Scotland Food & Drink Annual Review 2010 - Scotland Food and ...

Scotland Food & Drink Annual Review 2010Collaborating For Success

Over the last 12 months, it has becomeeven more obvious to all those involved inthe Scottish food and drink industry thatit is effective working partnerships whichwill lead us towards a more successfulfuture and allow us to reach our target ofgrowing the industry from a value of£10bn to £12.5bn by 2017.For that reason, we have decided toshowcase here some of the bestexamples of how Scotland Food & Drink,alongside our partners and stakeholders,has set about working in a trulycollaborative way and how, to date,this has achieved success, both for usas an organisation, and for Scotland asA Land of Food and Drink.2 3

Scotland Food & Drink | Annual Review 2010“ScotlandFood & Drink hasthe strength, willingnessand influence to deliverfor Scotland the positionwe desire within the topthree food and drinkproducing nations of theworld. With your help,support and involvementwe shall succeed.”Since its inception three years ago, I havewatched Scotland Food & Drink undergosome incredibly dynamic growth andtruly cement its position as the industryleadership organisation.The numerous exciting projects, eventsand initiatives outlined within this revieware testament to the hard work anddedication of the staff body as well asto those individuals and businesses thatmake up the Executive Group and Boardof Directors. These industry experts haveoffered their time and dedication to theorganisation because they, like others, cansee the benefits that collaboration andactive involvement can deliver to the foodScotland Food & Drink needs to ensure thatmembership continues to grow, allowing usto increase our penetration and our worth.We have proven ourselves to the doubtersand shown the benefits that membershipbrings, from discounted services to widerindustry growth. It is now time for morecompanies to join up and demonstratetheir commitment to the future of ourindustry as well as to their own successand development.Much work has been done over the lastthree years and, in particular, the last 12months. Scotland Food & Drink now hasdedicated office space within the RoyalHighland Centre, the spiritual home ofRay Jones, Chairmanand drink industry.many food and drink organisations, and isready for the next step.Scotland Food & Drink and its aimsand visions are better understood andThe next three years take us to 2014 andrecognised by the industry it serves andwe then reach our 2017 milestone which,more and more sectors are getting involvedI predict, will be outstripped.and making a key contribution. I believethat the industry, led by Scotland Food &Scotland Food & Drink has the strength,Drink, has the enthusiasm and dedicationwillingness and influence to deliver forto exceed its ambitious targets.Scotland the position we desire within thetop three food and drink producing nationsI recently visited Sirha and Bocuse d’Or inof the world. With your help, support andFrance and was really struck by just howinvolvement we shall succeed.positively Scottish produce is viewed theworld over. We must build upon this alreadystrong reputation.45

Scotland Food & Drink | Annual Review 2010Fresh Thinking Industry StrategyIn December 2009 the Food & Drinkindustry launched its ambitious strategyfor growth and throughout 2010 we’ve beenworking hard to turn that vision into reality.The strategy aims to generate an additional£2.5bn turnover by 2017 through exploitingthe growth markets of premium, health andprovenance. It also has targets for GrossValue Add (GVA), R&D spend, productivityand exports. Much of this growth will comefrom individual businesses delivering theirown ambitious plans. But the targets arestretching - so it will take the collectiveefforts of all the organisations whichsupport the industry to deliver.The Scotland Food & Drink Executive Grouphas been developing the initial actions tosupport the achievement of these targets.However to ensure that we have a clearaction plan in place for the longer term wehave now created a planning framework todrive forward the key initiatives that willsupport industry growth.To help prioritise our work the ExecutiveGroup has identified a number of workthemes that support the achievementof KPI’s, support our strategy enablersand will help deliver the Big 10 Actionsidentified in the strategy.The priority work themes are:both of activities and the industry targets,• GVA – Processorsensuring linkages between projects are being• GVA – Primarymade and making certain that we have new• Sustainabilityideas being fed into the planning process.• R&D Spend/Innovation• ExportsEach priority work theme has worked up• Productivity – Skillstheir initial plan for activity and we are• Turnover – UKnow putting in place the initial resources• Turnover – Scale through Collaboration to progress these plans includingasking businesses for their feedbackEach theme now has a champion who will and involvement in the next stages ofbe its advocate and will ensure that there development. As in any business, ouris a clear plan in place to help support the industry growth planning will be a continualindustry. As well as the eight Champions, process involving the key industry playersall members of the Executive Group have and our businesses thus ensuring that wecommitted to driving forward the actions and continue to create a culture of ambitionhave committed resource to help this.and support for the achievement of ourScotland Food & Drink will act as the overall 2017 targets.co-ordinator for delivering the Action Plan,this will include developing and executing thecommunications plan, reporting on progressProgressing Public ProcurementSAOS, as part of the C2 Cultivating Collaboration Project which isdelivered under Scotland Food & Drink, was commissioned by TheScottish Government, to provide practical guidance to businessesaspiring, or considering, the opportunities of selling food anddrink to the public sector. The guide aims to dispel any notionthat public sector food and drink contracts are off limits or toocomplex for smaller sized food producers and manufacturingbusinesses and the guide provides the insight, knowledge andconfidence to help achieve this ambition.INSIGHTSINSIGHTS is the information and intelligence provider for theScottish food and drink industry, launched for the industry byScotland Food & Drink, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands andIslands Enterprise in autumn 2010.Its aim is to assist industry members to develop and growby providing market intelligence and knowledge that informsdecision making. Services include:• advice and market intelligence summary reportsthrough the helpline• open access to selected market research reports• access to specialist market information from recognisedindustry experts including IGD, Kantar, Nielsen & NewNutrition Business• bespoke research delivered through the consultancy service• dissemination of latest trends and reports through NationalFood Forums, INSIGHTS events and publications such as thequarterly ‘Spends £ Trends’ and special reports.Collaboration is not always a term that is associated withresearch and market intelligence. Insight gathering ismore often thought of as a secretive business where dataanalysts and market intelligence experts vie to extract thevital pieces of information that will give their company theedge over competitors.However, the INSIGHTS team is fostering a different, moreinclusive approach that is benefiting the whole industry;producers, data suppliers, partners and stakeholders. Plans areunderway to work closely with stakeholders in developing theINSIGHTS offering.Harnessing the power of a network of partners is also provingits worth. Working with Scottish Development International theINSIGHTS team was able to source market intelligence on sectorsas diverse as salmon in South America and potatoes in France.SustainabilityFresh Thinking, our industry strategy identified thatenvironmental and economic sustainability needed to beat the heart of our industry work.Over the course of 2010 and as part of the strategy actionplanning, the Sustainability Working Group, led by SWA, hasbeen focusing on how we might facilitate and integrate this at anindustry level but also critically with businesses ensuring that weadd value to the vast amount of work already happening aroundsustainability within our sector.The initial work of the group has focused on building upkey messages for businesses and where they might accessassistance. All of this will be rolled into a communications planthat will be launched in 2011. The group has also commissionedtwo pilots to determine how collaboration might facilitate andsupport sustainability strategies in different supply chains. Thefirst pilot in the red meat sector is due to report and the secondpilot with M&S is now in the planning stages.Collaborative Growth GatewayTo help achieve our industry growth ambitions, we need tocreate scale amongst SMEs. Historical evidence suggests thatScottish food and drink SMEs have not and will not access theadvantages of larger scale and growth by continuing to operateentirely independently, and a different approach is needed. Theinnovative and progressive collaborative initiative that is proposedwill enable SMEs to overcome constraints to growth and accessthe advantages of scale by working together, yet retaining theirindependent business status as they see fit. The CollaborativeGrowth Gateway project is an innovative and progressive initiativewhich has a vision that co-operation and collaboration amongstScotland’s food and drink businesses and marketing chains isadopted as an effective commercial strategy.The project has been developed in collaboration with a number oforganisations and has the support of the Executive Group. It is nowseeking funding to make this a reality. Ultimately the project willhelp businesses identify the commercial advantages of scale whichwill deliver new growth. This will be delivered with a co-ordinatedapproach thus maximising market penetration opportunities anddelivering superior performance and efficiencies in supply chains.67

Scotland Food & Drink | Annual Review 2010Food & HealthInnovation ServiceNewly launched in February 2011 is the ScotlandFood & Drink Food & Health Innovation Service.Scottish Enterprise and Scotland Food & Drink areworking together to offer Scottish companies aunique opportunity to help identify and developnew products and processes for the commerciallylucrative global food and health market.C2 ProjectThe C2 project aims to encourage and support more collaborationand collaborative ventures in Scottish food and drink supply chainsfor their commercial gain. Funded by Scottish Government anddelivered by SAOS, it seeks to deliver hands-on help to businessesto address new opportunities and overcome barriers, and in theprocess build trust and long-term supply chain partnerships.This will help improve:• Profitability• Value Add• Market Responsiveness • Sustainability• Efficiency226 companies have engaged with the project74 organisations/councils/academic institutes have been involved671 people have participated in events, many of them farmersCASE STUDYForteith Foodservice is a distribution business based inOban, Argyll. In the last three years it has begun workingwith local producers to develop premium, branded local foodfor the market, sold exclusively by the company under the Argyllbrand and as partnerships between the suppliers and Forteith.Forteith’s branded lamb is produced by a group of Argyllhill farmers who wanted more stable, viable returns fromblackface hill lambs. In 2008, with the help of the Argyll andBute Agricultural Forum and the C2 project, they identified amarket for the produce – supplying schools in the area. Whileprocurement guidelines for the public sector are strict, a pilotproject allowed the Council to be flexible in its approach.The pilot proceeded using the proven supply chain partners -farms, slaughterhouse, processor, wholesaler. All those in thechain therefore achieved maximum value.Developing SkillsThe Scotland Food & Drink Skills Academy (SFDSA), funded bythe Scottish Funding Council, Skills Development Scotland andScottish Enterprise, and working closely with Improve and theNational Skills Academy as well as stakeholders and colleges,was launched in November, run by University of Abertay Dundee.There is wide recognition that skills provision is the single biggestcatalyst to the sustained long-term growth of our industry and sothe SFDSA is designed to focus on delivering the competenciesrequired for the industry to access new growth markets. Inaddition to stimulating demand for training, it will promote thesignificant bottom-line business benefits associated with higherskill levels and the operational efficiencies that can be achievedby embedding these skills within the workforce.The SFDSA is also planning to develop new qualificationsin response to employer demand. Its first qualification –the Scottish Fellowship in Food and Drink, a professionalqualification designed to equip trainees with the knowledge toensure productivity, profitability and sustainability within theirbusinesses in today’s marketplace – was launched earlier thisyear. Once again, there was a partnership approach with Abertay,SAC, Improve, QMS and ourselves all forming a working group tooutline exactly what was required.Working to build stronger businesses and a highly skilledworkforce will help the Scottish food and drink industry toincrease its global competitiveness and provide a valuedcontribution to our aim of making Scotland known asA Land of Food and Drink.Food and health represents one of the fastestgrowing markets in the food sector, with naturallyhealthy foods, reformulated foods with reducedunhealthy ingredients and leading edge functionalfoods representing a total market opportunity of£20bn in the UK.Scottish companies are ideally placed to succeedin this market with our international reputation forhigh quality, naturally healthy food products.Specifically, the Food & Health Innovation Servicewill help companies:• understand the specific market opportunitieswhich are relevant to their business and how theycan address these• understand the technologies that can be appliedto result in new processes and products• scope out new project ideas, including where tofind new solutions, identifying the best partnersto work with and accessing funding.Over the next five years the service is projected todeliver a combined increase in turnover of £80m forparticipating companies, making a contribution toScotland’s GVA of £40m.The LarderMany of you will have come across the latestedition of The Larder, the fabulous guideto Scotland’s food and drink,produced by The List. ScotlandFood & Drink, with assistancefrom the Scottish Government,was proud to sponsor theguide and we have since beenworking hard, alongsideVisitScotland, The List andmany others, to ensure thatit is distributed far and wide.89

Scotland Food & Drink | Annual Review 2010From Highlands to HarrodsScotland Food & Drink’s Access to Markets activity is developedcollaboratively with Scottish Enterprise and Highlands &Islands Enterprise and is part of the wider Scotland Food &Drink UK market strategy. We work in frequent consultationwith stakeholders such as Quality Meat Scotland, SeafoodFiona Richmond, access to markets executive at Scotland Food& Drink, said: “Our Meet the Buyer events provide an excellentopportunity for companies to meet retailers face to face.”Other successes of the Meet the Buyer programme includelistings in Dobbies Garden Centres, Forteith Foodservice,Sodexo, ASDA, Peckhams, David Sands and more.Scotland, Scottish Development International and the ScottishSalmon Producers Organisation, to name just a few.CASE STUDYConnage Highland Dairy, which has attended more than sixMembership &Member BenefitsSince January 2010, our team has recruited 88 new members toScotland Food & Drink, ensuring that our impact is greater thanever before.Our members range from multinational companies to the smallestof food producers, each of which has their own crucial part to playin making Scotland known as A Land of Food and Drink.So many of our members are really engaging with what we doand ensuring that they take maximum advantage of everythingthat we offer.At Scotland Food & Drink, we are extremely proud of our portfolioof member benefits for the number of ways in which it can notonly assist members to grow and develop their businesses butalso save them money.CASE STUDYThe Highland Chocolatier recognises that as a relatively youngbusiness run by a small but dedicated team, finding time toconcentrate on longer-term, strategic planning can be difficult.That’s why Iain Burnett and his business development director,Julie Collier, decided to take advantage of Scotland Food &Drink’s innovative ‘Manager for Hire’ service.“We decided to join Scotland Food & Drink around mid-2009and found out about the free ‘Manager for Hire’ service via oneof the regular newsletters we receive. We thought it would bebeneficial to set aside a little time to speak to someone whomight be able to advise us and help us look at various aspectsof our business from a fresh perspective.“We’ve been absolutely delighted with the ‘Manager for Hire’service and would absolutely recommend that other ScotlandFood & Drink members take advantage of it. In fact, theywould be crazy not to take up the offer! In our case, we feelthat we have got such a lot out of Richard Yates’ visit. Not onlyhave we learned many things but we now feel that we have avalued contact we can approach if we need to.”The Wonders of the WebThose of you who visit our website on a regular basis will noticethat it has had a facelift over the last few months.Future plans are focusing on developing a members’ area tofacilitate better engagement amongst our membership as well asallowing people to book events and join the organisation online.2010 has also seen Scotland Food & Drink boost its own profile,as well as those of member companies, through the use ofSocial Media. We run the Eat Scottish page and campaign onFacebook which has accumulated over 700 ‘likers’ and continuesto grow steadily. The site not only promotes Scottish food anddrink but also allows the industry to engage with consumers andpromote themselves. More and more members are understandingthat we can help them spread their messages through the use oftools such as Facebook.Twitter is also used to engage with members and the industryin order to facilitate better communication. We have in excessof 1200 followers, ranging from food and drink producers andrestaurants to food bloggers and journalists with many morejoining every day. Even the political parties are following whatwe do! Many of our followers find us because of the relevanceof our updates but we are also active in engaging with peoplefor mutual benefit. We often find that other ‘Tweeters’ arereferencing our news, events, documents and research, furtherspreading the word. Still a work in progress, we always welcomeuseful feedback as to how we can improve what we do.Year of Food and DrinkFollowing the success of 2009’s Homecoming, the ScottishGovernment dedicated 2010 as a themed Year of Food andDrink to concentrate on enhancing Scotland’s reputation asA Land of Food and Drink. The celebration runs until May2011 with our Excellence Awards providing the showcaseevent on the 26th May. Branding for the Year incorporatesthe Scotland, Land of Food & Drink logo and is used on allsupporting material online, in print, television advertisingMore than 18 Scottish companies have secured millions ofpounds worth of new sales through Scotland Food & Drink’sMeet the Buyer programme since it launched in 2009. We havedelivered 18 events with retailers such as Harrods, Sainsbury’sand Marks & Spencer, allowing members to meet new buyers,showcase and promote their products and gain a foothold innew markets.Meet the Buyer events, now supplies Harrods, Peckham’sand The Cheese Cellar, increasing sales by 8%. Afterdiscovering it in Harrods, Gordon Ramsay requested thecheese for use in his demo at the BBC Good Food ShowScotland this year.Jill Clark, partner of Connage Highland Dairy, said:“The Meet the Buyer programme has given us realtangible results. We are extremely proud to say ourproduct is stocked in premium retailers such as Harrodsand it’s thanks to Scotland Food & Drink that we weregiven the opportunity.”campaigns and branding at events. This extensive use ofour logo has been at no cost to Scotland Food & Drink10which has been a real benefit of the Year.11

Scotland Food & Drink | Annual Review 2010Scottish Food & Drink FortnightScotland Food & Drink was custodian of the Fortnight for thesecond consecutive year in 2010. The fortnight is a consumerfocussed initiative which celebrates the Scottish food and drinkthat we work to support all year round and it offers an idealplatform on which to showcase Scottish produce and encourageindustry engagement.2010’s Fortnight took place 4th-19th September, exceeding targetswith 136 events taking place across Scotland. The Fortnight sawsuccessful engagement industry wide with participants rangingfrom multiple retailers such as Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tescoto smaller retailers including independent delicatessens and farmshops; foodservice businesses including Prestige Scotland andtransport provider Calmac.As one of the Year of Food and Drink’s three main events, theFortnight benefited from the collaborative working during theYear with inclusion in both industry and consumer messagingby both VisitScotland and EventScotland.Activity for Scottish Food & Drink Fortnight 2011 has alreadybeen planned. Talks are already underway with the multiples, foodgroups and stakeholders, and workshops are planned to raiseawareness of the Fortnight and the benefit of supporting it.Conversing at a Grass-roots LevelThe Food & Drink Forum Network has been developed incollaboration with Scotland Food & Drink, Scottish Enterpriseand Highlands and Islands Enterprise. These regional forumsMaking an impactat events worldwideScotland demonstrates its true Land ofFood and Drink credentials whenever itexhibits at events across the world.During 2010, 74 exhibitors from Scotlandtook their place in the Scotland, Land ofFood and Drink pavillion at six internationalevents, all run by SDI.Working together with a number of regionalfood groups a Scotland, Land of Food andDrink village was also created at the BBCGood Food Show Scotland, allowing the20,000 visitors to sample some of the verybest that our small country offers.provide businesses with the platform to meet regularly andunderstand and discuss in smaller groups how they candevelop new business opportunities.1213

Scotland Food & Drink | Annual Review 2010SCOTLANDFOOD &DRINKTelling the StoryIn autumn we reappointed 3x1 as ourPR agency to undertake all of ourmedia and public relations.PR is a key tool in helping us to buildthe reputation of Scotland Food &Drink as the industry leadershiporganisation and grow membership.We need our members to know whatwe are doing on their behalf and whatthey, as individual businesses, can getout of their membership. In addition,PR can help us to build the profile ofour various projects and events inorder that they can benefit an evenwider group of companiesand organisations.While we are mindful that our coreremit is business leadership, we arealso well aware that through PR we cancontinue to build the reputation of ourindustry both at home and globallyand make Scotland known as A Landof Food and Drink. Scotland has someof the best natural produce in theworld. We must make use of thesecredentials in order to build Scotland’sreputation internationally, in turnraising consumer awareness anddemand for our country’s produce.Since working for us, 3x1 havecreated a huge number of‘opportunities to see’ on our behalf.These are essentially the number oftimes that it is possible to see orhear a piece of news.14 million opportunities to seefor Scotland Food & DrinkNearly 2 million across influentialtrade press9.5 million in business press,newspapers and consumer magazines2.5 million across broadcast mediaSomething to build on for 2011!Strengtheningthe TeamIn the last 12 months, Scotland Food& Drink has nearly doubled in termsof its staff numbers, allowing usto make an even greater and morepositive impact upon your businessand the £2.5bn industry growthtarget. Visit our website to find outmore about our Executive Team:www.scotlandfoodanddrink.org14

We very much hope that these industry andorganisational successes provide not onlyinformation but also inspiration as to the futureof the Scottish food and drink industry.If you would like to learn more, please visitwww.scotlandfoodanddrink.orgDesigned and produced by Shaw Marketing and Design, Edinburgh