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| Hospitality Today | Spring 2017
The Arena Sa
Andrew Selley,
CEO of Bidfood
Now in its 21st year, the Arena
Savoy Lecture 2017 took place in
March. The ballroom at the Savoy
hotel hosted a panel discussion on
Brexit, before Andrew Selley (right),
the chief executive of Bidfood
(formerly Bidvest Foodservice), gave
his take on ‘Future Fit Foodservice’.
The shape of Brexit
The Brexit panel discussion, chaired
by the British Hospitality Association’s
(BHA) Vernon Hunte, took a look at the
challenges and opportunities Brexit
presents for foodservice and hospitality.
The panellists “helping to clear the muddy
waters” were Jason Myers, the CEO of
Busaba Eathai, Bob Silk the relationship
director of Barclays’ Hospitality & Leisure
Team, and Sebastian Calnan, a consultant
at EMW Law.
The headlines from the debate include:
the two-year negotiation period is a tall
order and not sufficient time to resolve
everything; EU food legislation is likely
to be adopted as UK law as the public is
generally happy and accepting of it; free
movement of people remains an area of
concern and needs to be nailed down
quickly with a common-sense approach,
especially as it could take up to ten years
to replace overseas recruitment with