People in Wales thinking about turning a food or drink idea into a manufacturing business can get free practical help at a series of sessions in Cardiff this autumn.
ZERO2FIVE Food Industry Centre at Cardiff Metropolitan University is running workshops for new manufacturers, people considering starting up and existing food-service businesses moving into retail or wholesale products.
The sessions cover the less glamorous but crucial parts of getting a product onto a shelf: registering a food business, food safety, ingredient sourcing, costings, finance, market , sales, scaling production and the wider support available in Wales.
Four sessions are scheduled between September and December, with time afterwards for participants to discuss their own product or idea with the ZERO2FIVE team. For somebody whose business currently exists as a recipe, a notebook and several very patient relatives, that first bit of expert guidance can be surprisingly valuable.