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Statistics at a Glance

These statistics have been compiled from the latest industry data on food and drink manufacturing and the most recent Office of National Statistics Annual Business Survey.

• The food and drink manufacturing industry is the single largest manufacturing sector in the UK, with a turnover of £76bn and gross value added of £20.6 bn [1], accounting for 16% of the total manufacturing sector.
• The industry employs up to 400,000 workers. This represents 15% of the overall manufacturing workforce in the UK [2].
• Our sector is an important trading partner with Europe: exporting over £12bn of food and non-alcoholic drink products a year, 77% of which go the EU.
• The industry is a key partner for British farmers: buying two thirds of all the UK's agricultural produce. All this economic activity is carried out by over 6,500 food and drink enterprises – many of which are small companies employing less than 10 people.
• Our sector invests over £1bn in to R&D[3] resulting in over 8,500 new products in 2011[4]
• Production in our sector has been the most resilient and stable of all manufacturing industries throughout the recession with the industry consistently producing at levels over 10% higher than the manufacturing average.
• Our industry has increased the productivity of its labour force over the last 10 years by 14% [5] leaving food and drink workers in the UK nearly 50% more productive than the EU average [6].

Food and drink manufacturing has become a safe and rewarding environment to work in:

• Businesses in our sector have reduced their rate of injuries by over 50% over the last 20 years, one of the biggest reductions of any business sector in the UK[7].
• An FDF survey conducted in 2010 indicated that the average tenure for employees was just under 9 years [8] and more recent data shows that average earnings remain higher than the national average [9].

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Notes:

1. Information taken from latest ONS Annual Business Survey, food and non-alcoholic drink only.
2. From the ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2010 (BRES)
3. BIS R&D Scoreboard 2010
4. Mintel GNPD
5. Defra Food Pocket Book 2011 (Total Factor Productivity)
6. From Eurostat SBS statistics (GVA per employee)
7. HSE accident and injury statistics
8. Survey conducted for IfM Value of Food & Drink Manufacturing to the UK
9. From the ONS Average Weekly Earnings data (March 2012)