NI foodservice firm, Musgrave is the first Irish business to partner with LEAD Network and sign the pledge

Leading food retail, wholesale, and foodservice company, Musgrave has become the first Irish business to partner with the LEAD Network (Leading Executives Advancing Diversity).

A network of companies in Europe, LEAD aims to attract, retain and advance women in the retail and consumer goods industry through education, leadership and business development.

Musgrave CEO, Noel Keeley, signed the LEAD Network CEO Pledge at the annual Musgrave management conference. The Pledge lays out specific actions for the Irish food wholesaler to drive greater advancement of women across the business including coaching and mentoring, ensuring there are intentional strategies to drive inclusive recruitment, leveraging employee resource groups and educating colleagues on the impact of bias.

Separately, Musgrave has set a target to increase female representation in leadership and senior management roles to over 40% by 2025, from 32% currently. In addition, Musgrave has committed to achieving over 30% female participation in its executive team by 2025 from 25% presently. Musgrave NI currently employs 1,700 staff across NI with bases in Craigavon, Londonderry and Belfast.

Noel Keeley, CEO, Musgrave, said: “The Pledge further strengthens our commitment to creating a more inclusive Musgrave, which will play a vital role in helping us to develop a world-class food and beverage business. We have made progress in advancing female participation at senior levels, but our work is not done yet.

"We continue to review and renew our policies on an ongoing basis to ensure we are doing everything possible to encourage women to consider, commit to, and thrive in a career in our industry. This will be a constant process to ensure that the business we pass on to the next generation is more equitable, more diverse, and more inclusive.”

The industries in which Musgrave operates have traditionally been male-dominated but the organisation is actively working to change that. The company recently introduced a variety of policies and fundamental changes to business operations aimed at encouraging more women to join the business, and to encourage women in the business to keep advancing their career.

A core aspect of Musgrave’s overall People Strategy is a comprehensive inclusion and diversity plan, which is made up of three pillars: ‘Engaging & Educating’, ‘Attracting Diverse Talent’ and ‘Modernising the Way We Work’.

A recent employee engagement survey found that 86% believe Musgrave is an inclusive organisation.