New Foodservice Academy to grow sales for Irish food and drink businesses
Musgrave Marketplace and Bord Bia team up to launch foodservice programme
Print30 March 2016
Ten Irish food and drink companies will join the first FoodService Academy, a new programme run by Bord Bia and Musgrave MarketPlace. The FoodService Academy seeks to help small Irish food and drink companies develop their business in the foodservice market.
The programme aims to help the companies achieve growth within Musgrave MarketPlace’s foodservice business, which works with over 6,000 customers each week ranging from hotels and restaurants to pubs and nursing homes.
Blanco Nino, Europe’s first producer of authentic corn tortillas and Nobó, the dairy free ice-cream company, have already been set up as suppliers in advance of the programme, which started on Thursday, 24 March 2016. Other companies that will benefit from the programme include Tipperary Kitchen, a family run artisan bakery and Secret Recipe, the only producer of halal and gluten free meals to the foodservice industry in Ireland and the UK as well as other bakery, seafood, pork and beverage producers.
Maureen Gahan, Bord Bia’s foodservice highlighted the foodservice market’s importance, stating: “The foodservice market is delivering real growth and value for Irish food and drink companies, as is evidenced in our recent industry report. The ‘out of home’ market is now worth €6.37bn and this is forecasted to grow to almost €6.9bn by 2018 so this is an area we are encouraging companies to develop.”
Sheena Forde, trading director, Musgrave MarketPlace added that the new foodservice programme followed on from the success of Musgrave’s SuperValu Food Academy programme, run in conjunction with Bord Bia and the Local Enterprise Offices. In fact, a number of participating companies are Food Academy graduates.
“As an Irish family business, we are delighted to work with small Irish manufacturers, many of which are family owned, to give them a head start in the market,” Forde said. “The FoodService Academy programme offers a combination of commercial and marketing expertise and will provide invaluable consumer insight for the companies involved.”
Programme overview
The programme, coordinated by Bord Bia, will take place over four months and comprise of workshops and mentoring, with the first workshop held on Thursday, 24 March. Representatives from Musgrave MarketPlace will participate in the workshops, sharing practical insights and experience to help the companies understand areas such as supplier set-up, food safety requirements and distribution model as well as sales and the marketing support.
The ten companies that have been chosen to participate include:
- Atlantis Seafood, a family seafood business based in Wexford
- Blanco Nino, Europe’s only producer of authentic corn tortillas and un-fried tortilla chips made in Tipperary
- Coffee House Lane, a Waterford family run coffee roaster
- Lily’s Tea House, blenders of a range of premium, loose leaf teas as well as matcha tea and premium tea pyramids who also based in Waterford
- Nobó, the dairy free ice-cream producer, which is made without any refined sugar, gums or stabilisers
- Maria Lucia Bakes, a Dublin producer of gourmet gluten, wheat and dairy free granola cereals
- Kildare’s Outdoor Oinks, a range of Bord Bia approved pork and bacon products
- Secret Recipein Cork is the only producer of halal and gluten free meal solutions to the foodservice industry in Ireland and the UK
- Tipperary Kitchen, a family run artisan bakery producing a range of handcrafted meringues, dessert sauces and chocolate biscuit cake
- Wildberry Bakery, an artisan gluten free bakery in Cork
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