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FOOD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LTD The Food Development Company Ltd is registered in the UK to promote sustainable social enterprise development worldwide. The aims and objectives include:
The Food Development Company will prepare business plans, promote and manage investments and undertake trade in a range of products. Jim Turnbull and Murray Pringle are the founding directors. Food Development Company Ltd 32 Oakley Road, Chinnor Oxfordshire, OX39 4HB, England
Tel: +44 1844 352 385 Fax: +44 1844 354 991
E-mail: info@FoodDevCo.com Registered in England No. 7010433 Jim Turnbull is Founder and Managing Director of BMC Ltd. He is also Founder, Director & Company Secretary of Fundatia ADEPT Ltd, a charity registered in England, and Founder & Director of Fundatia ADEPT Transilvania, a charity registered in Romania. The aims of ADEPT are to preserve one of Europe's last medieval landscapes, the Saxon Villages area of South Transylvania, through an innovative project to create a market-led conservation area working in close cooperation with local communities. He is co-founder of the first Farmers Market in Romania which opened in Bucharest, 2007 and adviser to the second which opened in Brasov, 2009. The Bucharest farmers market was accredited as a Slow Food Earth Market in 2009. Murray Pringle is founder and Managing Director of Salama Ltd. He is a Chartered Management Accountant, Chartered Secretary and Certified
Management Consultant. He has been an Associate Consultant with BMC Ltd since 2003, working on the Government Business Link scheme assisting
business start-ups and with the preparation of business plans for various commercial and development organisations. He has worked for many years as
consultant and/or team leader with high-profile organisations in the food, ecological-tourism and development areas, specialising in strategic and
financial planning. This has included the business plan for the Transylvania Food Company. Our philosophical concept draws on the successful components of many public funded projects from around the world and on corporate agribusiness approaches to building businesses in rural areas where the linkage to small farmers poses a major challenge. With climate change it has become increasingly important to consider the carbon footprint of the food we produce and eat and this not surprisingly favours small scale, low intensity production methods. It further builds on the Slow Food philosophy of linking small producers with the consumers of their products and promoting the concept of "good, clean and fair". It is important that consumers know where their food come from and that this is linked to seasonality, the landscape and the maintenance of ancient traditions and culture. Finally, the concept which is highly replicable provides a solution for sustainable enterprise development giving the local population a route to market for their produce and encouraging local participation in the equity of the company. It provides investors with an ethical and social opportunity to bring commercial best practice into the arena of rural community development. This concept has been developed, refined and proven over several years in Romania as part of the activities of Fundatia ADEPT but by 2009 the volume of sales had reached a level where charitable status was no longer appropriate and the logical progression was for a commercial entity to take the project forward. The challenge was to convert this success into a sustainable commercial enterprise where social and ethical benefits for the community are seen as business best practice rather than charitable activities. The more the community benefits financially, the more it will appreciate the advantages of protecting the landscape and this in turn will increase local support for conservation measures designed to protect the rich biodiversity. The solution has been the creation of a social enterprise where the mission is to apply market-based strategies to achieve the social and environmental purpose. The aim is to accomplish targets that are social and environmental as well as financial, often referred to as the triple bottom line, and where the social and environmental purpose remains central to the business decision making process. This approach recognises a growing international awareness that the scale of the problems facing the world today cannot be adequately solved by the traditional non-profit and philanthropic approach which is dependent on aid, donations and grants. The BMC network of associate consultants is actively seeking and developing other business opportunities elsewhere in the world where the concept is applicable. Their local contact and country knowledge acts as a critical filter but a frequent bottle neck encountered is the need for a robust business plan. Frequently the local sponsors do not have the skill or financial resources to undertake this work. The Food Development Company is therefore seeking seed capital to facilitate this process and to take the business plans forward into sustainable enterprises. A further bottleneck is that many financiers will only look at projects requiring an investment in excess of say €5 million and very few sustainable food projects involving small producers are this large. It would be a mistake to make projects larger just to satisfy this requirement as this would almost certainly weaken their viability. The Food Development Company is therefore seeking investors who would consider adopting a portfolio approach to overcome this blockage in the "missing middle" ground of enterprise development and investment. In order to build capacity in transport logistics and to gain knowledge of the main players in the food sector in the countries of operation, the Food Development Company will seek to procure speciality products for trade customers seeking to indentify suppliers of quality products for niche markets where the story of the landscape, the people and culture will add value. The first operational subsidiary in the portfolio has been established in Romania. The Transylvania Food Company Srl is a social enterprise established to commercialise the project activities started by Fundatia ADEPT (see www.fundatia-adept.org) with support from the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity. In 2005, Fundatia ADEPT identified the quality of the jams produced in the Tarnava Mare area, characterised by exceptional flavour, high fruit content and low added sugar, as the first product to take to market in its programme to diversify rural incomes. In February 2006, Fundatia ADEPT held its first training course in basic food hygiene (certified by the Royal Society for Public Health) and from this identified ladies who were interested in producing a surplus of jam for sale (over their household requirements). None had ever sold produce before, most believed that every household in the world made their own jam and none were convinced that a market existed. During a second visit to the area by the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, the best types of jams and the best producers of the best types of jams were identified and "Saxon Village Preserves" a presidium project was created. Slow Food Presidia are local projects that work to protect small scale producers and to safeguard quality artisan products. Their objective is to guarantee a viable future for local communities by organising producers, searching out new economic outlets and raising the profiles of tastes and regions. The most interesting preserves for the Saxon Village Preserves presidia were those made with rhubarb, wild fruit (rose-hip, Mirabelle plums, strawberries and blueberries) or apple and cinnamon (prepared with the piele apple variety, a slightly acidic, grey-green apple that matures between the end of September and the beginning of October). The use of cinnamon is an ancient and tied to Mittleuoropean traditions, as the region was once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In October 2006, six producers with approximately 1,500 jars of their jam attended the biannual Slow Food event in Turin. They were overwhelmed by the positive response to their produce and returned home empowered and motivated to produce more jam. The project was further developed by Fundatia ADEPT and in 2008 the ladies produced almost 20,000 jars. The product list was expanded to include a range of pickles, honey, juices, tinctures and dried herbs. In December 2007, Fundatia ADEPT was a founder of the first Farmers Market in Romania - established in Bucharest and now a weekly event. It gained international recognition as a Slow Food Earth Market in 2009. A monthly market in Brasov is also now established and the Food Company are actively involved in establishing a quarterly market in Sighisoara. Following the accession of Romania to the EU in 2007, new legislation was introduced in February 2009 that required the producers to use dedicated facilities approved for food production rather than their domestic kitchens. Fundatia ADEPT had built a 22x5m food barn (micro processing unit) in Saschiz to provide presidia producers with a food production facility that is authorised for retail sales. The "food barn" is a traditional barn on the outside but inside is a dedicated and authorised food production facility. On 23 May 2009, HRH The Prince of Wales came to Saschiz to inaugurate this model food processing unit. This "food barn" is a simple conversion of a farm courtyard barn, and has been authorised by the Directorate for Sanitary Veterinary & Food Safety Authority (DSVSA) for the production of local products for retail sales in Romania, and to other countries. The food barn will help small producers in the area to continue to use their traditional recipes while meeting new food safety requirements. The Transylvania Food Company Srl will rent the Saschiz food barn (micro processing unit) from Fundatia ADEPT and establish at least another three food barns in neighbouring villages, purchasing inputs and selling produce in support of the local economy. In addition, the Company will enter into reverse franchise agreements to create and support a wider network of local social enterprises each producing a range of added value food products. The Company will process and market a range of jams, pickles, syrups, honey and herbs. Product development will include the introduction of a range of mature cheeses, dried herbs and cold pressed speciality oils. The Company will also seek trade customers for the abundant honey produced in the area. Fundatia ADEPT has also been promoting eco-tourism and crafts in the area and this has created demand for local products and provided a high level of national and international media cover. For the availability of products and services see www.DiscoverTarnavaMare.org. CONTACT DETAILS Transylvania Food Company Srl
E-mail: info@FoodDevCo.com Registered in Romania No. J / 26 / 03 / 2010
For further information send an e-mail toJWTurnbull@bmc-ltd.com
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