Support for independent retailers & producers
We’ve brought together a range of genuine offers from our partners, enabling independent retailers to benefit from discounts and promotions during these difficult trading conditions.
Here at the Guild of Fine Food we have been supporting those who sell and make food for 40 years.
Overall, we’re optimistic about post-pandemic recovery: in 2021, 87% of you who run shops and 68% of you who make products told us you are expecting an increase in sales. Promisingly, over half of the businesses we talk to expect to create new jobs in the coming year. With that in mind, we’re taking the first steps towards launching two new initiatives – a mentoring scheme for our members and the start of a job matching / apprenticeship programme. Find out more below – we hope many of you will want to be involved.
Our industry faces an incredibly challenging time and we know the lengths independents have gone to in order to keep their teams intact and serve their local communities, and we’ve been campaigning for the government to recognise the role our sector has played in the last two years by ramping up its support as we move into the recovery stage.
Our members’ businesses form the lifeblood of both our local high streets and our food and drink culture and with the right support can ensure a diverse, healthy and sustainable future for food and drink across the UK. It is in everyone’s interests to ensure that independent food retail is here to stay.
There are huge demands on the sector, which are creating BOTH challenges and opportunities. There is also an awful lot of information circulating the internet and social media that generically helps business and individuals: all useful, but we will try and distill the most useful for you on a regular basis.
We are working hard to put together resources to support all those involved in our sector:
- Make sure you are signed up for our support bulletin: sent out at every fortnight, full of information specifically relevant to independent food retailers and the producers who supply them. It will give you practical business support.
- If you are an independent retailer and do not currently receive a printed copy of Fine Food Digest and would like to going forward, please apply here.
- To further support our members, we are currently gathering interest for a mentoring scheme and and a career/job-matching service. Please help us scope these schemes and ensure they are beneficial for you by registering your interest and feedback in the two brief forms below.
