Food Innovation Solutions Group

What Food Innovation Solutions Group does

Food Innovation Solutions Group (FIS Group) is a privately held specialist food and drink consultancy headquartered in London, with operations at three UK facility locations (London/Mission Kitchen, Bury St Edmunds and Birmingham under the NOTED Fieldwork sub-brand) and a Cambridge main office. Founded in 2010 by Mike Faers, the firm offers three integrated capabilities — strategic insight, innovation, and product testing/excellence — delivered end-to-end by a senior team without junior handovers. Its customer base spans QSR and casual dining (Burger King, Domino's, Pizza Express, Starbucks, YO!, Chaiiwala), branded FMCG manufacturers (Mars, Onken, Mizkan, Pilgrim's Europe, HelloFresh, Valeo Foods, Factor 75, Geeta's, Life Health Foods), grocery retail and own-label work, gut-health brands (Biotiful), and meat/deli operators (Oscar Mayer); the firm states it works with 11 of the UK's top 40 food and drink brands and has anchor relationships such as Domino's spanning 25+ years.

Revenue is generated via project-based professional services fees across four streams: strategic insight consulting, innovation consultancy, product testing services, and facility hire through NOTED Fieldwork. Engagements are scoped around the specific client decision, with senior team members leading kickoff through to readout, and invoices structured on milestone or effective-date/delivery terms with expenses billed monthly in arrears. Customer-facing operations run from Mission Kitchen at New Covent Garden Market in London (headquarters and senior team base), Cambridge (main office), and purpose-built fieldwork infrastructure at Bury St Edmunds and Birmingham. International delivery is provided via trusted local partners across Europe, the US, the Middle East and Australia, with senior FIS Group oversight throughout. The firm has grown through named-enterprise client wins, sub-brand buildout (NOTED Fieldwork), a partnership with trend agency thefoodpeople, and the January 2024 acquisition of Cambridge Market Research. Pricing reflects senior experience and project quality rather than minimum-fee commodity rates, and the firm openly declines briefs that are too small to add value.

Name

Food Innovation Solutions Group

Legal name

FIS Group Limited

Website

https://fis-group.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Food Innovation Solutions Group is a London-headquartered specialist food and drink consultancy offering strategic insight, innovation, and product testing services to enterprise FMCG manufacturers, QSR operators, casual dining chains, retailers, and challenger brands across the UK, Europe, US, Middle East and Australia.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Strategic Insight Consulting: Project-based professional services fees for consumer insight programmes, market research, and strategic consulting engagements. Scoped around the specific decision the client is trying to make; fees reflect the experience of the team and quality of work. Invoiced per schedule in the Proposal (e.g., 50% on Effective Date, 50% on delivery), or monthly in arrears for expenses and third-party costs.
2. Innovation Consultancy: Project-based innovation programmes including ideation workshops, concept development, co-creation sessions, and innovation pipeline building. Charged per engagement, typically with milestone-based invoicing.
3. Product Testing Services: Product testing engagements including central location tests, in-home tests, qualitative product testing, and menu testing, delivered through the NOTED Fieldwork facilities. Charged per project, with cancellation and postponement fee schedules applied.
4. Facility Hire: FIS Group hires out its purpose-built facilities (testing kitchens, sensory suites, focus group rooms) to trusted research partners when not in use for own project work. Contact through the facility lead at each location for availability and rates.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

FIS Group is a specialist food and drink consultancy that delivers three vertically integrated capabilities — strategic consumer insight, innovation consulting, and product testing — to branded FMCG manufacturers, retailers and own-label teams, foodservice operators, and challenger brands. Engagements span consumer research, trend mapping, innovation workshops (including the proprietary Hothouse format and Future Food Pipeline Builder), concept development, central location and in-home product testing, and launch support, delivered by senior teams using purpose-built testing kitchens, sensory suites and recruit/viewing facilities operated under the NOTED Fieldwork sub-brand.

Product overview

FIS Group is a specialist food and drink consultancy offering three core integrated capabilities: strategic insight, innovation, and product testing. The company operates through its parent brand for strategic consultancy work and the NOTED Fieldwork sub-brand for dedicated fieldwork operations. Their services span consumer research, trend analysis, ideation, concept development, product testing, and launch support, delivered across purpose-built facilities in Bury St Edmunds, London, and Birmingham. The company works with clients across retail, FMCG, foodservice/QSR, fresh produce, and challenger brands.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• NOTED Fieldwork: Dedicated fieldwork sub-brand of FIS Group providing consumer recruit, viewing facilities, kitchen facilities for product testing, sensory work, and group space for food and drink research at scale across UK locations in Bury St Edmunds and Birmingham.

Products and services

• Strategic Insight Services Consumer research, category analysis, usage and attitude studies, shopper explorations, ethnography, segmentation, social scraping, food safaris and competitor review for food and drink businesses needing to understand consumer behaviour and market dynamics.
• Innovation Services Innovation consultancy covering opportunity mapping, platform and territory building, the proprietary Hothouse workshop format, Future Food Pipeline Builder framework, expert panels, ideation workshops and concept-to-launch programme design for food and drink brands.
• Product Testing Services Central location tests, in-home product tests, qualitative product testing, menu testing, R&D spirits, menu development and application showcases conducted in purpose-built testing kitchens and sensory suites, including real-store environment testing for QSR and restaurant clients.
• NOTED Fieldwork Dedicated fieldwork sub-brand offering consumer recruit at scale, focus group viewing facilities, purpose-built kitchen facilities for product testing, sensory work, and group space for qualitative and quantitative consumer fieldwork; also hired out to trusted research partners when not in use.
• Concept-to-Launch Programmes End-to-end concept-to-launch product development programmes including retailer pitch support, briefing pack creation, 3PM manufacturing solutions, and launch and scale innovation support for food and drink brands.

Quantifiable outcome

• Multi-market Meal Moments programme spanning UK, US and Australia with in-the-moment quantitative diary capture turned occasion-level insight into strategic workshop output for Mars
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers17 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• thefoodpeoplesupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerFIS Group partners with thefoodpeople, a leading food and beverage trend agency, for trend analysis work. Thefoodpeople's trends framework is incorporated into FIS Group's innovation workshop design and pre-work, including for projects such as Onken's five-year innovation pipeline and Starbucks' EMEA bakery ideation programme. The partnership extends the firm's trend and foresight capabilities.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Kantar: Global market research and insights giant with a major food and drink practice spanning consumer insight, innovation, and brand strategy. Comparable to FIS Group in consumer insight and innovation services for major CPG and QSR clients, but at significantly larger scale and broader geographic footprint.
• Ipsos: Global research company with a substantial consumer goods practice covering consumer understanding, innovation, and product testing. Comparable to FIS Group in delivering consumer insight and innovation services to FMCG and QSR clients, with much broader scale.
• Circana (formerly IRI and The NPD Group): Large-scale consumer and retail insights company serving CPG, retail, and foodservice with point-of-sale data, consumer research, and innovation support. Comparable to FIS Group in retail and CPG insight work but with substantially greater data and scale assets.
• Dunnhumby: Customer data science and consumer insight firm originating from Tesco, serving major grocery retailers and CPG suppliers. Comparable to FIS Group in retailer and own-label consumer insight, with deeper data and technology assets.

Direct peers

• Mintel: Specialist market research firm focused on consumer products, food and drink, and innovation trends. Closely comparable to FIS Group in food and drink consumer insight, category analysis, and innovation pipeline support for major CPG brands.
• Innova Market Insights: Food and beverage-focused market research and innovation insights specialist. Directly comparable to FIS Group in trend mapping, innovation pipeline building, and category foresight for food and drink brands globally.
• MMR Research Worldwide: UK-based consumer sensory and product research specialist for food, drink, and personal care. Closely comparable to FIS Group in sensory product testing, consumer research, and innovation support for major CPG and foodservice clients.
• The Hartman Group: Consumer research and insights firm specialising in food, beverage, and wellness. Comparable to FIS Group in deep food and drink consumer insight, cultural and trend foresight, and innovation strategy for major CPG clients.
• Hotspex: Consumer insights and innovation consultancy with a strong CPG and food and beverage practice. Comparable to FIS Group in consumer insight, product testing, and innovation workshops for major packaged goods and foodservice brands.

Others

• thefoodpeople: UK food and drink trend and insight agency partnered with FIS Group on trend analysis work. Adjacent rather than direct competitor, but operates in the same food and drink trend and innovation space and serves similar brand clients.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/f-s-group
• Instagraminstagram.com/fisgr_oup

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A1 record

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Food Innovation Solutions Group