In the latest edition of ‘Industry Voices,’ we sit down with Laura Ryan, the Global Chair and Founder of Meat Business Women, CEO at Lavenpark Consulting and executive coach. With a dynamic career spanning over 25 years in the meat industry, Laura shares her journey, insights on diversity in the sector, key industry challenges, and the future of food business leadership. 

A career in the Meat Industry: an accidental but passionate journey 

Laura Ryan’s journey into the meat industry wasn’t planned. “I fell into the sector by total accident 25 years ago,” she shares. “I got a graduate job working for a small catering butcher, marketing meat. I thought marketing meat, that’ll be easy. Little did I know. Anyway, I got the bug, and 25 years later, I’m still here and absolutely love it.” Today, she is at the forefront of industry transformation, leading Meat Business Women and running her consultancy, Lavenpark, which provides B2B insights for the food sector. 

Laura’s experience also spans a 10-year tenure at AHDB (Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board), where she served in her final role as Director of the Beef and Lamb Board. Here she learned firsthand the challenges of navigating diverse industry stakeholders and the importance of building relationships along the supply chain to create sector-wide strategies. Her key takeaway?

“You can’t keep everyone happy all the time. With a huge array of stakeholders along a supply chain, it’s really tough. So, I learned what you needed to do was to build relationships along that supply chain and co-create solutions.” 

The evolution of Meat Business Women: from small gathering to global impact 

Laura founded Meat Business Women in 2015 when she noticed a lack of women’s networking events in the industry. “I was getting more senior in my career and when attending some of these industry events, I was looking around the room, realising I was one of only a handful of women.” 

What started as a small gathering in London has since grown into a UN-recognised global movement with partnerships spanning the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. Major players such as Tesco, Morrisons, and Hilton Food Group are actively engaged in its mission to drive diversity and inclusion. 

The growth has been phenomenal, “if you told me then, as it started as a side of your desk project, this is what it's going to grow to, I'd have said, you're all right, thanks! I've got enough on. But now it's been the best thing that I've ever done. It's allowed me to have a portfolio career, but more importantly than that, it's given me connectivity to folks right across the world working within our industry. I get to understand what their challenges are, what their opportunities are and why they work in our sector, which is hugely rewarding.” 

An example of this connectivity in action is the launch of Meat Business Women’s Food Business Charter in March. “This came about as we brought CEOs together last year and asked, ‘What are the three things that we can do to help shift the dial?’” The industry-wide initiative aims to increase female representation to 40% by 2035 through goal setting, accountability, and actionable strategies for organisations. 

Diversity in the Meat Industry: progress and challenges 

While progress has been made, there is still work to do. “What I’ve seen change for women in the industry is that there are more of us at a middle level. But the number of women in the meat industry has actually gone backwards—from 36% in 2020 to 33.5% today,” Laura highlights. However, representation at middle and senior management levels is increasing. 

In Laura’s experience, the most successful businesses focus on three key areas to foster diversity and retention: 

1. Company Culture – “Developing a really strong business culture that works for your organisation.” 
2. Data Benchmarking – “Knowing how many people you’ve got in each segment, tracking gender representation, and understanding why people are leaving.” 
3. Flexibility – “Not just for women. Yes, women over-index in terms of caring responsibilities, but men as well feel pressure in that respect. Businesses that offer flexibility can retain great people.” 

 

Industry challenges: five key concerns keeping leaders awake at night 

From her consultancy work and engagement with senior leaders across the industry, Laura has pinpointed five major challenges currently impacting the meat sector and wider agri-food industry: 

  1. Consumer confidence and cost of living – “The cost-of-living crisis continues, and disposable income for consumers is a huge challenge.” 
  2. Supply chain inflation – “The national insurance rise and other input costs are increasing for a sector that’s labor heavy.” 
  3. Availability of resources – “AHDB just published their cattle forecast numbers for this year, and they’re projected to be 5% down. That cost is going into the supply chain and isn’t always being passed on to the consumer.” 
  4. Sustainability pressures – “Sustainability challenges won’t go away. The pressures on beef, poultry, and pig meat are different, and businesses need to tell their sustainability story effectively.” 
  5. Labour shortages – “Attracting and retaining great people is critical, but visas, Brexit, and the perception of our industry add to the challenge.” 

Opportunities: collaboration and community 

Despite the challenges facing the food and meat sectors, Laura sees great opportunities in industry-wide collaboration.

“The huge opportunity in my eyes is to play together more. Suppliers can have challenging relationships with their competitors, but there are some pre-competitive places to play, like labor and sustainability.”  

The industry also offers a great opportunity for building a career. For those looking to enter the food and drink industry, Laura’s advice is simple yet powerful: build a personal board. “Get a few good people around you that can challenge you, give you advice, and keep you honest. That doesn’t come quickly, but over time, you’ll have people you can lean on when making tough decisions.” 

Watch the full interview with Laura below: 

 

About Laura Ryan

Laura is a globally recognised expert in building networks and driving transformational change across the agri-food sector. Until 2019, she was Director of the Beef & Lamb Board at the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB). In 2023, she was named in The Grocer’s Power List for her influence in the industry.

Through her consultancy, Lavenpark, Laura empowers businesses to achieve greater success by enhancing industry insight, connectivity, business development, marketing, and communications. She also delivers executive coaching, equipping leaders with the strategies to navigate change and maximise their impact.

Laura is the founder and Global Chair of Meat Business Women, the global professional network for women in the meat industry, which is recognised by the United Nations as a solution to the global Sustainable Development Goals.

If you'd like to discover more interviews in our Industry Voices series, you can read them here.