Official announcement from Grocery Girls…

“After five fantastic years of Grocery Girls, the moment has come for us to evolve, which is why we are pleased to announce that we are passing the baton to YF.

YF, formerly known as Young Foodies, is a consultancy best known for scaling innovative new propositions in FMCG. As a female founded business with unparalleled connections in the grocery space, they felt like the right next home for our amazing group.

Since we were established by Jo Whitfield in 2018 – who became the first female CEO of a major UK grocer – there were few senior women in leadership roles in the industry. To tackle this, we created this very community that has enabled women to share stories, inspire each other and develop their skills.

Thanks to your support, we’ve gone from strength to strength with over 3000 active members, with many of you attending our in-person events, joining our lunch and learns and listening to our podcast.

That being said, after five incredible years the ED&I landscape across the industry has made major strides. There are now more women than ever in senior roles across grocery and so many other fantastic networks have emerged to enable inclusion and diversity such as the Diversity in Grocery programme, MEAT Business Women and Women in Wholesale.

It was important to us that we help our community continue to make connections, learn from each other, and remain inspired. In collaboration with YF, we have come up with a fantastic way to continue this.

Jo notes this wasn’t an easy decision, however she believes the network is in safe hands with YF and this is the right moment for change;

‘There was always going to come a moment when we would reflect on what has been achieved at Grocery Girls and hand the baton to others to enable breadth and growth. For us, the time is now.

We are hugely grateful to everyone that has been a part of the Grocery Girls community over the past five years and would like to take this opportunity to say thank you.

We always wanted this social enterprise to be available to everyone and it’s been great to see the way the industry has responded. We hope our members continue to thrive with the brilliant YF and drive the grocery industry forward, as there is still so much which can be achieved.’

YFs CEO, Theadora Alexander, adds;

‘YF is serious about driving progress in FMCG so, when Jo approached us to take on their membership, it was an easy conversation. Our worlds collide in harnessing the potential in people.

Some of our most popular services are people based – we design and recruit entire teams for FMCG brands, advise high potential talent on their next career moves and run countless team training programmes.

We know the role of community, network and inspiration in the future of our industry and are excited for some of the initiatives planned as we welcome the wonderful Grocery Girls members into our ecosystem. A huge thank you from the entire industry to Jo and the team – the impact you have had is real. We hope YF can continue to have even a fraction of the impact you have.’

In the coming days and weeks we will be reaching out to you individually to explain further details on how YF can continue to support you.”