Partner Series – Shrewd Foodie

At Episode Two we love branding and packaging design, but we know this is only a small part of building a successful brand, and so we’re partnering with some fantastic industry experts to bring you resources and insights relevant to your entire brand journey.

Following on from our recent collaboration post ‘Roadmaps: Your Recipe for Remarkable Results’, meet Julie, the fantastic food and drink consultant from Shrewd Foodie.

So, what do Shrewd Foodie do?

We provide a wide range of business services for growing brands. Combining our experience and connections across food retail, hospitality, food producers and growers – whatever your business challenge, we’ll be able to help.

Our services include:

Strategic thinking – defining your vision; creating roadmaps for success
Commercial insights – identifying opportunities for your brand
Routes to market – creating links with retailers; supporting negotiations
Brand development – articulating your USP; briefing designers with critical insights
Financial stability – investment; understanding your cash flow and commercials

And who do you work with?

We’re lucky to work with a really diverse range of clients. The common thread is a passion for producing great-tasting food in an environmentally conscious manner. We focus on brands with a true connection to their product, ideally, those that make it themselves, using clean ingredients and having come from a farming background – we love working with farmers.

Tell me more about the team?

I’ve worked in food retail and hospitality for the last 25yrs and have loved every minute. From being a buyer for Waitrose, buying and marketing roles at Booths, commercial director at Westmorland through to Managing Director of Keelham Farm shop I’ve learned so much along the way, and it’s fantastic to be able to bring all this experience to start-up and scale-up brands. To help give them a kick start into the industry.

The other half to Shrewd Foodie is Jonathan.  As a former dairy farmer and research fellow at the University of Reading, his expertise is in providing an analytical approach, helping deliver insight from business data and overlaying that with the practical perspective necessary to understand the challenges faced by entrepreneurs seeking to grow their brands.

Finally, I’d love to know a bit more about you – can you tell me an interesting fact?

When we’re not in the office, we are out and about on the hills either hiking or running and we try (and mainly fail) to grow most of the fruit and veg we need, although growing organically in SW Scotland tends to mean we get a lot of rain, not enough sunshine and a lot of slugs to share our crops with!

So, this is the Shrewd Foodie – your vital ingredient to opening doors and expanding your brand horizons!

If you’re interested in finding out more, book in a call with Julie here.

Partnering with experts means that your time can be spent doing what you do best – building your brand!