Eight of Ireland’s leading seafood companies put their innovative ideas to the test in the first of three mentoring sessions in the Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) Seafood Innovation Academy programme. The aim of the Academy is to strengthen the skill sets and capability in the seafood processing sector regarding new product development, technology transfer and business model innovation to directly assist the companies to bring their seafood product ideas from concept to market launch.
L to R: Pat O’Leary, International Business Development Manager, SDC, Clonakilty, Co Cork; Dr. Mairead Brady, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Trinity Business School; Aileen Deasy, Seafood Technologist, SDC; Clonakilty, Co Cork; John Fagan, Senior Technologist, SDC, Clonakilty, Co Cork and Michael Cannon, SDC, Clonakilty, Co Cork.
John Kenny, Sales Director for Atlantis Seafoods, one of the companies taking part in the Academy, explains how the academy will benefit their business; ‘We have always had a strong focus on innovation and new product development in Atlantis so the Seafood Innovation Academy is an opportunity for us to get constructive feedback on our plans and to tap into the best expertise available in the field. I found the session in BIM’s Seafood Development Centre very good and the insights from a cross section of speakers including companies that have led the way in innovation will certainly lead our thinking going forward’
Head of R&D at Carbery Ingredients, Áine Hallihan, walked through the company’s transition from commodity products into producing value added products. She also spoke about how the culture of innovation works in a large company. Sarah O’Connor from Cool Beans talked about how they have successfully created an innovative, healthy ready-meal from the basic bean! Their focus on strategic marketing into the health and well being market with a particular emphasis on health conscious families and young professionals has certainly paid off with sales dramatically increasing from €11,000 in 2014 to €203,000 in 2016.
Expert speakers at the event included Dr. Mairead Brady, Assistant Marketing Professor from Trinity College Dublin’s Business school. Dr. Brady focused on using the latest available technology to gather market intelligence about your products and the consumer. Zuilmah Wallis from Bord Bia’s Insights Team, gave valuable insights into the seafood category, while Brian English, Managing Director, Qupact discussed routes to market and new innovations in technology.
Eight of Ireland’s leading seafood companies put their innovative ideas to the test in the first of three mentoring sessions in the Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) Seafood Innovation Academy programme. The aim of the Academy is to strengthen the skill sets and capability in the seafood processing sector regarding new product development, technology transfer and business model innovation to directly assist the companies to bring their seafood product ideas from concept to market launch.
The Seafood Innovation Academy is an exciting new addition to the services provided in the BIM Seafood Development Centre as Donal Buckley, BIM’s Director of Business Development and Innovation explains; ‘BIM has assisted more than 58 seafood companies through our Seafood Development Centre to develop more than 88 innovative added value seafood products and processes. Our focus now is to facilitate our seafood companies to build the right company structures and capability to drive their own innovation agenda. We have identified the need to attract new talent and skills particularly in the areas of new product development, business development and marketing and the Seafood Innovation Academy will assist to address this deficit through our graduate and Masters in Seafood Innovation programmes with University College Cork , Waterford Institute of Technology, and Letterkenny Institute of Technology’.
