Small Scottish producers enjoy business boost thanks to Bidfood listing

Three small sustainable Scottish producers of healthier food and drink have now gained 410 new customers between them, just six months after securing a listing with the leading foodservice company, Bidfood Scotland. The winning producers are: SHORE, The Scottish Seaweed Company; Growers Garden, a sustainable broccoli crisp brand and The Start-Up Drinks Lab, makers of fine craft sodas. They were each selected from dozens of other small producers after a call out from Bidfood Scotland for companies making sustainable and healthy food and drink. All three producers report that the prestigious Bidfood listing has really helped to drive their growth this year. SHORE is expanding their sales team and introducing new products, to build on the UK-wide distribution they now enjoy. Growers Garden has secured business from dozens of new customers including the NHS. They’re busy reformulating their products to increase the fresh broccoli content and have ambitious plans for new products in 2020. Start Up Drinks Lab has extended their range, seen sales and turnover increase and are now hiring a full-time brand ambassador. Bidfood Scotland’s Supplier Development Manager, Katie Sillars, continues to work closely with all three producers to help them reach new customers and increase their sales. She said: “Having access to our network of customers gives innovative, new businesses like these three, a fast track to reach a very wide customer base and helps to support local jobs as well as the Scottish economy. In time, some of these small producers may even pick up a national UK listing.” Keith Paterson, Director of SHORE, commented that the support they’d received from Bidfood Scotland’s sales team had been fantastic. He said: “This listing has opened up a lot of new opportunities for us and allowed us to reach new customers right across Scotland that we would never have been able to reach by ourselves.” Alan Wallace, Commercial Manager for Growers Garden, said: “It is great to have Bidfood as a partner, as it opens up many more doors for us with larger customers and in new sectors, especially in the trade.” Hannah Fisher, Co-Founder of The Start-Up Drinks Lab, explained: “Bidfood’s approach to a new start-up business like ourselves has been innovative, both in terms of how we won the listing with them and how they’ve supported us thereafter. We’ve seen sales and turnover increase as a result, which has obviously been fantastic.”

All three companies feature in a new supplier video here: