Member Article

Producers in North East England given a helping hand

A new initiative providing commercial support to regional producers will launch this week in The Pavilion at The Alnwick Garden. Regional stakeholders and local businesses will be attending the ‘Made in Northumberland’ launch event this Friday 18 May.

Giles Ingram, chief executive at Northumberland Tourism, said: “Northumberland Tourism is committed to helping local tourism businesses work together with the overall aim of improving the visitor experience to the region. We have a wealth of Made in Northumberland events planned over the coming year, which we are confident will have a significantly positive impact on the regional offering.”

As part of the Made in Northumberland initiative, Northumberland Tourism invited regional food and drink producers, artists, photographers and craft makers, to a ‘Meet the Buyer’ event last week, to provide them with commercial advice and access to new business opportunities. Over 50 producers from across North East England attended the two-day event which ran over Tuesday 8 and Wednesday 9 May.

Adam Ellis-Jones, Made in Northumberland project manager, said: “The Meet the Buyer event successfully highlighted the range of quality products being made in the region, although many are not marketed to their full potential. “Over the next few months our aim is to support these local entrepreneurs by providing advice and training, which we hope will bolster sales of local products, both regionally and nationally.”

Mike Dukes, managing director of The Alnwick Garden, added: “At The Alnwick Garden, stimulating local enterprise is central to our ethos, so we are delighted to be the first organisation to partner with Northumberland Tourism on the Made in Northumberland initiative. We were thoroughly impressed with the calibre of people we met, so much so that we have even added some of them to our supplier list.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .