Food and Drink Insight and Innovation Consultants

food consultants

Lisa Harris and Alexandra Hayes are food and drink consultants with over 15 years industry experience.

Harris and Hayes food consultancy work with the biggest food producers, retailers and hospitality brands in the UK. We provide leading edge consumer insight and product development, whilst supporting brands creatively and strategically to help businesses innovate smarter and stay relevant.

Our rigorous, consumer-driven approach will inform and inspire your future food and drink strategy, whilst our innovative product development process will supply you with a commercially viable concept to take to market. 

Whether it's a fresh pair of eyes on your current food offering, or an informed review of the biggest new opportunities you can go after, all our work is bespoke and tailored to your business needs. We're agile food industry consultants; we can scale up/down and draw on our specialist network of colleagues to turn projects around quickly and efficiently.

 

What we do

Insight

  • Trend reports & future forecasting

  • Food & drink study tours

  • Consumer behaviour profiling

  • Market analysis & competitor benchmarking

  • Trend & insight webinars

NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

  • Opportunity spotting

  • Ideation & innovation workshops

  • Brand positioning

  • Food values & strategy

  • Product & menu development

Food & drink expertise

  • Expert interviews & commentary

  • Brand sourcing

  • Validate PR & marketing research

  • Recipe & product testing

  • Network recommendations

 

Happy clients say…

 

Lisa and Alex completed a research project that brought fresh inspiration to Groupe SEB's global innovation division . They conducted detailed interviews with chefs and professionals, and provided original strategic thinking, comprehensive insights, and key recommendations for us to explore. The research culminated with a bespoke London safari for a hands-on immersion. We had unique access to the capital's best chefs and kitchen operators, tasted the latest trends first-hand, and explored pertinent questions relevant to our business. This is our second project with Harris and Hayes and we enjoy working with them.

— Goran Kurt, Vice President Innovation, Groupe SEB.

It’s been a pleasure working with Lisa and Alex. They’ve been a huge help in guiding and consulting on our branded market research story. Their wealth of knowledge and insights has played a huge role in the success of the project.

— Faye Richards, Campaign Manager, Manifest brand communications agency

I highly recommend working with Harris and Hayes. Their insights were invaluable for our Délifrance trend report on bread and viennoiserie, and they gave an engaging presentation in the journalist webinar too. They have a thorough understanding of emerging trends and consumer behaviour.

— Victoria Joseph, Account Director, William Murray Food & Drink PR

Alex and Lisa were genuinely engaged with our mission and the potential of a Growing Well product. They helped me understand better the complexity of launching a retail product.

— Richard Eccles, Development Manager, Growing Well

Lisa and Alex delivered insightful food and drink consultancy for client briefings and ideation sessions. Their wealth of industry knowledge is second to none and they summarise complex themes in a strategic yet accessible way. I would highly recommend them for any food trend and consumer insights projects in the future.

— Richard Rees, Director, NorthandSouth Ideas Agency

At Canvas8, we have worked with Lisa and Alex on a number of projects, both for our Library reports and for external client requests. They always provide such great insight to the world of food and drink, communicate promptly, and are quick to learn about client objectives before entering the consultation. We love working with Harris and Hayes and would recommend them to anyone looking to understand the current and predicted future trends of food and drink.

— Lowri Meggison, Senior Access Manager, Canvas8

Alex and Lisa provided us with invaluable insight to kickstart a confectionery project through providing an expert interview. They helped us to better understand the key market and product trends within the category and emerging future-facing opportunities. I'd highly recommend them for their extensive industry knowledge and consumer-centric approach.

— Rachel Manning, Clear M&C Saatchi

Lisa and Alex are real experts in scouting emerging trends in the market and ensured the content for our board Study Tour was in line with the brief. They are extremely professional and organised, very easy and open to work with and are full of enthusiasm.

— Sabine Sagert, Managing Director and Member of the Executive Committee, Vandemoortele

Harris & Hayes are spectacularly well organised and always deliver content on time – if not ahead of schedule. The quality of the work is always a very high standard and they are a pleasure to work with.

— Tom Lee, Editor, Food Spark insights platform

Alex and Lisa carried out extremely thorough insight and analysis (consumer, market and product) to inform innovation opportunities for two of our brands. They presented the key trends, most relevant to our business and strategy, and near to far opportunities to go after, which has been invaluable. Their inspirational reports have really supported conversations with our clients, and helped to position ourselves as industry thought leaders. I'd highly recommend them for their extensive industry knowledge and very collaborative attitude.  

— Sam Warren, Brand Manager, ADM (Flavours and Functional Ingredients)