The Business Magazine

  • Home
  • Deals
  • Awards
  • Listings
  • News
    • All News
    • Subscribe to our eNewsletters
    • Companies
    • Hospitality
    • Deals
    • Events
    • Law
    • Finance/Economy
    • Motoring
    • People
    • Property
    • Technology
  • Our Events
    • Sales: The Revolution Symposium
    • TV AIM
    • Thames Valley Occupiers’ Survey
    • Doing Business with the USA
    • Attracting and Retaining Top Talent
    • Reading 2025 Breakfast Seminar
    • Reading No 1 City
  • Features
    • Regular Features
      • Economy/Finance
      • HR/Management
      • Law
      • Profiles
      • Property
      • Technology
      • Town Spotlight
      • Women in Business
      • Business Focus
      • Motoring
      • Hospitality
      • Other
    • Southern Entrepreneurs
    • Entrepreneur Profiles
    • Roundtables
  • About Us
    • What we do
    • Meet the team
    • Advertise with us
    • Contact Us
    • How to find us
    • Terms and conditions
    • Privacy policy
    • Current & Past Editions
    • Video
  • The Solent 250
    • Rules of engagement
  • Sponsors
  • Solent 250 Roundtable 2016
  • Solent 250 Companies
    • SHB Hire
    • Hobbycraft
    • Onecom
    • Serocor
    • R&M Electrical Group
    • Wightlink
    • The Injury Care Clinics
    • CLF Distribution
    • Churchill Retirement Living
    • Fusion People
    • New Earth Solutions
    • Carte Blanche Group
    • Hoburne Holiday Parks
    • Lymington Precision Engineers Co
    • Meachers
    • Micheldever Tyre Services
    • SHB Hire
    • Snows Motor Group
    • Sydenhams
    • The Farplants Group
    • Thierry’s
    • The Raymond Brown Group
  • Archive
    • The Solent 250 2016
    • Insights and networking event 2016
    • The Solent 250 2014 Awards evening
    • The Solent 250 2014 awards dinner
    • The Solent 250 2014 is published
    • The 2013 Solent 250 Winners
    • November update on Solent 250 companies
    • The 2013 Solent 250 Winners
    • Solent 250 summer reception 2013
    • Dame Wendy Hall – Are you ready for the world to change your world?
    • The Solent 250 List 2012
    • The Solent 250 “Ones to Watch” Awards 2012
    • Solent 250 – companies to watch in 2011
    • The Solent 250 List in 2011
    • The Solent 250 launch event 2011
    • GT Sector Watch
      • Solent 250 Sector Watch July 2012
      • Solent 250 Sector Watch June 2012
      • Solent 250 Sector Watch May 2012
      • Solent 250 Sector Watch April 2012
      • Solent 250 Sector Watch March 2012
      • Solent 250 Sector Watch December 2011
      • Solent 250 – other companies to watch in 2011
  • Download The List

Grant Thornton’s Solent 250 Sector Watch May 2012

Managing through uncertainty – UK food & beverage in transition

The UK food and beverage industry suffered during the recession and the global malaise that followed. And while measured growth again appears to be the norm in many markets, challenges persist. High commodity prices continue to impact profitability. Consumer spending remains sluggish and limits the ability of food and beverage (F&B) companies to raise their prices.

Not surprisingly, privately-held businesses in the F&B sector are less confident than those in other sectors about their economic prospects. But there is good news: optimism is increasing. Emerging consumer trends offer new revenue opportunities, and a large balance of F&B companies anticipate revenue growth and improved profits over the coming year.

Top issues in the coming 12 months

Growing globally: Globalisation presents enormous opportunities for the F&B sector. An increasing number of UK-centric companies are seeking to invest in their export capacity taking advantage of growth opportunities by expanding into markets such as South Asia.

Mergers, acquisitions and divestitures: F&B companies are once again looking to grow through acquisition. Coming out of the economic downturn, they have seen a number of attractive acquisition opportunities, creating a sharp upswing in M&A activity.

Productivity improvement and operating – cost reductions: Rising commodity costs – coupled with customer resistance to price increases make productivity improvements and cost control vital to success. The ability to pass on cost increases to retailers is still a major issue for many producers and manufacturers, the UK’s labour costs are above other countries and businesses operate in a highly-regulated environment eg increase in minimum wage, constraints imposed by EU regulations such as the Agency Workers Directive. The UK is forecast to recruit high-skill level roles to approximately 50% of current levels, which is an issue for the industry in terms of being able to afford talent. To address these issues the Food and Drink Skills Council has launched a skills action plan with the aim of creating 50,000 apprenticeship training opportunities in companies within agriculture and primary production, food and drink manufacturing and processing, food retail and hospitality and catering.

Innovation and quality: Consumers want innovation, improved quality, and lower prices – a trio of demands that small, midmarket, and even larger F&B companies often find difficult to address.

Size matters more than ever in the F&B sector; small and midmarket companies are increasingly dependent on suppliers and channel partners for innovation, while larger companies enjoy the financial scale necessary for new product development and technology investments.

Working capital management: The cost increases facing the sector mean that even if everything else remained the same, the working capital bill that requires funding has grown. However the reality is that in the F&B sector, the pressure continues; flexibility around payments has decreased as cash becomes as critical for suppliers and producers alike. Retailers aren’t keen to pay any earlier so the importance of being efficient and effective across logistics, production, supply chain and finance operations is paramount.

Regulatory compliance: F&B companies face an increasingly complex set of regulations around the world, along with emerging sustainability standards.

 

 

Ones to watch – there are a number of success stories within the F&B sectors in the Solent region

Natures Way Foods (No. 22)

Established in 1994 near Chichester, Natures Way Foods is a leading distributor of bagged salads and fruit products to major retail and food services clients throughout the UK. The company which has a turnover of over £112 million and employs over 480 people, has recently invested in a new factory spanning 7,500 sq m of production space on the former site of RAF Merston.

Natures Way website

 

J Chandler & Co (Buckfast) (No. 70)

With a healthy turnover of over £37m Buckfast Tonic wine, which was first made by the Benedictine Monks at Buckfast Abbey in the 1890s is still manufactured by using many of the same ingredients, based on a traditional recipe from France. Whilst the monks continue to make the Tonic wine, the distribution is carried out by “Buckfast“ who adopted a reserved promotional approach resulting in the widespread appreciation of the product nationally and internationally.

Buckfast website

 

Coastline Produce (No. 147)

Formed in 2001, Coastline stock and distribute fresh fruit and vegetables, dry, chilled, frozen, exotic foods and non-foods providing a one-stop solution to the catering industry stretching throughout the south of England. The company which has headquarters in Christchurch has a turnover close to £20m and employs over 140 staff.

Coastline Produce website

 

For more information on the F&B industry in this region and throughout the UK, contact:

Amanda James

023-8038-1168

amanda.j.james@uk.gt.com

Grant Thornton website

 

 

 
 

Latest Solent 250 Posts

  • Southampton: Solent 250 honours its best businessesMarch 20, 2018, 12:19 pm

    From an innovative marine engineering specialist to a major UK telecoms provider, a southern-based homebuilder to a UK top-25 motor dealership group, and a family-run building services contractor to a coastal holiday park business,

  • January 11, 2018, 7:38 am

    Solent 250 listing 2018 The top 250 private companies in the Solent region are listed here. Our Solent 250, an annual list sponsored by HSBC, business adviser RSM and law firm Irwin Mitchell, focuses on companies headquartered in the area. At the top is Arqiva, the British telecoms company which […]

  • South: RSM reports annual revenue rise of 9%December 18, 2017, 1:05 pm

    Leading audit, tax and consulting firm RSM – sponsors of the Solent 250 – today announced a 9% increase in UK annual revenues to £319 million for its financial year ending March 31, 2017.

  • Solent 250: SHB Hire grows the company and its vehicle stockMay 26, 2017, 1:47 pm

    SHB Hire, the family-owned vehicle hire and management company, at number 41 on our Solent 250, has taken delivery of 176 Fiat Professional vans, which will be rented to customers from SHB’s 15 sites across the UK. Paul Street, managing director of SHB, said: “We have worked with Fiat for a […]

  • Solent 250: Lakesmere adds two to McMullen Facades boardMay 26, 2017, 1:36 pm

    McMullen Facades, part of the Lakesmere Group, which is at number 27 in our Solent 250, has added to its board of directors with two new appointments Clifton Smyth has been promoted to pre-construction director and Danny Hampshire has been promoted to commercial director. McMullen Facades is the UK’s leading […]

Thames Valley Oxford Reading Solent Southampton Portsmouth hampshire Oxfordshire South East Bournemouth South Dorset Berkshire South Coast Hants

Most read this week

  • Reading: Young dealmakers excel at Thames Valley Deals Awards
  • Thames Valley: Wendy Hart and Spectrum win main corporate finance trophies
  • Thames Valley: HSBC, Connection Capital and Leumi ABL win top funding awards
  • Thames Valley: Gateley and Osborne Clarke’s Rob Wood win top legal trophies
  • Thames Valley: Office enquiries hit six-year high
© Copyright — Elcot Media & Events Ltd trading as The Business Magazine , - All Rights Reserved   Contact the Webmaster
  • Send us Mail
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Join our Facebook Group
  • Subscribe to our RSS Feed
This site uses cookies: Find out more.