SCOTLAND'S FOOD and drink sector should be raising a glass to export figures totalling £10.5 billion last year, buoyed by the lifting of the 10-year ban on beef exports.
The UK has finally left behind the dark days of the BSE crisis, and producers, many of them in Scotland, are reaping the rewards of the return of beef to overseas menus.
Meat exports climbed by 4% to $746m, with lamb making up the largest share of that by value. But analysts were most excited by a surge in demand for our beef.
It all bodes well for a sector that has too often been overlooked. But there is even more good news to be celebrated. According to Food From Britain, Walkers Shortbread stands out among the brands that did particularly well abroad last year.
Scotland has also been punching above its weight in salmon production, exporting more than 12 million whole salmon in 2006.
And whisky is by far the biggest food and drink export - with £2.526 billion in sales in 2006. That looks set to increase even more this year as the rising middle and upper classes of emerging markets like Brazil, Mexico, China and Russia develop a taste for our national drink.
These exports are feeding back to Scotland, leading to major investment to increase capacity at distilleries. Diageo, for instance, is spending millions on building a new malt whisky distillery in Speyside. This all leads to job creation in Scotland, and more often than not in rural communities.
The import of the sector has been recognised by Scottish Enterprise making food and drink one of its six key priority industries.
In March, rural development minister Ross Finnie also told farmers of plans to create a new industry-led leadership organisation for the food and drink industry which would help Scottish farming focus on the requirements of consumers.
The idea is to get all elements of the industry from producers to food service and retailers to work together to respond to shifts in consumer tastes and to make better use of marketing and branding.
This initiative is seen as a way forward to compete more effectively against rival nations such as Ireland, which has the very effective promotional body, Bord Bia. And we would urge Scottish Enterprise and industry leaders to get this plan off the ground as soon as possible to make the most of the recent acceleration in exports.
However, given that food and drink makes up a major portion of the country's manufactured goods, we would also urge the Scottish Executive to take on board demands from the Scottish Chambers of Commerce and the STUC to put more resources into the Manufacturing Advisory Service, to help companies find ways of becoming as efficient as possible at a time of escalating energy, raw material and wage costs.
Shareholders the winners as bidding war escalates
THE emerging bidding war for Alliance Boots must come as sharp relief for City analysts and shareholders.
With the weeks flying by, it looked like deputy chairman Stefano Pessina, backed by private equity player Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, was going to walk away with one of Britain's most iconic high-street brands with barely a protestation raised.
As we highlighted before, the Alliance Boots board did not appear to have any defence strategy aside from knocking back an indicative offer of £10 a share and then opening up the books at £10.40. Well it appears that good old-fashioned market dynamics have saved the day with the news of a potential rival in the form of Guy Hands's Terra Firma and Wellcome Trust upping the ante.
KKR put forward an improved formal offer, agreed by the Alliance Boots board, of £10.6 billion. Within hours, Terra Firma came back with a rival proposal worth £10.8bn. Of course, most analysts believe that KKR, with major shareholder and chief business architect Pessina on its side, will prevail. But now there is at least a chance of shareholders getting a much better price.
Not that such dealings will do anything to calm the fears of the company's staff. The union Usdaw said workers were worried about how the bids would affect long-term job security and pensions. Neither bidding consortium has made agreements with pension trustees, who could demand additional money be added to the pot. And there are fears about asset-stripping. KKR and Pessina have been on the PR offensive promising growth, growth, growth. But as usual, there has been little detail from either bidding party that would put concerns to rest.
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