Management Development Services Ltd (MDS Ltd) is a consortium of over 20 member companies, with growing interest from potential new members who recognise the benefits of this 'model' for management training in the food and fresh produce industry. MDS Ltd also provides its services to a number of subsidiary/sister companies and different sites belonging to the same company, some of which are abroad. This brings the effective total to well over 50.

The member companies all contribute to the running costs of the organisation and the salary of Management Trainees, which represents an investment of about £50,000 in each Management Trainee over the two year period.

The membership includes growers, suppliers and retailers of vegetables, salads, fruit, flowers, plants, processed products and arable. Most of the member companies have annual turnover of between £5 million - £100 million, while several are well in excess of this figure. Most have more than one site of operation in the UK, and some overseas.

The strength of the organisation comes from so many companies working together with one shared aim - to recruit and train the very best people for the industry. Under normal circumstances, these companies are competitors within the fresh food, produce and arable industry, but they have recognised the value of co-operation, pooling their resources to produce a first-class graduate training programme for mutual benefit.

For some of them, it would not be viable to run their own in-house training programme. Others prefer the MDS Ltd option because of the scope and breadth it offers, or use MDS Ltd in addition to their own in-house scheme.