Food Matters Business Accelerator Programme Launched

Local food and drink businesses seeking to develop their retail grocery accounts and/or export business strategy are invited to attend a series of interactive group coaching workshops with Fiona Fitzpatrick of Fiona Fitz Consulting Ltd.

The workshops are delivered as part of the Government’s food business development strategy, ‘Food Matters’.

Geoffrey Boot MHK, Minister for Environment, Food and Agriculture, said:

‘A competitive food and drink industry is critically important in ensuring the continuing diversification of the Island’s economy. The Food Matters Business Accelerator Programme aims to support established food and drink businesses using Manx produce wanting to drive growth by up-skilling and optimising the way they work.’

Fiona Fitzpatrick, added: ‘Businesses at this exciting stage of growth are faced with two strategic decisions. First and foremost: “Where am I going to play?” This means working out exactly which consumer to target, as well as which customer, which channel and which geography. Secondly, businesses should be asking “How am I going to win?” This means defining a precise brand proposition and deciding how it should be experienced by customers and consumers, across product, packaging, price and all communication channels.

‘This series of workshops will enable businesses to work through these questions, and as a result have a clear strategy which will help them focus their time, effort and resources. Within the programme, we’ll explore how we can go about really understanding and defining our target consumer, shopper and trade customer, and why this clarity is key to winning. We’ll decode the route to market, look at how we understand the size of different business opportunities, and how we might decide where to focus our efforts.’

Fiona has more than 20 years’ experience in the food industry, both launching and running branded food businesses abroad, as well as being a consultant, coach and mentor to many small and large scale food companies around the world.

The series of five workshops will take place at DEFA HQ (Thie Slieau Whallian) from 6pm to 9pm every Monday evening from 10^th June to 8^th July. Each session will cost £20 per person to participate.

To view the programme and apply visit https://www.iomfoodanddrink.com/business-accelerator-programme/.