Our client, an international government and their export trade organisation representing their country’s export-focused food and beverage businesses, engaged with Prof. Consulting Group for a UK Trade Mission to gain new market access to British supermarkets and food retailers.
In recent years, there’s been a significant shift in the approach to export trade and engagement at key trade shows. There’s a clear movement to trade show participation being led by Governments or their export trade teams. Often, these exhibitors exhibit through booths on a national pavilion in preferences to their own trade booths.
This investment continues to drive impact with buyers. Showcasing the food credentials of the exhibiting countries underneath the national banner provides strategic or practical support to exhibitors which helps them better understand the target market. This also successfully attracts the right buyers to drive commercial success.
Combined with the increased competitiveness of connecting the right product to the right retailer or buyer results in the market becoming increasingly competitive. There’s an expectation of the exhibiting company to demonstrate a concise understanding of the market dynamics, category, and competitive landscape to win future engagement.
Our UK team were engaged by an exciting international client to deliver a trade mission to the UK with a focus on London’s leading Food and Beverage trade show, IFE. We delivered a strategic approach to new market access for this client.
Delivering a strategic approach to new market access, our program focuses on building capability for international clients ahead of visiting the UK. We proposed this through group webinars focused on disseminated the UK retail landscape. This helps our clients understand which retailers to target and those that best aligned to their production capabilities, volume aspiration and brand positioning or value.
We also shared critical tools and tips for how to build a compelling retailer engagement pitch, including one-on-one sessions focused on actionable insights. We hosted workshops to finesse each of the clients’ retail pitches, combining the training and one-on-one coaching to ensure the companies were all buyer ready.
An essential part of the program involved a curated retail safari tour of London retailers representative of the UK market. This offered our clients time in store across the range of retailers, providing first-hand opportunity to experience the retail environment, category design and appreciate the competitive landscape of their target categories.
With the trade show being an ideal opportunity to meet buyers, we provide on-show support to help our clients maximise the sales opportunities. The highlight of the trade show event was an invitation-only Meet the Buyer evening event at the government’s embassy after the trade show.
Our UK Trade Mission program reached approximately 70 Food and Beverage businesses from our client’s country. These businesses benefitted from the enhanced understanding of the UK retail market that we offer. This enabled them to build a strategic approach towards new market access in the future.
Nearly 20 companies attended the UK Trade Mission event which provided them with first-hand opportunity to immerse themselves into the UK market. The trade show and Meet the Buyer event hosted over 60 buyers who were invited to engage directly with our exhibiting companies.
The UK Trade Mission project was delivered within an 8-week window, suiting the requirements of our international client.
To find out more information for how the team at Prof. Consulting Group can help build supplier capability and drive value through a Trade Mission supporting your economic growth strategy, please contact us.
