Scotland’s experts on farmer co-ops and food industry collaboration, we work with food and farming businesses to make them more profitable, competitive, and sustainable - #workingtogether to shape the future, today.
All our work helps facilitate farmers and food and drink businesses to work together effectively. Over the years we've expanded and developed subsidiary businesses - getting the right people together and making innovative advancements - to help benefit food, farming and rural Scotland.
Developing staff capability is one of the most effective ways to improve a co-op’s performance. Check out our events and training programme - most of which are open to non co-op members too.
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See below for all the latest news, views and updates from us here at SAOS. Find all our latest videos on YouTube at: SAOS - working together in food and farming
04 February 2026
If you missed the 2026 SAOS Conference on Growing our Farming Future, or want a recap, catch up on much of the day with the links below to PDFs of our speakers' presentations. And you can now follow the links to videos of the presentations on our YouTube channel - these include slides from the presentations too.
Our day was split into three sessions, exploring different areas of possibility.
Opening the conference, SAOS Chairman, Rory Christie, talked about the importance of people as a part of our farming future and we showed our latest
Growing Tomorrow's Leaders video.
Our first speaker was Oonagh Chesney, Company Secretary of Fane Valley
Formed in 1903 Fane Valley remains 100% farmer owned. The business, which employs over 1,000 people, continues to develop through a strategy of organic growth and targeted acquisitions.
Watch the video of Oonagh's presentation here
Next we heard from Digby Sowerby, Managing Director of the Environmental Farmers Group
EFG is a co-operative group of farmers delivering positive environmental change at a landscape-scale, funded through natural capital trading. Supported by some of the UK’s leading natural capital specialists, EFG acts as a trusted navigator for farmers and landowners by providing a cohesive approach to baselining, planning and monitoring natural capital and ensuring fair financial reward for Members.
Watch the video of Digby's presentation here
We were delighted to have James Withers join us again to help host our panel sessions and field the questions and answers, he's pictured here on the left, with our speakers Oonagh and Digby.
Our first afternoon session after lunch and networking explored some of the possibilities available in Home Markets.
We heard from Allene Bruce, SAOS's Head of Supply Chain Development - on Sourcing for Growth and other import displacement growth opportunities.
Allene Bruce's presentation
Watch the video of Allene's presentation here
Next up was Dennis Overton, Chair, Scottish Food Commission - on local supply chain opportunities and areas for focus building towards being a Good Food Nation.
Watch the video of Dennis's presentation here
Additional (post conference) Scottish Food Commission Q&A responses here
Joining the Speaker Panel Q&A session, again facilitated by James Withers, we had John Forteith (food wholesaling expert) and Andy McGowan of the United Pig Co-operative.
Patrick Hughes, SAOS Strategic Services Director - gave us the introduction and scene-setting for our third session
We also heard from:
Liz Fletcher, Director of Impact/Deputy CEO IBioIC
Professor Wendy Russell, of the Rowett Institute
Lucy Filby, Head of Agricultural Transition, SOSE
and Ally Allan of Grampian Growers
Our Chief Executive, Tim Bailey, closed the afternoon session with a call to action, stressing the power and potential solutions that co-operatives offer to so many current challenges.
Tim's presentation SAOS Conf '26
Watch the video of Tim's presentation here
Our grateful thanks to our speakers and panellists and once again go to our headline sponsors - NFU Mutual and to IBioIC for their support of this year.
We'll be recapping on the conference in our Spring SAOS Update. Let us know if you'd like to sign up to receive it.