Garry's Story
Starting out with an idea
During Garry's childhood, he developed a passion for food, specifically baking and was driven from an early age to do this for a living. This never faltered throughout his school days and grew stronger during his time at university. When he left university back in 1997, he wished to start his own food safety consultant firm, but understood that he initially needed to gain first hand experience of the food industry from both the manufacturing and retail sectors to build up his knowledge.
Over the next 25 years Garry worked for some of the leading manufacturing and retailer companies in the UK, including Allied Bakeries, Warburtons, Sainsbury's, Bakkavor and Cranswick. This involved working within different sectors of the food industry from bakery, dried fruit and nuts, ready meals, cooked, cured and fresh meat to abattoirs for pigs and poultry. Throughout his time in industry, Garry worked with all the major retailers in the UK, including M&S, Tesco, Morrisons, ASDA and, of course, Sainsbury's.
During these years, he has built up a wealth of experience in food safety systems, including:
- HACCP
- Verification and Validation
- Food Safety Culture
- Auditing
- Supplier Management and Auditing
- Quality Management Systems
- Hygiene
- Pest Control
- Allergen Management
- TACCP
More than just food safety
However, as time progressed, Garry found himself being at the start of new build projects where he could influence recruitment, design, systems and culture from the very beginning. He found this rewarding to see the results of his labour achieving the highest 3rd party BRCGS Food Safety certification award and to achieve the requirements for new customers as they were brought in. However, the most pleasing area that Garry found was the development of the teams he was responsible for and to see them progress onto greater things.
As his skills grew, the companies he was working for asked him to take on more and more challenges in different areas away from food safety and hygiene. These included:
- Stores Management
- Health & Safety
- Ethical Auditing and Labour Provider auditing
- SEDEX Management
- RSPO System integration
- Sustainability Strategy and Management
- External reporting of sustainability data
- Carbon footprint capture and reporting
- Carbon neutrality reporting (PAS2060 and ISO14064-3)
- Installing ISO14001 (Environmental), ISO45001 (H&S) and ISO50001 (Energy) Management systems
Wider Influence
Garry has enjoyed making a difference to the food industry and as his experience grew, he started to represent his sector in industry panels and meetings. This included using his experiences and knowledge to help change the food safety standards globally by being a member of the BRCGS Working Party, representing the BMPA, which developed the BRCGS Food Safety Standard versions 7, 8 and 9.
When the BRCGS were looking to develop an Ethical Standard, he was asked to join them and became instrumental in developing the BRCGS Ethical Standard versions 1 and 2.
In 2023, Garry became a registered consultant with the Association of Labour Providers (ALP) and in 2024/25, he joined the BSI drafting committee to generate a suicide prevention standard.
In 2024, Warhurst Associates became a member of Deliciously Yorkshire to support local food businesses.
Professional Recognition
To recognise his abilities, Garry holds the following professional memberships:
-
Fellow of the Institute of Food Science and Technology
-
IFST Registered Food Safety Manager
-
IFST Auditor and Mentor
-
IEMA Associate Member
He also a registered consultant for:
- BSI
- Association of Labour Providers
- Intertek
He is also an Associate trainer of auditing skills for Verner Wheelock
Supporting You
Garry is now pleased to have founded Warhurst Associates, so that he can now support any business, whether that be in food or not, in their journey to grow and achieve their desired outcome. He welcomes everyone who contacts Warhurst Associates, regardless of the scale of the request and looks forward to hearing from you soon.
Awards
We are pleased to say that we are an award winning consultancy company and have won the following awards:
- Heros of Industry Food Safety & ISO Consultancy Firm of the Year 2026 - awarded by Innervision Media
- Compliance & Auditing Experts - Doncaster 2026 - awarded by Diamond Distinction Awards
- Best Sustainability-Led Compliance Consultancy 2025 - UK - awarded by Wealth & Finance
Hear Garry tell his own story
Check out this video of Garry's journey in the food industry which was completed for the IFST and to hear his thoughts on what careers are available in the food industry.