FADNE is the North East’s only farm-to-plate sector organisation
– the convening body for food, drink and hospitality across the region, from primary producers and growers through manufacturers, retailers, hospitality operators and the supply chains in between.
We exist to give the sector a single voice, a shared source of intelligence, and a platform to organise around what matters most: opportunity, support, policy, skills, procurement, investment and business resilience.
Insights. Influence. Connections. Opportunity.
That’s what membership delivers, at every tier.
FADNE is member-led – we can only do this with the support of the businesses, organisations and people we represent.
Every Subscriber, Member and Partner makes the work possible.
There are five ways to be part of FADNE, depending on where you are and what you need.
What is FADNE Connect?
Your sector’s digital home.
FADNE Connect is where FADNE lives digitally – the platform that brings the regional sector together in one place.
The planned shape includes member profiles and a sector directory, opportunities to engage in projects and collaboration, a buyer and supplier interface, and jobs and skills facilitation and matchmaking.
The core shape is set; members are shaping how it works.
As Connect builds out, every paid tier has an active role in consultation – making sure Connect serves the businesses, organisations and people who will use it day-to-day.
Community Subscriber
Free. The starting point.
The easiest way to stay close to what FADNE is doing. The monthly newsletter brings sector news, business support opportunities, regional intelligence and upcoming events directly to your inbox. Access to selected FADNE webinars, workshops and showcases as they come up.
Open to anyone with an interest in food, drink and hospitality across the North East.
Connect Member
Active engagement.
Connect Member is for businesses ready to engage actively with FADNE – using the platform, joining the conversations, and getting hands-on with the support that helps grow a food, drink or hospitality business in the North East.
What’s included:
✓ Webinars and drop-in surgeries with sector experts
✓ In-person member events and partner-led insight sessions
✓ Personal introductions and signposting
✓ A seat at FADNE’s Working Groups, where the regional sector agenda is shaped
✓ Active role in shaping how FADNE Connect works through ongoing consultation
For independent operators, growing businesses, and established companies that want a working relationship with FADNE. Farmers, growers, bakers, brewers, distillers, restaurateurs, manufacturers, suppliers – anyone with a stake in how the regional sector grows.
£45 + VAT per month.
Minimum commitment 12 months.
Corporate Partner
Exclusive. By invitation. Forging the future of food, drink and hospitality in the North East.
Corporate Partner is the most senior tier of FADNE engagement, offered by invitation to a select group of regional businesses with a serious stake in the future of food, drink and hospitality across the North East.
Each Corporate Partnership is bespoke – built around what matters to the business and what they want to see for the regional sector. A named FADNE Director leads the relationship, with a tailored programme of work that develops between FADNE and each Corporate Partner: bespoke projects, joint initiatives, co-funded research, contra arrangements where mutually useful, and outcomes the business can measure.
Common elements across all Corporate Partnerships:
✓ Direct strategic access to FADNE leadership, with a named FADNE Director as point of contact
✓ A seat at FADNE’s Working Groups, where regional submissions to government and major buyers are developed
✓ Early sight of FADNE intelligence, research and policy positions
✓ Quarterly Breakfast and Supper Clubs – cohort-only, hosted at Partner premises
✓ Invitation to Room With A View dinners across the year
✓ Factory Floor Networking visits hosted by the cohort
✓ Curated insights, sector research and industry intelligence drawn from specialist providers and FADNE’s own work
✓ Active role in shaping how FADNE Connect works through ongoing consultation
For senior regional businesses with food, drink or hospitality at the heart of what they do, and a strategic interest in where the sector is heading. Manufacturers, retailers, hospitality operators, large-scale producers, suppliers, educators.
By invitation only.
£4500 + VAT per year.
Associate Partner
For service providers and specialists serving the sector.
Associate Partner is for professional service providers – lawyers, accountants, consultants, marketers, agencies and specialists – who serve the North East food, drink and hospitality sector and want a structured route into it.
What’s included:
✓ Drop-in surgery slots where you offer your expertise directly to FADNE members
✓ Spotlight sessions to demonstrate what you do
✓ A referral commission model on work won through FADNE introductions
✓ The opportunity to sponsor Room With A View – one Associate Partner sponsors each evening, three times a year
✓ Active role in shaping how FADNE Connect works through ongoing consultation
For professional services firms with relevant expertise for food, drink and hospitality businesses, looking to be visible in the regional sector and to earn work through introductions.
£1,000 + VAT per year, plus commission on work won through FADNE introductions.
Strategic Partner
For change-makers and policy partnerships.
Strategic Partner is for organisations whose work is structurally aligned with what FADNE is building – public bodies, sector institutions, infrastructure partners, regional development organisations, major funders.
What’s included:
✓ Director-level engagement with FADNE leadership
✓ A seat at FADNE’s Working Groups
✓ Logo placement across FADNE materials and events
✓ Shared programme delivery where there is mutual interest – joint projects, joint research, joint convening moments
✓ Bespoke arrangements built around the work
✓ Active role in shaping how FADNE Connect works through ongoing consultation
For organisations whose strategic interests align with the growth of the North East food, drink and hospitality sector, and whose scale or remit makes a structured partnership with FADNE meaningful. Combined authorities, universities, sector bodies, regional development organisations.
Terms by arrangement.
Join Us
FADNE is built by its members.
Every subscription, every membership, every partnership makes the regional sector stronger and gives it a clearer voice.
If you’re part of the North East food, drink and hospitality sector – at any scale, in any role – there’s a place for you here.
Contact Chris Jewitt – info@fadne.org – for an exploratory conversation, or join directly through one of the routes above.
