Case Study - Angus Soft Fruits - Scotland Food and Drink

Case Study - Angus Soft Fruits

‘Badge of Excellence’Winning the Supreme Award – as well as the ‘Retail – Fruitor Vegetable’ category – in 2008 has given Angus SoftFruits additional clout in the PR stakes. The firm also wonthe same retail category in the 2009 competition. Jill,who describes these awards as a ‘badge of excellence’,believes that the long-running awards scheme not onlyrecognises innovation within the food and drink industrybut actively encourages it.“Being able to say you are a winner on your packagingand point-of-sale material tells the consumer that youhave a high-quality product,” Jill points out. “We sell a lotof our product in the North of England so it reinforcesour exacting standards and gives the people buying ourproduct extra confidence. Marketing and branding is a chieffocus for us so anything that can help get your messageacross to the end user should be exploited.”Marketing, suggests Jill, is one of the areasin which Scotland Food & Drink has the abilityto ‘really excel’. She continues “Scotland hasalways been very good at marketing whiskybut the rest of the industry has not been quiteas strong. Scotland Food & Drink can fill thatvoid by being our voice on a National andInternational platform.“Meanwhile, companies that are successful in the ScotlandFood & Drink Excellence Awards – and any other awardsfor that matter – should exploit the fantastic PR opportunitythat goes with that success. Scotland Food & Drink has anexcellent PR machine but the winners should shout aboutit from the rooftops too – put out your own press releaseand contact the trade press. We did and we now have anongoing dialogue with key publications like The Grocer.”However, there are other means of communication andAngus Soft Fruits has embraced the world of socialnetworking. While Jill accepts that not everyone is tunedinto this type of communication, it is a valuable form ofnetworking. “We use the Scotland Food & Drink website asan information hub and it was particularly useful when wefirst joined the organisation because we didn’t know whereit was based, how it was funded or how it was structured,”she explains.carbon-neutral company and continueto enhance our environmental credentials.”Looking ahead to 2010 Angus Soft Fruits predicts an‘exciting year’ with the Good Natured brand recentlybolstered by the introduction of salads and Splendid Spudspotatoes. “There’s going to be a lot happening for us overthe next 12 months as we grow our award-winning GoodNatured brand further,” confirms Jill, “and we hope to forgean even stronger working relationship with Scotland Food& Drink.“I think one of the key highlights of ourpartnership with the organisation so far hasbeen their willingness to listen to us,” she says.“Paul McLaughlin and the team – and I stress that it is a verysmall team – don’t just pay us lip service; they listen, digestand take our views on board. You have to look beyond themembership fee and get involved.”It’s in our natureAngus Soft Fruits, owner of the award-winning GoodNatured brand, is one of the leading suppliers ofstrawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberriesto UK multiple retailers. Established in 1994 by softfruit growers Lochy Porter, his father Willie and cousinJames Gray, the company aims to represent growerssupplying fresh, quality produce – at an affordable price –throughout the year.Fast gaining a reputation for R&D as well as the qualityof its produce, Angus Soft Fruits has invested heavily inthe facilities – and people – to enable it to focus on thebreeding of new varieties such as its AVA strawberriesand the development of new production techniques.As a grower-owned and managed business, it can alsoreact quickly to changing market requirements at aproduction level.Alliances with partners in Holland and Spain allow AVAstrawberries to be available for an extended season, fromApril through to November. At home, the majority of fruit issourced from the producer organisation, Angus Growers,which is currently expanding into England as a direct resultof increased demand for the company’s product.For more information on Angus Soft Fruits please visit:www.angussoftfruits.co.uk.“It’s great for keeping up-to-date with industry news andevents and we also find the ezine really useful. However, wesee ourselves as a very ‘green’ brand and all our packagingis fully recyclable and comes from sustainable sources.That’s why we’re keen on electronic communication suchas email, Facebook and Twitter; our aim is to become a