Dear Participants,
Please find enclosed the work program for the 3rd of October.
Téléchargement Hame meeting october 3rd
In every region, this work should be done. This work will be showed during our next meeting. In every region , you have to give:
Ø
First conclusion about the first interview
or meeting with potentials stakeholders
Ø
Development vectors identified
ØRecommendations
to do to help SMEs to do some innovations for elderly people
I don't need lot of pages but rather few ideas which answer to these questions.
This work will be the "base" of the end of our project.
Have a good work!!
Best regards
Olivier
Hi everyone.
It could be great if we post here the main actions that we have made regarding interviews and the main conclusions, so all of us can see them and take them into account previously to our next meeting. In the case of PRODINTEC,we have had five “face to face” meetings with these organizations:
o CAPSA: the most important organization in the food industry in Asturias, and one of the most important organizations in the region by its high volume of production, popularity and incomes. CAPSA (abbreviation of Corporación Alimentaria Peñasanta, Food Corporation Peñasanta) is focused on creating and selling dairy products.
o Lakomi: this organization gives catering services at home, and one of its most important services is the menu for elderly. This menu, done with the help of nutritionists, consist on a series of dishes specially designed for the nutritional needs of older people, with the possibility of contracting this service for different periods of time (5 days, a week or two weeks; on each case the menu is adapted in order to be balanced to that period of time).
o Asturiana de Transformados Plásticos: ATP is one of the main organizations in Asturias operating in the manufacture of packaging for the food industry.
o COPAE: The Council of Ecological Agricultural Production of Asturias is focused in promotig the consumption of organic food and make diffusion and knowledge of organic production systems.
o ASINCAR: ASINCAR (Research Association of Meat Industries of Asturias) is aimed since its inception, to represent, defend and promote economic, social and professionals in the meat industry in Asturias (Spain). ASINCAR is a “meeting point” and a growth driver for the numerous enterprises working in the region regarding the meat industry.
Some of the most significant conclusions regarding these meetings were the next ones:
o Small size companies, as Lakomi, have differentiated themselves from its competition through the provision of specific services aimed at seniors, producing at the same time an increase in the turnover.
o Through these meetings PRODINTEC has noticed the difficulty of organizations to introduce new products, since there is a very high risk in introducing new products in a sector in which tradition is a very important decision factor for the consumer.
o Regarding this last conclusion, there´s an added difficulty in trying to sell a product that is designed especially for older people, as it is difficult to sell these products without treating the consumer as an elderly (treatment which most people reject).
o This meetings have pointed out that, excepting some examples on the services side of the food market, there is a clear lack of developement regarding products specially designed for elderly people, as organizations like CAPSA (which is the most important organization in the food sector in Asturias) doesn´t have yet specific lines of products for this market range.
o From the information gathered in some of the meetings, there are other factors that have to be taken into account, and that are not necessary related with the elderly needs or the quality of the products themselves. These factors are the cost of the distribution (this is some point where the packaging has lots of impact) and the retailers, that have the power to decide if a product is going to be offered for sale or not. This last affirmation implies that when developing a new food product, it is very important to take into account the opinions and perception of the organizations that are selling the products to the final consumer, and that most of times a collaborative process between the product maker and the retailer could be advised, in order to develop a new product.
o The economic situation in the region is an important deterrent for the development of new products, because most of the organizations are struggling for survival and don´t have the possibility of risking its resources in new and specific products.
Posted by: David Santos | 14/09/2012 at 10:17