An unmissable event for our industry
Whether you're a fresh-faced start-up or an established industry leader, join us for a day of enlightenment and an evening of celebration, as we raise a toast to the past year's achievements and ignite the flames of innovation for years to come.
Please note, this event is in place of our usual Spring Conference and September Excellence Awards.
Ticket sales are now closed.
Success Strategies for Sustainable Growth – Your Industry Conference
During the day, we’ve ramped up our conference agenda and introduced a new format, so you can get the most out of the sessions on offer. This year, we’ll be focused on discussing success strategies for sustainable growth.
Engage with dynamic sessions covering economic insights, innovation, consumer trends, sustainability, branding, and growth strategies. What makes Scotland Food & Drink unique is our work in uncovering, creating, and enabling market opportunities. Join us as we bring together expert panels and speakers to share with you valuable insight and advice to bring to your business no matter where you are in your growth journey.
Find out more about our confirmed speakers here.
The Excellence Awards
As the sun sets, we come together again to celebrate the best of Scotland’s exceptional food, drink and people behind the products.
For over two decades, the coveted Excellence Awards has brought together the finest Scottish producers with key decision makers and influencers across the industry. Underpinned by people, passion, and perseverance, it is an opportunity to toast to our industry’s fantastic achievements of the past year.
With 14 tasted awards and 7 business categories, there's something for everyone. Hear from previous winners as they discuss what their award means to them here.
Find out more The Excellence Awards, including categories, judging and sponsors here.
Arrival at 18.00pm, carriages at 12.30am.
Conference Agenda
Find out more about our confirmed speakers here.
9.30am: Arrival and Coffees
10.15am: Welcome
10.25am: Headline Speaker - Coinneach MacLeod, The Hebridean Baker
10.55am: The Economic Landscape and Market Outlook - James Walton from IGD
A dynamic update from James Walton, economist at IGD. James will give you an update on the current economic landscape and advice on how to cope and anticipate strategic change brought on by economic changes and pressures.
11.25am: Fuelling Innovation - Neil Freckingham (Opportunity North East), Claire Small (Elior) and Carol Saunders (The Knowledge Bank)
We recently undertook some research with businesses around the blockages and opportunities relating to innovation in their businesses. This session will explore why innovation and NPD is key for meeting customer demands and securing new business. We’ll discuss available support avenues for nurturing creativity and new product development.
11.45am: Turning Insights into Action - Anne-Laure Farrar (The Knowledge Bank), Kathryn Ellaway (Opportunity North East), Julia Bryce and Scott Fraser (thefoodpeople).
The Knowledge Bank commissioned a large-scale research project on Provenance in Spring 2024. In this session, Anne-Laure Farrar will guide you through the cutting-edge research techniques used to reach the quantifiable opportunities across the out-of-home sector. Kathryn Ellaway will then demonstrate one of these opportunity spaces, to show how it can be harnessed by a business to action growth. Joining them on-stage will be Julia Bryce and Scott Fraser, who were actively involved in the research process. They will explain how it has impacted their approach to provenance, back in the day-job.
12.10pm: Lunch and Networking Time with Delegates and our Exhibitors
13.10pm: Why Markets Matter
In our industry strategy ‘Sustaining Scotland, Supplying the World’ we have identified that businesses will prosper by competing successfully in our three key markets of Scotland, the rest of the UK and internationally. Each of these three markets are different and their trends, consumers, customers and competitors constantly evolve. In this session, we will hear from experts and businesses who have first hand experience of markets, the opportunities but also the challenges that exist when unlocking commercial opportunities.
Growing Pains (20 mins) - Alan Mahon (Brewgooder), Gregor Smith (Taylors Snacks), Alan Baxter (Rowan Glen) and facilitated by Stephanie Pritchard (Scotland Food & Drink)
Firstly we’ll hear from 3 businesses who have set off on their journey to develop, launch and grow a successful food business in Scotland. They’ll share with the audience how they’ve had to navigate challenges, what growing pains they experienced along the way and what they’ve learned from them so far.
Sustainability Matters (15 mins) - Helen Wallace (Scotland Food & Drink) and Iain Clunie (Scotland Food & Drink Partnership Net Zero Commitment)
We know that sustainability is important to consumers and we also know from Kantar research (Who Cares Who Does) that consumers are looking to manufacturers and retailers to take action to help them achieve their sustainability goals. Over the last few months, Helen Wallace and Iain Clunie have spoken to all the multiple retailers to hear what they are saying about Sustainability and Net Zero. With such commercial significance, we’re going to be hearing a lot more about this and we’ll take the opportunity to share our plans to support F&D businesses in Scotland with their sustainability and net zero requirements.
Developing a Strategy for Export Success (25 mins) - Marcus Pickering (Summer Hall Distillery), Chris Keenan (Scottish Enterprise), Tess Hansson (Highland Spring) and David Wilkinson (GlobalScot)
Our industry exports are worth £8bn, and we believe this value can grow by over £2bn in the next 4-5 years. So how can you join that journey? Hear about our industry’s export strategy, useful resources you can access, and a comprehensive analysis of the export market.
14.10pm: Coffee and networking break
14.30pm: Our Headline Sponsor, Asda
14.40pm: Investment for Growth - Keith Paterson (Shore), Paul Miller (Panther Milk), Michiel Smith (Apollo Informal Investment) and Rosemary Gallagher (The Scotsman) and Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne (Scotland Food & Drink)
On the back of unprecedented market challenges which have meant increased operating costs and a squeeze on margins and which places significant pressure on businesses ability to operate sustainably as well as preventing investment in workforces, infrastructure market development and innovation. This also effects the speed at which businesses can scale up and achieve that next level of growth. This session will explore what we mean by Investment for Growth, prod into what investors are looking for when they invest in food and drink and from an investee experience, what securing external investment has meant for them.
15.15pm: Closing remarks
Please note, these timings are subject to change.
Keep an eye out for our ongoing speaker announcements.
Our Headline Sponsor
We're delighted to announce that Asda is our headline sponsor for The Excellence Summit. Asda have sponsored our Excellence Awards for over 10 years, and we look forward to working together again to deliver this powerhouse event, that will bring together our annual industry conference and Excellence Awards.
Want to find out more about sponsoring The Excellence Summit? Get in touch.