Food and drink is the second largest manufacturing sector in London. It
is also the manufacturing sector which has performed the best in the
capital over the last five years. West London Business says that 10 per
cent of all London jobs are linked to the food and drink sector in some
way.
According to a mapping study of the capital's food and drink production
industry funded by the European Union, there are 870 businesses in
London's food and drink supply chain with a total estimated turnover of
?3.3 billion. The same research also suggested that 94 per cent of the
businesses in the sector are small and medium-sized enterprises with a
turnover of less than ?1 million each.
There are thousands of restaurants in the capital and thousands of food
and drink outlets. West London Business estimates that eating out
contributes ?8 billion a year to London's economy.
Different parts of London are famous for different kinds of food and
drink.
West London has been a magnet for businesses in the food and drink
sector for 80 years. According to West London Business, the local
chamber of commerce, the sector employs 15,000 people in the area. There
are 140 businesses involved in the food industry on the Park Royal
Industrial Estate alone, employing 6,000 people. One of these is the
recently opened Park Royal Food Innovation Centre, which supports the
development of London's small and medium-sized food and drink
enterprises.
Sugar production has a long tradition in East London. Today, Tate &
Lyle, with its Silvertown works, is the only cane sugar refiner in the
UK. East London also has a strong brewing tradition. The Black Eagle
brewery at 91 Brick Lane produced beer until 1989, the Albion brewery
until 1959 and the Anchor Brewery in Mile End road until 1975. These
days, East London is better known for its curry restaurants,
particularly along Brick Lane.
North London is the chosen location for many small businesses active in
food and drink processing. Enfield provides the home for London's only
flour mill, G. R. Wright & Sons, at Ponders End. North London
Business, the local chamber of commerce, helps small and medium-sized
enterprises in the area to network, meet new contacts and do business
with each other through North London Food Linx.
South London is the base for a number of innovative businesses, such as
Lambeth-based Today Was Fun, a supplier of organic teas. The company,
founded by Sharyn Wortman, increased its international sales
approximately ten-fold between 2005 and the end of 2007 and won the Best
Newcomer award in UK Trade & Investment's 2008 London Passport to
Export Awards.
London Mayor Boris Johnson recently called on food businesses in London
to step up efforts to reduce their carbon footprint. This followed the
publication of a report commissioned by the Greater London Authority and
the London Development Agency that found Londoners' eating habits to be
responsible for more greenhouse gases each year than the entire
national output of Estonia.
The sector is responding. The vast majority of London's food and drink
production companies service local retailers and food services. Only a
small proportion supply national retailers. One 'green' food business is
Lambeth-based Today Was Fun, whose green tea was the first carbon
neutral tea. That's according to the CarbonNeutral Company, which
carries out a simple calculation to establish how much carbon is
produced in making and transporting the tea. The business neutralises
its impact on the environment by buying carbon credits to cover
emissions.
Part of the aim of the Park Royal Food Innovation Centre in West London
is to promote sustainable local food and drink production. The centre,
which opened in October 2009, acts as a hub for food processing
companies in London, helping them to achieve growth by providing a range
of specialist services which will encourage them to innovate in terms
of new products, processes, packaging, healthy eating and
sustainability.
Saving water is a big issue for London's food and drink businesses.
According to the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), the UK food and drink
industry takes 430,000 cubic metres from the public water supply every
day, accounting for approximately 10 per cent of all industrial use. It
also takes about a tenth of all water abstracted from rivers and other
water courses. This amounts to another 260,000 cubic metres a day.