New Year, New Products

20 January 2014, 09:31 am
Speciality Bites by Paul Hargreaves

I always love this time of year as it is “show-time”! I am quite often in San Francisco this week at the Fancy Food Show, but not this year. It’s Scotland for me. In particular Scotland’s Speciality Food Show in Glasgow

We have our first ever stand at a food show in Scotland to support our growing business up here.  There really is a growing food movement in Scotland.  Forget the old clichés of fried mars bars.  There are a huge number of farm shops here within easy access of a large percentage of the population, and I expect Scotland to grow faster than other parts of the UK over the next few years.  The same is true of Ireland by the way, which until recently hadn’t seen farm shops in the south, but several have opened recently plus garden centres opening food halls.

Of course, I will also be looking around the show and be interested to see what new products are being launched here and over the several other shows I will attend over the next three months.  With over 300 product launches this week ourselves, I am interested to see where else the innovation and invention is in 2014. It is always the best time of year to launch new products as retailers are desperate for new lines after Christmas has been cleared off their shelves.  Our industry is all about “newness” – almost an obsession, but that’s why customers keep coming through our doors.  So keep at it, but do not forget to merchandise your established brands too with promotions and offers to pull through sales.

Better go, I’m off for some haggis – have a good week.

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