SERVING UP A WEEKLY FEAST

The food and drink trade is still thriving. Hayley Reynolds tells us why

WE live in difficult times. No one catching even a short glimpse of a newspaper’s front page or a second of TV news could fail to register that. And yet, no matter how dramatic the headline or worrying the news story, the twin subjects of food and drink are as important today as they’ve ever been.

We need our human fuel, no matter what is going on in the world around us. Indeed, when times get tough, we need to talk matters such as food-chain security more than ever. Even on the darkest days, we do not lose our tastes or appetites, so the subject of food and drink is never far from the surface.

Which is probably why something rather surprising has been happening to our Devonbased company, RAW Food & Drink PR, over the past few months…

When the coronavirus lockdown was first announced earlier this year we, like a lot of businesses, felt we were falling off a cliff. Quite understandably, some of our commercial clients were phoning or emailing to talk about a temporary freezing of mutual contracts, and so on.

The same must have happened to companies around the world, let alone across this region, but the surprising thing was that it wasn’t long before we started to find ourselves in demand once again. By the end of the strict lockdown, we were, arguably, busier than we’d ever been.

Basically, we discovered there was still an incredible amount of drive and innovation going on out there in the food and drink world. Yes, times were very hard – yes, for some the future looked bleak. But many individuals and companies were adapting to the new norm – others were changing the way they worked – and others were developing new products and ideas.

In short, they all had stories to tell. Good stories. Interesting stories. And, given that telling stories is basically what a public relations company actually does, we soon found ourselves in the thick of it.

Our editorial director Martin Hesp – whose name many of you will know well – says he has never worked on so many food and drink related stories in all his years in journalism – and it’s all good, upbeat, interesting stuff.

Which is why we’ve decided to team up with the Western Morning News to bring you a weekly page of food and drink stories that will be of interest to readers right across the South West. Occasionally there will be tales from our own clients – but, as you will see today, this page is aimed at being much, much more than a commercial mouthpiece.

We will welcome stories from other PR companies and their clients and Martin will write about subjects which he knows will interest the WMN readership. So we hope you’ll enjoy our weekly page – and even tell us about your food stories. All that’s left for me to say is – bon appetit!