The Herefordshire & Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce (HWCC) held their annual Food and Drink conference, sponsored by mfg Solicitors and Worcestershire County Council, on 28 February in the splendid baronial hall at Eastnor Castle.
The Food and Drink Conference is a chance for local food and drink businesses to get together, network and engage with each other, as well as hear from expert speakers on a range of issues or topics linked to food and drink.
Grace Stringer, Distillery Manager at Piston Gin spoke about the company’s growth from kitchen table experiments, to trading at the old Worcester Porcelain site, a short term move to Cheltenham and a return to Worcester shortly to take up residence in Diglis Basin. And not forgetting the COVID era when the company turned its alcohol into sanitiser and had some of its most profitable trading years, and they are now developing a US market. With its distinctive ridged bottle and black lettering its hard to miss one of Worcestershire’s drink success.
Our next speaker was Sally McKinnon, Head of Marketing at Westsons Cider (Herefordshire) about the development of the family run company from its early days over 100 years ago serving cider to the locals to its leading position in the market today with an image of Henry Weston still featuring on one of their best selling brands.
Both companies have several things in common –local ingredients, premiumisation, quality over quantity, segmentisation and on going innovation.
Helen Cameron talked about the role of the Worcestershire LEP and the Local Authorities in supporting food businesses and presented the new Make It Worcestershire film made by Trend Visuals. The final speaker was Scott Whittaker, manager, Waitrose Worcester who spoke about the changes seen in retail during his 38 years with the company.
HWCC run regular Food Forums during the year which at different venues. These are free to members with a small fee for non members.