Food Academy is a training programme aimed at supporting and nurturing start-up food businesses. The Local Enterprise Offices have joined forces with Bord Bia and SuperValu on this initiative to provide a consistent level of food marketing knowledge to new and early-stage food business owners.

At the final workshop, participants will get the opportunity to present their product to a panel from SuperValu and if successful, can participate in a trial based in local shops, which in the right circumstances, could progress over time to a national listing with SuperValu. (There is no guarantee of your product being listed as part of the programme, however over 80% of products proceed to trial)

Workshop One (Module 1 and 2)

Module One – The Market and Market Analysis

• Overview of the Irish Market
• Routes to Market
• SWOT Analysis of your Business

Module Two – The Consumer

• Consumer Lifestyle Trends
• Interpreting Trends & Data
• Gap Analysis
• Supervised Visit to a local Supervalu store

Workshop Two (Module 5)

Module Five - Pricing

• Introduction to Finance
• Margin Calculation
• Promotional Pricing
• Raising Funds

Business Plans for Food Companies

Workshop Three: Delivered by Bord Bia (Module 3)

Module 3 – The Proposition

• Market Mapping
• Positioning
• Unique Selling Points (USP’s)
• USP Development
• This workshop is run together with other counties at a national venue

Workshop Three Module 6 and Module 4

Module 6: Marketing

• Marketing Plan
• Preparing for the Retailer Pitch

 Guest Speaker – Established Food Company

Module 4 – The Product

•  Product Launch Checklist
•  Packaging & Sourcing
•  Food Labelling & The Law
•  Food Production & HACCP

Workshop Four Supervalu Presentations and Moving On

This is the presentation to Supervalu which the participants will have worked towards during the programme.

• Final preparations for the participants presentations
• Introduction of the Supervalu panel
• Presentation from Supervalu to the participants
• Individual presentations from the participants to the Supervalu panel
• Feedback from the panel to each participant

Moving on

This additional module prepares participants for the next steps in their journey and focusses on
marketing, sales and raising brand awareness.

Mentor Sessions

Each participant will receive two mentor sessions as part of the programme which will focus on
individual producer needs with customized advise provided.
** Workshop content may vary very slightly from that contained above.