Move to Shrewsbury college for fine foods agency
The agency which runs Shropshire's £7 million Food Enterprise Centre is set to move to a college in the county after seeing its contract axed.
Heart of England Fine Foods (HEFF) will share the restaurant and training kitchens at Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology, which were recently revamped as part of a £15 million project.
It comes after HEFF's six-year contract to provide support services for food agencies ended as part of cost-cutting measures by Shropshire Council in July. HEFF, which has delivered £9.3 million into the local economy and created about 48 jobs since its launch, had offers to relocate outside Shropshire, but the agency will move to its new base during January and February.
The move will also see HEFF bringing an as-yet-unspecified number of additional staff.
Tenants of the Food Enterprise Centre will not relocate with HEFF, but will be supported in the same way as other members.
Chief executive Karen Davies said: "This is a ground-breaking move for HEFF, as its takes the organisation into a new era of growth, benefiting not only our food producers but also the students at Shrewsbury College.
"We are disappointed for the tenants at the Food Enterprise Centre who have been incredibly supportive of HEFF and so wanted us to be able to continue managing the Battlefield site.
"Despite our very best efforts, which included offering the council a number of options which would have seen us stay on at the centre, we were unable to find a solution that suited both parties, and therefore the council did not feel it could go back on its original decision to terminate the contract. We will, however, continue to support tenants through their membership of HEFF."
The move will see its head office move from the Food Enterprise Centre to the college, along with the Taste Kitchen which helps develop recipes, and the shop, which demonstrates produce, and will triple in size thanks to the move.
HEFF will share the college's Origins Restaurant and kitchen, running the restaurant on weekday mornings, Thursday and Friday evenings, and all day on Saturday and Sundays and during school holidays.
College principal Steve Wain said: "We are in the business of educating the next generation of business people and having a commercial enterprise on site while making the most of our redeveloped restaurant seemed too good an opportunity to pass up."
