In retail, you always know how you're doing. You succeed or not each day. It's a very invigorating industry to be involved with because the results are so visible and immediate.

Giving back is not something that I was necessarily alive or awake to before. In the garment industry I've been involved in CSR and applying best practice as much as we could. But the Fairtrade Foundation is quite different. The organisation works with some of the poorest groups of producers in countries where the economies are already very difficult anyway.

We talk about challenging times here, but we can choose whether to purchase a luxury item or a value item. If you're a smallholder-producer you might be spending 80 per cent of your income on basic foodstuffs. If the prices of those go up 30 per cent, where do you go?

Once you've been exposed to it, you either ignore it or you feel: "Is there something I can do about this?" I saw the opportunity through the Fairtrade Foundation to do something about it.

The Foundation's "Tipping the Balance" blueprint is hugely ambitious and borne out of extraordinary growth. There's a unique mix of grassroots public support and recognition. In the UK, 70 per cent of the population recognise the Fairtrade Foundation mark and 64 per cent know that it's to do with a better deal for the producers.

I'm sure in certain quarters there is scepticism about the true benefits of Fairtrade for producers and their communities. But once you've understood the impact that it has had, you don't unlearn it. If it's made an impact and you've taken it on board, it's a difficult thing to say, "I won't care about it anymore".

The Fairtrade Foundation has grown hugely. Last year sales increased by 72 per cent to £0.5bn. My task is to make sure we're fit for purpose without going overboard, because our focus is, and always will be, what we can bring to the producer groups.

I'm not sure that Fairtrade products are always more expensive. We have a wide range from value-level teas right through to top-quality products. If you compare like for like, there's not the gap that is often perceived.

Everybody knows that consumers are under pressure; we are in challenging, turbulent times. But as recently as last August, the number of household shoppers buying Fairtrade products had gone up by 14 per cent.

I think the most powerful move that has occurred is this association between producers and consumers. Having consumers understand the real issues that exist at the other end of the product chain is a powerful driver of change.

Our vision is a world where we wouldn't be necessary, because trade would be fair; a world where justice is at the heart of business. We think we'll be around for a while yet.