Food Academy Start Programme - Applications

Applications are being taken for an exciting new food academy programme which will run over a 2-month period  in early 2014. The programme objective is to provide participants with the knowledge required to establish successful food production businesses, working to a standardised format as established by Bord Bia, City and County Enterprise Boards and Musgrave Retail.

The programme is targeted at those individuals who have an idea for a food or drink business or who have already set up and are in the early stages of running a food or drink business based in the Dublin region.

Participants will be trained  on core technical issues including raising and managing funds for business, how to price food products while taking into account the costs of routes to market e.g. distributors and retailers margins, new product development, food safety and food labelling following the most recent EFSA and FSAI guidelines, packaging options and formats and managing staff and HR law.

Participants will focus on growing sales for their product range through branding and pack design and identifying the routes to market suitable for their product range e.g. markets, the retail sector, the food service sector, direct sales (including online) and the export markets. This will include preparing for buyer and distributor meetings, working on marketing plans, raising brand awareness through PR, the internet and social media.

By the end of the programme the participants will have all of the tools and knowledge necessary to launch and build a successful food business in Ireland and start looking at the export market.

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