Food & Drink Council Meeting 18-10-2012 |
Attendees Other Attendees: Anna Cruickshank (DIT), Aoife Bohan (IEA), Ciaran Sweeney (Fyffes Atlantic Shipping Ltd), Conor Hyde (Bullseye Marketing), Cormac Brady (Adforce), David Cullen (OI Research), Gerry Power (Sysco), Gwen Dempsey (Researcher), John Hickey (John Hickey & Associates), Lisa Rowntree (Hogan’s Farm), Margaret Carrigan (Ulster Bank), Paul Hogan (Hogan’s Farm), Ruairi Horan (Emerald Freight), Veronica Molloy (Crossogue Preserves), Apologies: Anthony Quinn (Irish Dog Foods), Daniel Hickey (AllinAll), Fran Dunne (Irish Dog Foods), John Flahavan (E.Flahavan & Sons), Mary Harney (Dawn Farm Foods), Peter Cullen (Aran Candy), Susan O’Keeffe (DSV). Bernard Coyle, chairman of the food and drink council invitee all attendees to sit in on the usually closed council meeting. The following were discussed by Bernard: John Whelan acknowledged the unfortunate closing of Olhausens who were a member of the IEA and who sat on the food and drink council. Anna Cruickshank of DIT commented on the issue of jobs skilling informing the council that just last week she attended the graduation of 250 food related graduates and 30 graduating with M.Sc in Innovation and product development etc. 1st Presentation: Jacqueline Cumiskey - Food Chains for Competitive Advantage. (Attached) Lisa Rowntree of Hogan’s Farm: “Will the FCCA project effect R&D grants etc., which the company may be using?” 2nd Presentation: Gwen Dempsey – Qualitative Research: Barriers to Innovation in the INTERREG area. (Attached) Lisa Hogan of Hogan’s Farm: “Resources is the biggest stumbling block. Trying to justify a top heavy resource is hard in this economy. Also if you are not exporting it is hard to justify NPD resources for only 4 million customers. Also commercialisation needs to be at the forefront of your project to avoid failing at a later stage”. Jennifer Melia of Enterprise Ireland: “It is disappointing to come to meetings like this and to hear people still do not understand R&D tax credits and grants and what is considered innovation and what is considered tweeking and what is considered eligible. However innovation vouchers are being utilized by many smaller companies who find them very helpful. William Keeling of Food Central: “Did anything great come out of the 20 companies that were interviewed for this research.” John Whelan: “If anyone here is interested in the FCCA programme or knows of some companies they think could benefit from it, please contact Jacqueline following this meeting.” 3rd Presentation: David Cullen – The new Irish Consumer. Due to the content and the size of this presentation it was impossible to upload it to the website. If anyone wants some information from this presentation please get in contact with us. John Whelan: “Do you do market research for companies against trends. 4th Presentation: Cormac Brady - Performance Marketing for the US and Worldwide Marketing. (ATTACHED) Bernard Coyle closes the meeting. Next Meeting: TBC |