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The spread of artisan products, pop-up eateries and craft breweries shows that there are more routes into the culinary business than ever. This course is designed for food producers, budding brewers and small-scale food traders who are ready to expand an enterprise. It features inspiring talks from entrepreneurs who've launched their own food or drinks business – and succeeded.
Our panel includes Jimmy's Iced Coffee founder Jim Cregan; Planet Organic founder Renée Elliott; the Pizza Pilgrims, Thom and James Elliot; co-founder and marketing director of Rude Health, Camilla Barnard; Alastair Hook and Nick Miller from Meantime Brewing Company in Greenwich, and Mark Campbell of Higgidy Pies.
This lively event explains, in plain English, what the budding foodie tycoon really needs to know. From the economies (and difficulties) of scaling up a small-scale operation to the best ways to approach major retailers, our speakers offer hard-earned wisdom based on personal experience. Come along and find out how a bit of elbow grease can make the impossible easy to achieve.
This course is for you if...
- You have developed a food or drinks product that you're keen to bring to market
- You're a small-scale food trader looking to develop your brand
- You operate a successful food van, pop-up or microbrewery and want to know how to expand or diversify
- You've launched (or are close to launching) a food business or product, either locally or online, and want to know how to get it onto the shelves of major stores and national chains
- You're a capable homebrewer and want to take your brew to market
Course description
This large-scale seminar features a panel of expert speakers, each discussing the lessons learned during their own careers. Each of our speakers started out with passion, ideas and a minimal budget, and have established some of the nation's most successful food brands, winning awards and loyal fans along the way. Topics covered on the day include:
- The organic approach to brand development
- Marketing your new business (and the importance of social media)
- Business planning and management
- Food hygiene certification and legal issues
- Important moments along the journey – things the entrepreneurs wished they already knew, and what they'd do differently
- What can set you apart from the rest
- From the kitchen table to the supermarket shelves
- How to win over stockists
- Strategies for positioning your product
- How to improve chances of listing success
- Staying positive after knock-backs
- Prioritising what to do when you can't do everything
- Packaging Design
Speaker profiles
Alastair Hook is Brewmaster and founder of Meantime Brewing Company in Greenwich, London. Since it launched in 1999, Meantime has been driven by a desire to change the way consumers think about beer and help people discover the rich cultural and culinary heritage behind it.
Nick Miller is CEO at Meantime Brewing Company. Before that he was the managing director at SAB Miller UK's operating company, Miller Brands. Meantime is the largest brewery to open in London since the 1930s. As well as brewing some of the UK's favourite beers, it operates a visitor's centre and holds regular tours and tastings at their brewery in Greenwich.
Renée Elliott opened Planet Organic in 1995, the first natural and organic supermarket in the UK, which now has six stores across London. After fifteen years as a Trustee of the Soil Association, she joined the Catering Mark Standards Board, which sets the food guidelines for schools, universities, hospitals and care homes across the country. Renée has written books on weaning babies and feeding children, and teaches baking and cooking from her home in Sussex.
Thom and James Elliot decided to follow their passion for food at the end of 2011 – quitting their desk jobs to embark on a six-week 'pizza pilgrimage' around Italy (which became a six-part TV series on the Food Network). On their return, they installed a traditional stone oven in their van and set up a stall in Soho, which has since been selected as one of the top three pizzas in London by Evening Standard magazine. Last year, Thom and James also released their first cookbook. The first Pizza Pilgrims restaurant opened on Dean Street, Soho in July 2013.
Jim Cregan went to Oz after getting sick and tired of UK winters. During his time there, he found the phenomenon of ready-to-drink iced coffee. After coming home to the UK, he realised that nobody made anything close to what he had on his travels and decided to make his own. Jim teamed up with his sister, Sooz, to found Jimmy's Iced Coffee in November 2010, and they sold their first products on the shelves of Selfridges in April 2011. Since the launch, they've gained listings with WHSmith Travel, Waitrose, Budgens, some lovely independents, Welcome Break and Ocado.
Mark Campbell didn't start his career as a 'pie-merchant'; in fact, after studying architecture, he spent five years managing the operations of humanitarian relief charities in Kenya, Uganda, DR Congo and Afghanistan. In 2007 he returned to the UK to join his former architecture colleague James and his wife Camilla in establishing Higgidy. As director and co-owner of the company, Mark heads up the commercial and marketing aspects of the business, managing the growth of the brand and its commercial direction. Higgidy has been in the Fast Track 100 as one of the fastest growing businesses in the UK twice and employs 220 people, making up to 250,000 handmade pies and quiches per week!
Camilla Barnard, co-founder of Rude Health, met her future husband and business partner Nick Barnard in 2002. So strong was their mutual belief in the need to revolutionise the nation's eating habits that Camilla and Nick, along with 2 neighbours, spent many a long evening creating their Ultimate, healthy breakfast cereal. Rude Health was founded in the same year that Camilla and Nick moved house, got married and started a family. Thankfully, they didn't crack up and their business blossomed, enabling Camilla and Nick to decamp from their cramped kitchen to their current office in Putney Bridge. The Rude Health team now counts 8 with Camilla leading the Marketing.
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Details
Date: Sunday 25 January 2015
Times: 10am-4pm
Location: Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, City of Westminster, W1G 0AE
Price: £129 (includes VAT, booking fee, lunch and refreshments)
Event capacity: 300
To contact us, click here. Terms and conditions can be found here.
Returns policy
Tickets may be refunded if you contact us at least 14 days before the course start date. Please see our terms and conditions for more information on our refund policy.
