Hospitality hub aims to beef up food and drink trade

A purpose-built hospitality hub to help the growth of Scotland's £14 billion food and drink sector was opened today by rural economy secretary Fergus Ewing.

Fergus Ewing with John Quinn, Bidfood development chef for the north, left, and chief executive Andrew Selley. Picture: Neil Hanna

Foodservice provider Bidfood Scotland is launching the facility in Larbert, which sets out to work in partnership with Scottish food and drink suppliers as a dedicated “centre for excellence”, testing and developing new products as well as backing menu-development and innovation for some of its 5,000 customers in Scotland.

• READ MORE: Scotland aims to double up on food and drink revenue

Suppliers featured at the launch included The Scottish Salmon Company, Scotlay Eggs, Yester Farm Dairies, Inverloch Cheese company, First Milk and Aulds desserts.

Bidfood said the Larbert hub would be a 'centre for excellence'. Picture: Contributed

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Bidfood is backing efforts to double the value of the Scottish food and drink sector to £30bn by 2030.

Katie Sillars, business development manager for Scotland, told The Scotsman that the hub will be “the first of its kind in food service and really integral to us growing the Scottish food and drink sector”.

She added: “It’s fantastic to see our vision coming to life.”

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