However, Specsavers believes it has found a model that can scale. The optical retailer has expanded its recycling scheme to all UK stores, adding around 300 locations to an initiative first introduced in 2022.

The move means customers can now drop off unwanted glasses, cases, cleaning cloths, contact lenses and contact lens packaging at every Specsavers branch, regardless of where the products were originally purchased.

In 2025, the scheme collected and recycled 72 tonnes of material from 659 stores and laboratories, almost five tonnes more than the previous year.

For Specsavers’ head of sustainability for the UK and Ireland Helen Curran, the scheme grew out of a gap in the market rather than a regulatory requirement.

“Products like glasses and contact lenses do not really fit into standard recycling schemes,” she said. While donation schemes for reusable spectacles have existed for years, there was no straightforward route for glasses, cases, cloths, contact lenses and blister packs to be handled together.

“We saw an opportunity to make it easier for customers and operationally easier for ourselves.”

Turning optical waste into raw materials

One question facing many retailer recycling schemes is what actually happens to the waste once it disappears into a collection box.

Specsavers’ programme is run with recycling specialist MYGroup, which separates and processes the material at its UK operation in Hull. According to Curran, the scheme captures a broad mix of products, from old spectacles and cases to contact lens packaging and worn lenses.

The retailer operates two collection streams: customer-facing recycling boxes in stores and separate collection points within its laboratories. The lab stream is designed to capture higher-value materials such as dummy lenses used in the manufacturing process.

Specsavers does not currently separate its reporting between customer returns and internally generated waste, nor does it break down the 72 tonnes by material type. Likewise, the company was unable to provide a figure for what proportion of its total UK waste footprint the scheme represents.

What it can say is that much of this material would previously have entered general waste streams.

“If a company was using a different partner that only took glasses and reused them in a developing country, you would only really use around 20 to 30 per cent of those frames,” Curran said. Cases, cloths, contact lenses and blister packs would typically have been discarded through conventional waste routes.

The collected material is ground down and repurposed into products including joinery boards and furniture. While the recycled content is not currently being incorporated back into Specsavers products, the company has worked with MYGroup to produce Specsavers-branded pens made from material recovered through the scheme.

“It is important for people to be able to say, ‘Wait, waste made this?'” Curran said.

The commercial case for sustainability

While sustainability projects are often presented as purely environmental initiatives, Curran argues that waste reduction and commercial efficiency increasingly go hand in hand.

“If we look at general waste for a commercial business, it costs more to have more general waste bins,” she said. “Recycling costs less.”

That thinking appears to be informing a wider sustainability programme across the business. Earlier this year, Specsavers won Retail Week’s Green Initiative of the Year award for changes to its ophthalmic lens manufacturing process. The project reduced hard-to-recycle plastic waste by 107 tonnes a year and cut annual carbon emissions by 230 tonnes through changes to lens production and stock management.

The retailer is also pursuing broader environmental targets. According to its sustainability commitments, Specsavers is targeting net-zero emissions across scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2050, with interim goals to reduce operational emissions by 50% and supply-chain emissions by 25% by 2030.

Curran said the company is increasingly focused on reducing waste before it is created, particularly through packaging changes and material efficiency.

“This programme is just one area where we are looking to reduce waste overall, both by improving our recycling rates and looking at waste at source.”

The growing regulatory burden is also shaping decision-making. With measures such as digital product passports and wider sustainability reporting requirements moving up the agenda across Europe, Curran said the priority is understanding what data businesses need and ensuring suppliers are part of the process.

“Any big business will have the majority of its emissions sitting in scope three,” she said. “It is about working with suppliers.”

For Specsavers, the challenge appears less about persuading customers to participate than making participation simple. The company says customer feedback has been positive, although it has not published formal participation figures.

“I think everybody wants to do the right thing,” Curran said. “You just have to make it easy and accessible for them.”

As retailers face growing scrutiny over waste, packaging and supply-chain transparency, Specsavers shows the test lies in whether businesses can make these initiatives easy enough to become routine.

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According to Rithum’s retail director EMEA Mark Howell, the model is becoming an increasingly important part of modern retail strategy, allowing businesses to widen their assortment while saving on cash and warehouse capacity.

Retail Gazette caught up with Howell, who says the fundamental attraction of dropshipping is simple: retailers only pay for stock once it has been shipped by a supplier.

“The virtue and advantage of doing a model like dropship is you only pay for it when it’s shipped by the brand,” he explains.

For retailers faced with constraints such as warehouse capacity, store space and inventory budgets, dropshipping allows them to still provide for customers without ‘committing significant capital upfront’.

“Retailers want to solve a problem,” Howell says. “They want to be relevant for customers. They want to have choice and assortment.”

The approach has become particularly attractive as retailers seek to compete with ecommerce giants such as Amazon, where a significant proportion of products are supplied and fulfilled by third-party sellers operating from warehouses Amazon itself does not own.

“Mimicry is the highest form of flattery,” Howell says. “If it works, why aren’t I doing it?”

What does dropshipping actually change?

While dropshipping is often discussed as a commercial strategy, Howell argues the biggest shift happens operationally.

Instead of goods moving through a retailer’s own distribution network, suppliers become responsible for fulfilment and delivery. The retailer, however, remains accountable for customer experience.

“The physical movement of the goods is managed by a supplier,” he says. However, what does not change are customer expectations.

“Is it being delivered on time? Is the experience good for customers? Is it packaged well? Is it turning up in one piece? All of those things are still true.”

This, Howell says, creates one of the biggest challenges for retailers adopting the model: learning how to relinquish some control without losing visibility.

Many businesses, Howell says, still operate around wholesale processes built over decades. Buyers and merchandisers remain accustomed to approving every SKU, product description and item before it reaches customers.

One of the common mistakes is attempting to replicate those same wholesale processes within a dropship environment.

“If you try and replicate your wholesale processes just into dropship, then you will suffer. You will fail because you’ll still be slow.”

Instead, retailers need to adopt a “trial and learn” mindset, using supplier inventory to test new products and categories before making larger commitments.

The model can also help retailers free up warehouse capacity by moving slower-selling lines out of their own fulfilment networks while continuing to offer them online.

Trust and data become the new battlegrounds

Howell believes that as retailers move away from inventory-led expansion, trust becomes the defining competitive advantage.

“We shop with retailers that we get a good experience with,” he says. For that reason, supplier performance cannot be left to chance.

Retailers typically establish strict operational playbooks, service-level agreements (SLAs) and key performance indicators (KPIs) for participating suppliers. Failure to meet those standards can result in financial penalties or removal from the programme.

“If you don’t do what customers expect, you’ll erode trust,” Howell says. He points to Marks & Spencer as an example of a retailer that established clear expectations from the outset when building its programme.

Alongside trust, product data is becoming increasingly important as consumers change how they discover products online.

Howell says retailers are now navigating a world where search is becoming more conversational, driven by platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI-powered tools.

“It’s not just enough to say it’s a laptop with 16GB of memory and a certain screen size,” he explains.

If consumers search for a lightweight laptop with a high-quality display, or a breathable hiking backpack suitable for long walks, retailers need product attributes that reflect those needs.

“If that information isn’t there, the AI engine isn’t going to find it.” The challenge is compounded by the fact that many retailers are still working to improve the quality of legacy product data already sitting across their websites.

Learning from past failures

While dropshipping and marketplace models have become commonplace in the US, Howell believes the UK market has historically struggled to achieve the same level of success.

Part of the reason, he argues, is that many retailers attempted to bolt dropship programmes onto existing wholesale systems rather than redesigning processes around the new model.

“UK retailers were trying to make these quite big ideas work, but they were still being bound to the legacy of old wholesale processes.”

By contrast, retailers that have succeeded have invested in new fulfilment models while remaining realistic about the limitations of older technology infrastructure.

“It’s about finding the best path with what you have,” Howell says. The growing maturity of the sector is also helping. More retailers have now seen successful examples in the market, while specialist technology providers and industry professionals bring greater experience than was available a decade ago.

Howell points to Next as an example of a retailer that has successfully modernised its fulfilment approach. While the retailer still has deep roots in traditional wholesale operations, it has developed new fulfilment models and moved beyond some of the limitations of legacy processes.

He also highlights Marks & Spencer’s approach, praising the retailer for having a clear vision of what it wanted its dropship programme to achieve and for setting clear expectations for suppliers from the outset.

Howell says retailers such as M&S, Adidas and Pets at Home may use different commercial models and operate in different sectors, but all face the same challenge of balancing customer experience, supplier relationships and operational efficiency as they expand their assortments beyond inventory held in their own warehouses.
At the same time, retailers are facing new pressures ranging from rising fuel costs and geopolitical disruption to changing regulation around artificial intelligence.

Howell highlights the forthcoming requirements under the EU AI Act, which will introduce new transparency obligations around AI-generated content and product information.

He also points to the future development of Digital Product Passports, which are expected to require significantly greater product-level data and traceability across supply chains.

While the final shape of those regulations is still evolving, Howell believes retailers will increasingly require suppliers to provide the necessary information as a condition of participation.

“The retailer is still heavily liable due to our laws and legislation in the UK.”

For retailers balancing growth ambitions with mounting operational complexity, the challenge is no longer simply expanding assortment. It is doing so while maintaining trust, visibility and compliance.

As customer discovery shifts towards AI-driven search and product recommendations, retailers may find that the quality of their product data matters just as much as the size of their catalogue.

The retailers that succeed will not necessarily be those holding the most stock, but those that can connect customers to the right products, at the right time, through the right fulfilment model.

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K-Beauty has become increasingly popular with UK consumers and PURESEOUL is the biggest K-Beauty retailer in the UK.

The brand has recently grown its offering and has launched MilkTouch’s liquid foundation. The foundation is the first liquid foundation from a K-Beauty brand available in the UK.

Retail Gazette sat down with PURESEOUL’s founder Gracie Tullio and its marketing strategy & communications manager Felicity Loftus to find out about how they have marketed the product.

Most people when they think of K-Beauty foundations think of cushion foundations, popularised on TikTok by Tirtir. But MilkTouch has brought a liquid version to the UK market.

Tullio explains that MilkTouch have been their partner since 2025 and are the first partner the Korean beauty brand has within Europe. She highlights that as they work with all their brands directly, it impacts the way they run their marketing campaigns.

She says: “The entire campaign, from start to finish, we’ve done in complete collaboration with the MilkTouch team in Korea.

“I think that kind of intensive localisation, personalisation and the relationships that we have with our brands kind of form the foundation of how we even begin to brainstorm a campaign like this. It’s very much about us and HQ.”

PURESEOUL had previously worked with MilkTouch to launch its cushion foundation. The foundation proved to be extremely popular with audiences and went virial on TikTok. A video of the foundation being passed around the firm’s office has over 2 million views on the social media platform.

She says: “I think Milk Touch as a brand is a good example of a brand that has put their faith in us as a local partner. The K-Beauty market looks very different in each country, and I think we really understand what it means to be a UK K-Beauty customer.

“We know what our community wants, and as a brand, they’ve really lent into that. With their previous cushion launch, we saw the results of that in a lot of the organic social media, but equally this time around, we now have got creators asking to be involved in it, and I can only anticipate that we’ll be seeing a lot  of organic social content for this specific foundation as well.”

Loftus added that its previous work with the brand on its foundation cushion led to the brand approaching PURESEOUL about the liquid foundation. And the campaign started from that very moment.

To come up with the right product for the UK market, MilkTouch and PURESEOUL reached out to creators to invite them to a testing day.

At the testing day, they were able to pick out their favourite formulas and give feedback on what they thought of the shade range, the tones and the coverage.

Tullio says of its creator network: “These are people that speak to brands every day, they’re a pin, they have seen more of the market, than we have. As beauty creators, their opinion is really, really important to us. It’s almost like they’re massive product testing feedback gurus.”

Loftus believes that the consumer base for the foundations “bridges the gap” between the generic beauty customer who wants to try out K-Beauty and the K-Beauty consumer.

She explains: “A cushion foundation might feel a bit out of their realm as they’re not really sure on that format. But this product gives consumers everything they may want from a K-Beauty foundation, as it has that glowy, glassy, dewy skin finish, but it also feels quite accessible to all beauty consumers in the UK as well. I think it’s a nice bridge between existing K- beauty customers and new K-Beauty customers.”

According to Loftus, this is just something the brand did for the UK, despite the fact the foundation is being launched globally.

Alongside creators, the retailer has utilised its loyalty scheme, Cloud Club, social media and its newsletters.

Loftus highlights that the Cloud Club was an important channel for the retailer and that its loyalty members had access to a pre-launch sale for the foundation. Members of its loyalty club were also invited to the launch event on June 2 with MilkTouch’s ambassador Twice member Jihyo.

Tullio explains that they approached the brand about having Jihyo at the event after finding out she was going to be in London for a concert.

She says: “So we really cheekily went and said, “Okay, she’s in London, and we’re launching this foundation, maybe can she do something?

“The imagery from the campaign is very Jihyo heavy. And the whole photo shoot was done in a blue theme for PURESEOUL, which is awesome.”

The retailer borrowed a Korean marketing technique to introduce the product to consumers, offering a free foundation brush with every purchase.  The brush is inspired by the viral makeup spatula trend from last year that had people applying their base make up with a spatula rather than a brush for a smoother, more flawless finish.

After the launch, it is important to keep up the storytelling, so most of the campaign content will come after the launch event.

Tullio says: “We really encourage organic content because we always want to be accessible to our customers. And it feels quite natural and organic, because that’s how we love and experience our products as well.

“We just want K-Beauty makeup to feel accessible and educational. It’s really crucial in terms of our strategy. No one wants to be sold to. If the product’s good enough, then people will like it, and that’ll do the job for you. I think our focus is on making sure we have good products itself, and then the rest just kind of happens naturally.”

Tullio highlighted that PURESEOUL will also look into adding promotional offers and free gifts after the initial launch.

She says: “We are really anti discounting, and we’d much rather give the customer something of value to kind of sway them if they need it, rather than just a flat promotion.”

Loftus highlights that the omnichannel experience is important to them as a brand as they aren’t a “super digital company”.

She explains: “It almost feels like an immersive experience when you’re experiencing one of our launches as a customer, because it really is across all those touch points.

“Take the journey of this foundation, they might have seen some of the content from last year, and then it’s resurfaced this year.  Or maybe they saw some content of their favourite influencers attending the testing event, and then it comes to launch. Or maybe they’re on our newsletter, or they’re part of our Cloud Club, so they get those comms, and then they go into store, and they can test and shade match.”

Tullio adds: “We want our customers to feel really involved in the product story.”

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Operating since the 1880’s in Sweden and Denmark, the firm now has farmer owners in seven European countries. Its brands include Arla Cravendale, Arla Skyr and Arla Protein.

The firm has seen significant success, with a revenue of €15.1 billion (£13 billion).

Sarah Oxley, lead shopper marketing senior specialist at Arla Foods explains how the firm’s retail marketing strategy has contributed to its success.

Arla Foods’ retail marketing strategy is focused around retail activations, according to Oxley.

She says “It’s a key part of how consumers experience our brands and ultimately nudges shoppers to conversion. It’s also an important way we build relationships with our retail partners.

“What’s changing is how far that can go beyond the shopping mission. We’re testing how retailer data and media can work harder at other parts of the consumer experience, making sure it’s cost effective as part of the wider marketing mix.”

However, the firm has been adapting its strategy and using more offsite activity to drive “consideration and reach new audiences”.

She says: “The pace of innovation in-store is exciting, we now have the opportunity to connect with consumers in a much more joined-up way when they’re actually in a shopping mindset, which is ultimately where it matters most.”

She adds that retail media allows the firm to be much more targeted. One example she gives is of a campaign Arla Foods recently ran which focused on increasing purchase frequency.

Oxley says: “There are also some interesting gamification mechanics emerging from retailers which we’re testing. It’s early, but it’s a good example of how engagement is evolving beyond just traditional formats.”

“There are different levels of data maturity across the market. Where we have access to strong first-party data, we absolutely lean into it. Where that isn’t available, we flex, using things like geography, store performance or category insights, as we always have. But there’s an opportunity for more consistency and depth of data across the market, which would help unlock more value.”

Creative is becoming a much bigger factor in helping brands stand out within a retail media environment, especially as stores become more “digitised”.

She says: “We see creative as the next “event horizon” for the retail environment. For us it’s about strong, clear messaging and pushing creative where we can, but also really understanding the retailer’s strategy and how we fit into that.

“The goal when activating in store is always helping to achieve our branded ambitions and support the retailer deliver their strategy.”

She adds that its marketing strategy has the biggest impact when brand comms, retail activity and promotional activity comes together.

Oxley says: “It should feel like one connected experience, just adapted to the moment they’re in. There’s still more to do as an industry to make retailer data easier to integrate to branded activity, particularly in terms of consistency and collaboration.”

She explains that measuring success of campaigns beyond sale metric is one of the biggest challenges marketers face.

Arla Foods works closely with its marketing teams and agency teams to try and get a better view of how retail market contributes to the brands success beyond just short-term sales.

However, there needs to be more consistency and rigour in the data and reporting coming from retail media networks as that’s a key part of highlighting key investment areas, according to Oxley.

The brand had learnt that retail media can be a very “versatile lever”. It drives short term sales, but also has a role in building the brand and strengthening Arla Foods relationship with retailers.

She says: “When you get the balance right – data, strategy, creative, execution – it can create campaigns that stand out and that people and our retailers notice, which is ultimately what we’re aiming for.”

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For many retailers, the conversation around artificial intelligence still begins and ends with generative AI.

Chatbots, content tools and customer-facing assistants have dominated the discussion since the arrival of large language models in the mainstream. They are highly visible, easy to understand and simple to demo in the boardroom.

But according to Dr Daniel Hulme, CEO and founder of enterprise AI business Satalia and chief AI officer at WPP, that narrow view risks distracting retailers from where AI can make the most meaningful difference.

“Most people think AI is generative AI,” he says. “The reality is there are many different types of algorithms out there that we bundle in terms of what we call AI, from machine learning to optimisation.”

Hulme has spent more than two decades researching, building and implementing AI systems. Satalia, founded in 2008 and later acquired by WPP, has worked with companies including Tesco, DFS, Waitrose and The Coca-Cola Company. Its expertise sits in the less glamorous but commercially critical world of optimisation, operations research, machine learning and decision intelligence.

In Hulme’s view, generative AI is only capable of addressing a relatively small slice of the friction inside a retail business.

“If I’m being totally honest, I think generative AI probably can address about 10 per cent of the frictions across the retailer supply chain,” he says. “You get the biggest bang for your buck if you use optimisation algorithms.”

For retailers under pressure to reduce cost, improve availability, protect margin and serve customers faster, that should be a wake-up call. AI’s greatest value may not be in the front-end experiences everyone can see. It may be in the invisible systems deciding how vans are routed, how stores are staffed, how engineers are allocated, how stock moves and how capacity is unlocked.

Where AI actually creates operational value

One of Hulme’s clearest examples comes from Tesco’s last-mile delivery operation.

Around 12 years ago, Satalia built Tesco’s last-mile delivery solution after the retailer concluded that no existing system could deliver the level of performance it needed. The challenge was not a chatbot problem. It was a series of optimisation problems, each with its own technical complexity.

When a customer enters their address and asks to see delivery slots, the system has to calculate how long it would take to get from that address to existing stops in the schedule. That means producing what Hulme calls a travel matrix in milliseconds.

“If you go and ask Google Maps, give me 1,000 routes, it’s going to take several minutes,” he says. “To be able to create 1,000 or even 3,000 routes that are accurate in 100 milliseconds required us to build bleeding-edge routing algorithms.”

The system then has to decide which slots can be offered, optimise the schedule between one customer booking and the next arriving, then later rebalance routes across drivers so workloads are fair, vans are staggered and capacity is maximised.

The impact was substantial. Hulme says the work helped Tesco save around 20 million miles a year, reducing carbon emissions while unlocking greater delivery capacity.

Satalia has since applied similar thinking to Waitrose, as well as middle-mile challenges such as moving goods from depots to stores. Hulme says a middle-mile project for Tesco took seven years to solve because the problem had never been cracked in that way before. Once solved, however, the underlying innovation could be deployed elsewhere far faster.

“The reason why it took seven years is because that problem had never been solved before,” he says. “But by solving that problem, we can now deploy that new innovation to another company in three months.”

That is a critical point for retailers. Bespoke AI doesn’t always mean starting from zero. Some underlying algorithms can be repurposed across organisations, while others must be tuned to the specific shape of the business.

A grocery drop may have relatively predictable delivery characteristics. A sofa delivery may take anything from 10 minutes to three hours, depending on access, installation and the reality of the customer’s home. The model has to understand the difference.

The hidden value in workforce and store optimisation

The same logic applies beyond vans and warehouses.

Hulme points to work with UK Telco, where machine learning was used to predict the nature of infrastructure faults, the skills of engineers and how long each engineer might take to solve a specific issue. The aim was to stop sending people to jobs they were not best equipped to complete.

“That project had a 200 times return on the investment,” he says.

In retail, a similar approach can be applied to store labour. Hulme cites DFS, where Satalia used machine learning to predict store footfall and customer demographics, then optimisation to allocate the right staff against the shape of demand.

Many retailers still roster teams in ways that are too blunt. A store may be staffed in similar patterns across the week, despite customer behaviour changing sharply by day, hour and demographic. Matching labour to demand is not just an efficiency play. It can directly influence sales, service quality and employee experience.

That wider view is important. Hulme argues AI should not be used to chase a single KPI in isolation. When it is, businesses can end up improving one metric while creating problems elsewhere.

He points to work with a leading accountancy firm, where Satalia built an algorithm to allocate thousands of auditors to jobs. The goal was not simply to increase utilisation. It was also to reduce travel time, improve employee happiness and strengthen client continuity.

“AI can improve all of your KPIs, not just one of them,” Hulme says. “If you focus on just one KPI, it can massively overachieve that goal, and by overachieving that goal, it can then actually cause harm elsewhere in the supply chain.”

For retail leaders, this may be one of the most important lessons. AI cannot be treated as a bolt-on efficiency project. It has to be understood as an operating model issue.

Start with frictions, not technology

If retailers want to move beyond hype, Hulme believes they should begin by listing the frictions across the organisation.

That means identifying where work is slow, repetitive, costly, unpredictable or constrained. Some of those problems may be solved with simple automation. Some may be addressed by buying mature third-party software. Others may require specialist AI expertise and custom-built solutions.

He describes it as a three-part strategy.

First, employees should be given access to tools that help them innovate at the edge of the business. Second, companies need to identify the hard problems where deep specialist expertise can create competitive advantage. Third, they should use partners and existing AI products for back-office tasks they do not need to build themselves.

“Start with listing all your frictions and then start knocking them off one by one by either building them, co-creating them or buying them,” he says.

This is also where the data conversation needs to mature.

For years, retailers have been told to build data lakes, unify everything and wait until their data is ready. Hulme is blunt about that approach.

“Don’t wait for your data lake to be ready. Your data will never be ready,” he says.

Instead, he argues that businesses should start with a clearly defined problem. Once the objective and constraints are understood, the necessary data becomes clearer.

In the accountancy firm example, the problem was how to allocate staff more effectively to jobs. That meant defining the objective function, such as maximising utilisation and minimising travel time, then mapping the constraints, such as availability, skills and client requirements. Only then does the data challenge become practical.

“A problem well defined is half solved,” Hulme says.

That does not mean data quality is unimportant. Poor data can produce poor decisions. But retailers should not confuse imperfect data with unusable data. In many cases, data issues only surface once a system is tested in the real world.

From optimisation to digital twins

The longer-term opportunity is not just solving individual operational problems. It is connecting those solutions together.

Hulme believes retailers should ultimately be working towards digital twins of their organisations, allowing them to model how one decision affects the wider system.

For example, a marketing campaign may increase demand by 10 per cent. But can suppliers cope? Is there enough warehouse space? Are there enough drivers? Can stores fulfil demand? Will the customer promise hold?

“Most retailers, because they are siloed, can’t project those questions across their supply chain,” Hulme says.

The promise of AI, he argues, is to create a simulation layer that allows retailers to test those scenarios before they become operational problems.

DFS offers a clear example of where this can lead. Satalia worked with the retailer on last-mile and middle-mile delivery, then helped build towards a broader digital twin. Hulme says DFS later platformised some of that delivery innovation through The Sofa Delivery Company, turning what began as an internal capability into a revenue-generating opportunity.

“That is the opportunity with AI,” he says. “If you build something that is genuinely differentiated, you can turn it into a revenue generator.”

Why quick wins can be a trap

Retailers are understandably under pressure to show progress. Boards want AI strategies. Shareholders want evidence of adoption. Leadership teams want quick wins.

But Hulme warns that quick wins can be misleading.

Most low-hanging fruit, he says, can be solved by third-party tools at a fraction of the cost. The problems that create true differentiation are usually not quick or easy.

“You need to focus on the problems that are going to differentiate your supply chain,” he says. “And those problems are not quick and they’re not easy.”

That creates a difficult challenge for C-suite leaders. They are being bombarded with AI vendors, consultancies and platforms. Many are being told to build internal teams, launch pilots or adopt the latest agentic tools, often without a clear view of what problem they are actually solving.

Hulme is sympathetic to that pressure but firm on the risk.

“Organisations can’t afford over the next three to five years to place the wrong bets,” he says.

The agentic AI ‘reality check’

No AI discussion in 2026 can avoid agents.

Agentic AI has rapidly become the industry’s latest obsession, promising autonomous systems that can take actions, complete tasks and collaborate with other tools or agents. Hulme believes agents will become hugely important, but he is clear that the market is still immature.

He compares the current agentic moment to the big data boom.

“People think everybody’s doing it, nobody’s doing it, but if they are doing it, they’re doing it badly,” he says.

The difference, he adds, is that agents will eventually drive real value. The danger is that companies deploy them before they know how to verify whether they work.

Large language models, he argues, are still like “intoxicated graduates”. They can be impressive, but giving them agency across a business without proper testing could create serious harm.

The issue is not just security or performance. It is functional verification. If an agent is built to optimise a media plan, for example, can the business prove it will do that well? If it is given a £1m budget, can the business be confident it will not spend it badly?

Hulme believes this will become one of the defining governance questions of the next phase of AI adoption.

The message is becoming increasingly clear. AI agents may be coming, but they need structure, accountability and verification before they are trusted with meaningful business decisions.

The real competitive divide

Hulme’s view of AI in retail is both optimistic and cautionary.

The technology can unlock capacity, reduce waste, improve service, support employees and create new revenue streams. But only when retailers understand the difference between shiny tools and strategic capability.

Understanding where those key frictions are, which problems are worth solving, which capabilities are differentiating, and which experts they need around the table, is fundamental to building AI-centric solutions that have longevity.

But that requires a shift in mindset. AI is a way to rethink how the business allocates resources, predicts demand, responds to complexity and makes decisions at scale.

That work is harder than launching a generative AI pilot, but it’s also where the real value lies.

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A new cold-brew tea bag from Lipton Teas & Infusions suggests how far that change could go. Designed to be dropped into a refillable water bottle, it turns plain tap water into flavoured iced tea, aimed at consumers who already carry reusable bottles and rarely think twice about filling up from the tap.

The product also comes amid the rise of Gen Z becoming a core drinking cohort, growing scrutiny over single-use plastic and a drive from retailers and suppliers to reduce cost and made the supply chain more efficient.

And for Lipton, it is also a bet that tea can move beyond its traditional hot-drink identity without losing what made it a staple in the first place.

Retail Gazette sat down with at Lipton Teas & Infusions UK&I CMO Elle Barker, who explains how the brand is thinking about demand, regulation and the future shape of the category.

1. Your new cold-brew tea bag range targets what you call the “tap water occasion”. How significant is this shift away from ready-to-drink beverages for your overall supply chain and distribution strategy?

We see this less as a shift away from ready-to-drink and more as the opening up of a new and fast-growing occasion.

Hydration is one of the biggest drivers in the beverage space today, with consumers increasingly looking for products that fit seamlessly into their everyday routines while still delivering on taste and wellness. Within that, what we’re calling the “tap water occasion” is particularly interesting — it’s about enhancing something people are already doing multiple times a day, rather than asking them to adopt a completely new behaviour

Younger consumers are a big part of this. They are typically heavier water drinkers and are also more engaged with trends around customisation, function and flavour. At the same time, they’re leading the shift towards sustainability, with growing adoption of refillable bottles and a desire to reduce reliance on single-use plastic. That combination creates a clear opportunity to rethink how we deliver refreshment

Cold-brew tea bags are a very natural fit for that space. They allow consumers to transform tap water into something more interesting and enjoyable, without needing refrigeration, additional packaging or a ready-made beverage. In contrast to traditional ready-to-drink formats, this approach can significantly reduce packaging intensity and associated environmental impact, which is an increasingly important consideration across the beverage industry.

Ultimately, the goal is to make hydration more enjoyable while aligning with how people want to live today. If we can help consumers drink more water, enjoy it more, and do so with less reliance on plastic packaging, that’s a win both for the category and for the environment.

2. Gen Z is driving demand for cold tea and healthier options. How is this influencing your long-term product development?

Gen Z is definitely accelerating change in the category, but we see it as an opportunity rather than a challenge for tea.

Tea is uniquely well positioned to meet a lot of the needs we’re seeing from younger consumers. At its core, it’s naturally low-calorie, often zero-calorie, and free from artificial ingredients, which aligns very well with the shift towards cleaner, more functional drinks and everyday wellness.

What’s also interesting is that Gen Z are much more open to exploring new flavours, formats and rituals. They’re not necessarily tied to traditional hot tea occasions in the same way previous generations were, which gives us a real opportunity to reframe tea in a way that fits more seamlessly into modern lifestyles — whether that’s cold formats, hydration-led occasions or more customisable drinks.

That’s directly shaping our long-term product development. We have a strong pipeline of innovation focused on recruiting the next generation of tea drinkers by leaning into both format

and function. A good example of that is our work in areas like matcha, where products such as the Lipton Matcha Latte bring together taste, energy and a more contemporary usage occasion.

Overall, the focus is on evolving tea without losing what makes it special — delivering great taste and natural credentials, but in formats and experiences that feel relevant for how younger consumers live today.

3. Tea consumption has traditionally been seasonal. Do you expect cold-brew formats to stabilise demand throughout the year, and what would that mean for forecasting and inventory management?

F&H Tea consumption drops -17% in Summer vs Winter (Source: Nielsen F&H Cups sold, Total Market – Quarterly to w/e 4/10/25) Tea has traditionally been a more seasonal category, with a clear drop in consumption as the weather warms — for example, fruit and herbal tea consumption declines by around 17% in summer versus winter. That’s been a structural challenge for the category for years.

What cold-brew formats do is open up a much more natural role for tea in warmer months. Rather than asking consumers to change behaviours, we’re simply better meeting a need that already exists — hydration and refreshment when temperatures rise — but doing it in a way that feels lighter, more convenient and more relevant to summer occasions.

Products like Lipton Ice Tea tea bags are a great example of that. They allow consumers to enjoy tea as a cold, refreshing drink, directly from water, without needing to switch into a completely different beverage category. That helps keep tea relevant year-round rather than being overly concentrated in colder months.

From a commercial perspective, if we can smooth some of that seasonality, it has real benefits. It allows for more consistent demand across the year, which in turn supports better forecasting and more stable production planning. Instead of peaking heavily in winter and softening in summer, you start to build a more balanced demand profile.

It also makes inventory management more efficient. With less extreme swings, there’s reduced risk of both overstocking and stock-outs, and it enables a more even flow through the supply chain.

Ultimately, the opportunity is to evolve tea from being perceived as a more “winter-led” category into one that has relevance across a broader range of occasions. Cold-brew formats are an important step in that direction, helping the category stay visible and competitive when consumers are naturally shifting towards colder, more refreshing drinks.

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Logistics firm Diamond Logistics is forecasting parcel volume increases of between 15% and 25% in the four weeks leading up to kick-off on 11 June, with spikes of more than 30% at some fulfilment sites.

The company believes the tournament is shaping up to be a peak trading event on par with Black Friday and Christmas, particularly as late-night fixtures are expected to fuel a “big night in” spending trend across UK households.

Retail Gazette sat down with Kate Lester to discuss how retailers are preparing for unpredictable demand, why fulfilment still remains an afterthought for many SMEs, and how changing consumer expectations around delivery times are reshaping shopping.

“Fulfilment should be the first part of the puzzle”

For Lester, one of the biggest mistakes retailers still make is treating logistics as something to solve, and an afterthought, second to launching their marketing strategy.

“We found this so much recently with people coming to us with new business ideas,” she said. “They think of fulfilment as the last part of the jigsaw puzzle, whereas actually they should be thinking about fulfilment as the first bit of the jigsaw puzzle.”

The warning comes as smaller retailers look to capitalise on World Cup demand across categories ranging from sportswear and outdoor furniture to alcohol, food and barbecue products.

According to Lester, many SMEs are agile enough to react quickly to trends, but are often exposed operationally if demand rises faster than expected.

“The World Cup is as unforecastable as the results themselves,” she said. “If England has a particularly successful run, we anticipate being even busier.”

She added that while larger retailers have been planning stock levels and campaigns years in advance, smaller businesses still have an advantage in their ability to react quickly to changing moments during the tournament.

“A bigger company might take days to get marketing signed off,” she said. “Smaller companies can be dynamic and snappy. But that only works if they’ve got the stock there and the fulfilment ready to go.”

Lester warned that retailers risk damaging customer trust if promotions outpace operational capacity.

“You could do a lot of damage to your brand if you promise an awful lot in terms of your World Cup marketing, yet you haven’t made provision for it to adequately get there.”

That preparation, she said, stretches far beyond inventory alone and includes pick-and-pack operations, delivery monitoring and carrier management.

“Prime has driven immediacy”

Diamond Logistics expects World Cup spending to stretch beyond traditional football merchandise and into categories tied to home entertaining and social gatherings.

“Whether it’s celebration or commiseration, we expect our booze clients to do quite well,” Lester said.

The company is also anticipating strong sales across garden furniture, barbecue products and outdoor leisure categories as consumers increasingly choose to watch matches at home.

“With the cost of living and everything else going on, people are going to be driven towards celebrating at home,” she said.

The logistics firm said it predicated that the late-night fixtures linked to the Americas-hosted tournament are expected to increase reactive purchasing behaviour, with retailers under pressure to fulfil orders rapidly.

Lester pointed to a recent online purchase that took more than seven days to arrive as an example of how quickly consumers lose patience.

“I thought, I’ll never order from this person again,” she said. “Prime has driven immediacy as being something modern consumers demand.”

She believes retailers heading into the tournament should be aiming for 24 to 48-hour delivery windows wherever possible, while also offering upgrade options for shoppers wanting faster fulfilment after major match results.

“If England wins, then suddenly they’ve got another game in quick succession and consumers want things immediately,” she said.

The pressure created by sudden spikes in demand is something Diamond says it is increasingly used to managing, especially among TikTok-driven brands.

Lester described one supplements client whose weekly order volumes jumped from around 20 consignments to more than 2,000 after going viral following an exhibition appearance.

“That’s our job,” she said. “It’s our job to match our resources to that demand,” adding that the business aims to maintain a 99.8% on-time fulfilment rate despite fluctuating order volumes across its network.

Advice for SMEs facing a summer surge

For smaller retailers worried about being overwhelmed by sudden demand spikes in June and July, Lester’s advice was blunt: outsource fulfilment before problems begin.

“There is no way you can deal with 2,000 consignments overnight as a small retailer,” she said.

She also urged businesses to avoid stacking major promotional activity on top of naturally busy trading periods.

“What you don’t want is a natural increase in consumption plus a promotion, because that could be a double whammy.”

Technology integration is becoming equally important, particularly for brands selling simultaneously across Shopify, TikTok Shop, Amazon and eBay.

Retailers need systems capable of syncing stock levels across marketplaces in real time, Lester said, otherwise businesses risk overselling products they no longer physically hold.

“Make sure you’re not selling stuff you haven’t got in stock,” she said. For Lester, the wider lesson from the World Cup is clear. Retailers no longer compete solely on product or price. They increasingly compete on speed, reliability and operational execution.

“World Cup marketing is a given,” she said. “Everybody’s going to be doing that. The difference is whether you can actually deliver.”

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Seeing these numbers in text may make allocating more budget to social channels seem more attractive, yet of course, as with all marketing it’s not what you spend, but how to actually utilise the tools available to you.

So, how can you get more out of your investment into social channels? To answer that, we’re turning to Melissa Minkow director of retail strategy at global technology firm CI&T. A leader in marketing and retail strategy, Minkow previously held positions at Target and Gartner as a business and consumer analyst and she is perfectly placed to explain how marketers can utilise social media.

Minkow explains that TikTok is an appealing platform for brands and retailers alike as its algorithm is “democratised”, meaning they have a fair chance at reaching new consumers. Consumers that wouldn’t have necessarily been in their “orbit” before hand.

She adds that the authenticity of the platform is another draw for retailers.

She says: “I think consumers approach TikTok in a different mindset than they do an actual shopping platform or a branded site, they’re there purely for entertainment or for education as well. They’re there for actual content consumption and to enjoy themselves on the platform, which automatically puts brands in a positive space with the consumer.”

She believes that consumers are attracted to TikTok as a search platform because the search experience is “so good”, despite not being a conventional search engine.

She adds: “I think consumers are burnt out in a lot of ways, and they still need to do a lot of research, and I’ve been saying a lot that shopping feels like admin, it feels like a chore lately, but being on TikTok to complete those shopper missions makes it feel less like a chore and more exploratory and more fun, which is nice.”

She explains that TikTok is started to be prioritised by retailers.

She says: “There’s a level of specificity with tagging the products and merchandising the products digitally, so that it will get picked up, or at least can then cross over really easily into other channels, including TikTok.”

However, despite an uptick in usage from firms, retailers still need to invest more in their social strategies and funnel more investment and resources towards TikTok.

Companies also need to figure out what their relationships with consumers look like from a user-generated organic content perspective.

Sher explains that brands rethink how products are labelled and categorised. For example, a dress could be for a wedding but then it could also be worn for Ascot, which isn’t something that brands would have considered. But now you have creators on TikTok saying oh this is suitable for Brides or this is for Bridesmaids or I can wear this on holiday.

She explains that retailers have to be ready to think outside the box because consumers will have a lot of freedom in the content space.

Minkow says: ” You [brands] have to be ready and excited to embrace that, because it’s just more exposure for your products and your brands.”

She highlights that she expects younger generations to be to be more respective to creator content and therefore be more influenced. However, the younger generations are social media literate and therefore could be less likely to be influenced.

She explains that a lot of boomers are struggling with being influenced as they don’t have the same social media literacy.

She says: “I think there can be a level of scrutinization and skepticism with younger generations that might not be there with older generations, but simultaneously they’re going to be consuming more of that content in the first place, so I could see it going both ways.

“The key really in this economy, and this is only going to increasingly be the case, is as a brand or retailer you have to offer a strong product from a quality and a price point perspective, because the market is only becoming more competitive, and consumers are only becoming better researched and better educated.”

“And in our data, consumers are saying that they’re spending more time researching items, and they are better informed than ever before.”

Minkow explains that the fact that consumers are better informed and “critical” of the brands and products that are entering the market which is a good thing as it’s forcing a “higher quality” level from brands and retailers.

Social media can also be beneficial to retailers as it can increase demand for certain products if they go viral. However, it can also be a bit of a Catch-22 as consumers tend to get angry and frustrated if a product is no longer in stock due to higher than anticipated demand.

And, according to Minkow, a “big part” of marketing strategies now is demand forecasting and being responsive.

She says: “If you see people raising issues with the products, immediately have that conversation with the consumer, because again, this is really about accessibility, and with social media, you’re giving so many more people access to critique a product launch.”

She adds that CI&T’s data shows that accurate visuals and product descriptions are important as consumers will be “very upset” if a product looks one way in your advertisements but arrives looking completely different.

She explains: “There needs to be a lot of product description alignment with product that wasn’t necessarily there previously, because social media is supposed to be this kind of raw portrayal or raw marketing material, if you will. So those are the other aspects that are really important from a marketing perspective.”

It’s also important for retailers to remember that impulse purchasing is going away, according to Minkow. Audiences are exposed to brands and retailers repeatedly and while they may think they are impulsively buying something they have probably been shown that brand or product more times than they can recall.

Minkow adds that in order for brands to build successful social media strategies and future proof themselves, they need to be where the consumer is.

She says: “They need to be engaging with both their loyal consumers and the consumers that are not interested in their brand to understand why that might be the case, even if they don’t want to appeal to them.”

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It has become a major competitor to popular energy drinks brands Red Bull and Monster, expanding its flavour range to include Raspberry Peach, Kiwi Guava, Strawberry Watermelon and Mango Lemonade.

Retail Gazette speaks to Carlotta Cattelani, head of marketing UK and Ireland at Celsius on how the brand’s marketing contributed to its success.

According to Cattelani, the energy drinks category has been traditionally associated with “short term stimulation and hypermasculine extremes”, but Celsius has taken a different approach. It instead markets itself as the energy drink brand for active lifestyles.

She says: “Our marketing approach is central to this because it helps us shift the conversation away from traditional energy drinks seen within the market and enables us to position the brand around clean energy for everyday achievement and maximising moments.”

“Whether at work, in the gym, or out on the town, Celsius looks to inspire people moving with purpose.”

She highlights that the brand focuses on where it shows up. She says it aims to prioritise “authentic and community led” engagement over traditional advertising. This helps the firm to build “trust and credibility” with consumers.

She highlights that UK consumers perceptions of the energy drink category are expanding and they are searching for products that fit better with their lifestyles.

Cattelani explains that the brand has tapped into the shift “by broadening its appeal” beyond fitness audiences to “everyday achievers”.

Its LIVE.FIT.GO. brand platform, which was introduced last year in the US and March 2026 in the UK, reflects its beliefs. The platform is supported by Team Celsius which is compromised of well known personalities and creators including Arsenal player Declan Rice and influencer Saffron Barker.

She explains that the bring the platform to life through “culturally relevant moments” such as  run clubs, social fitness activities and festivals.

Celsius also runs experiential events in major cities.

She says: “The key for us is making sure our campaigns feel relatable rather than aspiration.

However, its platform also introduces the brand’s first national TV advertising spot in Celsius’ history.

According to Cattelani, the brand leans heavily on digital first and community led strategies as its audience is “driven by peer connection, creators, and shared experiences”.

She adds: “In the UK, it is especially relevant because of how much this audience is socially and digitally connected. It’s why our influencer partnerships, community activations, and experiential moments are so important – they allow people to experience Celsius in a way that feels natural rather than imposed.”

Data and insights are fundamental to Celsius as they aid the brand in understanding its audience and how they live.

She explains: “We see a strong appeal across a diverse audience and are broadening the category to bring in consumers who may not have previously seen energy drinks as relevant to them.

On a global level, it helps us identify key growth audiences and behaviours, and here in the UK, it allows us to refine how we show up across our channel selection, messaging, and partnerships.”

Cattelani highlights that consumer behaviours are different in the UK compared to the US, so its important to adapt its creative to reflect cultural norms whilst staying true to the brands identity.

She says: “The most effective campaigns we have had bring together insight and creativity to deliver something that feels both relevant and distinctive.”

A recent standout campaign for Celsius was its immersive event at King’s Cross station which launched its core product line in the UK.

She says: “We moved beyond a traditional sampling activation and created a fully immersive brand experience in one of London’s busiest commuter hubs.

“Rather than relying on static displays, we transformed the space into a high energy arena inviting consumers to engage with physical challenges from reaction tests to endurance competitions. It wasn’t just about handing out the four new flavours; it was about integrating sampling into a tangible interaction with the brand.”

Over twenty creators visited the King’s Cross event and took part in challenges alongside the members of the public. She explains that by targeting high footfall areas, it “combined cultural relevance with volume” .

She says: “For me, it was a great example of how experiential, influencer-led and social-first strategies can come together to drive immediate trial, sales uplift, and longer-term affinity.”

The brand also uses digital storytelling to aid consumers with discovering and engaging with Celsius.

She says: “For us it is about creating content that resonates, feels authentic and is shareable, rather than overly polished or traditional. For that reason, you will see us work with creators and communities who have already developed relationships with our audience.

“Digital storytelling allows us to build relevance and credibility with our UK audiences quickly and at scale while maintaining that authenticity.”

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Riverford founder Guy Singh Watson’s new campaign says the herbicide, best known under the Roundup brand originally developed by and now owned by, was being used in ways that created a “direct route from field to plate”.

However, speaking to Retail Gazette, Singh-Watson stopped short of calling for a total ban. Instead, he is targeting one specific practice: the act of spraying glyphosate onto crops shortly before harvest to dry them out and make combining easier.

“What we are calling for is a ban on its use as a pre-harvest desiccant,” he says. “You are spraying it onto wheat, barley and oats a few days before harvest in full knowledge that people are going to eat that wheat.”

We caught up with Singh-Watson to speak about the human and environmental dangers of using glyphosate, organic farming and whether the UK has become too dependant on chemicals in farming.

The dangers of glyphosate

Glyphosate remains one of the world’s most widely used herbicides. In the UK, analysis of government data by Pesticide Action Network UK found glyphosate use had risen from around 200 metric tonnes in 1990 to more than 2,200 tonnes in 2024, with treated farmland increasing to more than 2.6 million hectares.

The debate around the chemical has intensified globally since the World Health Organization’s cancer agency classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic” in 2015. Bayer has consistently maintained glyphosate is safe when used correctly and regulators in both Europe and the United States have repeatedly said current evidence does not justify a full ban.

Even so, the company has spent billions settling lawsuits in the United States brought by users who claimed exposure to Roundup caused non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Reuters reported this year that Bayer had already paid around $10bn in settlements, while tens of thousands of cases remain ongoing.

When speaking about the potential dangers to human health, Singh-Watson points repeatedly to the US litigation.

“There have been thousands of cases in the US over Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” he says. “The courts defended that very vigorously, and they lost.”

And many people are inadvertently consuming glyphosate, with Singh-Watson quoting 30% of people in the UK have glyphosate in their urine, and 50% in the states, with some studies reported by The Guardian placing this figure even higher at 80%.

“It just seems an egregious,” Singh-Watson says. “This is grievous biological harm. This is intentional, we are poisoning people intentionally in the full knowledge of the dangers of glyphosate”.

He also questions whether existing safety testing goes far enough. Regulators typically assess glyphosate as an active ingredient, but Singh-Watson argues that commercial formulations also contain additional chemicals designed to help absorption.

“The regulatory regime is inadequate,” he adds. “You only test the active ingredient, whereas it is invariably applied with adjuvants that help the plant absorb the toxin.”

These fears have been supported by recent research, including King’s College molecular geneticist and toxicologist Professor Michael Antoniou who has become a leading scientific voice warning about the health risks of glyphosate-based herbicides.

His research challenges the regulatory consensus by demonstrating that even “safe” levels of exposure can cause DNA damage, liver disease, and cancer.

As the sole UK-based contributor to this landmark international research, Antoniou helped demonstrate that long-term exposure to glyphosate can cause multiple types of tumours and cancers in rats, even at levels deemed safe by EU and global regulators, with data from his lab showing that low doses of glyphosate-based weedkillers alter the healthy bacteria in the human gut, which can lead to chronic inflammation and metabolic issues.

Could the UK drop the use of glyphosate?

The European Union renewed glyphosate approval in 2023 until 2033, but introduced tighter conditions around its use. EU rules now prohibit its use for pre-harvest desiccation designed to optimise harvesting. However, Britain has not followed suit.

Campaigners backing Riverford’s latest initiative argue the economic benefits of pre-harvest spraying are marginal.

In the UK, wholesale wheat prices are currently hovering around £188 to £192 per tonne for feed wheat. Singh-Watson estimates that even if the practice reduced wheat costs by £5 per tonne, the impact on a loaf of bread, which often has less than 10 pence worth of wheat per loaf, would amount to fractions of a penny.

“You are talking about something absolutely trivial and irrelevant to the cost of food,” he says.

Yet he acknowledges many farmers feel trapped between rising costs and relentless retail pressure.

“Farmers are being squeezed and squeezed,” he says. “If we want cheap food, let’s not look to farming to reduce costs anymore. Better to look to the supply chain, particularly retailers and processors.”

The comments come during another volatile period for British agriculture. Fertiliser and fuel prices have risen sharply following geopolitical disruption and instability in global commodity markets, most recently due to thee US-Iran war.

Nitrogen fertiliser markets in particular have faced repeated shocks linked to energy costs, Russian exports and fears over disruption in the Strait of Hormuz.

“What farmers want is stability,” Singh-Watson says. “Most farmers just want to get on with farming. They don’t want to be worrying about these global impacts.”

When asked whether the UK has become too reliant on chemicals, he argues conventional farming had become too dependent on chemical inputs, although rejected suggestions that Britain could switch overnight to entirely organic production.

“I’m not advocating that we all go organic tomorrow,” he says. “With grain, it would be difficult.”

“I think we’d really struggle to feed ourselves, but actually, I don’t think we would have any trouble with dairy, beef, lamb, and so on. I think we should be putting more effort into, into investigating the alternatives.”

The alternatives being, he says, towards regenerative and agroecological farming systems, including improving soil health and reducing synthetic fertiliser dependence. And these alternatives could be more advanced if more investment and research went into the sector.

“If you look at the amount of money that’s gone into supporting the agrochemical industry, the life sciences, such GM crops,” says Singh-Watson. “If some of that money had gone into looking at more agroecological farming techniques, I think we would have moved a lot way forward further forward.”

Riverford itself has operated organically for four decades. Singh-Watson says the company does not use synthetic herbicides such as glyphosate on its crops, relying instead on crop rotation, cultivation, soil management and manual weed control.

He also warns that fertilisers themselves carried environmental costs often overlooked in the pesticides debate.

“We should be mindful that their impact is every bit as high as pesticides in terms of damage to the soil and waterways,” he says.

For all the controversy around glyphosate, Singh-Watson accepts the chemical remains highly effective for farmers, particularly against difficult perennial weeds such as blackgrass.

“It’s a brilliant chemical,” he admits. “That’s why it has become so widespread.”

“But we should be leaning towards safety. I think it always comes down to a balance of the risks against the benefits. When you know the dangers of glyphosate for this pre-harvest desiccation, there’s just no way anyone can argue for it.”

“When I hear farmers claiming that they won’t be able to farm without it,” Singh-Watson adds.” That’s just a bare face lie.”

The question facing policymakers is whether the convenience it offers the food system still outweighs the growing political, environmental and public health concerns surrounding it.

For all the dispute over glyphosate, looking ahead, Singh-Watson says the system will keep “squeezed and squeezed” until farming is given space to change how it produces food.

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