A new sales and marketing agency has been launched to capitalise on an anticipated rise in the number of companies looking to outsource the management of non-core brands.

Go2Grocery, a division of health and beauty agency Ceuta Group, is confident the climate is right to launch a new outsourcing operation despite the high profile failures of a number of leading food brokerage businesses over the past decade.

The agency launched this month with six food and drink brands on its books including nutritionally enriched milk drinks Nurishment, Lo Salt, Fisherman's Friend and Eckes-Granini fruit juice.

"Lots of up-and-coming UK brands don't have the capacity in their business or skills set to talk to retailers, and this can help them get rapid traction," said business controller Gavin Coleman.

The failure of similar ­operations such as Food Brokers and more recently Jenks have cast doubts over the long term future of the outsourcing model but Go2Grocery insisted it had a genuine point of difference and that it used more sophisticated technology.

The appetite for outsourcing was greater than it had ever been, added SHS Sales & Marketing MD Peter Butler. "Brand owners are facing so many pressures and they're increasingly trying to focus their own management," he said. "One of the ways they can do this is outsourcing."