Taste of Arran Assesses New Development Plans

Jim Mather, Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism visited the island on Thursday 3rd July to meet with Taste of Arran MD Alastair Dobson who outlined the company’s ambitious development proposals.

Taste of Arran has this week secured a funding package which will see plans for an ambitious joint production facility and tourism centre of excellence developed by the island based artisan food group. Leading Glasgow based strategic development consultants Genesis Consulting have been commissioned to deliver a prospectus which will identify the scope of the proposed project and highlight the potential economic impacts. Highlands and Islands Enterprise will support this to the tune of £30,000, while the company’s local authority, North Ayrshire Council will contribute £10,000 to the £67,000 project. 

 ‘Our company is committed to sustaining the island’s agriculture, community and environment, and has ambitious plans for growth which will lead the way for rural development in Scotland’ commented Maureen McKenna, Taste of Arran Development Manager, ‘The ability of businesses to work with a common focus towards economic growth is essential in fragile rural areas where the sustainability of the environment, local communities, and business are inextricably linked.’
Since its inception in 2001 Taste of Arran has been an extremely successful collaborative business, unique in structure and delivery. The business has been heralded as a model by many other regions and groups throughout Scotland, the UK, Europe and Norway, where MD Alastair Dobson has been working with the Norwegian government since 2005 to develop artisan food production and tourism linkages.

Taste of Arran has identified an opportunity for a high quality joint production, storage, dispatch and administration centre: an iconic facility which will be powered by renewable energy, utilise transparent production methods and incorporate a world class innovative interpretation centre, encapsulating and underpinning their established brand values, and providing a platform for growth which will see the company achieve sales of £3 million in the next 4 years

Three of the key business stakeholders involved with Taste of Arran will assess the potential to restructure their current manufacturing businesses under one company – Taste of Arran Ltd. This radical move will allow increased production capacity, new product development opportunities, enhanced quality management, improved marketing, sales and distribution, eventually leading to investment in state of the art production and distribution facilities. It will also result in significant cost savings, creating considerable market advantage in the growing speciality food market.
Sharing of resource and expertise has already lead to innovation such as the development of new product ranges and promoted posts which allow staff to work at  higher levels across a number of small companies, presenting an opportunity for Taste of Arran to impact on important rural issues such the retention of skilled workers in the rural economy.

Paul Mclaughlin, Chief Executive of Scotland Food & Drink commented, ‘The business model being created on Arran will be scalable and we look forward to the learnings and outputs from this initiative being shared with other food producing island and rural areas to allow further collective opportunities to be developed.  This is a fantastic example of how collaboration and a common purpose can help drive economic growth with the benefits being shared by everyone involved’.

Taste of Arran has always recognised the value of tourism to the Arran brand and has worked closely with tourism operators, winning two Food Tourism awards in 2006. More recently Taste of Arran has been instrumental in establishing VisitArran, the island’s destination management organisation which seeks to develop Arran as the No1 UK island destination.

‘Transparent production practices are a key element of our engagement with the tourism industry. Our companies have such pride in their products that visitors are commonly able to view production areas or tour facilities to witness the manufacturing process. This is something which we will fully develop in any new facility.’ Says Alastair Dobson, Taste of Arran MD. ‘Arran businesses view collaborative working practices such as those employed by Taste of Arran and VisitArran as the route to long term sustainable rural development in Scotland’