The research, which has involved companies representing all the major food categories and included participants from Cadbury Schweppes, Dawn Group, Geest, Jordan's Cereals, Kerry Foods, Premier International Foods and Whitworths amongst others, was undertaken in order to report on Groundbreaking Innovation which formed part of this year's Winning Strategies theme.

Mr Telfer shared the platform with Perween Warsi, managing director of S&A Foods. S&A has enjoyed rapid growth through its range of innovative authentic ethnic products since its inception in 1986 and the company is now recognised as one of the UK's most successful food manufacturers.

Mrs Warsi complemented the research findings by sharing her thoughts on innovation.

Commenting on the research programme, Mr Telfer advised 'In preparing for this year's convention, we were staggered to discover how little published research exists on this topic. Through our close working relationships with both retailers and manufacturers we were aware of the importance placed on innovation but it appears that no-one has previously invested in finding out which strategies are working and which are not .

'If we are to continue to develop pre-eminent products and services which respond to the needs of the supply chain, we must keep abreast of emerging issues and we believe that commissioning this research will not only help us to achieve this but will also prove to be an informative and valuable source of business intelligence for our existing and potential customers,' he continued.

Ramesys engaged independent business market research specialists Ashton Consultants to design and undertake the programme.

Focus group participants were invited to share their views on the current opportunities for and constraints on commercially successful innovation; who are considered to be the best players in grocery NPD and what can be learned from them; the relationships between grocery manufacturers and retailers in the approach to NPD; supplier integration in NPD and how much of 'new' product development really meets consumer need and preference.

Participating companies were also given the opportunity to benchmark against a new product development and introduction metric, with results being reported confidentially against the industry-representative averages in the sector.

Key findings include statistics on the percentage of new product introductions which are ultimately commercially successful and the number of qualified ideas required to generate one successfully launched product.

Lack of collaboration between retailers and manufacturers was cited as a barrier to successful innovation in NPD as was a poor recognition of innovation as a strategic competence for businesses.

The full results of focus group discussions and the benchmarking exercise were included in a white paper which was made available to delegates attending the convention in London.

The annual conference is the IGD's flagship event and the audience were addressed by prominent industry spokespersons including chairman of Safeway, David Webster and Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive, Tesco.

• Ramesys (Food & Retail) Ltd are part of the Ramesys Group of companies. Recognised as one of the UK's largest Application Solution Providers (ASPs), Ramesys has an annual turnover approaching £60m and supports over 8,000 customers in 16 countries.

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