Dubbed ‘Glastonbury for Chefs’ UCFF has long been the go-to event for chefs looking for inspiration. The ‘Universal Cookery and Food Festival’ is a mouthful in itself, but offers far more than a mouthful when it comes to amazing food and drink, both from the brands in attendance and the stand-out catering (well when you are feeding chefs you have to be pretty impressive). No exhibition halls here, just a farm, great food and drink, demos, debates and of course fresh air and thankfully this year – sunshine! With its original format it is quite literally a breath of fresh air when it comes to foodservice events.
This year’s UCFF included a foraging tour which I eagerly signed up for on arrival. The tour was hosted by Colin Wheeler-James of Ground Up Cookery School and took us around Tewinbury Farm in Hertfordshire. With so much to take in, you’ll excuse me if I have missed anything (Colin, if you are reading this I’m afraid my note taking was comprehensive, but my writing a little illegible, so some points may have been supplemented by a light Google – please forgive me). And of course, please don’t take the below as gospel, as some wild foods can be dangerous. Always check and if in doubt, don’t eat it!
At jellybean, sustainability isn’t just a buzzword. As a proudly employee-owned organisation, it’s a commitment woven into the fabric of how we operate, create and collaborate. From reducing our carbon footprint, to our team ‘beanifesto’ commitment, we’ve made meaningful strides in our sustainability journey over the past 38 years. Recently we have been working alongside Alectro as our Virtual Sustainability Officer to ensure we measure all we can and move in the right direction with a goal to become net zero by 2030. More of which can be found here.
At Jellybean, we have a deep admiration for this channel – we know its highs, its challenges, and the vital role it plays in communities. Local shops aren’t just stores; they’re hubs where people connect, shop, and live their daily lives. By understanding retailers, shoppers, and their everyday missions, we help brands and retailers grow and succeed – together.
Whether working from the office, travelling for client events or jetting across the globe, one thing has stayed firmly on our minds… food. From buzzing festivals to new pop-ups, refreshing cocktails to our favourite summer finds, we have spent August busy eating, drinking, reading and everything in between.
Gone are the days when social media was just for consumer brands. With platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and even TikTok evolving rapidly, it’s becoming a promised land for B2B brands looking to actively engage with chefs, buyers and decision-makers alike.
But what are they really looking for? With 75% of B2B decision-makers using social media to guide purchasing decisions1, getting your social strategy right is no longer optional – it’s essential. Here’s how to set your brand up for success:
The UK out-of-home coffee scene is brewing stronger than ever. With a projected £6.1 billion in turnover for 2024/25, the market has grown +4.1% YoY pushing the coffee category to 7.1% of all eating-out spend (up from 6.6% in 2022).This growth is fuelled by physical expansion with 12,229 outlets now operating nationwide growing the channel by +2.4%.
Of all the ways to be caught cheating on your wife, I’d be willing to bet that being found out by Chris Martin’s roving jumbotron must have been low on Astronomer CEO Andy Byron’s bingo card as he entered his Amex details (or drained the company’s expenses budget) for a night of earnest but enjoyable middle-of-the-road soft rock, yet here we are.
It’s hard not to feel some semblance of sympathy for the fallout that his – and Astronomer HR chief Kristin Cabot’s – very public transgression has engendered. The55,000 people at Boston’s Gillette Stadium may have been the first witnesses to their awkward and very public decoupling – the clunky switch from romantic embrace to shameful, face-saving disowning of each other right there in the kiss cam’s glare, yet the couple – and by proxy their respective partners, and shared employer – are now a firm part of 24-hour wall-to-wall public discourse.
Have you ever felt the need to turn the music off when you come up to a roundabout? Or, when you’ve driven over a pothole and heard quite an alarming bang? No, me either.
For years, the goal of digital marketing has been simple: get to the top of Google’s search results, earn the click, and drive traffic to your website. This model, built on the foundation of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), has been the undisputed king of digital strategy. But the kingdom is changing.
The search game is no longer about a list of ten blue links. It’s about one, single, definitive answer.
As pubs across the UK navigate evolving consumer habits, shifting economic pressures and continued recovery from recent turbulence, innovation has become the cornerstone of resilience. In Lumina Intelligence’s recent webinar “Reimagining the Pub Experience: Trends, Tech & Innovation”, a compelling narrative emerged: the pubs that thrive are those reconfiguring formats, embracing technology and catering confidently to new guest expectations.
Between the Lionesses (and their victory!), Wimbledon, the Lions, the Open and the Test Cricket, we’ve been spoilt for choice when it comes to sporting excellence in July.
And of course, with all good sporting events come hospitality occasions, and judging by this month’s flood of recommendations that came in from the team, we’ve been very busy frequenting our favourite local hot spots.
At the end of June, we attended Arena’s most recent event – ‘The Road To Net Zero’ which looked at hospitality’s complex relationship with sustainability, building upon the findings and updating the annual insights and attitudes from last year’s session.
