Four food and drink experts have come together to support their industry by putting together a free webinar for the public.
The webinar is targeted specifically to let those within the industry know exactly what support is out there for them as they steer to grow their businesses.
Ian Meadows FCMA, who has coordinated some of the UK’s top food brands as well as co-founded his own nationally distributed brand said: “We came together as a team when we were asked to work together to produce a workshop to help SMEs take their product from ‘Thought to Fork’.
We’ve grown from this starting point to support people on the individual steps on that journey.
“Looking around at the industry we love that we see a lot of positives but we know from personal experience that there are also a lot of people, in companies of all sizes, who are struggling with the unique challenges our industry faces.
As a team, we decided to support them and give back to an industry that has given so much to us collectively."
The free webinar takes place on Wednesday, February 24, 2021, from 2-3:30pm, will introduce the team, share their ethos of ‘Thought to Fork’, looking at key topics within developing profitable products, scaling up, and growth planning and implementation.
Ian also mentions: “Each of us will also share our favourite two top tips for successful new product development too.”
The webinar brings together four independent food industry experts with more than 130 years of experience gained in businesses from start-ups to multinational corporations.
Their expertise lies across the fields of sales, marketing, technical, new product development, operations, finance, regulatory compliance, and business management.
The four have worked in roles ranging from Managing Director to entrepreneur and, jokes Ian, “Almost every position in-between."
The team is made up of Breeda Cotter BSc MSc FIFST, Ruth Dolby FIFST, Rachel Ward PhD FIFST, and lastly Ian Meadows FCMA.
Ian said: “We chose the name How Many Beans? for our group and a lot of people comment on that.
The name comes from the phrase ‘he knows how many beans make five’. Historically it’s often been used to refer to someone who is both knowledgeable and experienced in a particular field and it felt a very appropriate way to describe us.”
How Many Beans? offers convenient priced industry workshops covering Product Development, Scaling Up, and Growth Planning and Implementation as well as one-to-one sessions in fields such as coaching, mentoring, and support.
Free tickets are available to book on the website.
