A Rising Tide Lifts all Boats - Coco’s Pantry information download on the UK food industry
In this article we update you on some of the latest news affecting you as a member of the UK food industry, which hopefully includes some cause for optimism.
What factors are affecting market conditions for the UK Food industry?
The pace of change within the UK food market is hard to keep up with.
We’ve been hit by high rainfall, in fact the past year has been the wettest year since 1836 https://www.ft.com/content/f976b2fb-9a23-4a64-91bb-cb250f35853f causing issues for food production affecting prices for source ingredients. Global wars have disrupted energy supplies affecting the cost of gas and trade links, whilst food legislation has seen wide scale change since Brexit.
All of these are contributing factors to the shape of market conditions both businesses large and small now trade in.
So where does it leave a smaller independent business wanting to give customers the best service whilst faced with the kinds of issues affecting us all in food right now? We spoke with independent business owner Kay Tarry, Founder Director, Sugar Noms www.sugarnoms.co.uk
'Unlike larger brands and chainstores, we don’t have the cash flow dedicated to stockpile ingredients by the tonne when it's cheaper, so we buy in smaller quantities at higher prices, which in turn raises our costs. Try as we might, we can't absorb all of these and have to raise our retail price. It can be frustrating when customers see us charging more than supermarkets and unfortunately assume it's down to greed rather than small business overheads and coping with supply chain issues we have no control over.'
We also wrote about changes we face due to the rising cost of Coco https://www.cocospantry.com/blog/2024/6/21/rising-cost-of-cocoa which gave our customers the chance to read and understand that we are all in it together.
What will a change of UK government mean for the food industry?
Since the last blog we’ve seen the election of a Labour government who announced the following goals in the Child Health Action Plan initiative https://labour.org.uk/updates/stories/labours-child-health-action-plan-will-create-the-healthiest-generation-of-children-ever/
● To tackle childhood obesity by implementing a 9pm watershed for so-called junk food advertising aimed at children
● To ban paid-for advertising of less healthy foods targeted at kids on online media
● To ban the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to teenagers
● To introduce breakfast clubs for all primary school children
● Stop the targeting of school children by fast food outlets
All of which can only be a good thing for small businesses supplying high quality food offerings to their local communities, which are often affected by the cheap and readily available less healthy offerings of the fast food industry.
Labour also addressed a key issue facing food business including hotels, shops, retail and restaurants, the lack of staff due to the limitation on migration brought in by Brexit
Labour said it would ensure that migration to address skills shortages “triggers a plan to upskill workers and improve working conditions in the UK” https://www.just-food.com/features/will-a-labour-government-deliver-for-the-uk-food-industry/?cf-view
On the issue of training and backing apprenticeship schemes, Labour said it would guarantee access to training, an apprenticeship, or support to find work for all 18- to 21-year-olds, to bring down the number of young people who are not learning or earning. This can also directly benefit those businesses looking to employ younger people.
Help for small companies
Labour intends to take action on late payments to ensure small businesses and the self-employed are paid on time - “We will improve guidance and remove barriers to exporting for small businesses” they said.
Final Word
Whilst it is early to judge what the change in UK government will bring, it feels like there is some optimism for those of us trying to negotiate these challenging times as business owners.
About Coco’s Pantry
Coco’s Pantry https://www.cocospantry.com/ are a wholesale chocolate and ingredients company for Chocolatiers, Pastry Chefs, Cake Makers and Bakers.
All of our online shop is vegan friendly, apart from one shop page, where we have non vegan ingredients listed.
We stock the finest chocolate with a huge selection of Callebaut products, including the best selling 811 and 70-30-38 in a variety of pack sizes. We have a fabulous sweet treats section offering vegan marshmallows, vegan smarties alternatives, vegan honeycomb, fudge and much more! For snacking and baking our dried fruit, nuts and seeds selection has something for everyone. Not forgetting our premium baking ingredients that boast many gluten free options!
Our online shop offers competitive prices to the public and trade. We ship Monday to Friday for next working day delivery to the whole of the UK with free delivery available for orders over £150.
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