{"id":29,"date":"2026-03-26T11:08:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T11:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fisgroup.mastersofbrands.co.uk\/?page_id=29"},"modified":"2026-06-01T10:02:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T10:02:22","slug":"our-approach","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fisgroup.mastersofbrands.co.uk\/about\/our-approach","title":{"rendered":"Our Approach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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ABOUT FIS GROUP | OUR APPROACH<\/p>\n \n

One specialist team. Every food and drink channel. Insight to launch, end to end.<\/h1>\n \n

FIS Group runs the integrated insight and innovation model for food and drink. Strategic insight, innovation and product consultancy work as one operational team rather than as separate departments handing briefs between them. We work across foodservice, QSR, retail, grocery, hospitality, out-of-home and challenger brands. The breadth is what lets us cross-pollinate insight across categories. The specialism is what makes the work land.<\/p>\n \n \n Book a Scoping Call →<\/span>\n <\/a>\n \n <\/div>\n\n

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One model, three capabilities, every project<\/h2>\n

FIS Group operates as one specialist team running three capability areas as a single integrated model. Strategic insight, innovation consultancy and product consultancy flow together as one operational framework rather than as three separate departments. Briefs do not get handed between teams. The senior team scoping a project on the first call is the same senior team running the work, presenting the readout and following up after the output has gone round the business.<\/p>\n

What connects every project is the specialism in food and drink. It is the golden thread that runs through every brief, every workshop, every readout, every recommendation. The team writing the discussion guide for a foodservice consumer immersion has the same food and drink specialism as the team running the QSR menu test next door, and the team developing the retailer pitch deck after that. Same senior team, same category knowledge, same commercial commitment to recommendations you can act on. The specialism is what makes the integrated model integrated.<\/p>\n

The integrated model is commercially valuable for one specific reason: food and drink commercial decisions almost never fit cleanly into a single capability box. A category exploration that surfaces a strong consumer opportunity wants to flow into concept development. Concept development that produces an investable proposition wants to flow into product testing and validation. Product validation that gets the product right wants to flow into launch and scale work. The integrated model means each handover is internal rather than between firms, which preserves the strategic intent, the consumer evidence and the senior judgement across the commercial cycle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Meet the team running the model<\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n

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Specialism across every channel that matters<\/h2>\n

Food and drink is not one commercial context. A grocery FMCG brand operates under different commercial pressures from a QSR operator. A foodservice manufacturer faces different category dynamics from a premium hospitality brand. A challenger brand scaling into national distribution has different commercial questions from an established brand defending shelf space. The specialism in food and drink only earns its weight when it extends across the commercial contexts where food and drink decisions are made.<\/p>\n

FIS Group works across seven channel areas, with senior team experience in each. The team knows the buyer dynamics, the retail environment, the foodservice operations, the QSR commercial calendar, the hospitality landscape and the challenger brand commercial pressures from inside each context. Briefs land with people who understand the channel on the first read rather than people learning the channel on the job.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n

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FMCG and branded manufacturers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Branded food and drink manufacturers operating in grocery, with the commercial pressures of category leadership, range architecture, premiumisation, HFSS regulation and the retail buyer relationship. The mainstream commercial environment for most large food and drink brands.<\/p>\n

Grocery, retail and own label<\/strong><\/p>\n

Grocery retailers and own label operations, with the commercial dynamics of category management, range review, supplier relationships, retailer media and the own label development cycle. The channel where food and drink commercial decisions are made at scale.<\/p>\n

Food service<\/strong><\/p>\n

Food service operators, contract caterers, workplace dining and institutional food service. The channel where menu development, operational practicality and consumer experience meet, with commercial pressures very different from grocery retail.<\/p>\n

QSR and high street<\/strong><\/p>\n

Quick service restaurants, casual dining chains and high street food and drink operators. The channel with the fastest commercial calendar in food and drink, where menu innovation, product testing and launch infrastructure run at substantial pace.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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Hospitality<\/strong><\/p>\n

Premium hospitality, restaurant groups, pubs and bars, and the wider hospitality commercial landscape. The channel where premium consumer experience, occasion-led purchasing and the commercial economics of operations meet.<\/p>\n

Out-of-home and on-the-go<\/strong><\/p>\n

Convenience, travel retail, vending, food-to-go formats and the broader out-of-home consumer occasions. The channel that has reshaped fastest in the post-pandemic commercial environment, with consumer behaviour shifts that affect both food and drink innovation and operational decisions.<\/p>\n

Challenger brands and scale-ups<\/strong><\/p>\n

Premium food and drink challenger brands, scale-up operations and the brands carving out category positions against established competition. The channel where commercial commitments are weighed against runway, and the right insight at the right moment unlocks the next stage of growth.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

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Specialism you can only get from working in the industry<\/h2>\n

The integrated insight and innovation model works because the senior team running it has the industry experience to make the model substantive rather than structural. Most of our senior team have worked client-side in food and drink. Brand director, NPD director, category lead, foodservice operations manager, retail buyer, supply chain lead. They have run the briefs, made the trade-off calls, sat in the boardroom defending the commercial decisions and shipped the product onto the shelf. They know what it feels like to sit on the other side of the table because they have been on the other side of the table.<\/p>\n

That client-side experience is what allows briefs to land with people who already know the category, the buyers, the retailers, the foodservice operators and the commercial pressures. You do not pay for the senior team to learn your category on the job. You do not have to translate your commercial reality into a research methodology that does not understand it. Briefs reach people who have lived the commercial reality and can speak the language of the business from the first call.<\/p>\n

That experience also produces the senior judgement that the integrated model depends on. The judgement to know when research will not solve the question on the table. The judgement to push back on a brief that is asking for the wrong thing. The judgement to recommend a smaller version of the project that will get the buyer ninety percent of the value at sixty percent of the cost. That kind of judgement comes from operating experience, not from analytical training. It is the structural reason the senior team stays involved from brief to readout, because the senior judgement is the value the firm delivers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Meet the Team<\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n

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Four steps, no theatre<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n \n