PROMOTING LOCAL PRODUCE IN SUPERMARKETS

Given the increased interest in local shopping, which was discussed in yesterday's Daily Post column, I thought I would revisit an article I wrote back in December 2005 for the same newspaper.

It specifically examined how an Irish supermarket, Superquinn, encouraged greater purchasing of goods and services in Ireland through developing a new type of loyalty card.

Could it work here in Wales?

Well, as far as I can tell, something like this has never been tried in the UK but I am sure that one of the supermarkets could trial this for a period to see if consumers can be encouraged to buy local.

"When I lived in Dublin during the mid 1990s, I was astounded, on visiting my first Irish supermarket, to find that Irish goods were being promoted above and beyond the call of any retailer’s duty. 

Perhaps this was because I had been fortunate enough to visit a ‘Superquinn’s’ outlet, which has a superb record of promoting Irish produce. 

For example, everything sold in the shop – from food to toilet paper to clothes – that was produced in Ireland was highlighted with a Shamrock logo on the shelf front. This makes it far easier for customers to identify Irish products, which is a major complaint within many other stores. 

Moreover, Superquinn’s have a policy of using only Irish products in the fresh food areas and runs many promotions that are specifically focused on increasing awareness of Irish ranges, such as an “Irish speciality food festival” and extra bonus points on your loyalty card for buying Irish goods. 

And if that is not enough, just to let you know how much you are supporting the local economy, the receipt you receive at the checkout prints an “*” beside every Irish product purchased and, the sum at the end of each till receipt is divided into the total basket spend and the total spent on Irish products. 

Of course, the Irish have a long history of targeting the sale of home products within their own market. For example, Guaranteed Irish Ltd – an independent non-profit company - has its brand placed on Irish goods as diverse as children's books, bags of sugar and even software packages.

The focus on promoting Irish goods seems to be making a difference. For example, recent research has shown that whilst value remains the key priority for shoppers in Ireland, almost 40 per cent of them would pay up to 10 per cent more for Irish goods, so there is scope for supermarkets to promote Irish goods and benefit from this in terms of price.

To date, no similar campaigns have been run in within any Welsh supermarkets, even though I have raised the issue with the ‘big four’ during the last decade. Certainly, the promotion of Welsh produce within many of our supermarkets and shops is woefully inadequate, especially given that we are a manufacturing nation. 

Perhaps there are ‘state aid’ issues around the Assembly promoting Welsh goods in the same way that the Irish Guarantee scheme was stopped by the European Commission. Nevertheless, there is nothing stopping our economic policymakers from opening a dialogue with some of the major stores in to promote Welsh goods in a more constructive way. 

Indeed, the challenge is to ensure that, like the Irish, we have a symbol identifying Welsh produce (such as a red dragon symbol) and that we know exactly how much we spend on Welsh goods at the end of every shop. 

After all, if we give the Welsh consumer more information about the source of their purchases, we may well see more Welsh goods being bought in our shops with considerable spin-off for our economy."

THE EMERALD ISLE AND THE GREEN ECONOMY - THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY OF IRELAND?

The Republic of Ireland was one of the economies hardest hit by the recent global recession.

With unemployment reaching 15 per cent earlier this year and the Irish Government having to make austerity cuts that make those emanating from Whitehall look positively generous in comparison, there remained serious doubts as to whether the Celtic Tiger could recover any of its bite during the next decade.

Yet despite these challenges, the new Irish Government has begun a serious fightback and is continuing to look to innovation as the key driver in growing its economy for the future.

In particular, it is developing key strategies that are focusing on those areas of the economy it sees as being critical in transforming the business sector over the next decade.

One of these is the so-called Green Economy that encompasses a range of activities spread across different sectors that have the common objective of providing goods and services in a sustainable way that reduces the impact on the environment.

These include renewable energy, energy-efficient products, resource-efficient production techniques, the re-use, recovery and recycling of waste, water management and low carbon vehicles.

And it is not surprising that there is a focus by the Irish on the Green Economy that, despite the World’s economic problems, is estimated to be worth around nearly £4 Trillion pounds by 2015 and to be employing round 36 million people around the World.

So how are the Irish going to try and capture a small but significant slice of this important and growing sector?

The clues to this are to be found in “Delivering our Green Potential”, the recent policy statement by the Irish Government on growth and employment in the green economy.

According to this document, Ireland has significant strengths and advantages that it can leverage to exploit business opportunities in the Green Economy.

These include abundant renewable energy resources that raise the prospect of Ireland becoming an exporter of clean energy to the UK in the future and a strong research base that is highly relevant to a number of opportunities.

The country also has excellent natural resources such as clean water, air and land to support sustainable economic development as well as an outstanding natural environment and rich biodiversity to develop and support green tourism and related activities.

More importantly, it has a number of exemplar companies and organisations with a proven track record and international credibility in the Green Economy.

It is a comprehensive document that any politician or policymaker in the UK would do well to read thoroughly. However, in my opinion, five key issues jump out as being worthy of further consideration.

First of all is the role of government itself. Politicians are often accused of commissioning hefty strategic tomes that then lie gathering dust on the bookshelves of their civil servants. A critical part of this document is the high commitment to real action being demonstrated by the Irish Government to ensure that it takes the lead in pushing forward its green policies.

For example, the government has established a clear policy for renewable energy that will further develop wind energy, ocean energy, bioenergy, sustainable transport energy, and the supporting energy infrastructure.  Through this, it aims to achieve a 33 per cent reduction in public sector energy use by 2020.

Secondly, there is appreciation that the green economy can be applied across all sectors. Indeed, the Irish Government has now engaged in growing a green financial services industry as a key niche i.e. those capital markets, investment-banking activities and related advisory services that support the development, financing and promotion of a low carbon economy.

With global investment in this niche sector predicted to grow fourfold to over £600 billion by 2020, Ireland is looking to develop its reputation as a world-class green financial management hub. Indeed, green assets under management in Ireland have tripled in the past four years.

Thirdly, there is the continuing commitment to supporting green innovation through encouraging and facilitating collaboration between the university sector and the business community, predominantly by prioritising research in areas such as smart grids and smart cities, sustainable food production and processing, and marine renewable energy.

One excellent example of this is the Irish Maritime and Energy Resource Cluster (IMERC), which is a collaboration between Government Departments, state agencies, higher education institutions and industry partners led by University College Cork. IMERC is aimed at using the expertise and experience of researchers, teaching staff and naval personnel on the development of an ecosystem of innovation in the maritime sector and is underpinning Ireland’s position as an early leader in the ocean energy sector.

Fourthly, there is the issue of skills. It is widely recognised that the green economy often relies on jobs with specialist knowledge and expertise, especially in the fields of engineering, science, technology and mathematics. As a result, universities, as well as further education colleges, are being encouraged to align their courses with the needs of companies within the green sector in Ireland.

Finally, and most importantly, there is the key issue of branding and the drive to create an established international image to promote Ireland’s “Green” offering. In particular, this green image will be focused on attracting potential inward investors that are looking to base their operations within an environment that supports green policies.

Therefore, while Ireland still has a long way to go to recapture its former status as the Celtic Tiger, it is at least developing a strategy that is looking to grow the economy in a key sector during the next few years.

It is an approach that could and should be emulated on this side of the Irish Sea.

LEARNING FROM IRELAND - THE GLOBAL IRISH ECONOMIC FORUM

Whilst it seems, after Saturday's enthralling quarter final in the rugby World Cup, there is very little that Ireland can teach Wales in terms of modern rugby, the same is certainly not true in terms of how to get everyone working together to revitalise an economy.

On Saturday, I wrote about the sterling work of the Irish Technology Leaders Group (ITLG) and mentioned the upcoming Global Irish Economic Summit that was to take place over the weekend in Dublin Castle. 

Following this prestigious event, at which former US President Bill Clinton and a host of others spoke, there are a number of recommendations that have already been announced in the last couple of days. These include:

• Private sector expertise - ITLG has offered to put together a group of Irish technology leaders to sit on the boards of semi-state companies without charge to help the country weather the current economic storm. They would initially offer to work for free to help run various state bodies until 2016. Once a list of 100 leaders has been completed, it will be made public and handed to the Government, which will be asked to match the executives to positions on the state bodies
• International placements - 1,000 Irish business graduates are being offered placements with companies, business colleges and language schools in Asia - a number of global companies have now offered funding to sponsor this programme
• The Gathering - a global Irish “homecoming” which has been billed as the biggest tourism initiative ever staged in Ireland, will be a year-long event in 2013 which aims to attract as many as 325,000 extra visitors into Ireland. This would add €220 million to the Irish economy.

In addition, President Clinton has agreed to play a key role in the fight-back by Irish business and host a New York Irish summit next year to kick start Ireland’s economic recovery with the aid of American investment. 

So, there is a lot of activity going on across the Irish Sea and, more importantly, there is a sense of optimism and hope that the Irish economy can be turned around if everyone works together.

Surely, there is no reason as to why business and government in Wales could not do the same to take advantage of the experience and expertise of the "Cymru ar Wasgar" - the Welsh diaspora.

If there are any doubts about how this can make a difference, then Welsh politicians and policymakers should listen to some of the views of Denis O' Brien, one of Ireland's most successful businesspeople, on how he believes a small economy can be developed in these difficult times.

THE IRISH DIASPORA - LESSONS FOR WALES

Last week, I was delighted to be invited to Dublin for the fourth Annual “Silicon Valley Comes to Ireland” conference, organised by the Irish Technology Leaders Group’s (ITLG).

This is a regular event in which senior executives from the world’s innovation hotspot come over to Ireland to engage with more than fifty Irish technology companies in a series of private investor workshops.

Earlier this summer, the University of Wales Global Academy opened an office in ITLG’s Irish Innovation Centre in San Jose, the capital city of Silicon Valley, to give Welsh firms access to the region’s investors and universities.

So this was a real opportunity to catch up with John Hartnett, the President of ITLG, and see the effect that his team is having on delivering a more innovative economy. As John suggested during the event, their aim is to help Ireland focus on enlarging its indigenous high-tech sector to drive economic recovery as there is significant opportunity for growth created by these firms.

And despite the previous gloom surrounding its economy, John believes that there has been a real sea change during the last few years in which there is a greater “go for it” attitude amongst new entrepreneurs in Ireland.

I certainly can understand what he was talking about, having attended a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style University Challenge organized by ITLG and sponsored by Cisco, in which three companies spinning out from the Irish higher education centre competed on stage at Dublin City University for a €100,000 prize.

To be honest, the three presentations, from Pilot Photonics (Dublin City University), ALR (University of Limerick) and InfiniLED (University College Cork), were far above the standard normally seen on the BBC programme and the usual panelists would have been falling over themselves to invest in these companies.

InfiniLED, the eventual winner, has developed a next generation Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology which produces light more efficiently than conventional LEDs and has the potential to make massive inroads into a market worth billions of over the next few years.

In the picture, from left, are John Harnett, president of ITLG; Joe O’Keeffe, InfiniLED and Richard Stokes of DCU.

As I wrote earlier this year, the link between Silicon Valley and Ireland is beginning to pay real dividends by bringing together experienced investors to Ireland to engage directly with emerging Irish technology companies and further ten young high technology firms will be showcased in Stanford University in 2012.  I can only hope that, through our office at the Irish Innovation Centre, we can also start introducing Welsh companies to the opportunities available.

Of course, the real advantage that Ireland has is the fact that all the senior executives in Silicon Valley visiting this week have Irish roots and want to come back to help their economy in its hour of the need. The ITLG itself has over 3,000 members with chapters in Wall Street, Silicon Valley and Hollywood to bring together the three critical worlds of money, entertainment and innovation.

The support that the diaspora can provide has clearly hit home with Irish politicians and policymakers who have organized a Global Irish Economic Forum, which is being held at Dublin Castle this weekend.

With 270 delegates from 40 countries attending, including former US President Bill Clinton, the event will see the world of business and government discuss practical initiatives that can help the economic recovery in Ireland, including ways of generating foreign direct investment, promoting culture as well as increasing export and tourism figures.

Some of the planned debate topics include "Ireland's image abroad: communicating the message" and "Making Ireland more competitive in new and emerging markets".

But this is not only a talking shop - the fifteen working groups at the forum have been asked to come up with two or three ideas which Irish embassies around the world will then be charged with implementing. In fact, the idea of the Irish Innovation Centre came from the first summit held back in 2009, an idea that has been put into practice with outstanding results.

Certainly, there is no reason why Wales could not do the same to bring together the outstanding talent that is out there all over the world. The Irish are happy to help and, more importantly, are enthusiastic about our chances of success.

As John Hartnett and I concluded over a pint of Guinness late on Wednesday night, imagine being in a room where you had Michael Moritz, Terry Matthews and Howard Stringer discussing how to get the Welsh economy back on track.

That would be very special and could be the very spark needed to create a new innovative Wales and the entrepreneurial and competitive economy we all hope we can achieve in the future.

Western Mail column, 8th October 2011