“Growth isn’t a moment, it’s a journey built through consistent, deliberate decisions.”

From Kitchen Challenge to Industry Leading Platform

My Journey with Point74 by Mark Wood, Commercial Director

In the early 2000s, I faced a problem that kept me up at night. I was running the added value division at George Adams, a Lincolnshire meat manufacturer where we produced sausage rolls, Cornish pasties, and Scotch eggs. We were successful, but our margins just weren’t where they needed to be.

The way we approached sausage formulation hadn’t changed in decades. Retailers would give our R-development team a brief, say, “achieve 70% meat content”, and to achieve this, they’d blend available porks cuts based on experience, visual assessment, and trial-and-error. It worked, sure, but I knew it was never going to find the optimal, least-cost formulation. Not when we were dealing with 15+ different cuts of pork, each with varying prices, fat levels, and characteristics.

The Catalyst: When Regulations Created Opportunity
Then came 2003, and everything changed. New meat regulations redefined how meat content was calculated, shifting from traditional visual lean measurements to analytical values: protein, fat, and collagen content. It was a seismic shift for the industry, and I saw the opportunity to rethink how we incorporated meat content calculation in our development process

I realised there must be a better way to find the least-cost formulation. The challenge was clear: with so many possible combinations of meat cuts, how could we systematically find the optimal blend?

Working with Sam Neil, a graduate in the business, and our NPD team, we developed what would become the foundation of Point74. An optimisation model that could evaluate different meat combinations and deliver the least-cost formulations while maintaining quality standards.

The results were immediate and significant: 3-7% improvements in meat costs per product. In an industry operating on thin margins, this was transformational.

From Internal Tool to Industry Solution

If this model could deliver such substantial savings at one manufacturer, what about the rest of the industry?

By summer 2007, the pieces fell into place. Sam Neil had moved to BTF as an analyst, developing his expertise in formulation and process design. Will Telford, whom we’d both worked with on IT systems at George Adams, was now developing software for an investment bank. The three of us saw the opportunity clearly.

I reached out to my contacts running large meat businesses. My pitch was straightforward: we can save you money on your formulations, and if we prove it, you buy the software. Two industry giants, Samworth Brothers and Kerry Foods, agreed to pilot the system.

What followed was, in my words, “a bit of a mad rush.” By the end of 2007, we’d built Recipe Professor 1.0: Sam created the models, Will developed the user interface, and I handled commercial relationships. We took each client’s top 10 recipes, ran them through the optimisation model, and proved the savings were real and replicable.

By early 2008, Point74 was live with its first installations. We’d created something the industry didn’t know it needed, but quickly couldn’t live without.

Evolution: From Optimisation to Lifecycle Management
The initial success of Recipe Professor 1.0 led to rapid adoption across major sausage, meat and pastry manufacturers. But our customers wanted more. Why stop at meat optimisation when the entire NPD process was fragmented?

By 2009, clients were asking for nutritional labelling, back-of-pack information, and broader ingredient management. Recipe Professor 2.0 was born, expanding beyond meat products to support any food development team.

What followed was a decade of continuous innovation, each addition responding to real industry needs: retailer submission forms that eliminated manual paperwork, critical path management for complex development projects, comprehensive costing models covering materials and labour down to net margin, process tools that helped NPD teams work more efficiently, and eventually full supplier and raw material specification management.

The vision was becoming clear: create an end-to-end platform that could manage the entire journey from supplier specifications through recipe development, costing, compliance checks, and integration with ERP systems for live product management.

The Four Questions Framework

Through years of working with development teams, the three of us crystallised what separates successful product launches from costly failures. It comes down to answering four critical questions at the kitchen stage:

1. Does it match the brief? Are you delivering what was requested?
2. Can we make it in the factory? Is this actually manufacturable at scale?
3. Is it technically compliant? Does it meet all regulatory requirements?
4. Can we make money at it? Will this product be profitable?

If you can answer those four questions confidently before leaving the kitchen, you’ve eliminated most of the costly mistakes that happen later in the process.
Traditional NPD workflows made answering these questions difficult. Teams used disparate systems: spreadsheets for costing, separate calculators for meat content, different tools for nutritional analysis, and manual forms for submissions. Data was re-keyed multiple times, errors crept in, and no one had the complete picture until late in the process.

Point74’s answer was integration: one system, one version of the truth, and real-time collaboration across finance, technical, and NPD teams.

From Software to Data Platform

Ask me where Point74 is headed, and I’ll tell you the business has evolved through three distinct phases: first as a software company, then as a process optimisation company, and now as a data business.

The whole process is driven by data: nutritional, labelling, cost, technical compliance, and increasingly environmental data like carbon and water usage. We want to surface all of that at the kitchen stage, when teams have maximum flexibility to adjust.

This evolution isn’t theoretical; it’s driven by the increasing complexity of food manufacturing. Recent years brought Natasha’s Law, HFSS regulations, supply chain chaos from COVID-19 and the Ukraine war, and growing environmental and sustainability requirements. On the horizon: EU deforestation regulations, digital product passports, and extended producer responsibility schemes.

Each new requirement expands the data requirements and adds to the burden on NPD and Technical teams. Our response is to incorporate the data into the system and make it available at the kitchen stages, integrated into the development workflow, so compliance and optimisation happen naturally rather than as afterthoughts.
The recent development of a specifications management platform closed the loop, allowing suppliers to input their data directly, which then flows through to recipe development, costing, and compliance checks, creating what we call a “digital thread” from concept to market.

The ROI Story: Beyond Cost Savings
The initial value proposition was simple: we’ll save you 3-7% on formulation costs. Today, the business case has expanded across five pillars: speed to market, margin improvement, process efficiency, improved compliance, and one version of truth with better visibility, reporting, and management insights across the business.
The primary competitor in the marketplace for Point74 isn’t another software platform, it’s spreadsheets and disconnected point solutions. Most companies’ NPD systems are still based on spreadsheets. The opportunity to bring all that capability into one integrated system is a game-changer.

Building for the Long Term

Seventeen years from that first installation, Point74 has grown from three founders to a full team spanning software development, infrastructure management, implementation specialists, client success, support, and sales. Each addition has been deliberate, responding to the needs of a growing platform and customer base.

We’ve maintained our focus on the food industry: deep specialisation that allows us to anticipate needs and build solutions that truly fit how development teams work. When Environmental and Sustainability data became critical, Point74 was ready. When supply chain disruptions required rapid reformulation, the platform enabled it.

Food is getting more complex, and that complexity isn’t going away. Our job is to keep the software dynamic, make the right data available, and give development teams the tools to keep up with legislative requirements, retailer expectations, and their own brand values.

From a margin problem in Lincolnshire to an industry-standard platform, Point74’s journey reflects a simple truth: the best software solutions come from people who’ve lived the problems they’re solving. I knew how sausages were made, literally and figuratively. That knowledge, combined with Sam Neil’s analytical rigour and Will’s software expertise, created something the industry didn’t know it was waiting for.

And after 17 years, we’re still solving problems most people don’t yet know they have.

Point74’s food development platform serves major food manufacturers across the UK, providing integrated recipe development, costing, compliance, and lifecycle management capabilities.