D&I in Grocery has announced the launch of its 2024 Impact Report alongside the latest results from its Maturity Model; revealing the grocery industry’s significant progress in creating a truly diverse and inclusive industry.
Managed by GroceryAid, with the support of the Strategy Steering Group and three workstream steering groups, the D&I in Grocery programme continues to grow in both size and impact, breaking previous records.
The report shows that over 100 partners, including leading FMCG brands, engaged with the programme in 2024 – an increase of 386 per cent on 2020. This facilitated an increase of over 50 per cent in new connections being made (now over 550), offering organisations the opportunity to learn from others and accelerate their D&I plans. The programme also raised a record-breaking £1m+ for GroceryAid in 2024.
Caroline Cater
The latest results from the D&I in Grocery Maturity Model, launched last year to tangibly track annual progress and gain an industry benchmark, also measuring D&I growth and improvement within the industry. The average benchmark score has risen to 4.8 from 4.4 in 2024, with a nine per cent increase in participation rate and 83 per cent of partners improving their score compared to the year before. Organisations were scored on 10 categories and the greatest improvements were seen across Senior and Middle Management Commitment, Appraisal and Talent Planning, and Policies and Practices. While retailers continue to lead the way, it is clear that manufacturers and service providers are also making great strides.
The release of the Impact Report and Maturity Model results coincides with the appointment of Richard Stratton (Group Sourcing & Commodities Director at Tesco) as the programme’s new Strategy Steering Group Chair, and Caroline Cater (VP of People and Culture at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners) as Deputy Chair.
“We are incredibly proud of the programme’s achievements in 2024, all of which have been delivered to an exceptional standard with the overall programme experience score achieving 100 per cent and overall programme impact score at 96 per cent," said Simon Smith (Go to Market Operations Director at Kellanova) and outgoing chair of D&I in Grocery’s Strategy Steering Group for 2024.
“The second year of our Maturity Model results have allowed us to measure and track D&I data; the improvement of which will be key in driving progress and ensuring that we are moving in the right direction.”
Richard Stratton
Richard Stratton (Group Sourcing and Commodities Director at Tesco) and new Strategy Steering Group Chair, says: “It’s increasingly important for our industry to come together to drive collective change for D&I within our industry. I am delighted to be part of this programme which is supporting the industry in doing exactly that and accelerating change.
“We are making good progress and with the Maturity Model we will be able to see exactly how far we have come year by year. We now have over 3,000 members on The Partner HUB, who are all discovering valuable resources and sharing relevant insights whilst asking pertinent questions and collaborating to accelerate D&I in the industry.”
To download the report, please click here.
