Management Development Services (MDS) Ltd : Employer profile

Company profile

MDS Ltd is an independent non-profit making organisation whose aim is to recruit and train the very best people to secure the future of the food, produce and horticulture industry.

The MDS Ltd training programme is an accredited two year and three year fast track career path comprising of practical real job secondments combined with formal off-the-job training.

MDS Ltd represents a consortium of over 20 member companies comprising growers, suppliers and supermarkets including household names like G’s Marketing, Riverford Organic Vegetables and Waitrose.
Today, MDS Ltd encompasses the whole supply chain of vegetables, salads, fruit, flowers, plants, arable and prepared food products not only based in the UK but also for operations in many countries around the world.

Member companies contribute towards the salary and training costs of Management Trainees as well as providing work placements, known as 'secondments'.

The Accredited two-year management programme revolves around four secondments of about six months each, combined with off-the-job learning from external tutors, many of whom are industry experts. The secondments based with different member companies encompass a wide range of possible roles for example; technical, quality, operations, commercial, new product development, logistics, retail, projects etc.
In this way, every Management Trainee gains as wide an experience as possible.