Boost your business with local food and drink

Date : 26/03/2014

Did you know that in the Experiencing Scotland survey, visitors voted ‘trying local food’ as one of their favourite activities?[1]

Whether you run a restaurant or just offer a small selection of food and drink as a side-line, you can boost your bottom line by sourcing locally. Here’s a round-up of the best tips and most useful resources to help you make the most of your visitors’ passion for locally sourced Scottish food and drink.

1. If you’ve got it, flaunt it

First – and simplest – of all, if you already stock and serve local produce, make sure you’re telling people about it.

Review your signage and displays to make sure local produce is clearly labelled. The more detail you can give, the better. If Bill from the farm delivers your eggs weekly, say so.

Could you put a face to the name by adding pictures of your suppliers alongside their produce? And don’t forget to mention your food stories on your website and through your social media channels.

How about using a Scottish flag or an emblem to mark all your local produce? Or think about creating seasonal displays, so visitors can find everything in one place.

If any of your ingredients or products are certified by a formal food quality scheme, have you displayed the official quality badge?

If you prepare and serve food, take a good hard look at your existing menus. Are you shouting loudly enough about the great local produce you use? Check if the food and drink you’re offering has ever won a Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Award. If it has, mention it on your menu.

For inspiration about how you could transform your menu, take a look at the Menu of the Month on the Experiencing Scotland website.

2. Find more and better local produce

Secondly, why not conduct a quick but comprehensive audit of what you stock and serve.

Do you sell or use food and drink from around the UK or overseas that you could replace with a Scottish equivalent? Maybe you’re using a Scottish ingredient that you could source even closer to home? Do you stock local specialities? Could you replace some of your products with award-winning local brands?

Take a tour of your local producers and try something new. Small distilleries, creameries, butchers and other local artisan food producers will welcome the chance to show you their range, provide samples and discuss terms. Some suppliers will also provide point of sale display materials and run training sessions for your staff.

Get everyone involved. It’s a great idea to encourage your front of house staff as well as your kitchen team to get involved in trying new produce and understanding where it comes from.

For more on making sure your whole team knows how to deliver a wonderful food experience, download our free At Your Service guide, which is packed with practical tips for frontline staff in tourism businesses.

A good place to find locally produced food and drink is at your local farmers’ market. You can get a list of events from the Scottish Association of Farmers’ Markets website. Or contact your local Regional Food Network. There’s a list of Regional Food Networks on the Experiencing Scotland website. Take a look at the VisitScotland food and drink trails to identify producers and suppliers in your area or visit Scotland Food & Drink’s supplier Showcase.

And remember to think seasonally. Scotland Food & Drink have an excellent online seasonality calendar. You can even print it off in a handy poster format for your kitchen and front of house team to use.

3. Join forces

Try to think beyond your own business and build up relationships with local producers. You might be able to help each other by cross selling or reduce costs by buying supplies together.

Maybe you could collaborate to create a food or drink specifically for your business? How about a mini breakfast muffin using local oats or a seasonal fruit trifle made with local fruit soaked in whisky from the distillery down the road?

If you and other local businesses stock a variety of local produce, could you club together to produce an information leaflet or map? How about adding your wares and services to a local food trail or simply promoting one near you? Have a look at the Farm Stay website for a great example of this.

Could you run occasional events where local brewers or artisan food producers give talks or tasting sessions from your venue?

4. Credit where it’s due

If you’re a running a restaurant, café, tearoom or take away using the best local produce, find out if you could be accredited by VisitScotland’s Taste Our Best quality assurance scheme.

5. Be inspired

There are lots of Scottish tourism businesses already doing a fantastic job of putting seasonal, locally-sourced food at the heart of their offering.

Here are just a few case studies that might help spark some ideas for your business:

• Gadies Restaurant in Aberdeenshire worked with their local butcher to develop an exclusive range of sausages. Many of the products they use in the restaurant kitchen are also available to buy in the retail area.
• The team at the Royal Yacht Britannia worked with Oban brewery to develop a new beer, the Bloodhound, a clever tie-in with Britannia’s Bloodhound racing yacht.
• Moness Resort in Aberfeldy established links with local distilleries and added an ethical trading message into their signage and menus to reflect Aberfeldy’s status as a Fair Trade town.
• The Willow Tearooms in Glasgow make great use of their website to emphasise their food and drink credentials, including providing information about their suppliers, uploading menus, posting up recipes and even including links to YouTube videos showing how to make Scottish recipes.

Visit Experiencing Scotland for more inspiring case studies like this.

6. Get support and advice

And finally, don’t miss out on the support that’s available to Scottish tourism businesses that want to make the most of local food and drink.

Scottish Enterprise offers food and drink consultancy to eligible tourism businesses.

Experiencing Scotland also run one-day food and drink workshops on how to deliver profitable and engaging visitor experiences by putting local produce at the heart of your food and drink offering.

Go to the Event Scotland website to download a useful free guide on how to enhance an event with Scottish food and drink.

Further reading

Ready for Events give lots of information on how to capitalise on events in your area.

Tourism Intelligence Food and Drink guide

For more ideas on working with local suppliers check out Scotland – Land of Food and Drink. 

To find out how you can capitalise on food and drink opportunities in 2014 visit the Scotland Food and Drink 2014 website.