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This four day programme has been specifically designed by Retail Excellence Ireland for retail managers, supervisors and team members with potential.
The programme will be delivered with innovative, challenging and engaging content, highly valuable shared learning workshops and presentations from national and international retail experts. Participants will strengthen their management skills in a broad range of topics including:
Food Academy collaborates with small businesses on their journey the start up phase right through to getting their product on Supervalu shelves.
There are currently over 300 Food Academy producers in Supervalu stores. Through workshops, mentoring and the opportunity to pitch to SuperValu store owners this is a unique opportunity to see your product on the shelf of one of Ireland’s leading retailers. Bord Bia, SuperValu and the Local Enterprise Office collaborate to ensure you have every opportunity to grow your business.
Food Academy collaborates with small businesses on their journey the start up phase right through to getting their product on Supervalu shelves. There are currently over 300 Food Academy producers in Supervalu stores. Through workshops, mentoring and the opportunity to pitch to SuperValu store owners this is a unique opportunity to see your product on the shelf of one of Ireland’s leading retailers. Bord Bia, SuperValu and the Local Enterprise Office collaborate to ensure you have every opportunity to grow your business.
The aim of Food Academy is to provide small food businesses with a solid foundation to progress confidently onto retail shelves. Crucially SuperValu also provide successful participants with the opportunity to trial their product in their local stores for a period of 12 weeks. This provides a real advantage to small businesses in terms of real retail learnings, as they are in a position to liaise with the store to gain feedback on their product from both the store staff and consumers. Such learnings will help the producer to further develop their product, marketing approach, packaging and distribution.
There are currently over 300 Food Academy small producers in Supervalu stores. Half of all Food Academy participants expect sales to increase by 50% or more over the next 12 months. Applications for Food Academy will be open from March 14th and will close April 8th. Workshops from August 2022 - February 2023
For more information on how to apply to the program click here https://www.localenterprise.
The Food Starter programme is an online 4 x 1/2-day programme designed to help those with a food idea, or those at a very early stage of starting up a food business. Typically, within the first 24 months. It will cover everything from an overview of the Irish food sector to the specifics of starting a food production business.
It is a prerequisite for anyone undertaking the Food Academy Programme. We would also recommend starting out that you complete a Start your Own Business Programme with your Local Enterprise Office.
The objective of the 2 days is to provide the participants with a base knowledge of what is involved in setting up a food business. The content is designed to provide you with information which will allow you to avoid the pit falls normally associated with this journey. (The programme content assumes you have the required business knowledge to run your enterprise e.g. you must already understand the basics of setting up a business, tax compliance rules, creating a business plan etc.)
While certain aspects of the programme are relevant to those setting up cafes/restaurants, the core programme content is designed for those producing food to be sold through third parties i.e. food producers. For those considering applying for the Food Academy Programme in the future, this programme will provide an excellent opportunity to boost your chances of securing a place.