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

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