Despite the devastating impact of COVID-19 on the sector, food and drink manufacturers in Central Bedfordshire have seen no interruption to the wide range of free support available to them via FEAST2 – the Food Enterprise Advisory Support Team.

The scheme, which offers access to funding, sector events, technical advice and mentoring to eligible businesses, has not only continued to assist companies throughout the crisis with it usual package of support measures, but has also introduced a series of webinars aimed at providing vital information to help tackle the additional issues raised by the lockdown restrictions.

Among those to benefit from the project is Dunstable-based soft drinks company Theodore Global and its Managing Director, Janet Theodore, says that attending the webinars and the further technical and business support they have received has been invaluable: “We have found our entire engagement with FEAST2 to be absolutely amazing and one of the most important elements is that reassuring feeling that someone is always there to hold our hands, virtually of course, whenever we have needed it!” explained Janet.

“We export to the USA and while labelling issues might have been a minefield, our technical advisor has enabled us to get that right, and of course we have not paid a penny for that crucial support and have therefore avoided potentially exorbitant consultancy fees.

“We are now also working with our FEAST2 mentor who is advising us on everything from marketing to costings and I can honestly say we wouldn’t be where we are now without all this guidance, so I would urge any food and drink producer to sign up to the scheme to see how they might benefit” enthused Janet.

FEAST2 was awarded to the Food & Drink Forum and is worth £3,934,176 in total. It will receive a further £1,967,089 in funding from the European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020.

It is open to eligible food and drink manufacturers within Central Bedfordshire and across the wider SEMLEP area.

For more information on the project, including registering your business for the free support and details of future webinars, please contact Amanda Askew at The Mallows Company on 01933 664437 or email amanda@themallowscompany.com

Meanwhile, for more details about Theodore Global and its range of soft drinks, please visit www.theodoreglobal.com or call 07772 784710.