leadership style is a very open style. I encourage a whole team ethic, teamwork. I’m always very conscious that there are 10 people working within the HFMA alongside me. I recognise that I need to be seen to be leading from the front, but I am constantly mindful that these 10 people are working extremely hard every day, performing their roles. So I think it’s about empowering them, and enabling them to do their jobs without having to refer to me all the time.
The first thing I did when I came in was to develop a five year rolling plan. And we are in year two of that now. So, that first part was all about modernising, updating, getting the systems right. We are now moving into year two, where we can consolidate that work – and how that will look in the future. We’re looking, for example, how we can expand our services into new areas. Here, I think functional food is likely to present a big opportunity for us. So this rolling plan is now developing into ‘where do we go next?’.
And I do I think we’ve come along way. As an anecdote, when I joined, I met with all the staff and told them I had no plans to make any changes. After three months, when I’d looked at everything and taken stock, I went back to everyone and said, do you know what, I think we need to make a few changes! So we have restructured and have an organisation that is now fully fit for purpose – certainly for the next five or six years.
I’ve got the support of the council to help me achieve these goals, which I see as a developing process that we will keep under constant review. So I see my role now as more about evolving the strategic vision of the HFMA, rather than getting directly involved in the day-to-day operational issues. I’ve got a great team, and some very senior and experienced people, who already do that extremely well.
“I see my role now as more about evolving the strategic vision of the HFMA, rather than getting directly involved in the day-to-day operational issues. I’ve got a great team, and some very senior and experienced people, who already do that extremely well”
NN: What do you see as the biggest opportunities and challenges for your members in there coming years?
ML: I feel very firmly we shouldn’t be seen as a separate part of the health service. We should be seen as an integral part of it. The role of supplementation in helping keeping people healthy should be an integral part of wider thinking about health and wellbeing. It’s another area that we’re working on with our political advisors. We want to get a message out to government that we can be supportive in these goals, and ensure we are recognised as a respected and trusted voice.
That leads into what I would say is the biggest opportunity, which is to get us firmly into the mainstream. People shouldn’t be asking themselves, should I take a supplement? The answer should be a clear yes. And if someone has been prescribed antibiotics, then it should be quite expected to be taking a probiotic alongside it, or some other nutritional support. We need to get that type of thinking fully into the mainstream.
I think historically Europe has presented an obstacle to that. For some reason or rather, Europe seems oppositional to supplementation. And that doesn’t come from a position of science, it’s really very arbitrary. That should change. And I’m working with the European associations to try and change the attitude in Europe. But currently it remains a threat. Because if European authorities start restricting things, the chances are we see a spinoff of that.
The problem is that if markets start to exist in isolation you then start to see a breakdown in the supply chain. We need to have a fluid supply chain across Europe and across the world. If you have a situation where Germany says it isn’t going to do this, or Italy says isn’t going to do that, the viability of the entire supply chain is threatened. So we need to be aware of those threats. And it’s about challenging regulations where we need to.
NN: A few years back there was a lot of activity, a lot of noise within the industry, about legislation – mostly EU legislation – and the way it was impacting the health trade. On the surface, that would seem to have quietened down. What do think is going on?
ML: I would say that a lot of things are on hold. So there might be the appearance of things going quiet. Leading up to the June elections in Europe the working groups of the Commission have been busily ticking boxes to show that by the end of their term, they’ve performed their functions. There will be a quiet period until the new Commission comes into place. That change will likely spark a whole range of new issues. We could see things like maximum levels, the herbals directive and health claims coming right back to the forefront. Our government is normally running slightly behind that because they are watching what’s going on Europe and saying, ‘do we need to apply that in the UK?’. So these big issues are likely to back come here.
“There will be a quiet period until the new Commission comes into place. That change will likely spark a whole range of new issues. We could see things like maximum levels, the herbals directive and health claims coming right back to the forefront”
NN: After Brexit the Conservative party pledged a “burning of red tape”. Do you think there is likely to be less appetite for that under a Labour Government?
ML: Well, the proof will be in the pudding. I do still expect red tape to be cut in ways that make life easier for industry and consumers. And the main thing is that the consumer should see the benefit of this. That should be an automatic. So, I think there is still an opportunity here for the future. And we are in conversation with a range of bodies about this. We sit in on many of the government bodies, and with most of those we have active working relationships. For example, we are talking regularly with the MHRA. And we are talking to them about what we can do together. Clearly they are the enforcement body, but there are conversations to be had and work to be done that can help companies get where they need to be.
Similarly, with Defra and the Windsor Framework, we are working on how we move forward in Europe and in Northern Ireland and the UK. And, actually, I have never seen a government department so engaged with industry – saying here is training, here is guidance Ahead of the introduction of the Common User Charge on April 30th,
they’ve done everything they can to make sure everyone is prepared for it, as every milestone is reached. I don’t think we seen that for quite awhile. And we are nurturing that relationship.
NN: Some years ago there was a view that trade associations in this sector were rather closed off organisations. That has changed significantly, but do you think there is still is an opportunity for the HFMA to be more outward-looking?
ML: Absolutely. We’ve already started engaging more with members and non-members and with other stakeholders, and as I’ve been saying, with the MHRA and Defra, and we are getting really open dialogue. That’s really important. But we want to extend that all the way down to consumers. We want to get the message out that we’ve got good quality products, good manufacturing practice, regulatory compliance and safe and valuable products.
Part of my role as director general is to make sure that we pull all of those strands together as we communicate them. And I would agree with you that, historically, what was being communicated was perhaps selective. Now we are getting feedback immediately. And I can give you an example of that. We recently had a situation with CBD, when the FSA announced at very short notice that they were reducing the levels. Theresa and our communications team work through the night, preparing press releases and alerting members. And the following morning we had 17 member companies on a Zoom call, talking about the issue, sharing their views and feedback. That’s an example of the open communications I’m trying to bring into our association. And that very much guided us on how we responded to the FSA.
NN: How do you see the role of trade associations developing and changing to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world, and staying relevant in an age of instant communication?
ML: I think we will need to build on our strengths. That is about recognising what we’ve done in the past and building on those achievements. There are certain areas – social media is a good example – where we need to apply new thinking. We know we need to be active on LinkedIn. If you look around this exhibition, there are a lot of new companies here who probably do a lot of, if not most, of their communications on social media. We need to be responding to that, and updating all the time.
My view is that if we must be constantly out there, renewing, updating. That’s how we will stay relevant. Listening, and hearing, what members have to say is a really important part of this. In our regular working groups we survey members on particular topics, to hear their views and their thinking. So we actively seek feedback to help inform us about our plans for the future so that we can be responsive to our members needs.
NN: The independent health food retail channel is a vital part of the natural products industry. How can the HFMA work with retailers, and Health Stores UK to help ensure that health stores thrive in a challenging retail market?
ML: Relationships with the specialist retail sector are really crucial to nurture. Particularly when we see products going online, I think the role of the independent retailer becomes more important. Because they can provide local, specialist knowledge that consumers would struggle to get elsewhere. So, discussing how we engage with health food retailers is another important part of the discussions we are having about how we move forward.
NN: If there was a single message you wanted to leave readers of the interview with, what would it be?
ML: Well, I would like to say that I am so pleased to be in this role. I’ve worked in this industry for most of my life, and I have been given the chance to make a difference and I am throughly enjoying it. But I’d stress again that it’s about the whole team here. So the message I’d like to communicate is that, to me, it’s all about what the HFMA does, not what particular individuals do.