Super Valu Food Academy

There is no doubt that SuperValu’s Food Academy is having an impact. The programme, which sees the chain help local food businesses make their way onto its shelves, has taken 400 local artisan producers under its wing and 170 of these have gone on trial on the supermarket’s shelves. These companies are now making sales worth €15m per annum at the store. In the last 18 months, 300 jobs have been created within these businesses and by the end of the year this figure will reach 500.

The SuperValu Food Academy is a joint initiative between SuperValu, Bord Bia and the Local Enterprise Office Network. It was established in 2014 to support small food companies. The programme aims to guide producers, provide advice and expertise.

Process

SuperValu is targeting local food producers who want to grow, or foodies with big ideas. To get involved, entrepreneurs and budding entrepreneurs approach their Local Enterprise Office (LEO) or make contact directly with SuperValu. Super Valu then meets with the entrepreneurs to discuss and view their product/product range.

“Once we can see there’s potential, we bring people onto the programme and work with them to ensure they can come through the process to put a quality product on shelf,” explains SuperValu trading director Eamon Howell.

Upon acceptance into the programme, producers begin with Food Academy Start, which sees them complete modules in areas such as product pricing, marketing, the supply chain, promotions and engaging the buyer. The programme involves a mix of classroom-style training and one-to-one mentoring.

“Producers have spent time thinking about their concept, but it often lacks basic fundamentals,” explains Eamon. “It’s usually not consumer-ready. There’s no packaging, there’s no brand. The resources need to be tweaked. We can help before [the product] gets on the shelf and before it gets to a SuperValu retailer.”

Pitching ideas

Once this programme is completed, the entrepreneurs can pitch their product a panel of SuperValu representatives (consisting of buyers, marketing and finance) including local SuperValu retailers.

“The retailer adds great value at this stage,” explains Eamon. “The SuperValu retailer is not only an entrepreneur, but he/she is also connected to consumers in their locality.”

Upon successful pitches, the individual is given the opportunity to go to trial on the shelf. SuperValu has created a separate section in-store to put all the Food Academy products together.

“They’d get lost on shelves and in the aisles,” says Eamon. “We’ve invested in fixtures to really make the product stand out. You’re nursing products until they can stand on their own.”

And standing on their own is exactly what many of them are doing.

“Some suppliers are progressing so quickly,” explains Eamon. “The SuperValu Food Academy Start programme caters for up to 30 stores, but we found that some producers were outgrowing that and needed another level of support.”

Therefore, at last year’s Ploughing Championships, SuperValu launched Food Academy Advance, where they took the 30 top-performing producers and put further supports in place to allow them to grow to 50 stores and then nationwide, once all parties are confident that central distribution is the correct next step for them.

Eamon notes that a concern many food producers have is that they won’t have the capacity to make enough product.

“But we’re happy to support whatever pace suits the individual,” says Eamon.

The companies that have come through the Food Academy programme are as varied as they are interesting. They include Wild About, whose nettle pesto is now nationally distributed to SuperValu. Same as De Róiste Puddings.

“De Róiste was started by a plumber who went out of work during the recession, but decided he didn’t want his grandchildren to grow up not knowing him and so he started making puddings using his grandmother’s recipe,” says Eamon. “Now his three sons are working in the business.”

Cool Beans also has national distribution with SuperValu. Twelve months ago, they were at a music festival in Kilmainham selling out of a van.

Many of the products being stocked are quite health-driven, such as Nobó, a dairy and dairy-free ice cream, and micro greens and health products that are supplied by The Happy Pear. Dr Coy’s chocolate is high in Vitamin E, while SynerChi Kombucha is a soft drink alternative.

SuperValu says that with the structures and supports it has in place, the supermarket chain has sufficient capacity to nurture and encourage producers to grow and expand their businesses nationwide.

It’s interesting to note that SuperValu isn’t just supporting local for the good of their health.

“Local matters to consumers,” says Eamon.

“Post-recession we feel communities are coming together more. They actually want to give back to the community. If the consumer didn’t want it, there’d be no point in doing it.”

SuperValu also says this programme is really just putting a formal structure on what it has always been about. SuperValu says it has been supporting independent suppliers since the brand was established.

“There’s a phenomenal tradition of the local retailer supporting the local community,” says Eamon.

“From Dingle to Loughrea to Wexford, right to the heart of Dublin, that tradition is really rich. Firstly, we wanted to go beyond what was happening in retailers already. And secondly, we wanted to bring local to life in places where it’s not as prevalent.”

There is no doubt that Eamon and his team are very proud of what they’ve achieved with this programme.

“The Food Academy created a basic structure. It created a pipeline of new and local producers. I haven’t come across anything better than this in the world, and we’ve been looking.”

How you can get involved

Eamon is keen to stress this programme is really open to anyone.

“We want products that meet a consumer need and products that excite. The consumer needs to be well understood. We need products with a point of difference. It can be either an Irish taste or a global taste. Go to your local LEO. We take enquiries of interest and then we do the programme in waves.” CL