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

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