It can be challenging for fresh produce companies of any size to take on a new project, see it through to the end and achieve the results they want, especially given the variable nature of the business.
But in financially tough times, it is more important than ever to keep innovating and stay at the top of the game, drawing on all available resources to achieve anything from improved margins or better marketing strategies to more efficient business processes or new product development.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) make up one of the UK’s leading graduate programmes, helping businesses improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills found within the UK knowledge base. The schemes, which run for between one and three years, are designed to find innovative ways to help businesses grow, increase competitive advantage and access recently qualified people to spearhead new projects, as well as bounce ideas off experts who can help take business forward.
KTP works across a wide range of academic disciplines from more than 140 knowledge bases and has partnered up with more than 3,000 organisations of all sizes, from manufacturing to design, sustainability to marketing, including not-for-profit and public sector organisations.
The initiative, set up as the Teaching Company Scheme to focus on science and engineering in higher education and look at how this knowledge could be shared with business, was rebranded as KTP in 2003, when it opened up to cover a range of disciplines, incorporating both higher and further education institutions. KTPs provide resources and expertise to thriving organisations that are aiming to innovate, expand or improve their performance.
The food, drink and tobacco sectors formed 35 KTP initiatives in the year to March 2008, representing just four per cent of the total portfolio, so there is potential for more link-ups in these areas.
The scheme forms a partnership between a company and an academic institute, enabling the business to access the skills and expertise needed to help it develop. The triangle is completed by a link-up with one or more recently qualified persons, known as associates, to facilitate this transfer of skills and expertise. The associate, with an average age of 28, works full time with the company on a key project, jointly supervised by company personnel and a senior academic.
The UK-wide programme is funded by 18 organisations and is headed up by the Technology Strategy Board, a business-led, non-departmental public body. Nearly £95 million was committed to new KTPs in 2007-08, in the form of grant support and company contributions. This is backed by a range of sponsors from DEFRA to numerous research councils and regional development agencies, which together contributed some £27m of grant support to the pot.
This means that a small- to medium-sized enterprise is expected to contribute about a third of the costs involved in a project and the average annual contribution is just over £20,000. This contributes to the costs of the knowledge base supervisor, as well as the employment and development of the associate.
Each project is tracked carefully to ensure that it is working well for everyone involved, with monthly and quarterly meetings attended by all partners.
The success of the scheme to date is reflected in the fact that around 80 per cent of associates are offered a permanent position of employment at the end of their placement.
KTP regional delivery manager Wendy Mannix explains that the scheme is designed so that each of the partners - the employer, the associate and the academic institution - will gain from the partnership. The results at the end of the project can be measured against the expectations laid out in the proposals, especially in terms of the expected profits. “The scheme helps companies access knowledge, technology or skills that we have within our knowledge base of academic institutions,” says Mannix. “This is so that businesses can improve their competitiveness and their profitability.
“The programme is delivered on the ground by a team of 34 regional advisors. The recruitment process is carried out jointly by the business and the academic institution, but to save companies the administrative burden of employing the KTP associate, he or she is actually employed by the academic institution, even though they are based with the company.
“Throughout the project, a local management committee meets three times a year to make sure it stays on track and is still in line with what the company set out to do. The idea is that all three parties benefit from the project. For the company, it is a relatively low-risk way of bringing someone in and seeing what they can do, while working on a specific project. For the associate, it is a way into their chosen discipline and a way to gain management experience and further qualifications. The academic institution, in the middle, benefits from the publication of related academic papers, teaching materials and the possibility of undergraduate placements.
“There is so much project planning and monitoring that goes into KTP partnerships to make sure that they stay on track and that they deliver in terms of value for money - that is what I believe sets us apart from other business support strategies,” she adds.
Here, FPJ has put caught up with two companies that took the plunge with KTP partnerships and came out smiling.
A brand-new venture
Bristol Fruit Sales (BFS) took up a KTP programme in October 2007 to develop a new brand for its locally grown produce from Cornwall. Growfair - Pride of Cornwall was launched at the end of March last year and now has 14 growers that supply fruit and vegetables in season, overseen by KTP associate and brand development manager Mark Oughtred, will complete his two-year placement with the firm in October.
BFS joint managing director Nick Matthews was introduced to the scheme at a Taste of the West supplier development event two years ago, when the University of Plymouth gave a presentation on how the scheme works. “We had already decided to develop a brand and we had Objective One funding, but we realised that we did not have the right people to take it further, either because they did not have the right skills or because they had the skills but were busy with what they were working on,” he explains. “We knew we could employ a marketing agency that comes in for either a few weeks or hours a week, or go down the KTP route, where someone stays for two years and passes on knowledge while they are there, whether they stay in the long term or not.
“At the same time, we get input from academics who can give us the latest research on marketing to support what we are doing and through the university, we can get students to undertake market research, which we have put to good use.”
Oughtred is on a two-year placement with the South West-based firm and hopes to pursue a career in the fresh produce industry in the long term. “I have always been interested in fresh produce, having done a degree in food marketing at Newcastle University and my dissertation on salads,” he says. “It is a fascinating industry to be involved in because fresh produce is a living entity and we have to treat it with respect - it is not like a tin of beans.
“Initially, my role was to launch the Growfair brand. BFS has been working with growers in Cornwall for many years - some for more than 20 years - and the product they grow is fantastic. But they would just deliver it into the Bodmin depot in any old box and we knew that we needed to improve this to make it look more professional.”
The next step will be to launch Pride of Devon, and perhaps even Pride of Pembrokeshire, spin-offs.
“This KTP programme is a fantastic opportunity for me to apply the knowledge I have acquired through my studies to a real-life business situation,” says Outghtred. “It has gone really well since the launch and we are supplying quite a few pallets out of Cornwall, and some have even gone as far as Glasgow, through our links with markets through Total Produce. We are at the stage where lessons have been learnt and the growers know the team and how it all works, so I can spend time in other places and get the brand off the ground in other regions.
“I am now working on the launch of Growfair - Pride of Devon, which will be introduced in the summer.”
A model project
PE Simmons & Son became part of a KTP for the first time back in 2001, in a bid to secure its position as a market leader by exploring the favourable climate that Cornwall offers for early crops, within a framework of a continuously improving quality management system. KTP associate Ellis Luckhurst joined the company to help develop a cauliflower maturity prediction model with the University of Plymouth and two other commercial partners.
The two-year project characterised micro-climates to fully exploit crop planning and new crop potential, recorded data to support the development of the maturity model and introduced an integrated crop management scheme, including pest management protocols.
The placement saw company turnover increase by 28 per cent and profitability rise by 14 per cent, as well as improved labour planning and waste reduction. Three permanent members of staff were taken on and Luckhurst retrained as technical manager. He still works for the firm on a consultancy basis.
David Simmons, managing director at PE Simmons, has since organised a second KTP programme on the strength of the first. “I found the whole process very positive and the project went into great depth,” he says. “Our KTP associate was working from our Hale site, helping us in a technical role. The support and advice we got from our academic partner from the University of Plymouth was very relevant to what we were doing.”
Luckhurst came to the company with some background in agronomy, having worked as a trainee at the Fresh Produce Consultancy in Cambridgeshire, where he specialised in alliums and salads. “I had just graduated, but I had some experience in the marketplace when I started as a KTP associate,” he explains. “I was initially attracted to the technical role because that is what I wanted to do in the long term.
“My role was to validate a Horticultural Development Company (HDC) model through the KTP scheme, based on a lot of field measurements and the recording of different sites in Cornwall. At the end of the two-year project, I was offered the job of technical manager and I continued in this role for three years.
“The partnership got me down to Cornwall in the first place and I am now self-employed and run a consultancy business. I joined the HDC field vegetable panel in 2003-04. The scheme allowed me to get the experience I needed to progress quickly, meaning that I could set up my own business within five years because the placement helped raise my profile in the industry.”
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