Our webinar showcasing the South Lincolnshire Food Enterprise Zone was a resounding success and was well-attended by over 460 delegates. Hosted by Team Lincolnshire in partnership with the South Lincolnshire Food Enterprise Zone and 3FOX, the webinar was dedicated to the UK Food Sector and featured some of the sector’s most influential figures.

3Fox, through its Sitematch365 brand, are a marketing agency for councils and facilitated the webinar; managing director Toby Fox chaired proceedings, giving an overview of what the South Lincolnshire FEZ is all about, and introducing the panel:

  • Judith Batchelar OBE, Director of brand, Sainsbury’s
  • Martin Collison, agri-tech specialist, Greater Lincolnshire LEP
  • Harry Norman, CEO, OAL Group
  • Tim Downing, Director, Pygott & Crone and commercial agent for the FEZ

Once the panel discussion had concluded, the webinar concluded with a video message from Sarah Louise Fairburn – Founder at IMP & Maker ~ Chair for Greater Lincolnshire’s
Food Board; who was joined by Molly Johnson, a student at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing.

Webinar Participants

Some of the key messages that were highlighted during the webinar:

Judith Batchelar:

“The FEZ is set up to succeed. Not only because of the geography, but also because of timing. Timing is everything”

Harry Norman:

“What we’ve got at the @southlincsfez, you’ve got the links into the university, and a very progressive council; that helps you get over some of these barriers. There’s no reason why the FEZ can’t lead the world in creating #lowcarbon food.”

Martin Collison:

“This question about whether using new types of tech will lead to job losses, I don’t believe it will. What it will do is it will change the nature of jobs. We will have higher skilled, better paid jobs.”

Tim Downing:

“Your bet should be on Lincolnshire, and it should be on the FEZ. There’s a wider economic story going on here in Lincolnshire as a whole… Lincolnshire recently won 5 towns fund bids – over £150 million worth of investment. There’s also the free port status on the Humber bank.”

You can watch the webinar in full below. Our thanks go to 3Fox, our expert panel, and to the 460+ delegates who attended the webinar.