After 20 years as head of food policy at the BRC, Opie has retired as the voice of the UK’s supermarkets through a run of crises that would have rattled most people. But not him. Just ask about the day Channel 4’s Jon Snow all but marched him in front of a camera and he laughs. “He told me in no uncertain terms I was doing the interview.”

It’s that composure, honed over two decades dealing with horsemeat, Brexit and Covid, that the industry will miss the most. He arrived at the BRC via Middlesex Polytechnic; a decade spent managing a large dairy estate in Wiltshire; and a stint at the NFU advising members on issues such as tenancies and compost purchases before working his way up to become head of policy.