The HIE network places particular emphasis on the development of the food and drink sector as, from past research, it is estimated to generate sales in excess of £600 million per annum and supports over 7,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs across the region.

There are around 325 processing businesses in the Highlands and Islands spread across all local enterprise company (LEC) areas. The range of products is diverse, including fish and shellfish, meat, jams and preserves, dairy, biscuits and confectionery.

Equally diverse is the profile of the sector, ranging from world-renowned businesses such as Baxters of Speyside and Walkers Shortbread to small innovation producers successfully supplying niche markets and with growth potential.

The main purpose of the UK food and drink market development programme is to bring together a range of activities  to improve the competitiveness for businesses in the Highlands and Islands, particularly small medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in the domestic UK market.

The specific objectives / anticipated benefits of the programme for participant companies (and individuals) include:

• access to new markets and the opportunity to make contact with key customers and develop long-term business relationships;
• opportunity to research the market, building knowledge of buyer requirements and leading to new business opportunities;
• identifying key trends in the market, including competitor activity, new market opportunities and technological advances in the sector; and
• opportunities to collaborate on market development activities.

This often leads to deeper levels of collaboration on, for example, product development.

This study's aims and objectives

The main objective of this study was to determine whether the UK market development programme was successful in in achieving its objectives and its associated outputs.

It was also important to determine whether the businesses that took part in the programmes activities attained any of the expected benefits and to what degree.

The full study report is available to download here (right) in Adobe pdf format.