A new plan to help food and drink companies across Wales get their products on the shelves of major retailers is being launched by the Welsh Government.
The Food and Drink Wales Retail Plan has been developed alongside an industry expert group and aims to see the turnover value for the food and drink industry in Wales grow proportionally more than the UK as a whole.
It has eight key objectives including creating a stream of new entrepreneurial food and drink businesses and accelerate the growth of companies with a turnover of more than £10m in the retail sector.
Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd, Lesley Griffiths launched the Retail Plan during a visit to Samosaco in Pontyclun.
Samosaco are currently listed in Morrisons stores in Wales and Costco across the whole of the UK. The company recently relaunched both their brand and packaging as well as a range of retail focussed products.
The plan will support Welsh companies to aspire to a UK level of distribution and help build closer working relationships across supply-chains and retailers.
It will also be key in nurturing the next generation of companies to access new market routes and help them respond to new demands from consumers.
Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd, Lesley Griffiths said: “We have fantastic food and drink producers here in Wales and I am committed to helping them see their products enjoyed by more people, not only here in Wales, but across the UK.
“The new retail plan will be key to this by helping develop greater strength and resilience within the industry and put in place the building blocks to support companies in their next phase of growth and development.
“I would like to thank the Retail Expert Group for their work in helping create this plan. The group has been specifically established to assess Wales’ position within the UK retail sector and respond to the demands of evolving food markets.
“We have a real opportunity, through this new plan, to help Welsh food and drink businesses reach new and potentially game changing markets.”
Co-founder of Samosaco, Tee Sandhu said: “We are delighted to welcome the Minister here today to launch such an important initiative for Welsh Food and Drink.
“We have recently refreshed our brand and have developed a number of new Vegan and Vegetarian ready meal and snack lines and have had excellent support from the Government’s Trade Development Programme and the Fine Food Cluster.
“Our products including our famous ‘Onion Bhaji Scotch Egg’ are already widely distributed across Wales and will soon be available across most of GB through a significant online retailer. We look forward to building closer ties with the major retailers and expanding our position in the market.”
Chair of Food and Drink Wales Industry Board (FDWIB), Andy Richardson said: “Welsh Food & Drink has a tremendous opportunity to develop sales across retailers both in Wales and the UK. I genuinely believe consumers value the quality, sustainability and provenance of Welsh Food & Drink which, when combined with some excellent point of sale branding, should lead to good growth in this sector in the coming years”.
* The Food & Drink Wales Retail Plan can be found at: Retail Plan Summary_0.pdf (gov.wales)
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