Food and Drink TechHUB
Helping food and drink producers and supply chain businesses grow by providing free business support, technical advice and events.
John Murray, Royce Clark and Martin Murray, co-owners of MYXD
Highland businessmen John Murray, Royce Clark and Martin Murray joined forces to acquire MYXD, turning the bar-quality ‘cocktail pouch’ concept into the entrepreneurs’ next venture. And what started as a local delivery service in the Highlands has quickly grown to serve all corners of the UK.
With a combined 70 years of business experience between them, the consortium were well-positioned to take on the market. But with ambitions to rebrand, they recognised the need for expert support in developing a strong and distinctive brand identity.
John said: “This business followed a natural path – we took our combined business experience from different sectors and learned the rest along the way. But we needed help to navigate the rebrand. That’s when we contacted the Northern Innovation Hub’s (NIH) Food and Drink TechHUB for branding and packaging support.”
Standing out from the crowd
Food and Drink TechHUB helps food and drink producers and supply chain businesses in the Highland Council area grow by providing free business support, technical advice and events.
John continued: “The help was absolutely fantastic. Our one-to-one support meetings made us consider things we hadn’t thought about. We had our proposition for hospitality sorted, but we hadn’t really thought about retail. She did a lot of competitor analysis and desktop research to help guide us and also taught us to think outside the box.”
With growing sales – including a listing as a supplier to the Radisson Hotel Group – the team at MYXD are excited for the next steps.
Martin explained: “We used our time with Food and Drink TechHUB to focus on the rebrand project – breaking it down into different, segmented sections, which all played an important part.
We had a great experience - I can’t speak highly enough of the programme.Royce Clark, MYXD
Ready for the future
“From this, we understood our costs, decided on our core product lines and looked at our options for packaging. We have always wanted to offer the most environmentally friendly packaging possible – but as we acquired assets from the exiting company, there are so many old units still in existence. When looking in depth, it could actually be more harmful to the environment to start again at this stage so we are instead opting for sustainable adjustments.”
Looking ahead to what the next few months hold, Royce added: “2024 is our year. We now have our new packaging, hospitality and retail propositions plan in place with new updated branding being launched but we wouldn’t have got here without support from Food and Drink TechHUB. We had a great experience - I can’t speak highly enough of the programme.”
NIH’s range of programmes are delivered by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and funded through the Inverness and Highland City-Region Deal.
About the Northern Innovation Hub
The Food and Drink TechHUB (formally the Highland Food and Drink Innovation Network) is delivered through the Northern Innovation Hub, a funding programme designed to build on and accelerate business innovation.
The Northern Innovation Hub was awarded £11m from the UK Government as part of the Inverness and Highland City-Region Deal. The deal is a joint initiative supported by £315m investment from the UK and Scottish governments, Highland Council, HIE and the University of the Highlands and Islands. This programme also receives financial support through the European Regional Development Fund Scotland Programme.
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