Musgrave MarketPlace and Bord Bia have teamed up for the fourth year of the FoodService Academy.
FoodService Academy aims to help participants grow sales within the foodservice or out of home food market, according to a statement from the company.
Achieve Growth
The initiative also offers the opportunity to achieve growth within Musgrave MarketPlace's foodservice business, which supplies to over 6,000 customers each week ranging from hotels and restaurants to pubs and nursing homes, it revealed.
The FoodService Academy takes place over four months and comprises of both workshops and mentoring for all participants.
Musgrave MarketPlace revealed that its representatives participate in the workshops, sharing invaluable practical insights and experience to help the companies better understand areas such as supplier set-up, food safety requirements and the distribution model as well as sales and marketing support.
Major Opportunities
"Foodservice in Ireland offers major opportunities for suppliers providing innovative products and solutions to meet changing consumer needs." said Maureen Gahan, Bord Bia's foodservice specialist.
"Now worth €8.2 billion and forecast to grow to €9.3 billion by 2021, this route to market is delivering real growth and value for Irish food and drink companies.” she said.
"A number of the participating companies are Food Academy graduates, so we are proud to be in a position to help grow their businesses by introducing their products to our foodservice customer base." added Sheena Forde, trading director of Musgrave Market Place.
"The FoodService Academy programme offers a combination of commercial and marketing expertise and will provide invaluable customer insight for the companies involved." she said.
Transform A Small Business
Newgrange Fine Foods is an example of one of FoodService Academy's success stories and how the programme can transform a small business.
A family run and owned business, Newgrange Fine Foods was set up by Michael McAllister and Ronan Carr in 2000.
Since taking part in FoodService Academy in 2017, the company now deliver a range of fresh soups, porridge and potato products to Musgrave Wholesale Partners.
"The FoodService Academy was an excellent platform that gave our company a unique insight into the way the large foodservice providers operate." said Ronan Carr, director at Newgrange Fine Foods.
"It was also a great opportunity to network with other producers that were at different stages of their foodservice journey,” he said.
Participants for the 2019 programme were confirmed following an independent Product Assessment Session that took place earlier this year at Musgrave Marketplace's Ballymun Food Emporium.
According to the statement, companies had the opportunity to submit their product samples to Musgrave MarketPlace Trading managers, category managers and Leinster-based sales representatives.
© 2019 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Helen Galgey. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
