Increasing efficiency from grower to eater

What is this project?

This project has been successful in instigating various changes with food procurement in the council, the results of this work was disseminated during autumn 2007.

We worked in partnership with English Farming and Food Partnerships (EFFP) and the West Midlands Centre of Excellence and Government Office West Midlands to hold an event engaging with sustainable supply chains, held on the 7 November 2007. This event was to disseminate the findings from the "increasing efficiency from grower to eater" project undertaken by us over the last 18 months.

It also included ideas and case studies about alternative food procurement and supply options from around the county. This event attracted a range of decision makers, catering managers, procurement officers, from a number of public sector organisations from across the West Midlands. Presentations from this event are available to download from this page.

The procurement of food is a complex regional, national and global supply chain which is little understood. The benefits of exploring the localisation of this supply chain are potentially great, as a wide variety of produce currently grown within the region is exported at a cost. If this cost can be internalised within the region, not only will local authorities benefit from improved service delivery, but businesses within the region will also benefit from a healthier local economy.

This project, 'increasing efficiency from grower to eater' explores the opportunity to generate improvements through and efficiency review of current food buying practice, build on current partnership work to engage further public sector buyers and positively influence the regional supply chain to meet customer demands.

The project aspirations were to:

• carry out an efficiency review of the council's current methods of food procurement
• look at the feasibility of remodelling service delivery
• make improvements within the supply chain

The project has reached its conclusions and the main reports are available for download from this page. A case study prepared by the West Midlands Centre of Excellence is also available for download, (photos in this case study were provided courtesy of Foodie magazine).

The first stage efficiency review highlights that although healthy, local and organic food has become a higher priority, it is difficult to implement changes over a short timescale and changes will take time to put into place. It was concluded that probably less than 10% of food procured by all the council establishments was local, despite the efforts over the last couple of years to change this.

The second stage was a feasibility study examining whether local producers could collaborate and create a wholesale style of business(es) capable of year round supply to the public sector, thereby enabling the council to meet customer demand in supplying local produce. This report concluded that the most efficient model would be to follow a local hub model, using different suppliers for different areas of the county.

The third stage was looking to make improvements to the supply chain and establish the potential of producers and suppliers in Shropshire to fit with a local hub model. To attract a wider range of suppliers, it was decided that by providing information in advance of the tender about the contract and how to tender would give businesses with less experience of supplying the public sector the knowledge needed to submit a competitive tender. Through work with the procurement team and the School Meals service it has been possible to implement changes as contracts come up for renewal. The meat contract has been the first to be looked at and is now being supplied by a number of local suppliers.

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