The CEO Cluster aims to help businesses accelerate growth in sales, profit and staff numbers.
It is designed to appeal to companies with ambitious growth targets which could be driven by a combination of factors including innovation, new sales channels and new product development.
Food and Drink Wales says that California’s Silicon Valley is probably the most successful example of an industry cluster. It quotes Professor Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School as saying: “A cluster of independent, formally linked companies and institutions represents a robust organisation form that offers advantages in efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility.”
Food Innovation Wales leads the CEO Cluster and activities include:
- Sharing of resources (e.g. equipment)
- Joint sales initiatives (e.g. co-operation to enter a new export market)
- Access to market insights (e.g. market research)
- Access to cluster knowledge (e.g. Food Innovation Wales expertise)
- Sharing experiences and lessons learned.
The Welsh Government, working with the food and drink sectors, have strategically put together a number of Cluster Groups – CEO Cluster, Drinks Cluster, Export Club, Fine Food Cluster, Honey Cluster, Nutri-Wales Cluster and the Seafood Cluster. These clusters were developed to maximise economic growth within Wales and also to respond to sectors that needed direct Welsh Government support. They bring together like-minded people, with the key objective of helping businesses achieve accelerated growth in sales, profit and employment. The clusters are ambitious and aim to deliver real step change as opposed to incremental growth.
