It’s that time of year again – the re:fresh awards, the event that recognises the achievements of the great and good in the UK’s fresh produce industry and once again MorePeople were proud sponsors of the Young Person of the Year Award.

For the first time this year’s shortlist was an all female affair with the proud recipient for 2009 being Lucy Wiggins the Sales & Marketing Manager of HerbFresh. Since graduating from Wye College in 2002 Lucy has worked in sales and account management roles in the industry. In 2008 she took up the challenge with HerbFresh, a relative newcomer in the market, and has not looked back since, helping drive sales growth of over 28% in her first year. In their summing up the judges stated that Lucy had “provided the most dramatic impact on the business and is clearly at the forefront driving the success of her employer”.

Giving Lucy a run for her money were fellow finalists Alison Birkett of QV Foods and Lauren Curry of Sarah-Ann Florists. Alison is a Harper Adams graduate who joined QV after completing the MDS programme. She has since gone on to become a valued member of the QV team and proven herself to be particularly adept at coping with the wide variety of challenges that have come her way as the QV business has grown and diversified over the last 2 years. Lauren’s nomination came about as recognition for the drive, flair and passion she has brought to her employer. This is something that is about to be seen by an even wider audience as Lauren’s ability as one of the country’s best young florists has seen her win through to the finals of the World Skills competition, to be held in Calgary later this year!

Well done to all our finalists and their employers for entering them. It just goes to show that the fresh produce industry really does have talent – well at least female talent! What happened to all the boys this year? We’re looking forward to a comeback in 2010!!