Bread & Jam Ireland

BIA Innovator Campus is delighted to unleash a new Irish community and learning forum for food and drink entrepreneurs.   Called Bread & Jam Ireland, it is a food enterprise network, acceleration, and brand building community, for the West of Ireland and nationally.  You may be familiar with the Bread & Jam food and drink initiative as it is already proven in the UK. Their online FOODHUB community has over 11,500 members and is a vibrant hub of the most exciting emerging and scaling food & drink brands. 

Elaine Donohue, General Manager, BIA Innovator Campus explains.   “Bread & Jam Ireland will be a key accelerator tool for BIA.  It will be unique for Ireland, connecting and wrapping a strong industry led community around our physical infrastructure who are informed, supported and learning from both their peers and those who have excelled before them.  This peer knowledge is often gained from years of trying and learning, and while we have excellent county-based food networks, we rarely get the chance to connect on a regional and national level. While our Campus will soon be home to 40+ food companies in production and innovation, our onsite community is just one part.  Our doors are open for the wider food and drink community to connect and fast track their growth.

The initiative is backed by Enterprise Ireland and could not be timelier following the deep negative impact that Covid 19 has had on the food industry and also the ongoing impact of Brexit on the agri-food economy in Ireland. It is a coupe for us to partner with Jason Gibb, Tara Mei and their Bread & Jam team.  Their proven formula means we can really hit the ground running”.    

Jason Gibb of Bread & Jam is delighted to bring the Bread & Jam formula to Ireland. “While we are best known for our Bread & Jam Festival, and TheFoodHub Facebook network,  at the start of the first lockdown, we launched a series of webinars to support our Bread & Jam community through unprecedented times. These sessions were attended by thousands of food founders and their popularity has inspired our year-round virtual calendar, jam packed with panels, workshops and summits that can all be accessed from home, via your laptop.  We are excited to work with Elaine and the team to bring our Irish and UK food and drink communities closer together. Market and channel diversification programmes are all the more important in the context of Brexit”.  

How do you benefit from Bread & Jam Ireland

• Closed Facebook Group - a community of like-minded Irish food & drink entrepreneurs who believe that the roots of sustainable success lie in also helping those around you.  (1) FoodHub Ireland | Facebook
• Monday Motivation will kick off on January 17^th, 2022 as a monthly series of short deep dive webinars with 3 food entrepreneurs in a panel discussion chaired by Bread & Jam Ireland into key topics.  The first Monday Motivation event is How to Nail D2C & Ecommerce and others to follow include What Buyers Are Looking For and How To Be A Sensation On Social Media.   
• Community members will also benefit from a series of 90-minute online Bread & Jam Ireland Workshops bring the very best industry experts together on a key range of topics including Make Your Brand Stand Out From The Crowd, Commercials & Margins 101, DIY Social Media and How to Raise Investment.
• Bread & Jam Ireland Festival - September 2022 will see Ireland’s first food founders' festival hosted as a 2-day conference in BIA Innovator Campus, Athenry.  A must-attend event for ambitious food & drink brands looking to scale fast, expect lively panel discussions, thought leaders and inspirational keynotes, challenger brand events, the opportunity to pitch to national and speciality retailers and an evening social event. To give you a flavour of the concept, take a look at the UK 2021 event Bread & Jam 2.0 (breadandjamfest.com)

Please get involved

As the key agencies and networks involved in supporting the food and drink sector in Ireland, we would love your support to create an impact for Bread & Jam Ireland from the outset. Soon our website, social channels and event booking platform will be ready. We would really appreciate if you can share it with your colleagues, clients, members and peers in the food and drink sector.  For now, watch this space and we will update you very shortly.