The Food Tech revolution is coming to Manchester as Bruntwood brings YFood to the city

Bruntwood is bringing a pioneering new community to Manchester via a partnership with Food Tech trailblazers YFood. This unique collaboration, launching on 14th November, will create YFood's first Food Tech community outside of London.

Bruntwood and YFood will be putting the city at the forefront of the global Food Tech movement by nurturing a community of northern food industry brands, startups and investors who are committed to transforming the food ecosystem and developing sustainability through innovation.

YFood’s acclaimed monthly meetups for Food Tech startups and future-preneurs “YFood Tech Wednesdays” will be at the heart of the partnership in Manchester. These events will provide a new monthly platform for sharing ideas, showcasing trends and forging new collaborations. The ambition is for these events to be the catalyst for an exciting northern Food Tech movement, and a pivotal new outpost as part of the YFood community expansion.

Hosted on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at a Bruntwood venue, YFood Tech Wednesdays in Manchester is a chance for food innovators to meet like-minded people within the Food Tech community in a fun and relaxed atmosphere. Each month there’ll be a short talk from an established Food Tech founder, followed by an interactive discussion before drinks and YFood’s original facilitated networking. This unique event is designed to create opportunities for collaboration, learning, inspiration and support for startups and those interested in setting up a Food Tech business.

The first event will be taking place on Wednesday 14 November at Manchester Technology Centre on Oxford Road, which is part of the new Circle Square neighbourhood. Sustainability is integral to Bruntwood’s vision for Circle Square and across the business, and the YFood partnership is part of their ambition towards creating a globally recognized eco-friendly community.

The first Food Tech speaker at YFood Tech Wednesdays will be Manchester born Olympian Andrew Steele - Head of Product and part of the founding team at DNAfit.

Andrew is a British Olympic athlete in Track & Field, running the 400m and 4x400m for Great Britain. Alongside his athletic career, Andrew is also a founding member and Head of Product Development for personal genetics company DNAFit who specialise in DNA testing for both fitness and nutrition response, to allow better personalised exercise and nutrition advice.

YFood is the largest curated global community of companies and people actively trying to change the future of food. They do this by delivering information and reporting on trends focussed on where science, new ideas, business models and tech are changing the food industry. The result is a powerful, collaborative community of Food Tech companies - a network of world-leading partners sharing knowledge to find positive solutions to global food issues.

Through its influential network, YFood has championed a plethora of Food Tech advances from Farm to Fork to Bin such as hydroponic underground farms, converting coffee waste to bio-fuel, personalisation tech for hospitality which can deliver 9 million combinations served in under 5 minutes, 3D printed food, edible sachet & water packaging and bio-reactive expiry labels.

YFood create and host exclusive opportunities and events such as London Food Tech Week, the world’s largest Food Tech Celebration, and YFood Tech Wednesdays, which they founded in London in 2013. These monthly Wednesday meetups are now THE vital forum for the Food Tech community and have hosted speakers including the founders and CEOs of graze, Olio, Farm Drop and many more.

Andrea George, Head of Retail & Leisure Leasing at Bruntwood said: “Working with YFood we’re going to put Manchester on the Food Tech map and drive change in the industry for a more sustainable, eco-friendly food chain in the North. Food and drink touches all of our businesses - from the customer who wants great coffee at their office to the startup who’s looking for somewhere supportive they can call home. We’re committed to creating environments and communities that can support innovative, sustainable, exciting businesses - brands that share our vision.

“With Circle Square and Hatch , we are creating a thriving new neighbourhood, anchored by some of the most exciting, unique and sustainable food businesses in the city. Hatch is committed to sustainability and already has a no plastics on site policy in place. By helping to conceive a new Food Tech catalyst for Manchester with YFood, we will ensure our food and beverage customers can be a part of creating a more sustainable, ethical, transparent and commercial food ecosystem for us all.”

Nadia El Hadery, Founder & CEO of YFood commented:
“Manchester is an exciting and vibrant city, with an on-the-pulse, growing food and tech scene. In Bruntwood, we’ve found a partner that is aligned with our goals and values and has a huge amount of integrity. Bruntwood understand the vision we have and Manchester has all the makings to create an exciting Food Tech scene. We can’t wait to work with Bruntwood to start building and nurturing an epic local Food Tech community in Manchester.”

The launch event for YFood Tech Wednesdays will be followed by a monthly event on the 2nd Wednesday of every month except December. Future confirmed speakers include Jonathan Petrides, Founder & CEO of allplants, Solveiga Pakštaitė, Founder of Mimica, Nick Popovici, Co-Founder and MD at Vita Mojo, and Tom Jackson & Harry Bamber, Co-Heads of Jungle Creation’s Twisted with even more to be announced.

It is free to attend, but spaces are limited by capacity and registration is essential. Those interested in attending can BOOK Here.