This week I’m really delighted that James Withers the head of Scotland Food and Drink joins us to give his take on the Covid 19 tsunami that has affected our food and service industry.
We chat about some of the challenges he has faced over the last 6 weeks, how their members are adapting, how buyer behaviours are changing and even hear some uplifting stories emerging from the marketplace.
As we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel, Scotland Food and Drink are watching carefully countries around the world to gain from some of the lessons learnt as they come out of lockdown.
Scotland Food & Drink (SF&D) was established in 2007 to grow the value and reputation of the nation's food and drink industry. It has a uniquely collaborative model, bringing the industry, government and its agencies together to develop and drive forward the sector in Scotland and give it a competitive edge. Scotland's food and drink sector has gone from a static position in 2007 to now being one of Scotland’s best performing sectors with an annual turnover of £14 billion, including £6 billion of export sales.
As a membership organisation with over 450 member companies, SF&D provides support and guidance to food and drink businesses - small and large, new starts and well-established - to achieve their growth ambitions.
In March 2017, SF&D led the development of Ambition 2030, the strategy to drive the responsible growth in the value of the sector to £30bn by 2030.
James Withers is the Chief Executive of Scotland Food & Drink.
Prior to joining the SF&D in 2011, James was CEO of the NFU Scotland where he promoted the interests of the nation's agricultural industry.
Amongst a number of other roles, James sits on the Scottish Government’s Board of Trade and is on the board of the Scottish Tourism Alliance, working to enhance and promote Scotland’s world class tourism industry.
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For latest information from Scotland Food and Drink please check out their website -
https://foodanddrink.scot/
In addition Scotland Food and Drink have established a Covid-19 Hub -
https://foodanddrink.scot/coronavirus-information-hub/