Scotherbs
“The progress Scotherbs has made towards its
goals in such a short time is a remarkable
Supply Chain
Development Drives
New Sales
achievement. Scottish Government and Scottish
MDSC has helped Scotherbs to:
Scotherbs is the only volume grower, packer and
Enterprise are pleased that our support has
played a key part in developing new added value
market opportunities and building a more
resilient and sustainable supply chain.”
marketer of fresh herbs in Scotland, serving a

Develop new business with UK multiple
range of sectors across the UK.
retailers worth an additional £2.25m
around 105 people at its site in Longforgan, near
sales per annum – an increase of over
40%
It employs
Dundee and farms approximately 250 acres in
the region.

Employ an additional 20 staff

Develop a range of new, added value
challenge, driven by volume losses through
products, worth £0.5m in additional
established retail customers for fresh, packaged
sales, with a further £1.5m targeted by
herbs, Scotherbs embarked on a revised
2016
strategy to drive sustainable volume and profit
Following a period of sustained business
growth.
The MDSC programme is a four year £1.6m
project over 2013-2017, funded by Scottish

Refocus fresh, packaged herb supply
Government and Scottish Enterprise, and is a
towards a distinctive retailer base driven
key priority within Scotland Food & Drink (SF&D)
initially by Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, based
partnership’s strategic action plan. Managed by
on a premium quality and provenance
Scottish Enterprise, it is designed to support
positioning
food and drink supply chains to fully exploit

Drive more value from fresh, packaged
opportunities in the UK and international
herb supply by launching a proprietary
markets.
brand

Stephen Baillie of Scottish Enterprise is
delighted at the success shown by Scotherbs to
date with support from the programme.
Drive increased revenue and profit through
the development of added value herb
products targeted at processors serving
adds value to other Scottish premium protein
primarily
and vegetable products.
the
M&S,
Waitrose
and
Sainsbury’s supply chains, covering bulk

supply and a variable size, sachet capability
“This is a really good example of how the MDSC
Ensure that the Scotherbs raw material
initiative can add value to the support that we
supply chain is fully developed to meet the
are able to give Scottish companies through our
needs of the strategy
Account
Management
Service,”
explains
Stephen Baillie. “Our Account Manager was
said
able to help the company to develop its new
“Scotherbs saw an opportunity to grow the
product development capability, while the MDSC
overall fresh herb category in Scotland and felt it
team worked in parallel to help the company to
was uniquely positioned to add value to Scottish
develop its supply chain infrastructure and
products
technical capability.”
MD
of
Scotherbs,
in
a
Ronnie
healthy,
Leggett
sustainable
and
flavoursome way. This growth strategy takes
Scotherbs in a new direction, requiring new
capabilities, technologies, skills and supply chain
infrastructure.
Key to the success of the strategy is the
development of robust and effective supply
chains both upstream and downstream, and this
is where Scotherbs has received strong support
from the Market Driven Supply Chains (MDSC)
initiative funded by Scottish Government and
Scottish Enterprise.”
Through the development of a revised supply
chain strategy with increased home-grown,
With support from both MDSC and its Account
Scottish provenance herbs, together with
Manager at Scottish Enterprise, Scotherbs is
deeper relationships with selected international
working
other
growers for outwith the Scottish season, Ronnie
manufacturers in the premium meat, fish and
Leggett feels the Scotherbs’ supply chain is
vegetable sectors to develop fresh herb based
robust and fully capable of meeting the current
infusions and marinades in sachet format.
supply needs, with potential for further
Scotherbs adds value to the herbs, which in turn
extension to meet forward demand.
in
collaboration
with
The
development
of
the
capability
to
LEAN TeamGB, one of the MDSC team of
manufacture and supply, fresh added-value,
specialist
high care products to a range of processing
feasibility / technical capability assessment to
sectors,
introduce the new technology and products into
based
on
a
premium
Scottish
provenance is also progressing well.
partners,
undertook
the
expert
Scotherbs, which has been key in generating the
successful result.
“By working closely with our customers, we are
evolving new products designed to add value to
The Scotherbs strategy is building traction, with
the consumer experience, developing the fresh
new business secured serving three depots for J
herb supply chain in a sustainably profitable
Sainsbury branded herbs across Scotland,
manner, while collaborating with other premium
Northern Ireland and N W England, as well as
Scottish producers,” says Ronnie.
securing fresh herbs supply under the propriety
brand of “Robert Wilson’s Herb House” in all
Waitrose Scottish stores. These initiatives have
generated annualised, incremental revenues of
some £1.5M.
There are also live business proposals in place
with at least one additional retailer, with an
estimated incremental £750K potential sales.
These developments would constitute an
increase in sales of over 40% with additionally,
“This is what the MDSC initiative is about,” says
Alan Stevenson of SAOS, the organisation in
charge of delivering the MDSC project with a
team of highly experienced supply chain
specialists. “MDSC offers very practical support
and expertise in developing and delivering
effective supply chains to get product to market,
building partnerships and collaboration in supply
chains, and solving problems anywhere in the
chain that prevents it operating efficiently and
effectively”.
up to 20 new roles having been created across
Operations and New Product Development to
meet the demand.
New products from Scotherbs will begin
entering the market from October 2014, with
additional sales of £2m per annum, predicted by
2016.