Food Works Seminar 2015

Award winning food entrepreneurs announced to addressFood Works seminar – Aspiring food and drinks moguls sought for Food Works 2015

Two recent award winning food entrepreneurs have just been announced to address a seminar for ambitious food and drinks start-ups taking place in Tayto Park, Ashbourne, Co, Meath on Tuesday 21^st October from 5.30-8.30pm. The event is targeted at aspiring food and drink entrepreneurs who are interested in taking part in Food Works, the business development and mentoring programme jointly run by Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland and Teagasc. Attendees will hear the experience of two previous Food Works participants, Dermot Hanley from Nusli who recently received “Best New Product” at the Blas na HEireann awards and Laura Murphy from SynerChi who last week received two National Organic Awards.

Established in 2012, Food Works was set up by Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland and Teagasc to identify and nurture export-orientated entrepreneurs who want to be part of Ireland’s growing food and drink industry and to help them to get to market faster. Through a series of workshops and one to one mentoring, successful participants are given an invaluable range of practical business supports required to develop an initial concept into a winning food product with international appeal and global export potential. The available supports include consumer market research, business plan development, technical advice, commercial viability testing in addition to access to fast track access to research and development (R&D) facilities and possible investors and state funding.

Over the past two years, following a competitive process attracting in excess of 150 applications, a total of 43 start-ups from dairy, snacks, meat, seafood and beverages have participated in the Food Works programme.

The Food Works seminar, which runs from 5.30-8.30pm, will offer attendees the opportunity to hear firsthand the experience of past Food Works participants and learn more from Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland and Teagasc about what the programme entails.

Applications are now open for candidates interested in being a part of the 2015 Food Works programme. Ideal applicants are ambitious food or drink entrepreneurs, or companies trading for less than 4 years that wish to target export markets and scale their business. It is envisaged that the company will have an innovative product either already developed or in development. The Food Works programme aims to help these young companies to realise their full potential to achieve significant scale and become major international businesses in markets across the globe while creating new jobs at home. Successful companies will be introduced to suitable investors to help them to fund a scalable business during the programme.

To register to attend the seminars, or for more information on Food Works 2015, visit www.foodworksireland.ie