Wimbledon, Ascot, Henley and The Hampton Court Flower Show - all iconic events that herald the start of the great British summer. Didn’t manage to get to one these this year? Don’t despair there’s still one great British summer event still to come - Fruit Focus! Every year  the great and the good of the UK’s soft and top fruit industries head down to the East Malling Research Centre in Kent for their annual summer get together and as usual MorePeople will be there supporting them. This will be our 10th year in a row and we’d love to catch up with you if you’re down in Kent on the 21st July. If you are why don’t you pop along to stand 28 and say hello to Matt, Tom, Guy and Dianne? Who knows, if you get your timing right Guy might even buy you an ice cream to celebrate our 10th anniversary!

With Royal Ascot, Henley and Wimbledon all happening in quick succession traditionally it’s the month of June that sees the ladies start grabbing the headlines but clearly when it comes to the world of Fresh Produce and Horticulture it seems that May is now the month that the girls like to make their mark as at both of the recent industry events sponsored by MorePeople – The Re;fresh Young Person of the Year and The IoH’s Young Horticulturalist of the Year, the top prizes were carried off by enterprising and determined young women!

At the Re;fresh awards, held at the Intercontinental Hotel on London’s Park Lane, Rebecca Dawson, Marketing Director of Tozer Seeds, was crowned the MorePeople Young Person of the year for 2010. Rebecca impressed the judges with the impact that she’s had on the business since joining in 2003. Over the last 7 years Rebecca has used her marketing and creative writing skills to great effect - initially in the development of the company’s fledgling Plant Solutions brand and then in the development and launch of Tozer Direct, a web based sales division that deals directly with market gardeners and small holders. For the last 12 months she’s been concentrating on the campaign to launch of a brand new vegetable – Flower Sprout. A cross between a Brussels Sprout and a Kale this new vegetable has just hit the shelves of Marks and Spencer. Described by the judges as ‘”An outstanding  talent” Rebecca has taken the step up to the main Tozer board in her stride and is certainly one to watch out for as she continues to develop an impressive career in the fresh produce sector. 

Just two days later Faye Steer (pictured, centre) beat off stiff competition to become the Institute of Horticulture’s Young Horticulturalist of the Year for 2010. Held this year at The Royal Botanic Garden, Kew Faye represented the Eastern region and showed great determination to come back after finishing 3rd overall in 2009 holding off the other 7 regional heat winners in a close run final that went right down to the last few questions. Faye, who is the Deputy Head Gardener at Cambridge University’s Madingley Hall, picked up the first prize of a £2,000 travel bursary from the Percy Thrower Trust to study plants of interest throughout the world and early indications are that the Yunan Province of China is where Fay will be heading sometime soon!

With Sara Phillips of Majestic Trees carrying off the MorePeople Salesperson of the Year Award at February’s Grower of the year award that’s a hat trick of victories for the ladies in 2010. One of the key reasons that we get involved in the sponsorship of these awards is to help promote the fresh produce and horticulture sectors to as wide an audience as possible and show everyone what great careers there are open to anyone with drive and passion – but what’s happened to the boys? It’s not only 3 out of 3 for this year but now 5 out of 6 in events sponsored by us over the last 2 years that have seen impressive young women leave the guys standing in their wake! So here’s a wake up call for 2011 guys - remember you’ve got to be ‘in it to win it’!

Have you heard the latest? You must have seen it on one of those interwebby bloggy things. You know the one, MyFace or was it SpaceBook? Someone saw Simon Cowell and Tommy Leighton in the same street so that’s official, the Re;fresh awards are going global. This year Park lane, London – next stop global domination! It’s online so it must be true.

Well maybe that’s stretching things a bit too far. We might love the Fresh Produce sector but, although I’m sure Tommy’s working on it, perhaps it’s not quite reached prime time TV status just yet. However, the Re;fresh awards do represent a great opportunity for everyone to recognise the achievements of those who work within it.

We’ve been associated with the awards now for 5 years and specifically the award for Young Person of the Year. A perennial theme amongst our clients over this time has been the question of succession planning and where will they find the young managers and leaders that they’ll need to prosper in the future. That’s likely to remain a key question for some time but if we are not careful it’s easy to overlook that we’ve already got some great young people working in the industry and the Re;fresh Award provides a great opportunity to recognise that young talent.

Over the years the award has been carried off by young people representing all sectors of the industry. In 2006 Michael Barton of Barton & Redman carried  of the title for the wholesale boys, in 2007 Pavel Skapetowski of Stubbins represented the changing face of the sector – and who could forget that acceptance speech! In 2008 Tom Richardson of Waitrose helped illustrate that not all supermarket buyers are as bad as some people would like to make out and last year Lucy Wiggins (pictured, left) of Herb Fresh carried off the title and at the same time became our first lady winner!

So as you can see a wide range people from business of all sizes but all with the same thing in common – talent, enthusiasm and a real passion for produce and the industry they work in. They’ve also had employers that recognise the motivational value that the odd pat on the back or even better entry for an industry award that recognises excellence can have!

So if you have some talented individuals whose contribution to your business you think merits wider recognition this could be a great opportunity to do just that as there is still time to enter this years Re;fresh Awards. Entry closes on 13th April and you can download all the details you need from http://www.refresh.eu/index.php?zr=awardcat9

Go on, do it and maybe you’ll be joining MorePeople, Tommy and who knows, if the rumours are true, even Simon C at this years awards at the InterContinental Hotel, Park Lane on 13th May 2010.

For the fifth year in a row MorePeople were proud sponsors of the Sales Professional of the Year category at last month’s annual Grower of the Year Awards. The aim of this category is to recognise the value that the sales function brings to any business – even horticulture! One of the key features of people working in horticulture is the passion and enthusiasm that they put into their businesses and the products they produce. However, all this dedication, producing the plants they love to grow so much could easily go to waste without the back up of an equally dedicated team of sales professionals who, in turn, can help convey that passion to customers and then go on to make sure that they in turn get all the attention and high levels of customer service that they deserve.

Epitomising this very process is this year’s winner – Sara Phillips of Majestic Trees. In many ways Sara is the ideal candidate for this award. Originally a sales manager in the paper industry she then seized the opportunity afforded to her during a career break, whilst raising her children, to develop her long held interest in horticulture. After completing studies in both the RHS and City & Guilds syllabuses she joined Majestic Trees and over the last 7 years she’s utilised her horticultural knowledge and sales management expertise to great effect and played a pivotal part in the rapid growth of Majestic’s commercial tree nursery. So congratulations to Sara from all at MorePeople.

Unusually this year we’d also like to bask in a little reflected glory from the winner of this year’s NFU sponsored Young Grower of the Year award – Paul Simmonds of Cornerways Nursery. One of the perennial questions we’ve been asked ever since we stared our business in 2000 is - where is all the bright young talent that the industry needs for a healthy future going to come from? Well ever since we placed Paul as a raw graduate in December 2004 we’ve known that if we could clone a few like him every year we’d have had a ready made answer to that annual query! So congratulations to Paul on his success and also well done to Nigel Bartle at Cornerways for recognising that, just like the plants they produce, even the brightest young talents can’t reach their potential without some nurturing and investment. So could it also be co-incidental that Paul’s just completed the class leading MorePerformance Leadership Development Programme!

Once again MorePeople are delighted to be one of the key sponsors of the Institute of Horticulture’s Young Horticulturist of the Year competition.  Over the next few weeks scores of young horticulturist’s up and down the country will take part in the numerous local heats that lead to the 8 regional finals and eventually on to the national final.  This year’s Grand Final will take place at Kew Gardens May 15th.

The competition is open to anyone involved in horticulture who is under the age of 30 on July 31st 2010.  At MorePeople we regard a key part of our role in YHOY as, not just providing financial support through sponsorship, but also helping the IoH widen the appeal of the competition and hopefully ensure that the event becomes more widely recognised in the context of the horticultural profession as a whole - and not just something that is focused on students and their colleges.

2009 saw the introduction of the facility to access the competition via the Internet.  This allows people who can’t physically get to one of the heats, say due to distance or work commitments, to take part. Around 30 people took advantage of this option last year and indeed one of those went all the way to the grand final and finished in 3rd place overall!  YHOY is a competition that continues to evolve and going forward the IoH are very much committed to further innovations aimed at enhancing its reputation and the status of those who take part.

As usual there is a great range of prizes on offer.  The total prize pot is worth £10,000 with the overall YHOY 2010 receiving the top award of a £2,000 travel bursary, donated by the Percy Thrower Trust. 

So are you a budding YHOY or do you know someone in your organisation that you think should take part?  Wouldn’t you like the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of previous winners and head of to New Zealand or venture into deepest Borneo in search of the exotic?

And don’t forget the IoH’s Young Horticulturist of the Year competition doesn't just provide a great opportunity for the individuals that take part, it can also be a great way for employers to motivate their staff whilst at the same time helping them to promote their businesses!

If you would like to enter this year’s YHOY then follow the link below to the IoH website where you will find the competition rules and all the entry details.

http://www.horticulture.org.uk

For anyone wanting to know more about the competition you can also contact the IoH admin team at Capel Manor College on 01992 707025 or e-mail them ioh@horticulture.org.uk.