Citation: Martin Kersh, Executive Director, Foodservice Packaging Association
After an early career in music managing acts including Mungo Jerry, Barclay James Harvest and Kiki Dee, followed by a career in advertising with Saatchi, Martin joined the FPA in 2006 on the recommendation of Finance Director Malcolm Sargent, having met Martin through his work for the Cleaning & Hygiene Association. At the time of joining, the FPA had some 60 members and was largely known as an ‘old boy’s networking association’. It now has 122 members, with approximately 40 more through buying group associate memberships.
During his time at the FPA, Martin has been instrumental in transforming the association into a credible voice of the industry, ensuring the FPA is heard at the highest level in order to protect the interests of member businesses. He has built up respect amongst many stakeholder groups from other trade associations at UK and European level such as the Packaging Federation and Confederation of Paper Industries. He has made and maintained contacts with departments at all four UK governments and represented the industry on numerous parliamentary committees.
Martin has been instrumental in addressing issues that directly affect members’ business and has helped shape legislation to ensure they have time to plan ahead and that such legislation is fit for purpose. In the earlier years Martin ensured that the FPA took a responsible stance on litter; seeking collaboration with partners, pushing for business to take its share of responsibility and calling out situations where packaging rather than people was blamed for litter.
Raising the profile of the FPA, Martin has become a reliable media resource, often asked to contribute articles or take part in debates, and for interviews with the media, leading to greater respect for the role of foodservice packaging in delivering the convenience demanded by the modern consumer.
Martin’s ability to anticipate change, understand its implications for the foodservice packaging industry and shape outcomes was first demonstrated in 2015 when he successfully negotiated an exemption for foodservice to the carrier bag charge. When plastic straws were banned, Martin fought for the rights of the disabled and elderly to continue to use plastic straws and for industry to have the time to use up stocks.
Martin has spearheaded the FPA policies on paper cup charges, lobbying tirelessly for industry led solutions rather than imposed government taxes or charges. When the paper cups issue hit in 2016, Martin led the initiative to bring together stakeholders, which led to the creation of the Paper Cup Recovery and Recycling Group. Together the stakeholders undertook a huge amount of work, including research and briefing government departments, in order to hold off the imposition of charges whilst the industry put in place actions to voluntarily increase the recycling rates of paper cups. On one January morning in 2018, Martin undertook eight media interviews, including a head to head with Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall on the BBC Radio Four flagship Today Programme. (See video compilation here).
Since the publication of Theresa May’s Circular Economy strategy in 2017, Martin has coordinated members and other organisations in bringing together industry responses to challenges, including the single use plastics tax and the implications of Extended Producer Responsibility. Martin understands that shaping policy and legislation is better than trying to cope with ill-fitting imposed regulations. It was the FPA which first posed the idea of Packaging Recovery Note reform and pitched to then Defra Minister Therese Coffey the idea of a systems administrator and made it clear that industry was willing to pay more to help create a circular economy. This has now been adopted as policy and Martin continues to work hard to ensure that the legislation is fit for purpose.
Since 2018 the FPA has communicated weekly with members in the form of its digital newsletter the ‘Friday Digest’, producing 50 editions a year. Generating the content for this takes enormous dedication and the Digest has been become a much-valued asset for members - one member says “FPA membership is worth it for the Digest alone”. Although the Digest is a member only asset, it is circulated to a controlled list of key influencers and its value is appreciated by them also – we know it is shared widely within certain government departments.
The FPA Environment Seminar, which usually takes place in January each year, was introduced by Martin and has evolved into a key ‘think tank’ for the industry attracting the highest level of speakers including government ministers. Martin has always recognised the value of dialogue with critics of the industry and as result has secured speakers from seemingly unlikely sources, including Greenpeace, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and more recently Extinction Rebellion.
When Covid hit in March 2020, Martin understood the need to get information out to members as quickly as possible using the Digest and digital update bulletins to help them find government help on funding, furlough and key operational issues. During 2020, the FPA undertook a huge amount of work to support members including issuing new guidelines on the safe handling of foodservice packaging for home delivery and take-aways, secured delays in the plastics tax consultation during lockdown, called for hygiene and public safety considerations to be assessed as part of all relevant legislative frameworks going forward, questioned government delivery routes for PPE and introduced a business benchmarking survey for members to gauge the impact of the pandemic on their business. The FPA also introduced a series of monthly webinars to keep members in touch with key issues relating to their business, which were regularly attended by more than 100 members. In fact, these webinars were so well received the FPA has continued to deliver information in this way and offer a hybrid model for certain events.
In the past year the foodservice industry has been subject to greater scrutiny than ever and faced a tsunami of consultation, policy and legislation challenges. Martin has worked tirelessly to ensure that members’ views are taken into consideration and drafted responses to every consultation. In 2021 these included from Westminster, HMRC Plastics Packaging Tax, EFRA Plastics Pollution, Defra Plastics Plates, Cutlery and EPS/PS, and Defra Consistent Collections. For Scotland Single Use Plastics, EPS Cups and Containers, Northern Ireland SUP bans and levy and Wales SUP and proposed bans. Martin sits on the HMRC Working Group, the Resources and Waste Strategy Group, the Stakeholders Advisory Group and the WRAP Litter Sprint group. In 2021 Martin gave a keynote speech to the New Statesman Conference, the CIWM Conference and chaired the Big Plastics Debate at Packaging
Innovations. Wherever possible Martin calls on behalf of the FPA for the term ‘biodegradable’ to be eliminated from discourse and marketing materials, as this encourages consumers to litter.
In 2022 Martin has continued to raise the profile of the FPA and has secured a ‘foodservice village’ at the Packaging Innovations Show at the NEC. Early in 2022 Martin campaigned for the exemption of commercial kitchen pan liners from the plastics packaging tax, following the successful exempting of silage wrap. In February, following a survey of members, the FPA issued a warning that the sector was not ready for the Plastics Tax. Key achievements this year include lobbying to ensure that the CMA’s Green Claims Code covers business to business to avoid ‘green wash’ in the industry, detailed work to ensure that FPA members do not pay twice on packaging taxes and navigating the way through very complex legislation to understand the full implication for members. Martin fights hard to ensure that FPA members have a ‘level playing field’ and for transparency on where the money raised from taxes and charges actually goes. Part of this is continued lobbying for no de minimus to apply, for example, to mandatory cup take back, so that all industry is included, not just the key players. The FPA is calling for a ‘town trial’ for a proper impact assessment to be made.
In April the FPA urged the Welsh government to take a lead on litter by clamping down on people who litter. At the FPA AGM in June, Martin highlighted the huge amount of work still required over the coming two years to navigate forthcoming legislation and impact assessments and ensure policy is fit for purpose.
Martin’s response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine is typical of his compassion, having presented to the Ukraine packaging industry in 2019. Martin pulled together a working group including OPRL, INCPEN, the Packaging Federation and Packaging News to support offering jobs in the packaging industry to Ukrainian refugees.
Without Martin’s tireless energy and passion for foodservice packaging, and his huge capacity to understand and analyse consultations, policies and legislation, there is no doubt the sector and members’ businesses would be very much the poorer
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