Scotland’s food and drink sector cannot understand why it is being ignored by investors. It is now valued at a record £24bn to the Scottish economy, yet deal-makers and funders are not biting. Industry leaders, investors and policymakers gathered recently for the Food & Drink Investment Roundtable to determine why one of Scotland’s most industries is consistently overlooked by the investment community.
The roundtable, convened by Scotland Food & Drink, brought together stakeholders to address the significant gap between the sector’s commercial success and its share of private investment.
Despite being Scotland’s largest manufacturing sector – employing 115,000 people and delivering sustained growth over 15 years – food and drink ranks tenth out of ten sectors for investment in Scotland, with deal numbers falling 34 per cent between 2022 and 2024.
This under-investment comes at a time when the sector is projecting an additional £4bn in sales over the next five years, driven by surging global demand for premium, provenance-led Scottish products. Total exports now stand at £7.5bn, with food exports alone growing 200% over the past decade.
Scotland’s food and drink industry has delivered consistent long-term growth, with turnover rising 64% since 2008 to reach £18.9bn.
With over 17,000 registered businesses – many family-owned and a significant proportion female-led – food and drink does not fit the traditional investment mould. Most SMEs are seeking smaller sums (58% need under £50k), with only 17% considering equity finance. Instead, businesses rely on debt, grants, and increasingly crowdfunding – which rose 24% in Scotland even as it fell 38% UK-wide.
Iain Baxter, Chief Executive of Scotland Food & Drink, said: “Our sector is trusted globally, anchored in quality, and primed for growth. We have a £24bn industry with a track record of resilience, a world-class support ecosystem, and consumer demand that spans every continent. The question this roundtable sought to answer is simple: why isn’t the investment community matching our ambition?
“We brought together the right people to have an honest conversation about the barriers, the opportunities, and the steps we need to take to ensure Scotland’s food and drink sector attracts the investment it deserves. Coming off the back of record valuations and sustained growth, there has never been a better time to make that case.”
The roundtable heard that the diagnosis was validated: investors confirmed that food and drink is underserved relative to its economic contribution, and that barriers exist on both sides of the table. Financial literacy emerged as a critical weakness, with businesses struggling to articulate their story in numbers and unclear on the difference between debt and equity.
Branding, too, was identified as an area of underinvestment – Scottish food businesses are disproportionately focused on processing at the expense of building the brands that make them investment-ready.
“You will never lose demand for food and drink,” Baxter added. “It is a fundamental human need, and Scotland is trusted to produce it at the highest quality. That combination alone makes this sector one of the most stable and compelling investment opportunities there is.”
Attendees discussed practical next steps, including improving financial literacy amongst businesses, building stronger bridges between the sector and angel investor networks, and creating a more visible identity for food and drink in Scotland.
Scotland’s food and drink sector is valued at £24bn to the Scottish economy, with turnover of £18.9bn and GVA of £7bn (Scottish Annual Business Statistics). Investment deals in food and drink fell 34 per cent between 2022 and 2024, while the sector ranks 10th out of 10 for investment in Q1 2025 (Beauhurst, The State of Investment in Scotland (May 2025))
THE DEAL WEEK IN SUMMARY: 5-10 April
The regulator fined the North Sea’s best decommissioner for being too careful. A departing American oil firm gave its workers union rights on the way out. An Aberdeen EPC company began quietly letting people go. And Mitsui, buying Scottish energy infrastructure with the patience of an institution that does not need to explain itself to a select committee, acquired another Aberdeen business.
Westminster is still arguing about whether the North Sea deserves to exist. Japan has already decided.
DEAL OF THE WEEK: STATS GROUP ACQUIRES PIPELINES 2 DATA
Kintore-based Stats Group acquired Aberdeen pipeline intelligence specialist Pipelines 2 Data on 9 April for an undisclosed sum. All 30 staff retained. The acquisition converts a decade-long working relationship into a single integrated offering: P2D’s inspection and cleaning intelligence combined with Stats’ pipeline isolation and maintenance. One provider from diagnosis to execution.
Stats was acquired by Mitsui & Co in 2023. This is the second Mitsui move in Scottish energy infrastructure within a fortnight: Port of Nigg‘s £30m quay investment landed at the end of March, a consequence of Mitsui’s earlier acquisition of the Global Energy Group businesses.
In three years, Mitsui has assembled a Kintore pipeline services firm, an Aberdeen intelligence business, a Highland deepwater port at the centre of offshore wind logistics, and a fabrication operation spanning the full energy lifecycle. This is not a portfolio. It is a thesis, expressed in capital rather than commentary, held by an owner with a fifty-year horizon and no manifesto commitments to complicate it.
The political debate about the North Sea runs on tax rates and electoral cycles. Mitsui’s position on the same question is its balance sheet. The two are not in dialogue.
EnQuest and the NSTA: a fine for being right
On 9 April, the NSTA fined EnQuest Heather Limited £16.5m, £500,000 per well, for failing to decommission 33 inactive wells. Production in those fields ceased between 2020 and 2021.
In the same period, EnQuest decommissioned 84 wells, 47 per cent of all wells plugged in the central and northern North Sea, at 15 per cent below the NSTA’s benchmark cost, and won the industry’s decommissioning award in both 2022 and 2025. The 33 sanctioned wells were the youngest and lowest-integrity-risk in its portfolio. EnQuest prioritised 40-year-old infrastructure first, presented a plan for the rest, and offered to discuss the matter. The NSTA declined and issued the fine.
The regulator needs deadlines to mean something. A reasonable position. Less reasonable: making that point by fining the basin’s best operator for applying technical judgement rather than calendar compliance.
CEO Amjad Bseisu is considering an appeal whose outcome will govern how every North Sea operator sequences its decommissioning queue for the rest of the decade. The NSTA may have picked the wrong test case.
OTHER ACTIVITY WORTHY OF NOTE
Apache recognised Unite the Union for 250 offshore workers on Forties and Beryl. Apache leaves the North Sea by end-2029 due to the Energy Profits Levy. Collective bargaining rights extended three years before the exit, in the same week Unite launched its ‘Keep the North Sea Working’ campaign ahead of the forthcoming Scottish Government election. The decent thing to do. Also the kind of commitment that makes an accelerated departure considerably more complicated.
Nexos confirmed fewer than 25 redundancies, citing reduced workload, having expanded aggressively last year with a 300-person energy transition division. Fewer than 25 is not a restructuring announcement. It is a tell.
EDINBURGH VOTE IS CRITICAL
Edinburgh Worldwide’s tender offer general meeting took place on April 10 at 2pm. Result via RNS as soon as practicable thereafter.
Jonathan Simpson-Dent, chair of Edinburgh Worldwide, said: “This AGM is another critical moment for shareholders. Shareholders have already rejected Saba’s attempts to take control of the Company twice and have overwhelmingly supported the Board and its strategy. Despite this, Saba has returned for a third time in just 15 months with the same objective shareholders have only recently rejected: to replace the Board and take control of the Company.
“Our analysis indicates a real risk that control could pass at this AGM if shareholders do not vote. Failing to vote risks allowing the Company to fall under Saba’s control. That is why the Board took decisive action to introduce the Tender Offer, giving shareholders a clear choice: to realise value now while retaining exposure to SpaceX, or to remain invested.
“This AGM will determine whether the Company continues to be governed by an independent board or becomes controlled by Saba. Even if shareholders have tendered their shares, it is essential that they vote. If re-elected, the Board will remain focused on protecting the interests of all shareholders, including ensuring the orderly implementation of the Tender Offer and the realisation and delivery of SpaceX proceeds.”
AGM confirmed for 30 April at Baillie Gifford in Calton Square in Edinburgh. Saba’s nominees were rejected by 92.7 per cent of non-Saba shareholders in January. They declined a shareholder Q&A. The vote proceeds regardless.
Redmill Fabrication of Bathgate, steel engineer, founded 1977, Trainspotting 2 film credit, placed into members’ voluntary liquidation. Owner tried to sell for two and a half years. Fell through twice. Promised his wife he would retire. All creditors paid in full. There are worse endings.
Sedulo acquired Kilmarnock accountancy practice Smith & Wallace and opened in Glasgow, additional targets already identified. The same beachhead logic IntelliAM used in Irvine a fortnight ago. The industrial central belt is becoming a pattern.
TIP OF THE WEEK
AG Barr: full-year sales of £437.3m, up from £420.4m, dividend raised to 18.71p, market cap £0.55 bn. A European small-cap screener flagged insider buying alongside the results. The people closest to the business think the market has not caught up with what they know.
The larger tip has no ticker. Mitsui now owns a material cross-section of Scottish energy infrastructure and is still acquiring. Patient capital, industrial logic, no political risk. Whoever is advising the next Scottish energy business on its exit options should have a number for Tokyo.