City News

The most anticipated food and drink industry event in the West Midlands will be taking place at The Renewal Conference Centre, Solihull on Thursday 17th May 2007. Food, Information, Networking, Drink (FIND) is open to professionals from both ends of the food chain, from growers, producers and processors to independent retailers, national buyers, chefs and industry linked service providers.

Supported by Advantage West Midlands and organised by HEART of ENGLAND fine foods (HEFF), FIND is a day-long event designed to bring key industry players together to share expertise, encourage best practice and inspire new, profitable business relationships.

FIND kicks off with the West Midlands Food Partnership Cluster Forum, an annual conference that allows delegates the chance to put their questions to the Partners, find out how they helped food and drink businesses to grow in 2006 and hear what activities are planned for the coming months.

The varied agenda includes topical Industry Forums where everyone can have their say on thought-provoking, and potentially controversial, issues such as finding the right balance between local sales and working with the multiples and identifying when and if to apply for Protected Designated Origin (PDO) status.

Delegates also have the opportunity to join a fun Speed Networking exercise and to put their products forward for frank appraisal by a distinguished panel of experts in the nerve-jangling ‘Dragon’s Den’. They can also make their selection from four stimulating Business Development Seminars that all food and drink businesses will find of interest, from an interactive session on New Product Development to a look at the latest packaging technologies and a revealing insight into the sociology behind consumer trends and buying habits.

This year’s event invites small and medium sized businesses to ‘Grow, Innovate, Taste and Excel’, which is exactly what family run Staffordshire chocolate company Chokolit have done since FIND 2006, when their entirely edible, handmade chocolate box made their official debut, attracting rave reviews, national press and TV coverage and interest from top buyers from around the UK.

Mary Barnett, the bespoke chocolatier says, ‘The reaction to our chocolates after FIND was incredible. Waitrose approached us almost immediately about creating Christmas gift lines and we soon realized that in order to really go for it we needed to move premises and invest in more equipment. We are now waiting to hear exactly how many Waitrose stores are going to take our product and we’ve also received very exciting interest from Sainsbury’s, Hotel Chocolate and international buyers in America, Canada and the Channel Islands!’

At this year’s FIND Mary is launching several new products. She says, ‘For coffee lovers we have worked with James’ Gourmet Coffee to create a wonderfully aromatic, rich and intense chocolate box featuring real coffee beans and a giant edible walnut containing my favourite nutty chocolates for nut lovers. We are also looking at using 100% biodegradable packaging for our outer boxes, so that we can genuinely boast that all Chokolit products are either entirely edible or compostable.’

She adds, ‘HEART of ENGLAND fine foods have been amazingly supportive of our company and it is largely thanks to them and their top level industry connections that we have enjoyed so much attention over the past eight months. It’s a really exciting time for Chokolit and we’re glad to have HEFF there to guide us through this important growth period.’

In addition to the FIND programme, delegates will have the chance to find out about HEFF’s ever expanding range of business support services, including Savour the Flavour National, Savour the Flavour Mini Bars and a brand new delivery service, to be launched at the event in partnership with Blakemore Foodservice.

To register for FIND please contact HEFF on 01746 785185 or email office@heff.co.uk. Further details as they are confirmed will be available on the HEFF website www.heff.co.uk.