from David McNair, chief executive, Food from Britain
Sir; In her letter entitled ‘Where’s the vision for supplier NPD’ (The Grocer, January 22, p32), Kate Waddell argued that “the market for full-scale NPD is there, it just requires the vision and courage”.
Unfortunately, her timely exhortation revealed a vision blinkered to an existing market and a lack of courage to cross 26 miles of water.
Sitting today on the shelves of the leading UK food retailers is a raft of proven products that retailers from other countries would love to stock. Often the challenge for Food from Britain is persuading not foreign retailers, but UK suppliers of the opportunities.
With new market development rather than NPD, there is no need for “reckless experimentation”. More resources can be devoted to refining and promoting an existing product for a new market, instead of investing in the uncertainty of generating the next unproven concept.
Such activity is closer to the brand extensions too lightly dismissed by Kate. New market development is a lower risk proposition. Utilising existing packaging templates and manufacturing lines, costs and changes are far more easy to predict. Existing products can be communicated to international retailers, already attracted by products proven in the competitive UK market.
The successful companies at FFB’s recent export awards all attest to the initial importance of NPD, but also to ensuring fuller exploitation by new market development over time. All that is required is the vision to respond to different cultures, coupled with the courage to try another marketplace. Brussels and Amsterdam are closer than you might think.
Sir; In her letter entitled ‘Where’s the vision for supplier NPD’ (The Grocer, January 22, p32), Kate Waddell argued that “the market for full-scale NPD is there, it just requires the vision and courage”.
Unfortunately, her timely exhortation revealed a vision blinkered to an existing market and a lack of courage to cross 26 miles of water.
Sitting today on the shelves of the leading UK food retailers is a raft of proven products that retailers from other countries would love to stock. Often the challenge for Food from Britain is persuading not foreign retailers, but UK suppliers of the opportunities.
With new market development rather than NPD, there is no need for “reckless experimentation”. More resources can be devoted to refining and promoting an existing product for a new market, instead of investing in the uncertainty of generating the next unproven concept.
Such activity is closer to the brand extensions too lightly dismissed by Kate. New market development is a lower risk proposition. Utilising existing packaging templates and manufacturing lines, costs and changes are far more easy to predict. Existing products can be communicated to international retailers, already attracted by products proven in the competitive UK market.
The successful companies at FFB’s recent export awards all attest to the initial importance of NPD, but also to ensuring fuller exploitation by new market development over time. All that is required is the vision to respond to different cultures, coupled with the courage to try another marketplace. Brussels and Amsterdam are closer than you might think.
No comments yet