Food & Drink sector ‘overlooked’ by investors – Daily Business

The food and drink sector is made up of many small players (pic: DB Media Services)

Scotland’s food and drink sector, despite being worth £24 billion, is consistently overlooked by the investment community, according to a gathering of key stakeholders.

They found that a significant gap between the sector’s commercial success and share of private investment was down to its multitude of small players, and no dedicated fund or close alliance with investor networks.

There was also a lack of understanding across the sector of the various options for financing businesses, said trade body Scotland Food & Drink which organised a round table to address the issue.

Food & drink is Scotland’s largest manufacturing sector, employing 115,000 people and delivering sustained growth over 15 years.

However, it sits at the bottom of ten sectors for investment in Scotland, with deal numbers falling 34% between 2022 and 2024.

This under-investment comes at a time when the sector is projecting an additional £4bn in sales over the next five years, driven by surging global demand for premium, provenance-led Scottish products. Total exports now stand at £7.5bn, with food exports alone growing 200% over the past decade.

The industry has delivered consistent long-term growth, with turnover rising 64% since 2008 to reach £18.9bn. Yet the investment profile tells a different story.

While Scotland overall is bucking UK investment trends – with deal values up 108% in the first quarter of 2025 – food and drink has seen deal numbers contract sharply.

The sector believes this may be because many of the 17,000 registered businesses are family-owned and female-led. Most SMEs are seeking smaller sums (58% need under £50,000), with only 17% considering equity finance.

Instead, businesses rely on debt, grants, and increasingly crowdfunding – which rose 24% in Scotland even as it fell 38% UK-wide.

Iain Baxter, chief executive of Scotland Food & Drink, said: “Our sector is trusted globally, anchored in quality, and primed for growth.

Iain Baxter: our sector is trusted (pic: DB Media Services)

“We have a £24bn industry with a track record of resilience, a world-class support ecosystem, and consumer demand that spans every continent.

“The question this roundtable sought to answer is simple: why isn’t the investment community matching our ambition?”

Financial literacy emerged as a critical weakness, with businesses struggling to articulate their story in numbers and unclear on the difference between debt and equity.

Branding, too, was identified as an area of underinvestment – Scottish food businesses are disproportionately focused on processing at the expense of building the brands that make them investment-ready.

Yet there was also optimism. Deal flow is thin but not absent. Investable businesses exist, but are not being identified, developed, or connected to the right investors at the right time.

Participants concluded that a missing ingredient is a visible investment identity: no dedicated fund, no specialist network and no obvious “front door” for investors interested in food and drink.

Scotland’s food and drink sector shares many characteristics with sectors that attract significant angel and venture capital investment – particularly life sciences.

Both are built on long-term research and development, rely on Scotland’s world-class natural assets and academic institutions, and serve markets with inelastic demand.

However, life sciences benefits from a mature angel investment culture, while food and drink remains under-capitalised.

The roundtable explored how to shift this dynamic, recognising that food and drink is not just a heritage industry but a critical strategic sector with unrivalled stability.

“You will never lose demand for food and drink,” Mr Baxter added. “It is a fundamental human need, and Scotland is trusted to produce it at the highest quality. That combination alone makes this sector one of the most stable and compelling investment opportunities there is.”

The roundtable formed part of a broader push by Scotland Food & Drink to strengthen the sector’s investment readiness and connectivity.

Attendees discussed practical next steps, including improving financial literacy amongst businesses, building stronger bridges between the sector and angel investor networks, and creating a more visible identity for food and drink in Scotland.

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