Strong evidence that North Lanarkshire lies at the heart of Scotland’s food distribution network comes in the form of the Cumbernauld-based Food & Drink Hub for Scotland. This was set up in early 2012 to help provide a cost-effective route to market for micro, small and medium-sized food companies based in Scotland.

The brainchild of James Laws, Paul Anderson and David Whiteford, the company has grown from four staff to a current workforce of 50, 80 per cent of whom come from Lanarkshire. In providing local food companies with a service that incorporates storage, consolidation of different products, distribution and established links with a range of retailers, wholesalers and food service, the Hub carries local food to all major supermarkets in Scotland, delivering to 200 locations around Britain and dealing with almost 100 different suppliers every week.