In 2002 IGD was invited to establish a Food Chain Centre (FCC) as part of the Government’s sustainable farming and food strategy. We were asked to test and promote a variety of business methods to help keep English producers competitive and boost profitability.
 

Objectives of the Food Chain Centre Develop food chain analyses from farm to point of sale to identify how efficiency savings can be made to the benefit of all players Act as a champion for farm benchmarking Review consumer research and consider its implications for farming

The government-funded project was supported by £3.8m in grants leading to the largest programme of its kind conducted anywhere in the world to explore new methods of boosting farm profits and improving supply chain teamwork. Our work was completed in 2007.

Download the full Completion Report

A fifth of time spent in the chain adds no value

FCC instigated a step change in food chain integration by promoting teamwork from field to shelf.

We completed 33 whole chain projects working with more than100 businesses across the four main agri-food sectors – red meat, dairy, cereals and fresh produce – using an approach known in manufacturing as ‘lean thinking’.

Lean thinking seeks to strip out waste from supply chains while focusing on value-adding activity.

We built teams from each participating business helped by an expert facilitator from Cardiff University. Each team observed how the supply chain actually works as a step towards developing a vision of the chain in the future and an action plan to bring about improvements.
 

Top line findings from Value Chain Analysis Every chain could be reconfigured so that everyone benefits Immediate commercial benefits could be found as well as longer term opportunities On average less than 5% of the time from farm to consumption is spent on activities that add value As a rule 20% of costs in an average food chain adds no value and could be reduced or eliminated Performance measures to track how well the whole chain is doing are extremely rare

Download a report of our work in the fresh produce sector

Download a report of our work in the dairy sector

Download a report of our work in the red meat sector

Helping a third of farmers increase returns through benchmarking

Our work highlighted the considerable differences between farmers’ production costs.

Business clubs allow farmers to pool their expertise, underpinned by shared performance data, otherwise known as farm benchmarking.

FCC championed this approach and worked with various organisations to increase the number of clubs available.

• We introduced a business club service for fresh produce growers known as ‘Hortbench’. Similar schemes were introduced in the other main sectors of farming
• These schemes encourage farmers to compare financial as well as physical data, develop improvement plans and repeat the process regularly
• We ran 44 events attended by 686 farmers to promote farm benchmarking

Our tracking between 2002 and 2006 showed that the proportion of farmers benchmarking rose from 8% to 33%. More than half (52%) of farmers improved their practices and 34% increased their returns.

Download a report of our work on Farm Benchmarking

Improving farm and processor efficiency with motor trade masterclasses

FCC worked with the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) Industry Forum to apply process efficiency improvements pioneered in the Japanese motor industry in an approach known as a ‘Masterclass’.

We successfully tested this approach in food processing companies but also in some farm environments to improve planting and harvesting operations.

We ran 10 Masterclasses in fresh produce. A similar approach was followed in the other sectors by the levy boards.

These Masterclasses proved to be a very effective way for businesses to improve their efficiency.

Farm businesses using consumer insight to make a commercial difference

FCC unlocked free access for farmers to a database on shopper behaviour of 1.4m individuals now available from Kent Business School.

Bespoke reports for individual farmers are made available that help improve sales in many different ways including:

• Obtaining new listings with retailers and others
• Designing new promotions
• Identifying new locations in which to sell

We also set up access to key consumer trends through a ‘Market Info’ section on our web-site selected and interpreted specifically for farmers.

We have subsequently developed and delivered a course on marketing principles for farmers.

The farm businesses we helped reported to us that the consumer insight had made a real commercial difference. They experienced sales uplifts between 3% and 15% with expectations of further gains.

Download our work on providing consumer information to farmers

Savings of £14.4m reported in pilot projects

We involved around 2000 farm businesses and over 120 other companies. These included large and small retailers, caterers, wholesalers, branded and own label manufacturers, processors, traders, distributors and agri-supply companies.

The businesses involved reported savings of £14.4m.

The return on investment is 270%.

We have left a legacy of case studies and training programmes that remain at the leading edge of business improvement.

See further details of the support we can provide