ceda 4.5: ceda’s Future Strategic Plan
At the recent ceda Conference 2026, ceda Director General Adam Mason launched our new strategic development plan; ceda 4.5
The world around us is moving faster than at any point in our lifetimes. AI and Technology are changing how businesses operate. They are changing how projects are designed, delivered and maintained. The expectations of customers are changing. The expectations of employees are changing. Regulation and compliance requirements are changing. The skills we need are changing. And the pace of change is only accelerating.
So that is why we have created ceda 4.5; to prepare and plan for the future, and ensure our Members thrive in the years ahead,
Our evolution is built around four strategic pillars.
- People, Skills & Culture
- Information, Data & Knowledge
- Collaboration, Connection & Community
- Compliance, Competency & Credibility
These four pillars will shape everything that we do over the next four and a half years.
The greatest challenge facing our industry isn’t technology; it’s talent.
Every conversation eventually comes back to people.
– How do we attract them?
– How do we develop them?
– How do we retain them?
The sustainable future of our industry depends on answering those questions and delivering the right solutions.
We will invest in future workforce initiatives – campaigns that see our Industry Champions visit and present at Universities, Technical Colleges and careers fairs.
We will strengthen and expand apprenticeship standards to cover more roles, in order to provide the talent pipelines that we need. Where apprenticeship standards are not possible, we will create new trainee pathways.
We will expand access to continued professional development learning through cedaLED and our e-learning platform.
We will grow and formalise future routes for the ceda Academy by creating management and leadership pathways, and we will support employee wellbeing and workplace culture.
It is people that will continue to build our industyr, and how we attract, develop and retain the right people is absolutely fundamental.
Knowledge creates advantage.
The people and businesses that understand more, see more. The people and businesses that see more, perform better.
Over the last decade we have built significant knowledge assets. The next step is building more knowledge and making that knowledge even more accessible, more practical and more valuable.
Thos will be achieved through a new ceda Knowledge Centre that will include; technical, technological, wellbeing, sustainability, HR and Health and Safety guidance. Through the continued development of the ceda4 App to ensure the accessibility to information and data for your teams. Through the creation of an operational performance monitoring platform that can help you and your customers, and potential customers, better understand their kitchens and equipment and ultimately make smarter commercial decisions.
One of the achievements that we are most proud of over the last decade is the breaking down of silos. Our membership is more connected and collaborative today than ever before. We need to expand that connection and collaboration throughout the supply-chain.
The challenges facing our sector require collective thinking – Members, Partners, Operators and non-industry experts. No one person, company, or organisation, has all the answers. The best solutions emerge when different perspectives, views, thought and opinion come together.
That is why we will expand and develop the mandate of our working groups. We will bring more voices into the conversation. We will create more opportunities for knowledge sharing and learning. We will create more opportunities for collaboration.
Because when the right people connect, in the right environment, with collective purpose, then innovation happens.
In an age where anyone can create content, on any subject matter, credibility becomes more valuable than ever.
Trust matters. Competence and credibility matters. The businesses that can demonstrably evidence their expertise will always stand above the competition. That is why we will continue developing our standards, accreditations, compliance and representation provision.
Work that we are currently undertaking to create competence frameworks, in line with the Building Safety Act, for the various roles in our sector will be enhanced with the creation of a competency platform.
This will all help members to demonstrate exactly why they are the specialists of choice.
Creating opportunity, adding value and supporting growth.
IN ACTION
We have worked hard over the last few weeks to ensure that we are here with action too.
We have already put some of the people in place, created some of the infrastructure and built some of the solutions…
The appointments of Maria, Ellen and Harry to the Academy Leadership Team continues our development of outstanding young people. The Leadership Team will shortly be engaged in a project, working with our training partners and employers, to build ‘Management-ready’ and ‘Leadership-ready’ training programmes.
The Board appointments of Rebecca, Alice and Ben to the Board puts topics like; sustainability, innovation and collaboration across the supply chain, our future workforce and technical compliance on every Board agenda.
The creation of our Sustainability Working Group, led by two of the sectors leading experts in Alice and Lauren Hunter, already has a number of very focused objectives in line with this development plan, to drive the Industry forward.
In the last couple of weeks we have become an LCL Awards Approved Training Centre so that we can deliver ceda-created technical training to our Members around the country.
Removing barriers and raising compliance standards with the development of The ceda Electrical Standard; a fully accredited electrical training programme for catering engineers.
At the end of last year, we undertook the largest wellbeing survey of our industry. It has given us the data and information to build the solutions and support that the industry has told us it needs.
And the development of an operational performance monitoring system that will; provide Members with a deeper understanding of commercial kitchens and equipment, create additional commercial opportunities and aspire to build the largest data centre in the Industry, is only weeks away.
IN CONCLUSION
When we bring these four pillars together, we believe that we will create something powerful. A united ecosystem with representation and voice from all areas of our industry that want better. Together they create commercial advantage. Together they strengthen the industry. And together they help us prepare for a future where technology and people work together to achieve more than either could achieve alone.
We are looking to find the balance between Artificial Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence. The balance between Commercial Value, Human Value and Social Value. The balance between Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0.
Our next evolution is not about maintaining what we have built.
It is about developing it.
It is about expanding it.
It is about strengthening it.
And it is about ensuring that our industry is ready for what comes next.
The last decade has proved what our community can achieve together. The next four and a half years will show what is possible when we raise our ambitions even higher.
Uniting the industry and building the service, support and solutions that will help our businesses and our people thrive.
