It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year since I joined CFF, a year that has been filled with so much positive progress in a business that thrives off human relationships, exceptional customer centricity and entrepreneurship.
As we have worked together over the past 12 months, we have continued to deliver milestones and new records, continuing to exploit our potential by leveraging our global footprint and shareholder strengths as well as sharpening our focus on execution. Teams from around the world have been highly engaged in continuing to build on these strengths, positioning the CFF business to become even stronger in the future. Continuous progress is what matters and we have demonstrated across all regions that we are here to challenge ourselves, our competitors and the market itself.
Our sCore strategy reflects our focus on leadership and outperforming our own ambitions. We are well on our way, with some markets aiming to be more than 12 months ahead of their dedicated targets by 2024. That confirms that our objectives are real, tangible and we are firmly committed to exceed the goals we have set ourselves.
Connecting with our partners is key and globally we have hosted a number of events to associate our business with our customers, suppliers and our own teams. These events have been an excellent platform on which to build and manifest relationships, as well as showcases for our expertise. For example, last year we began with our ‘Reconnect’ events in Singapore kickstarting the post-Covid era for our industry and most recently we participated in much anticipated MICHELIN Guide award ceremonies in Macau and Dubai. The connectivity we create via these events are the building blocks for remarkably strong relationships.
Building on progress also means to continuously innovate via solutions and products. Over the past year we never stopped enriching customer experiences by bringing new product assortments to our markets, which in turn deepen our customer partnerships for more sustainable business platforms. Building our assortments is an integral part of our business and launching innovative produce within the markets in which we operate in is in our DNA, whether this sees a new Japanese assortment in the UK or working with vertical farms in the UAE.
Digitalization is not just a buzz word, but a necessity. We continue our path to digitize our operations by bringing the right expertise inhouse and launching new solutions that will both enable a more effective way of doing business and further extend our multichannel customer reach, such as the recent launch of our B2B web and app platform in Vietnam.
Excellence is what sets our offering apart from the rest and we ensure that we meet our quality promises every day. Throughout the past year, we have achieved some great milestones in terms of quality, safety and organic certifications to further enhance our commitments, such as CFF Indonesia being certified by Biocert, CFF UK receiving an AA grade in the latest BRCGS Storage & Distribution Audit and CFF Rungis achieving the ISO22000 certification.
Besides all of the above, the most important part of our business is our people. We have kickstarted a significant number of initiatives over the past 12 months that will better enable and connect our teams in the future. Learning and development has – and will continue to be – an integral part of what CFF stands for. We are a business that thrives off human relationships and this will always be at the core of what we do. Developing and growing together will equip us to become better, not only as individuals but also as a business. We will continue to expand on these initiatives in the next 12 months, building functional expertise and leadership capabilities at all levels.
In June we hosted our 2023 ONE CFF CONFERENCE in Kuala Lumpur where we had the opportunity to engage, learn and strengthen those critical human relationships. This was the first in-person meeting since 2017, affording us the opportunity to bring 130 of our key managers together as ‘ONE CFF’. ONE CFF is a culture of belonging, learning, growing and achieving TOGETHER, going the extra mile for each other and our customers every day.
As part of ONE CFF CONFERENCE, we recognized some of our amazing talents with the Outstanding Leadership Awards. These awards are a reflection of our team’s attitude to never stop challenging the status quo, to dare and to exceed expectations, inspiriting what makes us different. Truly inspirational!
With so many advances in just one year I’m very excited to see what we can achieve in the 12 months to come. The bar is set high, but I’m confident that we will not just achieve but exceed our own expectations.
Thank you CFF!!!
Yours sincerely,
Jens
