Job Description – Business Development Manager

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Terms

Post:                      Business Development Manager, Leitrim Food Enterprise Zone CLG

Term:                    3 years from 1st February 2020 to 31st January 2023

Salary:                   €40,000 2020- 2021; €42,000 for 2021 – 2022 and 2022- 2023

Location:              Drumshanbo with occasional travel within the NW region and within Ireland for appropriate food sector events.

 

Leitrim Food Enterprise Zone CLG was established to accelerate the agri-food economy in the North West region, to deliver additional food infrastructure in conjunction with stimulus approaches to unleash the potential of food entrepreneurs in the North West region.  More than a place to produce, it will bring together manufacturers, exporters and supply chain partners and builds on the experience and success of founding partner The Food Hub, Drumshanbo.

 

Responsibilities

  • Oversee the refurbishment to food grade standard of a factory premises, Dowra Road, Drumshanbo and its transformation into a multi-tenant food incubator enterprise centre.
  • The subsequent overall management of the new facility (8,953 ft2) and The Food Hub Facility (32,000 ft2 of food production space and training facility).
  • Building sectoral capacity through emphasis on growth and scaling initiatives, namely through two Enterprise Ireland funded programmes to commence early in 2020 – the IRELAND Northwest Food & Drink Export Launchpad programme and National Supply Chain Distribution programme.
  • The promotion of an enterprise culture within the locality, promoting the potential of the food sector to all sectors of the community including young people.
  • Working with all relevant support agencies in the region and in the food sector for the mutual benefit of those agencies, client businesses in Leitrim Food Enterprise Zone and The Food Hub.
  • Encouraging networking benefit and synergies among tenant businesses and other food businesses in the locality.
  • The exploration of additional sources of funding and income generation for the Food Enterprise Zone.
  • Monthly reporting to management committee and quarterly reporting to Enterprise Ireland.

 

Required Qualities & Experience

  • A minimum of 3 years’ experience of working within the food sector, preferably within a small business environment.
  • Proven experience of managing physical facilities preferably within the food sector.
  • Understanding of, and experience of working with, the various regulatory authorities involved in the food sector with whom tenant companies will have to deal.
  • An ability to work effectively as a support provider to small businesses in respect of regulatory matters, business planning, market development and financial planning.
  • An effective independent worker who will drive the development of Leitrim Food Enterprise Zone over the course of the three years.
  • Experience of food sector sales and distribution

 

Email your CV and cover letter outlining suitability for the position to  hello@foodenterprise.zone before January 4th 2020.

 

This position is supported by Enterprise Ireland under the Regional Enterprise Development Fund.

Launch of Nourish eu Toolkit and Healthy Food Conference

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Healthy Future for Local Food Sector – Leitrim, Cavan, Longford and Roscommon

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60% of Irish adults are obese or overweight and this worrying figure will set the scene for a major food innovation conference this week in Drumshanbo which Momentum in delighted to be a part of. The networking and showcase event on October 14th in Lough Allen Hotel, Drumshanbo will look at tackling creative ways to produce, market and distribute healthy food, while meeting like-minded entrepreneurs and buyers, and of course, sampling some of the innovative and healthy foods on offer in the region.

The overall aim of the healthy food initiative is to secure business and tourism opportunities for the future economy of the area, while supporting local enterprise diversity and innovation.   Food producers attending are interested in innovating healthier food ranges by either modifying their existing ranges or developing new products.  Companies attending range from  from Aurivo’s Connacht Gold Low Fat Butter and For Goodness Shakes range to Lakeland Dairy who supply all of the UK milk for schools programme with a low sugar milk drink to smaller artisan producers. We look forward to meeting with lots of our curennt and past food clients many of whom are already excelling in the area of product innovation and health and wellness trend including Jinny’s Bakery,The Cheese Hub,  and recent Blas na HEireann winners Chef Sham Sauces, Roll it Pastryand Waldron Meats

Supported our Eu funded Erasmus+ Nourish EU project, which stimulates the development of healthy and innovative food regions, the Upper Erne Shannon Erne Future Economies, the Local Enterprise Offices of the region and Aurivo, the leading food co-operative embarking on innovative healthy food initiatives, the conference is free to attendee for food producers and buyers and  includes a Spotlight on Distribution, Learning from Others, and focus on Financing Innovation. The end of programme reception sees the launch of Nourish EU’s ‘Irish Healthy Food Partnership Toolkit’, an Erasmus + initiative by the Chief Executive of Leitrim County Council, Frank Curran.

Thanks to the generous sponsorship of Nourish EU, Local Enterprise Office and Aurivo Ireland, there’s no fee payable to attend the event – just book online at www.nourisheu.com/booking to secure your place and start growing profits from healthy food!

Food Hospitality Course – Spring 2015

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Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim Education Training Board, together with the Leitrim Development Company has been successfully running a continuous full time 10 month FETAC Level 5 Hospitality Operations Course in the Food Hubs Community Kitchen for the past 5 years.

week 29 day 2 061There is an average of 18 participants completing the course each time, and the success rate for progression to further education or employment has thus far been exceptional. Many have taken up positions in the Hospitality Sector which has always been a good source of work even in recessionary times.

The need for better trained individuals is now more apparent than ever as we are slowly but surely coming back to economic recovery.

 

The modules participants undertake are:

week 29 day 2 057FOOD PREPARATION
ACCOMMODATION TECHNIQUES
WORK EXPERIENCE
COMMUNICATIONS
SAFETY & HEALTH @ WORK
RESTAURANT SKILLS

The 2 tutors running the course are both qualified chefs and have a vast experience in the Hospitality sector.

The course also uses the Home economics facilities qt the Vocational College in Drumshanbo to run the practical Food Preparation exams.

Irish-Polish Culinary Experience

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A group of 25 people from the Carpathian Region of Poland visited the Food Hub last week. The trip was organised by Leitrim Development Company in partnership with their Polish counterparts, Dolina Raby. The group had a tour of the facility on Thursday the 26th visiting Carrig Brewing Company, Chef in a Box and The Shed Distillery before a free event took place that evening in the Community Kitchen.

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This was an evening of ‘Polish and Irish Authentic Cuisine’ which was attended by 120 people who sampled a range of traditional dishes from both countries.

UCD visit to The Food Hub

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We were delighted to recedntly welcome a group of UCD Students to The Food Hub.

Pictured is Brian Taft, Head Distiller at The Shed, conducting a tour for a group of students from the Faculty of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine during their visit to the Food Hub on Tuesday, March 10th.

nourish eu Project Launch

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nourish eu is an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership that will develop educational tools to assist the stimulation of Healthy & Creative Food Regions. The biggest challenges facing the EU food sector are obesity and food poverty but these are also commercial opportunities to develop healthy and affordable foods. nourish eu is an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership that will develop educational tools to assist the stimulation of Healthy & Creative Food Regions in UK/Northern Ireland, Bulgaria, Hungary and Ireland.

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The Food Hub  are joined in this project by Momentum, who are based in Leitrim Village. The project will work closely with the key players in food policy and food production to develop new approaches to ‘healthy, affordable and sustainable food” accessible to all.

Joining forces with organisations in UK, Bulgarian and Hungary, The Food Hub, Drumshanbo and local training and development specialists, Momentum will develop a toolkit to assist and train regional stakeholders to create a Healthy Food Regional Partnership. This toolkit will comprise a programme of learning actions and guidance on how to create a healthy food region.

Recent Opening of The Shed Distillery

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We recently welcomed a new tenant to The Food Hub. Last December, PJ Rigney and his team opened the first distillery in Connaught in 101 years!

They join a thriving Food Hub with Carrig Brewing Company, Bo Peep Preserves, The Cheese Hub , Mc Niffes Boxty, Chef in a Box ready meals and JB catering services.

Great to see so much press about the recent launch of this business. 2015 has gotten off to a great start for us here in the Food Hub and promises to be a very a positive year for Drumshanbo.

Irish Times

Irish Independent

LEGOCIE (LEt’s GO Cooking In Europe!)

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LEGOCIE (LEt’s GO Cooking In Europe!) is a Grundtvig Partnership project which will encourage and facilitate adults to share knowledge and good practice about the ways that cooking skills and healthy eating are encouraged and supported in a number of European countries.

In the first year of the project, for each country involved, partners:

  • Investigated the cooking skills and eating habits in their country;
  • Looked at the impact that cooking skills can have on healthy eating and the fight against obesity;
  • Investigated the strategies that are in place at local and national level to promote and support improved cooking skills and a healthy diet.

In the second year of the project, we focused on developing cooking skills in each participating country.
On the basis of what we found in the first year, each partner:

  • Devised an event to promote and encourage cooking skills and healthy eating with community groups, volunteers, parents or elders in their local area or region. The success of this will be evaluated by each individual partner, and the learning will be shared with the other partners at the final project meeting.
  • Developed some resources to promote and support cooking healthy food so that the work of the project group can be disseminated locally, regionally and nationally. This will include the collation of healthy recipes and cooking skills information from each of the partner countries.

You can find out more about this project here – www.legocie.eu