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Food and drink companies from across Northern Ireland will be learning how they can use data to support business planning at a workshop in Belfast tomorrow (Friday, 24^th April). 

Queen’s Management School and Kent Business School academics are hosting the event in collaboration with Tesco Northern Ireland. 

The workshop, which is being staged in the conference room at Queen’s University’s Riddell Hall building, will look at how food and drink firms who supply Tesco can access and use the retailer’s Clubcard data to aid business planning as well as marketing decision making. 

The event is set to focus on range management and the role of market insights in creating value for participating firms and consumers of their products. 

Queen’s Management School said the Supplier Workshop offers an opportunity to raise awareness among the agri-food industry and policymakers of how market intelligence can help small firms to be proactive and customer-centric businesses. 

Professor John Turner, acting Head of Queen’s Management School, said: “At Queen’s Management School we seek to foster connections between the University and business, exchanging ideas and knowledge. 

“The Supplier Workshop is an excellent example of this, involving cutting-edge academic thinking on how Big Data market insights can add value to the Northern Ireland agri-food sector.” 

Cliff Kells, Tesco Northern Ireland’s Commercial Manager, said: “This event is a great illustration of business and academia working together to upskill the local supply base and to explain how the use of market intelligence can help companies to know who their customers are and how this can lead to business improvement.” 

Dr Geoff Simmons, Senior Lecturer in Management at Queen’s Management School, insisted the agri-food industry is of critical importance to the Northern Ireland economy and has significant potential for further growth. 

He added: “This collaboration with Tesco NI in hosting the workshop shows how cutting-edge academic thinking can contribute positively to our economy.” 

The Centre for Irish Business and Economic Performance located at Queen’s Management School is the main sponsor of the workshop. The centre is focused on fostering a research agenda engaging a broad range of industry and policy stakeholders that will lead to fresh thinking on business. 

Tesco spends more than £550million on Northern Ireland products each year, it has more than 90 local suppliers and it stocks more than 1,200 local products.

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