Cork City food and drink producers invited to join Food Academy

Food Academy 2021 Open For Cork City Applications

                                                    Food Academy Start logo

Local Enterprise Office Cork City is inviting food and drink producers from the county to join the hugely successful Food Academy programme. Now in its eighth-year, Food Academy is a unique food business development programme between the 31 Local Enterprise Offices, including Local Enterprise Office Cork City, SuperValu and Bord Bia. Participants in the programme receive training in food safety, market research and branding, marketing, finance, sustainability and business development.

The Food Academy programme currently supports 290 Irish food and drink producers including 140 female entrepreneurs, generating €170m in sales. In 2020, there was a 15% growth in SuperValu Food Academy sales with participants earning €28m. The Food Academy programme supports 1,500 jobs in local communities nationwide and local producers are now being encouraged to apply for the 2021 programme before Friday, April 27th.

The Food Academy Programme is now open for applications until Friday 23rd April 2021 the subsidised cost to participate is €200 per company. To apply, interested food and drink producers from Cork City are encouraged to contact Local Enterprise Office Cork City for an application form by e-mailing info@leo.corkcity.ie or by visiting https://www.localenterprise.ie/CorkCity/Training-Events/Food-Academy-2021

Further information about the Food Academy is also available at https://supervalu.ie/real-people/food-academy-programme.

For further information, please contact: info@leo.corkcity.ie

About the Local Enterprise Offices

The Local Enterprise Offices, located in local authorities and funded through Enterprise Ireland, support over 7,000 small Irish businesses and entrepreneurs nationwide.  Since their establishment in 2014, they have helped create over 20,000 jobs and provide a range of supports to small businesses including financial assistance, mentoring and training. For the food and drink sector, Local Enterprise Offices offer a suite of programmes including the Food Academy Programme (in partnership with SuperValu and Bord Bia), The Food Starter Programme and the Digital School of Food.  For more information on the Local Enterprise Offices, go to www.LocalEnterprise.ie

About SuperValu

SuperValu serves over 2.6 million customers every week and has 223 stores nationwide. Together with its retail partners, SuperValu employs approximately 14,500 colleagues, making it one of the State’s largest private-sector employers. SuperValu continues to source locally wherever possible which helps to sustain 30,000 jobs in the Irish economy.