Don’t miss out on these great resources to help your healthy food innovation and marketing!
BIC Innovation Ltd
Helping you achieve your growth ambitions through expert advice & innovative strategies.
As the AHFES Project – Atlantic Area Healthy Food Eco-Systems – Project draws to a close in August of 2022, we wanted to make sure that you know about the many resources that have been created for Welsh Food and Drink businesses over the past 3 years of the project.
Back in 2019 the project team surveyed the needs and wishes of SMEs across the 6 participating regions – Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Spain, France, and Portugal. Your feedback set our direction and we have worked to ensure that all the resources we have produced met your needs and addressed the challenges that you told us that you faced.
When we started out in the summer of 2019, little did we all know the turbulent years that lay ahead of us, but despite the Pandemic curtailing in-person events, the outputs of the Project continued to be highly relevant to businesses in the food and drink sector. Through those times when we have been isolated and locked-down as never before, the Project continued to provide a window on the world – bringing you up to date information about the trends and activities in the healthy food and drink sector across Europe and beyond.
Consumers are more interested and proactive than ever in trying to manage, preserve and improve their physical good health and mental well-being.
The contribution that healthy food can make to a healthy lifestyle is increasingly recognised not only for its immediate nutritional content but also for its long-term benefits.
Now all of the resources are complete and accessible for free on our AHFES website and AHFES YouTube Channel.
Webinars and Market Reports
Many of you have joined us for the programme of 17 informative webinars and our 18 market reports sharing pan-European insights into healthy food market trends in sectors as diverse as Bakery, Dairy, Meat Fish and Ready Meals to Babies and Toddlers and Soft Drinks.
The webinars have covered topics as diverse as insight into Consumer Psychology towards Healthy Eating, an in depth look at the No-Lo Drinks category, advice on how to legally and effectively make claims relating to the nutritional, health or environmental credentials of your products and our hugely popular Spotlight on Protein webinar- which over 20,000 viewers have found of interest.
Healthy Food and Drink Eco-System Directory
Another excellent resource is the Healthy Food and Drink Eco-System Directory where you can access details of 1125 businesses, public bodies, charities and lobby groups and other players in the healthy food and lifestyle sector. This covers the UK with a focus on Wales and Northern Ireland, Ireland, France, Spain, and Portugal giving you a comprehensive overview of who is involved in a diverse range of healthy food and drink activities.
Insightful and in-depth training modules
Training and access to expert know-how were both highlighted as a key request on our original survey, and the AHFES team have risen to the challenge to produce 37 insightful and in-depth training modules for you to use to upskill your teams and spread best practice.
All written by experienced practitioners, these aim to be a down to earth, helpful, easy to use resource for SMEs.
We know that folk working in food and drink businesses are busy people, so to make the training easy to use and not too overwhelming the modules are split into 5 themed Programmes, allowing you to follow a theme or dip in and out of the training as is most convenient for you.
We plan that the content will remain available into 2023 but recommend that you take a look as soon as possible and download any modules or other resources such as templates and checklists to make sure that you have what you need.
The Future
A growing understanding of the gut-brain connection has seen increasing demand for foods to positively influence mental health, boost mood and promote good quality, rejuvenating sleep.
Obesity in children and young people spiked during the pandemic as inactivity and comfort eating led to weight gain.
This situation has subsequently improved slightly but access to good quality, delicious, nutrient dense healthy foods remains a key social concern. In a landscape of steep inflation in food prices and the negative ripple effects of the war in Ukraine, inequalities in access to affordable healthy foods and food poverty are both rising.
We know that many Welsh Food and Drink businesses are also facing difficult challenges with rising input prices of raw materials, transport, and labour – along with difficulties in securing labour and recruiting suitably qualified staff - but that many of you remain committed to bringing healthy, sustainable food and drink products to market.
We hope that the resources of the AHFES Project will serve to boost the cost effectiveness and returns on investment in your innovation, NPD, and marketing during these challenging times, with the training available supporting your plans to build skilled, confident, and productive teams as you grow your business.
Armed with the AHFES Project’s insightful information and practical suggestions for effective ways of working, these resources can help you focus your strategy, make informed decisions, build competences, cut out wasteful costs and drive successful and profitable sales by building your brand reputation with customers and ultimately delivering profitable sales growth.
The team involved with AHFES Project would like to say a big “thank you” all the Food and Drink businesses across Wales who have participated in the various project activities and wish you success for the future.
The Atlantic Area Healthy Food Eco-Systems (AHFES) project supports SMEs to successfully bring new innovative healthy food and drink products to market. Funded by the European Union, under the Atlantic Area Interreg programme, with support from the Welsh Government, the AHFES project will offer free training and business support for Welsh SME’s in the Healthy Food & Drink Sector.
To benefit from the free resources available from AHFES, visit: