The boss of the food and grocery council has been pushed out

Mystery surrounds the immediate exit of Tanya Barden as chief of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, leaving the peak body representing supermarket suppliers without a leader.

Australian Food and Grocery Council CEO, Tanya Barden, has been pushed out of the supplier peak body. Picture: Nikki Short

The Australian Food and Grocery Council, the nation’s peak body representing supermarket suppliers, has removed its chief executive Tanya Barden with immediate effect.

Mystery surrounds the sudden and unexplained departure of the key food manufacturing industry boss, although it is believed there had been friction for some time between Ms Barden and the board made up of CEOs of large food and grocery manufacturers.

Ms Barden is understood to finally have agreed to depart in the new year.

Her immediate exit from the AFGC leaves the peak industry body representing the $130bn food and grocery manufacturing sector without a leader and at a crucial time when regulators, such as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, are cracking down on supermarkets and in particular their treatment of suppliers.

When contacted by The Australian Ms Barden declined to comment.

“It was a mutual separation agreement with the board and I have no further comment,” she said on Tuesday.

The AFGC has not sent out a press release disclosing Ms Barden’s sudden departure, despite the important role she has played in the past few years liaising with the federal government and Senate inquiries into the supermarkets and their treatment of suppliers and pricing. At the centre of the regulatory crackdown on the supermarkets and cost-of-living issues has been the treatment of grocery suppliers, which Ms Barden and the AFGC were the key champions of.

However, in a statement to its own members, obtained by The Australian, AFGC chair Anthony Holme, said that after “thoughtful consideration” Ms Barden had agreed to depart “as a result of a mutually agreed separation”.

“Tanya is departing the AFGC after more than 12 years in the organisation, including over seven as CEO. Since joining the AFGC in 2012, Tanya has been a staunch and very effective advocate for our industry, demonstrating sound expertise on the issues that matter most to our members,” wrote Mr Holme, who is also the boss of Kellanova Australia and New Zealand, which is the company formerly known as Kellogg’s.

“This includes helping our sector navigate the myriads of challenges through Covid, working collaboratively on the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct and the importance of food and grocery manufacturing to the Australian economy.

“Tanya has made a great impact in her time as CEO and on behalf of the AFGC and our members, I would like to thank her for her leadership and wish her the best for the future.

“The AFGC’s chief operating officer, Colm Maguire, will assume the position of interim CEO until a successor is confirmed.

“The AFGC board is fully committed to the mission and future success of the AFGC, and will focus on ensuring the strong support of Colm and the team to ensure stability and continued progress against our priorities.”

Ms Barden was the key defender and promoter for the nation’s food and grocery suppliers, representing their interests in the face of the powerful supermarket chains led by Woolworths and Coles.

This led her to being in conflict with the supermarket chains across a number of key issues, and especially as the ACCC late last year launched legal action against Woolworths and Coles over allegedly fake discounting on key grocery lines.

But amid the battles between the ACCC and the supermarkets – as well as pressures on food and grocery suppliers to cut their own prices – Ms Barden stepped in personally to defend the actions of Woolworths boss Amanda Bardwell in her public and bitter dispute with Woolworths unions that left Woolworths supermarkets with increasingly empty shelves in the lead-up to Christmas.

At the time Ms Barden wrote to Ms Bardwell to express her support, offering to bypass strike workers and deliver goods directly to stores so supermarket shelves could be filled in time for Christmas.

Ms Barden also made submissions to the ACCC inquiry into supermarkets on behalf of her members, raising concerns over mounting cost pressures on the food industry.

Although some costs, including some commodities, energy, and shipping had slightly moderated, Ms Barden argued, they continued to be above pre-Covid levels and other costs were increasing. “The reality is that it’s tougher than ever for manufacturers in Australia,” Ms Barden said in November.

“The hard truth is that manufacturing costs have soared, creating a supply-side inflation issue that calls for supply-side solutions.”

Originally published as The boss of the food and grocery council has been pushed out