As ex PepsiCo, Birds Eye and United Biscuits boss Martin Glenn was unveiled last week as the new chief executive of the Football Association, it was a reminder that the skills learned as a business leader in the high-profile food and drink industry are highly valued. Let’s hope the skills are more transferable to football than they were - in the case of Andy Hornby at HBOS - to running a bank.

“As talent seeps out of the food industry must it now embrace the Living Wage?”

Justin King is also hoping to transfer his skills as a leader and communicator. With his hopes of running F1 apparently dashed by Bernie Ecclestone, however, the emphasis appears to be on transferring his money, pouring millions into the Manor Marussia team and giving a drive to his talented racing driver son Jordan. 

That he has failed to secure Formula One’s most powerful position has presumably enabled King to keep his hand in the food industry. Last week it emerged he has become an advisor (on a part-time, temporary basis) to the board of 2 Sisters, an intriguing move, though perhaps more for what it says about 2 Sisters - a sign there’s room for more than one King at the Chicken King’s table? 

This week King (Justin) was back in the media spotlight in another food-related capacity, heading a taskforce calling for universities and food businesses to work more closely together to develop a stronger food economy. As ever, King brought poise and gravitas in an appearance on the Today programme. He’s certainly right to raise the issue of talent in the food sector.

As we’ve reported in the past, the fmcg sector will have to recruit an additional 170,000 people by 2020. The talent shortage is affecting every corner of the industry. This week it emerged Asda is re-training warehouse staff to try to head off a looming driver shortage. And the seepage of talent is surely set to accelerate. Involving long hours and often hard manual labour, the food industry has never enjoyed the best reputation. The recent decision by Tesco and Morrisons to abandon their final salary pension schemes will do nothing to improve its appeal, with recruits young and old ‘transferring’ their skills to other easier and better remunerated industries. 

That’s why Walmart increased its shop floor salaries in the US above the minimum wage. And presumably The Co-op is hoping to achieve similar goodwill with a two-year pay rise of at least 8.5% announced this week. David Cameron recently called on employers to pay employees more. At the same time, the Living Wage is becoming a real talking point. Will the industry now need to embrace it?