Five key ways the BGA is promoting game

A flying start

The BGA is the new marketing board for the UK game industry, and it launched in May with some of the biggest names in the shooting industry already backing it. When the likes of the Royal Berkshire, William Powell and Bettws Hall all put their names to something it tends to turn heads, and so it did for all the right reasons. So it’s no surprise to learn that at the time of writing the BGA already has 220 member shoots. 

Everybody knows that maintaining a regular demand for shot game is imperative for the future of shooting, so we asked the driving force behind the new board, MD Tom Adams, just what is the plan and how is it shaping up at the moment? 

1. The Assurance Scheme 

The assurance scheme is critical to the longevity of the shooting community, as we should all be demonstrating best practice at all times. The British Game Assurance Scheme gives our relevant organisations and politicians a benchmark to use in our defence. This is the first time we will have had credible standards which can be enforced and regulated by a third party. This has an equally important role in giving retailers, stockists and most importantly consumers the confidence in the provenance of their food.

To get game into mainstream retail and remove the stigma around it we need to bring it into line with other proteins which all have assurance schemes. The response has been fantastic so far, with most people saying the game sector was crying out for an assurance scheme. 

It will be audited by Acoura who operate other similar systems, like the Red Tractor Farm Assurance scheme. One third of member shoots will be audited in the first year with half next year and so on. Breaches of the standards will be noted and progress will be expected to be seen in a set amount of time. If serious breaches are encountered shoots will be removed from the list and industry stakeholders informed.

2. Sales team

We have employed a dedicated sales team with a wealth of experience in the food world who will be tasked with opening up new markets at home and overseas. Foreign markets such as the Middle East, Far East and Asia have long lead times and so are being worked on now for next season. This won’t happen overnight, but we can make game accessible here in the UK as well as looking to place volume in new markets overseas. 

Our Commercial Director Matt Tough was the Sales Director at PSL where he worked with our chairman, Ivan Shenkman, to grow the business to where it is today (the leading procurement operation in the hospitality sector). His wealth of knowledge in the food world and endless contacts have been invaluable in opening doors that haven’t been open to game before. 

3. Marketing - Eat Wild 

The way we can support our sales team is by creating consumer demand through clever marketing and we have done just that, with the help of our specialist food marketing agency (Together, in Nottingham), which has clients such as Muller, Fox’s biscuits and Pukka Pies. They know and understand our challenge and working with them is what will engage the British public with game on a national scale. 

One example of this is Field to Fitness where we are targeting game into the health world by emphasising the nutritional benefits of game (higher protein and lower fat). 

And in October we will be launching Eat Wild to the national press, food bloggers, food journalists and retail purchasers. We will be letting them know the BGA and Eat Wild are here and letting them sample our produce. 

4. Product development 

We need to offer game in a different format from a whole oven ready bird in a bloody cellophane pack on the shelf. We need new exciting products that bring us into line with the modern consumer. Whether that be vacuum packed breasts or thigh meat for stir fries or curries. We live in an age of convenience and we need to offer that to the consumers. 

We are working with a large manufacturing business to develop some exciting new ranges that will need large quantities of game to process. Ready meals are a great way of bringing the public into game because a big issue is a lack of knowledge on how to cook it. 

5. Influencers/chefs 

We need to do for pheasants what Delia did for goose fat. We need to utilise influencers and celebrity chefs by getting them talking about game, focusing on the health benefits, the taste, the versatility and sustainability compared to factory farmed chicken. 

We have Nigel Haworth from the famous Northcote restaurant and hotel in Lancashire’s Ribble Valley as our chef ambassador, and we are working with others in the influencer world and will be developing this. 

An MD with a passion for the sport…

Tom grew up in the South West and was a keen shooting enthusiast from childhood. He said: “I studied land management at the Royal Agricultural College and I ran a shoot down in Somerset for three years before coming to London. I worked at GunsOnPegs for four years where I saw the problems we face get ever bigger and little being done to combat it. I love cooking and I hate waste so couldn’t see how there was a future for us if we didn’t set up a marketing board.”

For more information visit: www.britishgamealliance.co.uk

Written by Will Hetherington, GunsOnPegs Contributing Editor

Will was the editor of the Shooting Gazette, a leading international driven shooting magazine, for 13 years. Having been involved with country sports publishing for a total of 19 years, he is now our Contributing Editor at GunsOnPegs.