The National Grocers' Benevolent Fund is planning to relaunch itself as an organisation that is more in tune with the needs of today's fmcg industry. Robin Whitbread, the new president of the trade charity and Sainsbury's retail director, said a "timely" review was under way to decide on the future identity and direction for the NGBF. He hopes to be able to reveal full results of this major review at the charity's annual lunch on November 9. Whitbread feels the NGBF needs a broader, more proactive agenda when it comes to the issue of welfare. And he is in favour of taking a more holistic approach that goes beyond focusing solely on the provision of help for those who used to work in the industry and who had fallen on hard times. "We need to be better at educating, informing and communicating with people at an early stage in their careers to create a level of awareness so they give more thought to the provision they should be making for their later years." But although the charity is looking at how to make itself more relevant to the industry, Whitbread said any changes made would be designed to move things on rather than "turn everything on its head". At the same time, the Sainsbury executive is keen to see more being invested in raising further the quality of big NGBF events to ensure they enhance its name and image. He believes this is one way in which the charity can attract new people to events. Whitbread said that would be the focus of his tenure as president, and he would not be simply trying to raise more cash than his predecessor. - Gavin Neath, chairman of Unilever Bestfoods, will be the fund's vice president. {{NEWS }}

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