Sanjay Aggarwal, Chief Spice Officer, Spice Kitchen will be taking part in a workshop on the Talking Trends stage at Speciality & Fine Food Fair focussing on empowering people, and will be speaking alongside Paul Hargreaves of Cotswold Fayre, Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones of The Black Farmer, Rory Laffan of Bee Recruitment, Alison Payne of COOK.

Speciality & Fine Food Fair sat down with Sanjay to learn more about the topic and to hear some of his predications for the future of food & drink. 

How do you feel about being part of the Fair’s seminar programme this year?

Really excited: a workshop focused on “People Empowerment” is so topical and relevant right now. Sharing how prioritising people – whether staff or customers – can drive revenue and enhance sales is something I’ve reflected a lot on since setting up Spice Kitchen – especially after taking the step to recruit the very first team member in 2017. I look forward to sharing and discussing strategies that truly put people first and hearing what others are doing too. 

What do you think might be some of the main talking points/themes of your session?

I hope to focus on how empowering your team and valuing their contributions can lead to increased sales and revenue, but also the importance of offering flexibility—such as freelance and permanent roles, part-time options, and hybrid working—to meet diverse needs. Also, aligning team members with a cohesive business strategy: letting everyone work towards a common goal, you create a motivated team that naturally excels in customer interactions and drives sales.

Why is it important to discuss/cover this topic?

I genuinely feel that putting people first is crucial, particularly with all of the economic challenges we’ve got going on. If we empower staff and make them proud to represent the company, we not only enhance their job satisfaction but also boost their effectiveness in engaging with customers. This in turn helps drive revenue and fosters long-term business success. 

We’re celebrating our 25th anniversary this year – do you have any predictions for the next 25 years in the speciality & fine food industry?

Looking ahead, I predict that the specialty and fine food industry will want to (and in many ways be forced to) increasingly prioritise ethical and people-centred practices. We’ve just started the B Corp certification process because we can see already the focus is shifting towards not just quality products but also the ethics of leadership. This feeds right through to becoming a company that people want to work for. Companies that put their people first will set new benchmarks for success in the industry.

Check out the full seminar programme for this year's event at specialityandfinefoodfairs.co.uk/speciality-fine-food-seminar-programme.