Western Daily Press (Saturday)
South West innovation centre gives food and drink start-ups a helping hand
Martin Hesp hears how Food WorksSW is helping the region’s food and drink industry
From dairy delights created out of Devon’s rich pastures to a range of vegan cheeses first made in an inner-city one-bedroom flat; from awardwinning cakes to delicious alcohol-free aperitifs; from chefs designing menus for well-known pub chains to experts who know exactly how to take new food and drink products to market... At a West Country event staged recently there was something for everyone and anyone involved with the all-important industry that sees the things we eat and drink brought to the shop shelves and our kitchens and tables.
As such, the Discovery Day, held at North Somerset’s ground-breaking Food WorksSW marked a very important occasion for this region.
Last week’s open day at the facility located in the heart of the Weston-super-Mare Enterprise Area and set up to support creativity and innovation within the food industry was something of an eye-opener for all who attended.
These pages have featured Food WorksSW before. It’s the South West region’s dynamic food and drink innovation centre with state-of-the-art development kitchens where both new and well-established businesses can create and refine their products. Not only are these specialist units (dairy, bakery, drinks and the like) for hire, the centre also provides hands-on technical support and specialist business advice from a team of highly qualified and experienced experts. There are also a dozen specially designed food-grade business units, all of which are presently being rented by firms which have successfully launched products on the market.
Last week all of this was on show as business folk, start-up hopefuls, journalists and other food industry specialists gathered to see the centre for themselves and also to hear from successful business owners and operators who have either used its remarkable facilities themselves, or who are keen to support the work carried out just a few minutes off junction 21 of the M5.
“I’ve learned more in a single day about what it takes to start up a business making specialist drinks than I have in months of researching on my own,” commented one attendee who was planning to set up his own company.
Another said: “When you think about the state of the UK’s food production and hospitality industries and you come to an event like this, you realise how vital a place like this can be.”
Yet another commented: “What I’ve learned today from people who really have been there and done it, is that there’s a lot more to think about than meets the eye. If I go ahead, I’ll be returning to use the facilities and expertise.”
All of which raises the same question we asked when we were first invited to tour Food WorksSW. Why wasn’t an innovation centre like this set up long ago? As one of the visitors commented, it’s not just about supporting creativity and innovation, it’s about reinforcing this nation’s all-important food security.
Food WorksSW, which is the only one of its kind in the West Country, began operations in April 2020 after research by North Somerset Council. It is operated on a not-for-commercial profit basis by an organisation called the Food and Drink Forum, on behalf of the council.
Nowadays the centre is busier than ever, which is why I asked Zoe Plant, new product development and innovation manager, and Rachel Goff, senior technical manager, why the team had decided to stage the discovery day.
“We’re just letting everyone know why we are here and what we’re doing” replied Zoe. “Many of the speakers have used our kitchens. They know what we’re like and how our services work. The external speakers are, I guess, local celebrities – they have successful brands.
“So we’re explaining the story so people can see how they can use our kitchens and use the facilities as well as get support in developing products. The potential then is to be able to go on and become bigger businesses. Which is why we have speakers who can inspire and show that it can be done.”
Rachel told us about the attendees. “Many are people from food businesses, some just starting a business through to established food and drink brands.”
First speaker of the day was Greg Parsons – co-owner of Sharpham Dairy and Chair of Food Drink Devon. “I’ve watched the Food WorksSW develop from being just an idea to a physical place and, as I’m passionately involved in supporting the food-drink sector, I wanted to share some of my experience working in the industry for more than 35 years and to make people realise what great facilities they have here.
“The tide is turning when it comes to food and drink, and people are realising what an important sector it is – the necessity of food and the necessity of producing more quantity and variety of food in the country.
“Food WorksSW provides a pathway for people to enter the
industry. If you were building any of these facilities on your own it would be a non-starter for so many businesses. The margins in food (production) can be very thin. So, yes, Food WorksSW is perfect for those businesses that are looking to start up or extend. This centre provides a facility for people to expand their dream and actually test if their idea is feasible and viable.”
From the maker of dairy cheese to a young woman who makes and sells vegan cheese out of two of the Food WorksSW units, Ellie Brown is the founder of Kinda Co.
“I began this project over six years ago in a tiny one-bed flat in London with one blender and a load of cashew nuts,” Ellie told us. “When I went vegan, the one thing I really struggled with was cheese – I tried all the specialist ones and none tasted anything like cheese. So I started making my own and it grew from there.”
Ellie was selling at local markets but was struggling with space and the equipment she had at home. “We came to view the Food Works and decided to move to the countryside. I just came for a tour, really, and they showed me around one of the units – and that was it. I needed somewhere that was a kind of blank canvas, but which had all the requirements for a food business. You need a special floor with drainage, you need specific walls, you need to have space to wash your hands and food, everything like that. The unit had it all.
“We also used the expertise here at Food WorksSW – Rachel has been a big help with how we could use different tools and technology and monitoring systems – and do things like extend our shelf-life and work on our packaging. She really walked us through it all. That was almost three years ago in 2021 – now we’ve got two units and a team of six.”
I put it to Ellie that she was now making nut-based cheeses just a few miles away from Cheddar – perhaps the best known name in the world of cheese.
“It’s a lovely story that we’ve moved to the home of cheese,” she smiled. “I’ve found the dairy cheese community very welcoming and have had a lot of help from dairy producers with testing new packaging and so on.”
We then moved on to the topic of baked goods with speaker Chris Giddings, who is the commercial director at the successful Bristol-based Cakesmiths company. The business did not use the Food WorksSW facilities back in its early days, but Chris says it would have been helpful.
“When we were much smaller, we’d have loved a facility like this – we needed somewhere to come and develop our stuff,” said Chris who has witnessed a massive increase in the Cakesmiths turnover. He was able to explain to delegates how a food-based business can deal with such an expansion.
“In the last two years, we’ve grown 165% – and that is down to a few things,” he explained. “We continue to bring a brilliant product to the market and although people are foregoing the big dinners out, they are still treating themselves to a coffee and cake with a friend.”
Jasper Prickett, Butcombe Brewery’s development chef hires the facilities at Food WorksSW to avoid getting in the way of the chefs in their busy working pub kitchens. “Unlike other pub brands, we don’t have a dedicated development kitchen, so Food WorksSW solves our problem.
“The kitchens enable us to create our seasonal menus – we’ve prepared enough mix for a thousand Christmas puddings there – photograph the dishes and train the chefs all in one place.”
Last but not least, we heard from two drinks producers. Rhian Davis, marketing manager of Royal Warrant holder Luscombe Drinks, shared her thoughts on the centre: “Luscombe has its own development facility but knowing how much it costs to set one up I would urge any small drinks brand who is finding its feet or looking to grow to explore the fantastic facilities at Food Works.”
Alli Briaris did just that and continues to hire the kitchen at Food WorksSW to develop her specialist business making non-alcoholic aperitif brand, Drinks Kitchen. “It all began in 2020 when I gave up alcohol. I live nearby and got to hear about Food WorksSW. They didn’t have a drinks kitchen back then and I said to them, ‘Why don’t you put some drinks equipment in?’
“I knew from my background in the drinks industry that it was difficult for a start-up to have the right facilities. I only wanted to start small without investing loads of money. It was a learning curve as I’d not actually made drinks commercially before.
“Then you’ve got to learn how to use all this equipment but you’ve also got these incredible brains – people who can show you how to use the equipment and a lot else besides. That was massive! When I wanted to scale up I started to have problems with the recipe and Rachel was brilliant with problem-solving. She was able to help me so many times.
“At one point working here, I was making my favourite flavour and when I make it, it smells fabulous. Some of the buyers from a regional department store were here visiting and they smelled the drink and were intrigued. Now we’re in their stores – and that was the beginning.”
The Food WorksSW Discovery Day proved that this region’s food and drink industry is not only alive and thriving, but with the right kind of help is as creative and innovative as any in the UK.
If you can take coals to Newcastle and vegan cheese to Cheddar, it could mean that – with proper support – you can achieve almost anything in the world of food and drink.