A GROUND-BREAKING scheme is under way to transform a section of Scotland's east coast into a national food and drink destination.
Over 120 firms and organisations in East Lothian are being invited to come together for what is being billed as a European first and create a business improvement district (BID) specifically tailored to food and drink.
It comes during Scotland's Year of Food and Drink 2015 and has the backing of the government, local authority and some high-profile businesses.
More than 30 BIDs have been been set up in Scotland in recent years and see businesses with shared interests and ambitions come together to generate funds and decide how it should be spent locally.
In other areas funds been used to enhance town centres, tourism and business parks, better promotion and marketing, community events, projects and loyalty schemes, with the aim of driving sales and attracting investment.
The new BID would also become the first in East Lothian, joining recent additions in Crieff, Dunblane, Glasgow's Byres Road, Edinburgh West End and Penicuik.
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and Environment, Richard Lochhead, said: “The East Lothian Food and Drink BID is ground-breaking, not only a first for Scotland but for the UK, and possibly the world.
“Scotland’s food and drink sector is growing at an exponential rate. The BID model will further aid the growth and profile of this sector. I encourage other areas in Scotland to follow East Lothian’s lead and consider how they too can benefit from a Food and Drink BID.”
A steering group will now be established and charged with devising a five-year business plan tailored for the area.
All businesses will be asked their views on how the BID could create improvements to the local economy as well as individual businesses and if agreed by the majority would be operational within the next 12 to 14 months.
Ian Davison Porter, director of the national body for BIDs, said: "The collective working of the businesses involved in the food and drink BID will help drive local and international trade, in one of the key sectors of the Scottish economy, and create an opportunity to reduce business costs."
Councillor John McMillan, East Lothian Council's political head of economic development and tourism, said: "The speciality food and drink sector based here in East Lothian has actually thrived despite tough economic times.
"We have many wonderful businesses in this sector so it’s a great thing to be able to support and help them grow and encourage new start-ups."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here