FFD January/February 2011

January-February 2011 · Vol 12 Issue 1

at the heart of speciality food & drink

GET FRESH

Fruit & veg advice from top greengrocer Nick Hempleman

GLASGOW SHOW GUIDE a new leaf Learn about tea with our new ‘how to buy’ series Your 11-page guide to Scotland’s Speciality Food Show starts on page 33 DELI CHEF

With Marie DiPatri of La Hogue Farm Shop in Suffolk

WELSH WIZARDS We talk to Geraint Hughes of True Taste deli champion Y Bwtri

OFFER THE WORLD’S BEST CHEESEBOARD Our choice from the World Cheese Awards finalists

INSIDE: THE DELI SHACK PICKLES & CHUTNEYS JONATHAN CRUMP COFFEE UPDATE GORDON LEATHERDALE THYME DELI

New Year, New Ideas Scotland’s Speciality Food Show 2011 SECC Glasgow January 23-25 2011

Give your food & drink offer a fresh taste for 2011 with a visit to Scotland’s Speciality Food Show.

Whether you’re looking for Scottish farmhouse specialities, Continental classics or the best contemporary deli cuisine, it’s the perfect place to find inspiration for the coming year.

You’ll find over 100 stands brimming with local, regional, national and international specialities, including scores of 2010 Great Taste Awards winners.

What’s more, the show takes place alongside Scotland’s Trade Fair, where you can source eye-catching, high margin gift products too.

❝

I visited last year and came away Don’t miss: with great new contacts and new GrEat taStE LivE! ideas to take our business forward.

– the Guild of Fine Food’s I enjoyed the intimacy of the show live interactive theatre.

– producers had time to talk about FEEd thE draGon their products and I had time to – watch speciality food sample them without being hurried. producers pitch their I’d urge all retailers to put this date in products to a panel their diaries. of buyers.

❞

Peter Brown Co-founder, Berits & Brown Enterprises Ltd

Register for free tickets, visit www.specialityfoodshow.co.uk

Scotland’s Speciality Food Show is organised by the Guild of Fine Food e: tortie.farrand@finefoodworld.co.uk t: 01963 824464 w: www.specialityfoodshow.co.uk

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January-February 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 01

opinion

in this issue

Charlie Turnbull is a loss to the acting profession. There he stood, vaguely Dickensian in waistcoat and bowler hat, delivering pure theatre from behind the counter of his Dorset delicatessen. It was Christmas Eve and I’d taken refuge from December’s icy blast for my morning espresso.

He’d sold out of the new World Champion cheese, Cornish Blue, but it hardly cramped his style. Customers were eating out of his hand – or from his tasting knife as he carved samples of similar blues. Contented clients left clutching festive wedges.

Later that morning, I rang my local council to ask when they planned to clear several weeks’ rubbish piled high on the snow and ice in our village. A recorded voice explained the offices were closed until January 4, but on behalf of council employees wished all customers a happy new year.

This abuse of the word ‘customer‘ really bugs me, and it’s not only councils that use it. Rail networks call me a ‘customer’, as does the Inland Revenue. I’m a Turnbull’s customer because I choose to shop there. With public sector providers I have no choice. If I didn’t like what Charlie sold, I’d go elsewhere.

You can’t do that with councils. They’re monopolies, so there’s virtually no incentive to deliver top quality customer service.

The independent deli and farm shop owners we interviewed for this issue are reasonably upbeat about 2011. In times of recession, the private sector works harder to increase competitiveness and improve customer service levels.

Public sector managers prefer cutting services during times of restraint by making the people who actually deliver them redundant. That way, they get to preserve management infrastructures and their own jobs, which is much like increasing the rail network’s efficiency by dumping the trains.

This is a luxury delis and farm shops don’t enjoy. When they downsize, the owner takes up the slack to maintain quality of service, otherwise customers dry up and the business goes down the toilet – something your average councillor doesn’t worry about.

Neither do MPs or civil servants. They’re supposedly busy reducing the regulatory burden on your business. But where’s the evidence? Last year, Employment Tribunal cases rocketed by 56%, costing employers nearly £10,000 a time, win or lose, while disgruntled employees pay nothing to make a claim. Now the Government is planning a new pension scheme that’ll add 3% to your wages bill. And when the Food Standards Agency orders local authorities to standardise their hygiene grading schemes around its one-to-five numbering system, it’ll be you handling the paperwork.

All of which underlines the gargantuan gulf between the private and public sectors. I accept life is marginally improved because my wine bottles go for recycling and the Navy can afford a shiny new aircraft carrier, but these people don’t know the meaning of the word ‘customer’.

❝When delis and farm shops downsize, the owner takes up the slack to maintain quality of service, otherwise customers dry up and the business goes down the toilet ❞

Bob Farrand

fine food news

Fine food retailers predict a mixed start to 2011 p4

interview: geraint hughes

The owner of Best Welsh Deli Y Bwtri tells FFD why brand values – and value – must be trumpeted p13

world cheese awards

We look back on Cornish Blue’s global triumph and suggest a world-beating cheeseboard p28

scotland’s speciality food show 2011 preview and exhibitor guide p33

product update: pickles & chutneys In search of the best new savoury accompaniments p45

product update: coffee

New Year’s ideas for topping up your coffee offering p47

regulars:

news deli of the month cheesewire deli chef shelf talk

4 15 23 31 49

EDITORIAL Editor: Mick Whitworth News editor: Patrick McGuigan Art director: Mark Windsor Editorial production: Richard Charnley Contributors: Anne Bruce, Gail Hunt, Hilary Armstrong

Bob Farrand is publisher of Fine Food Digest and national director of the Guild of Fine Food

ADVERTISING Sales manager: Sally Coley Advertisement sales: Becky Stacey Circulation manager: Tortie Farrand Publisher & managing director: Bob Farrand Associate publisher & director: John Farrand

What they’re saying ❝I work closely with the fish man, the veg man and the baker on the market and we have this quadrilateral sharing of customers to give them a better shopping experience. They won’t get the same chat in Tesco.❞ Iain Thompson, The Deli Shack – p15

THE GUILD OF FINE FOOD Membership secretary & director: Linda Farrand Administrators: Charlie Westcar, Julie Coates Accounts: Stephen Guppy, Denise Ballance

t: 01963 824464 Fax: 01963 824651 e: firstname.lastname@finefoodworld.co.uk w: www.finefoodworld.co.uk Published by: Great Taste Publications Ltd and The Guild of Fine Food Ltd. Fine Food Digest is published 10 times a year and is available on subscription for £40pa inclusive of post and packing.

Printed by: Advent Colour, Hants © Great Taste Publications Ltd and The Guild of Fine Food Ltd 2011. Reproduction of whole or part of this magazine without the publisher’s prior permission is prohibited. The opinions expressed in articles and advertisements are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher.

The publisher cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, recipes, photographs or illustrations.

Vol.11 Issue 1 · January-February 2010

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fine food news Mixed forecast for the New Year as the cuts and With the economy looking shaky, PATRICK McGUIGAN asked FFD readers how they expect to weather the Fine food retailers and suppliers are expecting a tough start to 2011 as public sector spending cuts and the rise in VAT take their toll in what is traditionally the quietest trading period for many.

According to a British Retail Consortium survey conducted last month, nearly two thirds of retailers expect sales to decline in 2011, citing weak consumer demand, inflationary pressures and weakness in the economy as their top three concerns.

These fears were echoed by many of the delis, farm shops and fine food producers questioned

by FFD, with companies having to cut costs and introduce initiatives to maintain sales, although others say they are set to benefit from demand for healthier products.

“January and February will be made even tougher by the current economic uncertainty. We’re going to have to work much harder to keep growing our fledgling business. We are running everything from a Slimming World night, including a demo, food and shopping, to doing promotions with local publications to provide a free pack of sausages for every reader. We’re working with some of our

curry suppliers to run a special ‘warming curry promotion’ and our newsletter is full of ideas to use cheaper cuts of meat.”

Heather Parry, Fodder, Harrogate “The VAT increase will affect our Valentine’s business because products like confectionery and wine are VATable. We have several areas in which we plan to cut costs, such as changing our electricity supplier and trading in our two delivery vans for new ones that run on alternative fuel. We also plan to hold more tasting events and introduce own-label merchandise. Our own-brand biscuits arrived in the shop last month, which we estimate will double biscuit sales.”

Danny Michelson, La Fromagerie, London “We’re expecting flat to declining sales as the pinch of VAT and postChristmas spending is felt. We’re focusing on marketing our catering service, boosting our website presence and enlarging the existing shop, as well as opening a second shop.”

Steve Turvill, Limoncello, Cambridge

Pension plan could mean fewer deli jobs

By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Fine food retailers have hit out at proposals to force small businesses to enrol staff in pension schemes and contribute up to 3% of each worker’s salary.

Retailers spoken to by FFD said the move would place a heavy burden on their businesses and could deter them from taking on full-time staff.

After the creation the National Employment Savings Trust, planned for October 2012, businesses will be required to set up pensions for all employees earning over £7,500 and contribute 1% of the worker's salary, rising to 3% by 2017. Employees will have to pay in 1% of pay, rising to 4% by 2017.

“Pension legislation will put a huge burden on my wage bill, and may sway Sarah Britton: ‘Pay will suffer’

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January-February 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 1

Fiona Kay: ‘Huge burden’

me to employ part-timers to keep them below that threshold,” said Fiona Kay, owner of Cheese Please in Lewes.

John Axon of the Cheese Hamlet in Didsbury bemoaned the amount of extra paper work: “Not only will it cost money in employers’ contributions, but we will have a mountain of paperwork,” he said.

“I agree in principal that everybody should be encouraged into saving for their own retirement, but is there any reason why this can’t be provided through national insurance contributions or income tax?”

Sarah Britton, owner of Darling Deli in Bath, added: “The only way we could afford this is to include the pension contribution as part of our annual pay review which would be reduced by the 1%. Otherwise, I don’t see how we can magic up the amount.”

“Like the rest of the UK, we’re nervous about the impact of the VAT increase and the government spending slowdown on consumer demand. We’ll be having discussions with suppliers to secure cost savings. Global commodity markets have been so strong that we are being hit with increased costs on glass, sugar and fruit juice.”

Pev Manners, Belvoir Fruit Farms “We expect trade to be good between January and March as the New Year encourages detox diets and healthy eating. Munchy Seeds are zero-rated, so the rise in VAT won’t result in a direct price increase. We’re also running price promotions with wholesalers.

Tree of Life and Infinity are running a 20%-off through January, for example.”

Crispin Clay, MD Munchy Seeds “The first three months are always relatively calm after the rush in December, but we don’t think it is going to be better or worse then any other year. The most important thing one should do is not to read the

Regions divided over hygiene rating schemes Fewer than half of all councils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are expected to adopt the new Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) this year, which publicly rates the hygiene levels of shops and cafés.

The national scheme aims to replace the variety of ‘scores on the doors’ systems set up piecemeal by councils across the UK in recent years. However, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) estimates only 167 local authorities out of 374 will operate the FHRS by the middle of 2011, leaving a confusing number of schemes still in place.

Under the FSA scheme, the food hygiene standard of businesses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are rated from one to five, with five representing the highest level of cleanliness. The score is posted online for the public to see and the business is encouraged to display its rating in the window. In Scotland, a simpler ‘pass’ or ‘improvement required’ scheme has been introduced.

However, dozens of other schemes, using different symbols and scoring systems, are set to remain in place with councils reluctant to switch to the FHRS because of concerns over funding. In particular, local authorities will have to foot the bill for re-inspections if businesses dispute their FHRS rating. In the longer term, councils could have no option but to adopt the FSA scheme and retailers could be forced to display ratings on site. A recent government report, Common Sense, Common Safety, recommended the FHRS be made mandatory.

inbrief shopfitting tax rise take hold early months of 2011 newspapers or watch TV telling us how bad the economy is! Yes, it is not easy, but it is not as bad as they say.”

Amon Paldi, La Cave a Fromage, London and Brighton “I expect January to be my third best month of the year. It was in 2010, mainly due to the re-orders from Christmas.

Reducing the energy use with new equipment is one key area that we’re investing in.”

John Taylerson, Taylerson’s Malmesbury Syrups “We’re really not expecting great things for the first quarter of this year. Some good weather would help bring vital day visitors to the area. Having had a very difficult year – but also exciting because we refurbuished and renamed the shop – it’s important for us to remain positive and pro-active. I now have our monthly newsletter up and running and plan to do much more in the way of targeted e-mail marketing.

We also have some events planned for kick-starting the New Year, such as a healthy eating book signing and a cookery demonstration.”

Lorna Bunney, Bunney’s, North Berwick

New grouping for artisan chocolatiers Three small chocolate companies have set up a UK group to promote and support artisan chocolatiers.

Full membership of the UK Guild of Artisan Chocolatiers is available only to producers that employ a maximum of six full-time employees or have fewer than two shops.

The organisation aims to provide members with an opportunity to network, share expertise and to bulk-buy ingredients and packaging.

Members must only use ‘real chocolate’ and quality ingredients; be knowledgeable, creative, enthusiastic and skilled; and make chocolate by hand, in small batches.

Founder member Bala Croman of The Chocolate Cellar in Liverpool admitted these criteria required further refining. “We need to work on some of the definitions, as well as promoting the logo to consumers, but we estimate that there are around 500 chocolatiers who would qualify for membership. Larger companies and suppliers can also join as associate members.”

The other founders are Angela Ruthven of Norwichbased Saffire Chocolates and Dawn Shrives of Hampshire-based Le Salon du Chocolat.

Bermondsey hosts breakaway amid rumblings at Borough Market Londoners tired of the crowds at Borough Market are heading to an alternative foodie destination in nearby Bermondsey, set up by some of Borough’s leading lights.

Neal’s Yard Dairy, Monmouth Coffee and KaseSwiss Cheese are among the well-known Borough retailers that now also set up shop on Saturday mornings under the railway arches in Maltby Street and Druid Street, where some already have warehouse space.

The latest to join Maltby Street Market include St John, which has opened a new bakery on Druid Street, and greengrocer Booth’s, a long-time Borough tenant.

Borough Market’s trustees have come under criticism from stallholders angered by rent increases, the introduction of anonymous taste-testing of products and disruption caused by the closure of the old market hall during the Cross Link rail project.

The last three remaining fruit & vegetable wholesalers based at permanent stalls launched a High Court case against the trustees last year in a dispute over leases. One Borough insider told FFD stallholders are operating in a “climate of fear”. “Maltby Street and the surrounding area might be the next big foodie thing,” she said.

North London grocery shop Unpackaged won the Food Retailer Award in Sustain’s 2010 Food Hall of Fame and Shame Awards. The retailer promotes less wasteful packaging, letting shoppers buy food in their own containers.

The ‘shame award’ went to Tesco after the Advertising Standards Authority upheld a complaint from Sustain’s Real Bread Campaign that one of its bread ads was misleading. ● Harvey Nichols has opened the first of a series of ‘pop-up’ food shops at its fifth floor food market in Knightsbridge. Irish food and drink brand Inish Turk Beg was the first company to take space in the store with a small pop-up shop running from December to January. This will be followed by a larger site acting as a short-term ‘shop’ for other suppliers throughout 2011.

FFD columnist Gordon Leatherdale will run a seminar on ‘better retailing’ at a new Farm Shop & Deli Show bolted on to the National Convenience Show in Birmingham. It takes place from February 27 to March 1 at the NEC, enabling deli & farm shop operators to visit both events and find out what’s happening in the general grocery trade. Other seminars will include sessions on PR by Briony Montgomery of Positive PR and on cheese retailing by Jeremy Bowen of Paxton & Whitfield. ● Sainsbury’s is to open six food colleges across the UK, which will train staff working on its meat, fish, deli and hot food counters. The company says this new training programme will cover product knowledge, knife/preparation skills, customer service and merchandising.

Slow Food is urging speciality food retailers to get involved in its inaugural Slow Food Week this summer, which will celebrate the organisation’s ethos of “good, clean and fair food for all”.

Taking place from June 20-26, the week will be marked with events involving chefs, food producers, community groups, schools and members of Slow Food UK’s 55 local groups.

“If you’ve not heard of Slow Food before, this doesn’t stop you from getting involved in the week,” said Slow Food UK CEO Catherine Gazzoli. “We would encourage retailers to hold events. This

could be tastings or cooking demonstrations utilising specific varieties of local, seasonal and regional produce. Or you could host a meet-the-producer event.”

Slow Food’s Ark of Taste, which catalogues exceptional food products in danger of disappearing, could also provide a focus for retailers, said chair of the Ark Sue Braithwaite. “Extraordinary foods are under threat of extinction and Slow Food Week is the perfect opportunity for fine food retailers to promote and defend local food traditions, support sustainable production and protect biodiversity.”

Rhonda Smith

Fine food sector urged to join Slow Food Week

Educational events will be a key part of the week Vol.12 Issue 1 · January-February 2011

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If I’d known news then what I know now…

public funding

Amanda Biggs, Thyme Deli, Horwich, Bolton My shop is very different from what I envisaged back in 2003. My original dream was to run a purely retail deli that sold lots of lovely food products. I soon realised, however, that it’s all very well having a dream but a business has to adapt if it’s going to be successful.

The unit I took on was larger than I had anticipated so I filled some of the space with tables and chairs. It was cheaper to turn part of the shop into a café than fill it with stock that I couldn’t really afford. It’s a good job I did, because the café and the takeaway food bring in a lot of people.

We took over the unit next door two years later, which gave us more space for the café. We also put in a concession selling giftware. A few years later I realised that although it looked lovely it wasn’t actually making any money for me, so I took it back over and turned it into a cookware section.

The café, takeaway and cookware are steady all year round. They keep cashflow moving. If I had relied solely on the deli, I would have run into problems during the quiet times of the year.

“If I had relied solely on the deli, I’d have run into problems during quiet times of the year” I’ve learned a lot about merchandising by watching how customers move round the shop and from watching documentaries. I’m a big fan of Mary Queen of Shops – you can learn a lot from her about how to position products on shelf and the importance of regularly refreshing displays. My husband has also worked in retail for a long time, which has been a help.

In my old job I used to dream about how lovely it would be to talk to people about food all day. It is like that in some ways, but what I didn’t have in my dream was the paperwork. Ordering, VAT, weekly and monthly accounts, staff wages – keeping a handle on the business takes a huge amount of time.

I also wish I’d known about how much potential there was for wastage, rather than realising products were out of date when it was too late. Now we have a checking system so we know which products are short dated so we can reduce them or use them in the café.

When the café’s very busy, it’s easy to overlook the deli, but I’ve learned that’s where all my money and profit is sitting. If I’ve got thousands of pounds worth of stock that isn’t moving and ends up being reduced, it doesn’t matter how hard I work. It’s taken me a while to realise that the profit in a case is often in the last two or three jars.

Interview by PATRICK McGUIGAN

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March 2010 · Vol.11 Issue 2

Barnard Castle food hall in doubt as One NorthEast pulls funding…

By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Plans to build a regional food hall as part of a £6m redevelopment project in Barnard Castle, Teesdale, hang in the balance after the Regional Development Agency (RDA) withdrew £2m worth of funding.

A further £2m package from the local council may also be reviewed as spending cuts take their toll. As reported in FFD last year, a 650 sq m food hall, set over two floors, was an integral part of the project to restore The Witham, a grand 19th century hall in the centre of Barnard Castle.

However, RDA One NorthEast has withdrawn £2m worth of funding due to public sector cutbacks. A spokesman said: “We can confirm the application for funding for the redevelopment of Witham Hall has been unsuccessful. This decision is not a reflection of the quality of this project but is a result of budget constraints and government restrictions preventing the agency from making new funding commitments beyond March 2011.”

Meanwhile, Durham County Council said it may be forced to review its support for the project. Neil Foster, Durham County Council cabinet member for regeneration and economic development, said: “We are still awaiting guidance from government on how our Medium Term Financial Plan, which looks

Food hall plans may not now progress further than this artist’s impression

at the council's finances for the next four years, will be affected. Funds for the refurbishment of the Witham Hall and other elements of our capital programme may need to be reviewed.”

The project to restore The Witham is run by regeneration group Barnard Castle Vision in conjunction with The Witham Trustees.

Deborah Jenkins, chair of Barnard Castle Vision, said: “We are actively pursuing opportunities with a number of sources to complement the funding which has already been obtained. The Vision fully anticipated the changes from One NorthEast which have resulted in the withdrawal of funding. The funding obtained to date is made up of a variety of different sources, of which One North East’s contribution formed a single part.”

…but shops are still gaining from RDPE scheme Regional Food Groups may be seeing their funding slashed, but fine food retailers such as Berryfields Farm Shop are still managing to find financial support via the EU-funded Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE).

Chris and Fiona Barber of Berryfields managed to secure a grant of £37,000 through Herefordshire Council’s Rural Enterprise Grant programme, which is funded via the RDPE, to build a new mezzanine coffee shop at their shop near Coventry.

The Hayloft café opened before Christmas and aims to boost footfall at the shop, said Fiona Barber. “We hope this will not only

help us to provide a better experience for customers who visit but will also attract more customers who have not visited us before,” she said. “It’s already proving a big hit with our regular customers and, because there are so few places like it in this area, we are finding people are coming here specifically to use the coffee shop.”

The Rural Enterprise Grant was set up to administer grants of less than £62,500 and is run in the West Midlands by Herefordshire Council. The scheme has run for over a year and funds 40% of eligible costs for projects designed to boost farm and micro businesses.

So far it has approved over £2 million of grants.

“The grant has been a huge help in enabling us to secure the money to make this investment and move forward as a business,” said Barber.

The RDPE was first introduced in 2007 and is due to end in 2013. It has a total budget of £3.7bn for the period.

Berryfields staff Nicola Price and Sarah Walton with Dorothy Coleman, REG programme manager

Vol.12 Issue 01 路 January-February 2011

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news high-class grocers

Green Grocer co-founder goes gourmet with Wholesome Chance for VAT refund on toasties

By PATRICK McGUIGAN

As VAT rises to 20% this month, inconsistencies in the way tax laws are applied mean delis paying VAT on takeaway toasted sandwiches, such as ciabattas and focaccias, could be in line for a refund.

Hot takeaway food is taxed at the standard VAT rate but some stores have successfully argued that toasted sandwiches should be zero-rated because heating is a necessary part of the preparation process.

A group of Subway franchisees is currently staging a legal challenge over this point. They lost a claim at a tax tribunal before Christmas but plan to appeal in a case that could eventually be decided by the EU. They say competitors such as Quiznos and McDonald’s who do not pay VAT on near-identical products have an unfair advantage.

Terry Parkinson, MD of consultancy VATQuest, said the question of tax liability on toasted sandwiches was “wide open”. “If Subway is successful, it will help resolve the issue for smaller operators like delis and farm shops.

While we're waiting to see what happens, it's definitely worth making a claim over toasted sandwiches.”

Norwich retailer Tim Cross aims to rival his local Marks & Spencer in the gourmet ready-meals market by teaming up with local chefs.

Wholesome, which opened before Christmas on the ground floor of a former wool warehouse, is positioned as a modern grocery shop for the city centre, selling locally sourced produce, bread, cheese and meat, plus wholefoods. It will also soon sell gourmet ready-meals cooked in the kitchens of nearby restaurants.

“Instead of buying an M&S ready-meal you can come here and pick up a freshly prepared, restaurant-quality meal to take home,” said Cross. “We aim to be an alternative to the supermarkets where you can pick up your dinner on the way home from work.

“I could make the meals myself, but I’d rather leave it to the professionals and help support other local businesses. It also means that I can keep stock levels down in the shop because we get the meals delivered fresh each day.”

Cross previously founded Norwich organic supermarket The Green Grocers. He sold it in 2009 before taking on the six-storey former wool warehouse where Wholesome is located.

A dining room is planned for the first floor later this year, which will also be used to host events, food lectures and pop-up restaurants.

Tim Cross: taking on M&S

food halls

A famous Maltese speciality food store plans to extend its British range

Brits are on their way to Wembley

By PATRICK McGUIGAN

An iconic fine food retailer in Malta is on the hunt for products from British producers after revamping its store and increasing shelf-space.

The Wembley Store in Valletta underwent a major revamp at the end of last year, taking inspiration from how the shop looked when it first opened in 1924.

A new wine cellar in the basement and an expansion on the first floor has increased retail space by around 25% with greater emphasis now put on speciality foods, including those from the UK. “The Wembley Store has been importing speciality food since it opened in 1924,” said director Chris Gauci. “At the time Malta was a British colony and an important naval base. Naturally the products became available to the local population and they quickly acquired a taste for British 8

food. This influence is still very much felt today.”

He continued: “I intend to visit the UK in 2011 and visit suppliers with whom we believe we can build a long-term business relationship.

We’re interested in sourcing traditional English products as well as innovative ones, and pay special attention to award winners.”

Gauci said cheese and confectionery were two categories where expansion was planned “although transportation is a hurdle as freight on small quantities is high, especially if the product is chilled”.

Current British suppliers include Wilkin & Sons, The London Tea Company and Ballancourt paté. The shop also stocks products from the Continent, including cheese and charcuterie from Italy and sausages from Germany.

The Wembley Store was opened

January-February 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 1

by Emanuel Gauci, the grandfather of current directors Chris and Noel Gauci. The name was inspired by Emanuel Gauci’s visit to the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Stadium in 1924.

The newly revamped Wembley Store. It first opened in the 1920s and in 1950 was visited by the then Princess Elizabeth (above right)

Vol.12 Issue 01 路 January-February 2011

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Bill’s Produce Stores — Photography by Hudoq

Farm Shop & Deli Show has small businesses in mind. We’ve created an intimate setting within Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre in which we aim to inform, invigorate and inspire you over three days.

Alongside our exhibitors, Farm Shop & Deli Live is one of the most exciting components of this event. This area is designed to help you drive sales and improve the profitability of your business. Supported by leading industry experts, you can learn the art of ‘Up Selling’, discover ‘Counter Techniques’ and join us for ‘Tutored Tastings’ featuring olive oils, cheese, chocolate, and wine and beer matching.

Registration is now open. Go to www.farmshopanddelishow.co.uk or call 01293 610244 This is a trade event. No under 16s will be admitted.

fine food news

shopfitting better retailing GORDON LEATHERDALE

farm shops

Chatsworth goes to town with farm shop

New Bakewell store: convenience and a ‘different shopping experience’

The award-winning farm shop at Derbyshire’s Chatsworth estate has opened a spin-off store in the nearby town of Bakewell and may look to open others in the area.

Chatsworth Butchers and Delicatessen, which opened in November at the site of a former high street butcher’s, houses a large meat counter selling produce from the estate and its tenant farmers, plus a range of deli products.

“High streets have suffered in recent years with independent retailers closing down, but we want to support our local area,” said farm shop manager Andre Birkett. “When the butcher’s in Bakewell closed we thought it would be better for us to take it over rather than see it turn into another hiking shop.

“The shop is also part of the development of the business, enabling us to further support the estate and our farmers. The shop has a large cutting room at the back with lots of refrigeration so if we decide to expand further with other shops we would have the capacity to supply them.”

Birkett said some local residents in Bakewell have switched from driving to the main farm shop, which is around 10 minutes away, to visiting the high street shop more regularly on foot. “It’s a different shopping experience for them and is more convenient for regular trips,” he said.

Chatsworth Farm Shop was named Farm Retailer of the Year and Best On-Farm Butchery at the 2009 FARMA awards.

deli-cafés

Bill’s moves into Covent Garden have been abandoned after local opposition.

Sussex deli-café chain Bill’s continues to expand, The new Covent Garden store is open for with the opening last month of a new store in breakfast, lunch and dinner, and sells a range of London’s Covent Garden and further outlets Bill’s branded retail products, including beers, juice expected in 2011. and chutneys.

The 140-cover café and store in the new St Martin’s Yard shopping and dining development joins an outlet in Reading, which opened in June, and two long-standing stores in Lewes and Brighton on the south coast.

As reported previously in FFD, Bill’s is looking to build a chain of deli-cafés and restaurants across London and the South East after Richard Caring, owner of restaurant group Caprice Holdings, bought a stake in the company in 2008.

A site in Hove is rumoured to be under development at the moment, although plans to open a shop in Horsham, West Sussex, The London store includes a 140-cover café

If the gloomy economic forecasts for 2011 are to be believed – in particular the likely impact on disposable incomes of rising VAT and higher interest rates – tough times lie ahead. People are likely to spend with their purses in mind, not their hearts.

This means ‘value’ will be the watchword over coming months, so you need to be diligent both in delivering value and promoting that message.

Firstly, are you being strong enough in highlighting those basic lines on which you are cheaper than, or at least on a par with, the multiples? Last month I did all my Christmas food shopping in independent stores and I'd say the bill was 30% less than it would have been in Waitrose and slightly cheaper even than Tesco. Tell your customers this.

Are your customers comparing like for like? A 40g packet of Tyrrells crisps at 70p in your store might appear poor value against a bag of Walkers at 45p in Tesco, but only when quality is removed from the equation. Make sure you communicate the meaning of ‘value’. Point out too that your customers can buy exactly what they want in the the quantities they want, which means less waste compared with supermarket multibuys and over-sized pre-packs.

“Efficiency and marketing effectiveness can be improved when footfall data is analysed correctly’’ Secondly, are you counting your footfall? High street retailers carefully analyse the numbers passing through their doors to see whether individual marketing campaigns are working, at what times of day they can cut staff hours and what their sales conversion ratio really is.

A number of independents now use this technology to help manage staff hours and improve marketing by identifying what works and what doesn’t. Operational efficiency and marketing effectiveness can be improved significantly when footfall data is analysed correctly. The best value devices start at £69 from www.footfallcounters.com.

Finally, what about taking a good look at weather forecasts? I know of a number of retailers who have run out of key winter lines recently, including logs, coal and ‘wintery’ food items, which they could have sold many times over. Consider using the services of www.weatheraction.co.uk. It has a better weather prediction record than the Met Office and, at a £135 annual subscription, is pretty good value when you consider the advantages of buying early and planning ahead with greater confidence.

I know it has been a bumper Christmas for many in the industry and 2011 heralds some exciting opportunities, particularly for seasonal promotions.

But with economic challenges on the way that should not be under-estimated, ‘value’ becomes even more important. gordon@stcatherinesltd.co.uk Vol.7 Issue 1 · January 2006

11

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January-February 2011 路 Vol.12 Issue 01

true taste awards

best welsh deli

As Welsh as they can be

Y Bwtri may never source 100% of its products in Wales but the reigning Best Welsh Deli will get as close as it can, as coowner Geraint Hughes tells HILARY ARMSTRONG

Hughes says canny retailers communicate their brands, and their brand values, through packaging, staff knowledge and consistently good products

S

peaking to Geraint Hughes on the day Welsh rural affairs minister Elin Jones launched a 10-year Welsh food strategy, it was obvious he was champing at the bit to get his hands on a copy. “It’ll be a hefty document, but I for one will be reading it.” Hughes, one of the three brothers behind the Y Bwtri delicatessens in Pwllheli and Porthmadog, has a vested interest in the strategy.

Not only is he a proud champion of Welsh food at his deli, which was named best deli/speciality store in the True Taste food & drink awards in November, but he also runs a consultancy, Madryn, for farmers looking to diversify and add value to their business.

“I don’t think we’ll see such deep cuts as the rest of the UK,” he predicts. “Cardiff knows how important food is in a rural economy.”

Y Bwtri is already considered, in Hughes’ view, a Welsh retailer, but he plans to go “more Welsh”.

His shop floor staff are all Welsh speakers, he stocks Welsh produce where he can and, significantly, the profit Y Bwtri makes doesn’t leave the local economy. “Supermarkets have made a move for local food, which is good,” he says, “but when their headquarters are somewhere in the middle of America, their story’s not consistent.” He entertains no fantasy of going 100% Welsh (“produce would be a bit thin on the ground”) but he’s thinking – just thinking – about selling exclusively Welsh cheeses.

“It’s currently at 60-70%, but could we drop the Jarlsberg, Stilton and Brie de Meaux – which people do request – to strengthen our message?”

Welsh produce is the backbone of Y Bwtri but it has to be of a quality to make the cut. “It certainly

doesn’t give you a license to charge any more.”

Hughes is currently very impressed by the “nicely packaged and good value” Blodyn Aur rapeseed oil, Wales’ first and only rapeseed oil, Anglesey Apple Company and a new Pwllheli-based fudge company, Ffwj, whose small packs make great impulse buys.

Bestsellers include bara brith and Welsh cakes made by a local lady, ham from local butcher Povey, and South Carnaerfon Creameries’ Old Shire cheese with leeks – a tasty patriotic twist.

Geraint Hughes’ consultancy connections give him an ‘in’ with food producers and he’s proud to be the first to stock new products. “It pays to be pioneering if you’re small.”

There are areas that Welsh producers are yet to tap into. Hughes cites snacks, drinks and crisps, potentially for the garage and convenience store market. “We need to go at gaps in the market and work back from there instead of making what we want and only then costing in the distributor’s cut, the retailer’s cut, profit…”

He’d also like to find quality confectionery with packaging that’s smart enough to compete with other brands on the shelf. “We have to stock things that sell. It doesn’t matter how tasty a product is – the packaging must be as good as the product.

Customers buy with their eyes.”

This is particularly important in straitened times when a brand’s values – and value – have to be trumpeted. “Customers are actually willing to spend more in a recession – perhaps they’re cutting back on holidays and so on – but they want value.” The canny retailer, Hughes believes, communicates that through packaging first and foremost, by building a brand based on consistency, and by improving staff product knowledge.

The biggest growth area of the last 18 months at Y Bwtri has been food-to-go. A chef now works in the business every morning, making salads, soups, quiches and cakes, and the kitchen workforce is likely to grow further next year. Hughes has watched the high street move from old-fashioned retail to more of a service proposition and has responded accordingly. A trip to Norway two years ago, where he saw the 30-strong, 24-hour convenience store/ deli Deli de Luca chain in action, confirmed “that’s probably the direction the market is going”.

Despite winning the True Taste award, Y Bwtri isn’t resting on its laurels. January and February are a “headache” for Hughes, who hopes more structured promotions, such as a free coffee with each salad box, will pay off. He’s also applying for an alcohol licence to complement his gift offering and would love to develop the online business. “But that,” he says with a sigh, “is a whole other challenge”. www.bwtri.com

“Supermarkets have made a move for local food, which is good,” he says, “but when their HQ is somewhere in the middle of America, their story’s not consistent.”

Vol.12 Issue 1 · January-February 2011

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January-February 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 01

deli of the month

A rare breed

Does Iain Thompson’s Deli Shack, a part-time shop with an online arm, provide a trading model for locations that can’t sustain a full-on fine food store?

I

f you’ve spent the first few weeks of 2011 gazing wistfully out your shop doorway onto a halfempty street, wondering if each day’s sales will cover the cost of opening, you might envy Iain Thompson’s business model.

He doesn’t operate the smartest of boutique shops – quite the opposite, to be honest – but when it comes to minimising overheads he’s got it cracked.

Thompson runs The Deli Shack, a hybrid business that’s part online store, part conventional retail outlet. Conventional, except that the shop is actually a few table-tops and a servover counter on the indoor Pannier Market in Tiverton, mid Devon, and only trades on Fridays and Saturdays.

The rest of the week, Thompson is based at home in nearby Uffculme, where he has three large commercial chillers and ambient racking in his

Interview by MICK WHITWORTH capacious garage. Here, he assembles orders for his online shop, www.delishack.com, majoring on award-winning cheeses and rare breed meats like Devon Ruby Red beef and Dorset Down lamb.

Some will be despatched by overnight courier to destinations around the UK. But the bulk will only travel as far as Tiverton, since the website also operates as a pre-ordering service for the market stall. Locals can place orders any time during the week for collection in person on market days, enabling Thompson to keep his regular clientele happy without the cost of permanent premises. (“The downside,” he says, “is that our customers have to stand in a cold market – and so do we.”)

He also offers free local delivery to those who can’t make it into Tiverton, and he’s not averse to dropping a few bargain cuts of meat round to OAPs in Uffculme too. In many ways this is a very oldfashioned business, with bit of modern technology bolted on to the front.

According to Thompson, the business has been developed specifically to suit the realities of trading in a quiet, rural town. “We just could not be open six days a week here – there isn’t the money. So we do things differently.”

Before December’s sales spike, retail sales from the Pannier Market stall were running at £1,000-1,500 over a typical weekend, with a further £300-500 of web sales on top. Not earth-shattering by the standards of a conventional shop but, as Thompson says, his overheads are only a third of a bricks-andmortar operation and his internet delivery ‘hub’ doubles as his home.

The Deli Shack buys mainly from small, artisan producers, largely but not exclusively in the South West. They include coffee roaster Hawkins Coffee and fish and game smoker Mike’s Smokehouse in south Devon, Deli Farm Charcuterie at Delabole in Cornwall and preserves maker Victoria Cranfield near Barnstaple, north Devon.

Cheese comes chiefly via Longman’s Cheese Sales in Somerset, with extras bought in from Rowcliffe and The Fine Cheese Co. “I actively look for lines that aren’t stocked in supermarkets,” says Thompson. “For example, we don’t stock Cornish Yarg. We won’t buy it just because it comes from round the corner, and we have some cheeses that don’t come from our region – like Wigmore, which is fantastic – but we buy from our local community whenever we can. Why would you not?”

Not everything listed on The Deli Shack’s website is on show at the market stall, and not everything sold online is held in stock back home in Uffculme.

In the case of low-volume artisan cheeses that he has to order in specially, Thompson will ask the customer to take a minimum quantity. “If the whole cheese is 1kg, we’ll probably ask them to buy half of it,” he says.

In some senses The Deli Shack is another lifestyle business, a mid-life down-shifting exercise by a successful executive who’d had enough of the rat race. And Thompson, a tall, grey-haired, affable Scot, reveals his corporate background every now and again, lapsing into management-speak and talking constantly in the first person plural – “We take a strong ethical standpoint”, “Every penny we make we reinvest in the business”. But the “we” means “I”, and he makes no bones about the fact The Deli Shack has been built from scratch on a small budget. While many lifestylers throw piles of cash at beautifully designed shops before they’ve learned the basics of retailing, Thompson Vol.12 Issue 1 · January-February 2011

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Sundries, Equipment, Machinery and More.

deli of the month started small by necessity.

“My wife and I both have marketing backgrounds, we were both relatively successsful, we’d reached high positions at an early age. We had the nanny, the hand-built sportscar. Then at 40 or 41… I won’t go into details, but I had an epiphany.

I wanted to do something that would make a difference, and wanted to make some money, but I was done with all the shystering.”

Thompson was due to set up a South West operation for his last employers before the plan fell through. “But we liked it down here, so we sold everything, moved down to the South West and started all over again.”

While his wife took a “proper job” in Exeter, Thompson retrained as a professional chef, “working in crappy little places just to get experience” and, with not much money coming in, “shopping very late at night in Tesco to get the cheap deals”.

At college he met catering lecturer Geoff Odgers, began helping him with cookery demos at Tiverton Pannier Market and started selling some of the dishes he was cooking. Odgers and his two daughters now work part-time in the Deli Shack, and Thompson and Odgers are also developing a sideline in event catering.

The retail business was originally conceived as a “a tapas-style deli” and Thompson acknowledges the help he received early on from The Real Olive Company in Bristol, the first supplier to give him a credit account. Others have come and gone as Thompson worked out the quality suppliers. “We’ve kissed a lot of frogs – we’ve had rubbishy everything at some point in time, and there’s a lot of stuff we’ve elected not to sell.”

The offer has gradually shifted, with fewer ambient deli lines and a greater focus on meats and cheeses as meal ingredients. “We call ourselves The Deli Shack, but our product mix is different. It’s going ever more towards ingredients.”

One reason is the need to maintain a clear point of difference from the multiples. “I’ve read people in FFD complaining about Waitrose,” says Thompson, a Guild of Fine Food member, “but what can you do about it? You might just as well complain about the traffic. If you are selling four different types of olive oil you’re going to get your arse whipped by the supermarkets. But if you’re selling rare breed meats, they can’t compete.”

Seasonal and rare breed meats have been a focus for the business for a while now, and it’s a move that appears to be paying off as The Deli Shack’s online

Local charcuterie and rare breed meats are two key areas for The Deli Shack.

Thompson has stopped selling fresh meat from the stall, except to order – by selling frozen meat he can offer more of a choice of rare breeds, he says.

“If you’re selling four different types of olive oil you’ll get your arse whipped by the supermarkets. If you’re selling rare breed meats they can’t compete.”

profile slowly grows. A fortnight before Christmas, Thompson closed the meat section of the website for fear that he wouldn’t be able to fulfil orders, and he says the focus on meat helped him avoid some of the anxieties faced by other delis, especially in late November when Christmas hadn’t really got going.

“We’ve really avoided gift foods and instead we’ve been getting lots of sales of rare breed pork, beef and ethically farmed bronze turkeys.”

What he has done, however, is stop selling fresh meat at the Pannier Market, except to order, and brought in a freezer cabinet instead. “It’s about being able to offer diversity,” he says. “Even a butcher can’t offer a range of rare breed meat fresh.

At the moment, if people ask for some beef I can offer them Hereford, Ruby or Belted Galloway, and you’re starting a whole conversation about that.

For 2011 we’ll probably specialise down to one or two breeds [for each meat type]. For example, we’re going to concentrate on Longhorn beef, which was voted Britain’s Best Steak by Country Life last year.”

Sharing chef’s tips and suggesting recipe ideas is another key part of the ‘ingredients’ message for Thompson. “I work closely with the fish man, the veg man and the baker on the market, and we have this quadrilateral sharing of customers to give them a better shopping experience here. They can buy fish in Tesco, but they won’t get the same chat.” And he is offering “a fun experience, rather than trundling through the aisles” by doing demos, offering free recipes and whizzing up samples.

When FFD visited, Thompson was cooking belly pork on a portable burner at one end of his market stall “because I want to talk to people about cooking it with an applewood-smoked salt with fennel seeds that we’re buying from The Devon Smokehouse”. The same range of organic salts can be used to make fabulous flavoured aiolis, he says.

“But I’m not saying, ‘Here’s a jar I made myself, it’s £3.99’. I’m saying, ‘Here’s a great idea you can try at home.”

It is, Thompson says, important to “make more time for customers at the point of sale, not less”. He also puts time into getting involved with community and schools projects, and happily talks up his local suppliers, many of them small farms, through the website. These are all methods of engaging with local customers and persuading them it’s worth supporting a good local independent – even if it isn’t open every day of the week. www.delishack.com Vol.12 Issue 1 · January-February 2011

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howtheexperts do…

fresh fruit & veg

Are you guilty of a half-hearted approach to add-on categories like fish, fresh meat or bakery? In the first of a new series, MICK WHITWORTH asks specialist retailers how delis can make more of those non-core but potentially profitable lines.

Nick Hempleman The Sussex Produce Company, Steyning, West Sussex

W

hen Nick Hempleman opened his fresh produce store in Steyning, on the edge of the South Downs, three years ago, he expected to run the shop alone most days and just bring in a bit of weekend help.

Now he has a staff of 14 mainly part-timers, turnover is “a shade under £400,000” against an initial projection of £150,000 and he reckons he will struggle to squeeze more sales out of his tiny 380 sq ft shop. He’s even had to institute a oneway system to deal with a queue that on Saturdays stretches out of the door.

Hempleman has proved it’s possible to succeed in a sector that has suffered more than most at the hands of the supermarkets. In the area covered by his local authority, Horsham District Council, more fruit & veg shops have closed in recent years than any other type of business.

“As soon as you put a superstore on the edge of a town, you take all the food out of the town centre,” he says. But he also believes fruit & veg traders must take some of the blame for their own demise.

“They didn’t take care of themselves, they didn’t look after the quality. There’s no point in putting dead stuff on the shelves. You see

this slow spiral of decline in all trades where the more shabby it looks, the more it goes down.”

It doesn’t have to be that way. “It’s easy for a greengrocer to get fresh produce to sing, because of the colour and variety. You don’t have to wrap it all in plastic and refrigerate it, which is what the supermarkets do.”

Hempleman was born in nearby Henfield but began his career in the Co-operative’s head office in Manchester, as a graduate brand management trainee working on Fairtrade products. “The Co-op’s a lovely organisation,” he says, “but its

size means it’s difficult to implement change.” So he returned to Sussex to start his own business focused on local sourcing, which “none of the supermarkets do very well”.

As well as using wholesalers he now works with 64 local suppliers to fill a shop that is dominated by fruit and veg but also stocks local cheeses in pre-packs and a core range of basic ambient deli lines.

He admits he is lucky with his location. Steyning, a small country town a few miles from Brighton and Worthing, still has two butchers, a fishmonger, a deli, three bakers

It’s easy to get fresh produce to ‘sing’ because of the colour and variety, says Nick Hempleman

Far left: Sampling figs with High Weald Dairy’s Sussex Marble. The cheese-maker supplied the cheeese pre-cut to make life easier for Hempleman’s team Left: Local tomatoes are a top 10 seller. The only imported varieties are plums on the vine.

January-February 2011

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product update howtheexpertsdo… pickles fresh&fruit chutneys & veg as well as Hempleman’s shop.

“It’s lovely to be part of the local community,” he says. “It’s one of those places where, if you put your all into it, people reward you with loyalty. Our sales are up more than 10% year on year – admittedly in an affluent area, but in difficult times – and that’s because people see they are getting value for money.”

With his professional big-company retailing background, Hempleman has good, solid advice on the way to approach fresh produce: • “You cannot compete with supermarkets in the minds of consumers – although we’re actually cheaper than Waitrose – so compete on other things. We compete on local sourcing, which means we get high quality, we hit a good price point, we can really talk about provenance – and a lot of our customers will actually know the farmers we use.

• “People should support their local growers and farmers and in most areas those people will be happy to help you get started. For example, we buy from Gary and Jerry Griffiths in Nutbourne, who grow 26 varieties of tomatoes. When we first opened they would deliver to us – and they are offering something different from the supermarkets.

• “I’d encourage delis to visit their local wholesale market too. We go six days a week. A deli might only go two or three times. But unless you’ve got a delivered wholesaler that you really trust, go and pick it yourself so you get exactly what you want.

• “The industry average is 100% gross margin on fruit and veg, and you can charge much more, depending on your area. Fruit & veg will be the cheapest thing most delis sell – like carrots, with the mud still on them, at 49p a lb. If you are not specialising in fruit & veg you can charge more because you are only offering it as a service.

• “Wastage can be huge, so if you have a kitchen, turn that waste into soups, sauces or coleslaw. Soup has been one the success stories of the last 12 months for us. We did pumpkin soup to use up wastage from Hallowe’en, and mixed it with butternut squash for more depth. We do a butternut & sweet potato made with coconut milk, chilli, ginger and coriander; we do leek, watercress & potato. There are always two or three recipes on the go, and what started as a way to minimise waste is becoming a product in its own right.

• “As soon as you start selling your own products, that’s where the money is. Anything we do, we look for a 200-300% mark-up on. We bought a small, cheap heat-sealer, and now we make our own salad

An outdoor display helps passing shoppers feel they are ‘in the shop’ and encourages them to step inside

bags. We work with a local organic greenhouse and depending on the season, we’ll buy in 1kg boxes of leaves unwashed from wholesalers too. We wash them in the sink, spin them in a salad spinner and bag them, and we sell them at £1.69 for 250g.

• “The real advantage of fruit & veg is that it drives footfall. Most people eat it everyday, whereas speciality cheese is more of a one-off purchase.

If we didn’t have fruit & veg at a good price point we would struggle to get people through the door, but once they’re here they will buy a bunch of flowers or some wrapped cheese too.

• “There’s a saying in greengrocery that people always remember quality and never the price.

Supermarkets are great at selling The shop’s own bagged salad leaves provide up to three times the usual margin on fresh produce

something that looks lovely but tastes of nothing. You can’t quite be the reverse of that – you will always struggle to sell something that looks scabby and horrible – but you can beat them on taste. When English fruit is out of season we won’t have strawberries and raspberries at all all, but they are still in our Top 10 sellers annually.

• “You don’t need to offer everything year-round. If you don’t have much space, go for seasonal lines like asparagus, strawberries, blood oranges and heritage apples.

• “If you’ve got room outside the shop for a greengrocery display, use it. With some food shops, people feel apprehensive about stepping inside.

If the produce is outside, they are already ‘in the shop’.

• “Any customer who is interested in food will be interested in fruit & veg. The question isn’t where you start, it’s where you stop.” www.thesussexproducecompany.co.uk Vol.12 Issue 1 · January-February 2011

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cheese wire New goats’ cheese dairy for Brock Hall

By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Shropshire goat’s cheese producer Brock Hall Farm plans to develop several new products after building a new dairy and milking parlour.

The facility will quadruple capacity at the company, which has its own herd of 50 Swiss Saanen goats. It will enable the company to launch new products this year, including a soft bloomy log and a washed rind cheese made with homemade cider.

The newcomers will join the company’s existing range, which includes Soft Fresh, Brockette and Chelmarsh.

Two vats – 500 litre and 250 litre – have been installed in the new 500 sq ft dairy to make the new varieties.

Owner Sarah Hampton has reared goats

at the farm near Bridgnorth for over 10 years but only started commercial production of cheese last year from a small pilot dairy.

“The extra capacity means we can develop different products and increase the amount we make, although milk supplies from the goats tend to dwindle in the winter so ideally we would like to find another milk supplier,” she said. “I would also like to talk to wholesalers about taking our products. We use couriers at the moment and it’s an awful lot of work packing and sending the cheese, as well as making it.”

Originally native to the Saanen Valley in Switzerland and latterly to Holland, the Saanen is a pure bred white goat, slightly smaller and more compact than its British counterpart.

Lord London arrives in the Capital aren’t many cheeses that are Lord London, a new local cheese for the local to London and we are capital, debuts in Harrods this month and within a 50 mile radius of the will soon be joined by a companion called capital, so thought we’d make Lady London. something specific for the city,” said Developed by Sussex-based Alsop & Arthur Alsop.

Walker, which is best known for its Sussex “Lord London can be eaten from Blue and Mayfield cheeses, Lord London three weeks and has a creamy citrus is a semi soft cow’s milk cheese that is flavour with a dusting of white mould moulded in to the shape of a bell and on the outside. Delis like to have it also resembles the Spanish tetilla. on their counters because of its The cheese is already on sale eye-catching bell shape. Lady in a handful of delis and farm London, which will be launched shops across the county and in February, is a circular picked up a bronze at the slightly firmer more acidic 2010 World Cheese cheese.”

Awards. It will be He added that the launched officially cheeses work well as in Harrods this part of a cheeseboard month before but also as a cooking being joined by ingredient. a firmer cow’s They are available milk cheese called from wholesaler The Lady London around Valentine’s Day. “There Lord London: distinctive shape Cheese Man.

Brock Hall only began commercial production last year

Vegetarians take swipe at Parmesan Parmesan sales could suffer after the Vegetarian Society initiated a campaign urging restaurants in the UK to stop using the cheese in vegetarian meals.

The campaign, called Say Cheese, aims to highlight that Parmesan is not vegetarian because under the terms of its PDO it must be made with animal rennet. The Society is calling on restaurants and food writers to stop labelling dishes containing the cheese as vegetarian on menus and recipes. It has also developed calling cards to highlight the point for vegetarians to leave behind at restaurants or to send to magazines.

Katie Douglass, head of catering services, said: “On a weekly basis we hear about vegetarian meals that have been ruined because of Parmesan. Many restaurants have only one or two veggie options on a menu. Often both of these are then ruled out as they use Parmesan. Restaurants could make it so much easier for themselves by leaving the cheese off, or using an alternative and labelling it as such.”

Weeton’s is latest retailer to launch online Cheese Club Each month, members will be sent four artisan cheeses, weighing 1kg, selected from Weeton’s range of over 100 cheeses

Weeton’s in Harrogate has joined the growing number of retailers aiming to build customer loyalty via online cheese clubs.

Each month, members will be sent four artisan cheeses, weighing 1kg, selected from Weeton’s range of over 100 cheeses that includes 50 from Britain.

The club costs £24.99 a month or £39.99 with two bottles of wine, with options such as the Winter Selection, the Dales Classics collection and England v France.

Online cheese club memberships are growing

in popularity as wedding and birthday gifts, as well as among customers who prefer the convenience of regular deliveries. Retailers operating clubs include The Cheese Works, Jeroboams and Cryer & Stott.

Malcolm Pinkerton, senior retail analyst at researcher Verdict, said: “With the number of people shopping online becoming highly saturated, retailers will have to evolve their online strategies. Driving loyalty and increasing spend per head across all age groups will become vital factors to ensure growth.”

Vol.12 Issue 1 · January-February 2011

23

The Home of Traditional Handmade Yorkshire Cheese

WORLD CHEESE AWARDS 2010 GOLD MEDAL WINNER

YORKSHIRE BLUE

• A mild, soft, creamy, blue veined, cows milk cheese. Made to a traditional recipe developed to give the cheese a unique buttery and sweet flavour with no sharp bite.

• Shepherds Purse Cheeses is a small, family run company based on our farm in Thirsk, North Yorkshire.

WORLD CHEESE AWARDS CHAMPION 2010 Supreme Champion Bath & West 2010

www.shepherdspurse.co.uk www.facebook.com/shepherdspurse @shepherdspurse 01845 587 220 info@shepherdspurse.co.uk

is delighted to be launching a range of Italian meats from the quality house of Negroni Negroni has been established for over 100 years and is a producer that has control of the entire process from breeding and feeding to manufacture of superb salamis and hams.

We have added to our new product list eight items including Negroni Milano and Napoli salamis, Mortadella, Parma ham and Pancetta.

We have also added totally new varieties for us which include:

Felino Salami is often called the king of Salamis. With its mild flavour and medium ground texture, it is made to the traditional local recipe.

Cremona Salami has to come from the Cremona area and is made with fresh Italian pork and flavoured with wine and a hint of garlic.

Coppa is made from the

GOLD in the category «Any Hard Cheese that has been awarded a Denomination of Origin (PDO/PGI/AOC)» For more information, contact Jerome Reignier jreignier@entremont-alliance.com - Tél. 07929418672 24

January-February 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 01

shoulder and dry cured with herbs and spices. It is very tender and tasty and should be sliced thinly like Parma Ham.

01892 838999 www.rowcliffe.co.uk

cheesewire

Crump’s artisan Gloucesters are given a new lease of life How soul singer Sade helped keep Jonathan Crump’s PDO cheese in production

By STEPHEN MORRIS

Jonathan Crump: Terroir is ‘as close to the old place as you could get’

‘World’s only herd of Gloucester Cattle making Gloucester Cheese set to be sold’ ran the headline. ‘Local residents shocked’. A year later, and on the sheltered slopes below the Cotswold Edge the same gleaming, fine-horned cattle graze contentedly; in the distance, a glimpse of the Severn meadows from which they were evicted.

It’s the end-of-lease tale that tenant farmers fear, when years’ of hard work and investment turn to dust overnight. Yet for cheesemaker Jonathan Crump it was a tale with an extra twist: the survival of a prized herd of rare breed Gloucesters and a unique end product. Enter, at the eleventh hour, a world-famous soul singer with a Cotswold manor house and acres of land in need of a farmer.

Crump’s home of 16 years at Wick Court – the historic home of Old Gloucesters – was lost when the charity owners made him redundant.

Temporary and expensive accommodation was found, but no suitable permanent home until Crump heard that the new owners of Standish Park, the singer Sade and her partner, were looking for someone to bring the old farm back to life.

“Sade and Ian were fantastic,” he says. “They love having the animals here and understand how important they are.”

Standish Park is 300 acres at the head of a narrow valley rising steeply to the Cotswold hills.

Behind a beautifully-restored, discrete house of Cotswold stone (not his, alas) are the farm buildings and the dairy – an old stone shed now sporting a row of traditional yokes: “Probably the only ones to be fitted in the last 50 years,” says Crump proudly. Next door, a modern bath stands next to a Victorian cast-iron press; a small cool-store holds the stock in different stages of maturation.

Crump produces only two types of cheese – Single and Double Gloucester – with an output of 45 kilos or about 15 cheeses of each per week. Old Gloucesters are small animals by

modern standards and their yield is slight, but high protein and small fat globules in the milk make great cheese. There are around 50 in the herd including a bull and 25 cows, bullocks and heifers.

Production has remained the same despite the move from 80 to 300 acres, so is there potential for expansion? “Yes,” says Crump, “though this is essentially a sheep farm, and expansion will come with time and planning. Of course I’m pleased to have kept the wheels turning but I was more worried about taste than quantity. My cheeses are distinctive, I didn’t want to lose even a little of what makes them special.”

Concerns about the terroir were partly allayed by walking the ground at Standish: permanent pasture and no rye grass leys that Crump says is “about as close as I could get to the old place”.

As before he uses no fertilizers or chemicals and feeds only hay, not silage.

Single Gloucester is PDO-protected and Crump has taken the requirements a step further by using milk from Old Gloucesters. So only here, at Standish Park, is there Gloucester cheese made from Old Gloucester cattle. The result is a prize-winning product: the Single, light with a creamy, buttery taste and a lemon-like sharpness; the Double matured for longer, smooth and mellow.

The taste, colouring and texture of each cheese survived the move and each took first prize at the Three Counties Show last year.

As a small producer in a competitive marketplace Crump sells directly to distributors and retailers. The cheese is available from the farm, at various delis and specialist cheesemongers, and at Stroud market on the first and third Saturday of the month.

“I’ve got plans to increase distribution and find new distributors,” he says, “but it’s finding the time to do so. To make a success of speciality cheese you really have to work at it – and the new farm, and two young children, has created a lot more work!’ jonathancrump@btinternet.com

Barbers does the double When Barbers’ 1833 was named Best Mature Farmhouse Cheddar at the 2010 World Cheese Awards it was time for a double celebration by the Somerset maker.

In the same week, the Barber family’s racehorse Aiteen Thirtythree, trained by their neighbour and champion National Hunt trainer Paul Nicholls, took first place in the three mile Novice Chase at Newbury’s Hennessy meeting.

Guild of Fine Food director John Farrand (right in picture) visited Manor Farm Stables in Somerset to present the WCA trophy to Charlie Barber and meet the family’s other big winner (centre, in case you hadn’t guessed).

Vol.12 Issue 1 · January-February 2011

25

cheesewire

world cheese awards

West Country proves it’s world class 2010

BOB FARRAND looks back on a great day for British cheesemakers on the global stage at the 2010 World Cheese Awards.

I

n the days after World Cheese Awards, staged at the BBC Good Food Show in Birmingham at the end of November, one man was hardly out of the papers or off our TVs and radios.

Winning the World Champion trophy with his Cornish Blue had an impact on Philip Stansfield and his team at the Cornish Cheese Co that was little short of phenomenal.

Stansfield was the first Brit to take the world title since 2000, when it was won by a West Country Farmhouse Cheddar.

When he stepped up to collect the trophy, his entire body was shaking, such had been the tension during the final stages of the judging, which had taken place in the British Theatre at the NEC show in front of a live audience.

Records had already tumbled throughout the day. There were more cheeses than ever and more judges from more countries too. There was even an official world record: during the

Judges included food critic Charles Campion and Whole Foods Markets’ global cheese buyer Cathy Strange (above) and wholesaler Tim Rowcliffe

26

January-February 2011

Radio 2’s Nigel Barden interviews a stunned Philip Stansfield (left) about Cornish Blue’s World Cheese Awards triumph at the NEC

course of the judging day, the World Cheese Awards entered the Guinness Book of Records by creating the world’s largest cheeseboard.

The visual impact of the judging took your breath away, and the aroma probably had the same effect. The enormous variety – 2,629 cheeses from 29 different countries – created a diversity of shape, colour, texture and aroma never witnessed before in this country.

Over 200 judges, working in teams of four, tasted, discussed and finally agreed which entries deserved gold, silver or bronze. They were then asked to pick the best of the best on their table to receive a new ‘Super Gold’ designation. Just 47 cheeses out of the original 2,629 were chosen, and five of those came from the UK, our best performance in a decade.

The 47 were reduced to 15 by the Supreme Jury, which included experts from 11 different countries, who then tasted each of the finalists

one more time before making the decision that put Cornish Blue’s cheese-makers on top of the world.

• You can see video footage of the entire day, including the final judging, at www.finefoodworld.co.uk

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARDS: Celebrity cheesemaker Alex James sits atop the World’s Largest Cheeseboard, weighing in at 1,122.5kg and consisting of 139 different wedges. There was a cheese from every country in Europe alongside examples from Australasia, the Americas and Africa. It took four dedicated cheese-o-philes three hours to create the Guinness World Record-winning platter, with each piece individually weighed, verified and documented before it was added to the giant purpose-made board.

A promotional feature for Le Gruyère AOC John Webb (right) with Roger von Mühlenen and his son Walo

Raw milk traditions A new trophy recognising an ancient tradition is presented by one of the cheese industry’s most influential characters.

A

t last November’s World Cheese Awards at the BBC Good Food Show in Birmingham, a new perpetual trophy sponsored by one of the cheese industry’s most illustrious names was presented to a Swiss exporter. The John Webb Trophy for the World’s Best Cheese made using raw milk was awarded to a Le Gruyère AOC cheese entered by Swiss affineur and exporter, von Mühlenen. In doing so, it also acknowledged a relationship stretching back almost half a century.

John Webb was one of the principle architects of modern-day cheese retailing in the UK. In 1958, he diversified his father’s retail fishmonger’s business into delicatessen and cheese and four years later, set up one of the country’s first ‘quality’ cheese importers and wholesalers in London.

Originally, the cheeses were bought directly from Rungis Market in Paris and transported by rail into London’s Victoria Station. “I’d be there at 4.00am to collect the cheese which we’d then sell through a van sales operation,” John recalls. At that time, he employed 6 staff but it was in 1966 that he took the step that was destined to change his

business and the cheese eating habits of British consumers.

“We made an exclusive agreement with a single affineur to import high quality Swiss cheese into the UK, which at that time, was almost unknown in this country. It’s fair to say, from that point we never looked back.”

According to Interprofession du Gruyère’s UK marketing manager, Maurice Johnson, John Webb played a critical role in the development of the market for continental cheese in the UK. “John’s company, H T Webb & Co helped shape the way retailers selected, imported and packed continental cheese,” he recalls.

“By 1984, the company had moved to purpose built facilities in Kent, employing over 350 staff working in 4 warehouses, 6 cutting rooms and 2 labelling areas and generating a turnover in excess of £52 million. John Webb had developed the largest portfolio of cheese and chilled delicatessen products in the country.”

John Webb retired in the mid 1990’s and the business was subsequently bought by dairy giant,

Arla but Maurice Johnson and Interprofession du Gruyère believe his legacy should be permanently recognised and where possible, continue to promote tradional cheese making.

“We decided to support the introduction of a new perpetual trophy to the World Cheese Awards,” said Maurice, “one that John could sponsor for the benefit of cheesemaking around the world.

“In sponsoring The John Webb Trophy for the World’s Best Raw Milk Cheese, he is confirming, even in retirement, his commitment to a lifelong belief that unpasteurised milk cheeses preserve traditional craft production methods and guarantee unbeatable taste,” said Maurice Johnson.

The winner of the trophy at last November’s World Cheese Awards was the Swiss Le Gruyère AOC, the only cheese ever to have won the World Championship on three separate occasions, 1992, 2002 and 2005.

In 2010, the cheese came joint fourth but was also judged the best unpasteurised milk cheese in the show. It was fitting irony that the affineur who entered this cheese in 2010 was von Mulhenen, the very same Swiss company John Webb made that first exclusive agreement with way back in 1966.

Recognised as the cornerstone of European cuisine!

Vol.11 Issue 10 · January-February 2010

27

cheesewire

2010

Offer a champion cheeseboard PaSki Sir Sirana Gligora From Croatia, a sensational new entrant to the World Cheese Awards that massively impressed the judges. Three identical cheeses were entered into three different classes and all won Super Gold. The name means ‘the cheese from the Island of Pag’ and this hard, flaky, almost granular sheeps’ milk cheese is aged to over 12 months. We know several delis that have taken it on and seen it become an instant best-seller.

Tasting note: Almost like an extra creamy Parmigiano, with gentle notes from the ewes’ milk. A stunning creamy richness that just goes on and on.

Available from: D'Issa, tel: 07424 342882

Awards organiser BOB FARRAND revisits the finalists of the 2010 World Cheese Awards and gives his personal slant on the finest cheeses available to British delis today Cornish Blue The Cornish Cheese Co Philip Stansfield’s moment of glory was on November 24 when he learned the cow’s milk cheese he invented nine years ago as a more approachable blue cheese for ladies had been voted World Champion. To stock the real thing, you need the version made using animal rennet. I tasted one of these back in the summer and it was too young, quite flakey and badly balanced. The WCA entrant was softer to touch and rich, creamy and unctuous on the palate. At 16 weeks maturation, Cornish Blue yells out ‘World Champion’. Crack open the Champagne!

Tasting note: Undoubtedly a blue in the modern style but offering complex flavours rarely found in newer blues. Grassy notes, gentle acidity and perfect harmony between the acidity of the blue and lactic creaminess of the paste.

Available from: The Cornish Cheese Co, tel: 01579 363660, and wholesalers

Camembert Calvados Philippe Olivier Take one exceptional Camembert de Normandie, scrape away a little of the rind and immerse in Calvados before covering in breadcrumbs.

The bread soaks up the flavours of the Calavados. How can something as weird looking – dare I say ugly – taste so wild and good?

Tasting note: The apple notes from the Calvados are there but subtle and blend perfectly with the rich, earthy creaminess of the cheese.

Two great regional products in perfect harmony.

Available from: The Cheese Cellar, tel: 0207 819 6001

Leicestershire Red Long Clawson Dairy Let us be thankful there are a handful of producers still making the real thing, as most Red Leicester is made in factories and sold too young as tasteless blocks of orange. This one is good-looking and authentic with a proper rind. Six months or more maturity is needed.

Tasting note: Firm bodied, flakey and well aged. Wonderful grassy hints and a little sweetness followed by a long nutty finish. Benefits from a few hours out of the fridge.

Available from: Long Clawson Dairy, tel: 01664 822332, and wholesalers

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January-February 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 1

Wigmore Village Maid Cheese Another top product made using unpasteurised sheeps’ milk and a superb example of a modern, artisan-made British cheese. If the white rind is showing darker signs of ageing that’s good, as you need at least six weeks for it to fully develop.

Tasting notes: Inside the rind, the paste is a little firm but it softens wonderfully towards the centre. A pleasing velvety texture with a superbly gentle fruitiness and just a hint of nuts – a complexity not found in many British white mould cheeses.

Available from:Village Maid Cheese, tel: 0118 988 4564, and wholesalers

Swaledale Blue The Swaledale Cheese Company This high calibre cheese was the best blue in show in 2002 and won a three-star gold in the 2009 Great Taste Awards so it already had pedigree before coming close to the top slot at the 2010 World Cheese Awards. Achieving this degree of consistency is some feat and demonstrates how good we Brits are at blues.

Tasting note: Smooth, well balanced and wonderfully moist, with a really open texture. A blue that everyone will love.

Available from: The Swaledale Cheese Company, tel: 01748 824932

world cheese awards Le Gruyère Premier Cru Von Mühlenen The only cheese to have won the World Championship three times – 1992, 2002 and 2005 – and to have been placed in the top 10 for the last decade, this crowd-pleaser must be mature for 15 months to be at the top of its game. Yes, this is a familiar experience but it still offers something very special. Every bite convinces me that life without cheese is never an option.

Tasting note: Characteristically firm and nutty and intensely satisfying.

Available from: Fratelli Camisa, tel: 01992 763076

Brebis Fromagerie Agour This Pyrenean unpasteurised sheeps’ milk cheese was entered by an importer who specialises in cheeses from the region and he certainly knows his stuff. He took the World Championship in 2006 and this year won a SuperGold with this cheese and gold with two others. Look for versions of Brebis at 10 to 12 months maturation.

Tasting note: Clean on the palate, mild yet intense with a long, creamy, almost lanolin finish. Cheese does not need to be strong to be complex, and this is a perfect example.

Available from: French Food Freaks, tel: 01494 524243

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The Laendle Mostkaese from Vorarlberg Milch is a semi-hard cheese produced out of best alpine milk from Vorarlberg, Austria. The Laendle Mostkaese develops its dark yellow rind and its creamy, tartish taste over appr. 3 months of this special treatment. The specific of this cheese speciality is, the cheese is treated and washed in its 3 month maturity time, about 2 times a week with an apple- and pearcider.

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30

January-February 2011Final · Vol.12 Issue 01 1 400654 Belton Cheese Advert 204x141mm.indd

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12/15/2010 10:33:01 AM

09/12/2010 09:08

interview

By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Marie DiPatri La Hogue Farm Shop, Suffolk

D

eli or farm shop owners in two minds about whether to add a café to their shop should take note of Chris Reeks’ experience. He opened a 60seater café at La Hogue Farm Shop in Suffolk in September and couldn’t be more positive when I ask whether it has helped lift sales.

“Abso – bloody – lutely,” he declares. “Takings in the café are probably 30% higher than we had forecasted and we’ve seen a 10-20% jump in sales in the shop.”

It’s not just the regulars that are enjoying the locally sourced menu either, he adds. “We reckon 80% of our existing customers are using the café, but then there’s a whole new wave of customers. I estimate that one in four of our café users are coming from the main LondonNorfolk road, which is a different kind of customer for us and bodes well for the summer.”

First-time visitors to La Hogue, which is based at Chippenham, near Newmarket, are left in no doubt as to where the café’s ingredients are sourced from, with a menu

that makes a point of listing local producers, such as Pinney’s of Orford smoked salmon and Purely Pesto.

“Looking at the menu now, out of 100 items there are probably three things that aren’t local,” says Reeks.

“Even the tomato ketchup and brown sauce are made by Stokes, who are just down the road from us. Sales of both types have more than doubled in the shop since we started putting bottles of them on the tables in the café.”

Head chef Marie DiPatri is responsible for deciding the menu, which stretches from the La Hogue English breakfast, featuring the farm’s homemade sausages, through jacket potatoes, salads, quiches and sandwiches to hearty specials such as venison casserole with chestnuts.

“It’s up to me what I cook,” she says. “If the butcher has a lot of a certain cut, that’s what we’ll use.

Basically we go for whatever’s in season and is readily available. At the moment it’s venison; in May it will be asparagus. We also bake all our own cakes and make different quiches every day. Today is smoked trout with Parmesan and Quiche Lorraine.”

With such a big menu and most items cooked to order, DiPatri and her assistant have their work cut out in the kitchen. But there are shortcuts that make the workload more manageable, she says.

“Specials like the casserole can be made in advance and kept warm during the day. They actually taste better that way. We also have certain key ingredients that can be used

putting deli ingredients to work across a number of different dishes.

We roast our own hams using Blythburgh free range pork and that’s used in paninis, sandwiches, quiches and in mains like Suffolk ham, eggs and chips. We also sell it on the counter and it’s used a lot in our takeaway food that is sold in the shop.”

Such a large menu is only possible because of the volumes of food that the business gets through, says Reeks.

“As a farm shop we’re completely different to a restaurant. We have a huge resource of local food because we’re buying for the café, the shop and to make takeaway food.

Restaurants simply don’t have access to that range of ingredients.”

This also means the café can keep the menu interesting with quirky specials. Speaking just before Christmas, Marie was just rustling up some sausage rolls using the butcher’s festive cranberry & pork sausages.

It’s the kind of spur-of-the-moment idea that would be beyond many restaurants.

New Year plans include hooking up with the local tourist board to get more holidaymakers and daytrippers to visit as well as providing refreshments to people on the Newmarket Racecourse Experience, who tour the nearby course, stables and National Stud.

“We’re a rural business so we need to keep adding attractions to give people more reasons to come out here,” says Reeks. “The farm shop has been pretty successful, but you can’t stand still.”

Head chef Marie DiPatri finds key ingredients like Blythburgh free range pork can be used across a range of dishes at the 60-seater café

Wild Venison & Chestnut Casserole

George Mastoridis/dreamstime.com

delichef

You can make this a day ahead, store in the fridge and simply re-heat in a pan before serving with creamy mashed potato & seasonal vegetables.

Serves 4 Ingredients: 700g of wild diced venison 2 tsp plain flour seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper 3 tbsp olive oil 2 red onions, thinly sliced 300ml red wine 300ml hot chicken or vegetable stock 1 bay leaf 200g of cooked and peeled chestnuts 2 tbsp redcurrant jelly 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley Method: Pat the venison dry with kitchen paper, then toss the pieces in the seasoned flour.

Heat 2 tbsp of the oil in a flameproof casserole, then add the meat and fry over a high heat until sealed all over. Remove from the casserole with a slotted spoon. Add the remaining tbsp of oil, then fry the onions over a medium heat for 5 mins or until softened.

Return the meat to the casserole with the wine, stock and bay leaf then season and stir thoroughly.

Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 75-90 mins or until the venison is tender.

Stir in the chestnuts and redcurrant jelly and simmer until the jelly has melted.

Season to taste, sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Recognised as the cornerstone of European cuisine!

Deli chef is sponsored by Le Gruyère AOC

Vol.12 Issue 1 · January-February 2011

31

No VAT increase until May Day!

As a New Year treat for our independent customers Bespoke Foods is not passing on the VAT increase until our new catalogue launch in May – giving you plenty of time to stock up on lemonades, chocolate biscuits and more!

Contact us: Tel: 020 7819 4300 sales@bespoke-foods.co.uk www.bespoke-foods.co.uk

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No one should even consider entering any form of fine food retail without completing the Retail Ready course at The Guild of Fine Food.

The two day course is brilliantly structured offering advice on every aspect of the business from insider experts and successful retailers.

It gave me insight I was lacking, to feel fully confident about getting started.

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Matthew Drennan, former editor of delicious. and aspiring deli owner

RetailReady is a two day course that will steer you through the minefield of opening and running a fine food store.

The course is designed to equip managers of prospective, new or developing delis and farm shops with the business essentials of fine food and drink retailing.

The next course takes place on March 8-9 2011.

Visit www.finefoodworld.co.uk/retailready for more details and an application form.

Call us to find out more on 01963 824464.

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January-February 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 01

Show Guide

DISCOVER A WORLD OF FINE FOOD IN GLASGOW

Forge your own Celtic connections

Y

ou don’t have to be Scottish to benefit from a visit to this month’s Speciality Food Show, running at Glasgow SECC from January 23-25.

Coinciding this year with Burns Night and the culmination of the Celtic Connections music festival in the city, the show is a great place to start forging new supply links for 2011 – whether you’re looking for local, national or international specialities.

There are nearly 100 exhibitors taking part this year. Of these, around two-thirds are Scottish, and they include names that are not only new to the Guild of Fine Food’s annual Scottish show but may well be new to many people in the trade. Among them are the likes of recently formed cake-maker Balhama Larder, brightly branded and well-marketed chocolatier Miss Coco, Sutherland oatcake maker Christie & Callus Artisan Foods and

farm-based rapeseed oil producer Mackintosh of Glendaveny.

With the exception of a few last-minute additions to the list, you’ll find details of all these exhibitors in our full A-Z guide to exhibitors, starting on page 39.

Meanwhile, don’t forget to register for your FREE entry ticket by visiting the show website. www.specialityfoodshow.co.uk

NEW FOR 2011: GREAT TASTE LIVE!

Information for visitors Venue: Scottish Exhibition & Conference Centre, Finnieston, Glasgow How do I get there?

Glasgow is served by Prestwick and Glasgow International Airports, with frequent connections by train from Prestwick to Glasgow Central Station, or 20 minutes by taxi from Glasgow International Airport. From Glasgow Central rail station, travel west on the low level to the SECC (5 mins journey). For drivers the SECC is well signposted from all directions. Leave the M8 at Junction 19.

How do I register for tickets?

Entry is FREE for any food retailers, caterers or producers. So save you queueing for a badge on the day, register now at: www.specialityfoodshow.co.uk

Organiser:

Guild of Fine Food www.finefoodworld.co.uk

Well established at the annual Harrogate Speciality Food Show, this year sees the debut in Scotland of Great Taste Live, a programme of free seminars, teach-ins and demos. The highlight will be Feed The Dragon, the Guild of Fine Food’s cunningly ‘borrowed’ version of BBC TV’s Dragon’s Den, where four brave exhibitors at the show are invited to pitch their products to senior fine food buyers in front of a live audience.

For this first outing in Glasgow the dragons are Oliver Platt of Perthshire destination store House of Bruar, Peter Brown of Scotland-based deli franchise operator Berits & Brown, Claire Mossford of Harvey Nichols in London and Francesca Contini of Valvona & Crolla, which has its own outlets in Edinburgh as well as running several food halls for House of Fraser.

In addition to Feed the Dragon, there’s a panel-based discussion on marketing through social networking sites, led by Dom Lane, director of creativity at agency Bray Leino. And there’s a chance to get the inside story on Great Taste Award products from Scotland as the Guild’s

Show personnel:

Show director: John Farrand Show manager: Sally Coley

John Farrand interviews producers live on stage.

Others taking part in Great Taste Live include Simple Simon’s Pies, Invest NI, Slow Food UK and retail consultant Alan Dickson, who will present ideas for making the most of gifts and kitchenware. With Scotland’s Speciality Food Show once again co-located with the non-food Scotland’s Trade Show in the SECC’s Hall 4, it’s a great chance for food retailers to look seriously at stretching their ranges.

Check the show website for the full programme.

Sales executives: Becky Stacey, Sallie James Marketing: Tortie Farrand Catalogue compiler: Julie Coates

Visit www.specialityfoodshow.co.uk to register for a FREE visitor ticket

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AND THEY TASTE GREAT !!

After much development a totally new Oatcake recipe of flavour and texture, has finally emerged from the ovens of Christie and Callus Artisan Foods Lochinver to take the oatcake consumer to a new and very different product. With a sincere nod to the past and a positive view of the future.

Christie & Callus Artisan Foods Like no other! www.onlineoatcakes.com

2 AT STAND 1 N O S U OW D VISIT FOOD SH Y T I L COME AN A I D’S SPEC SCOTLAN

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Full details of more than 250 products can be seen @

www.uncleroys.co.uk/brochure/index.html or call Uncle Roy @ 01683 221 076

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January-February 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 01

Come and meet us on stand 90, call Wendy on 01557 814040 or check out www.made-fair.com

scotland’s speciality food show

Scots confident that top-end foods can hold their own

Stephaniefrey/Dreamstime.com Robyn Mackenzie/Dreamstime.com

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hite-out conditions, sub zero temperatures and perilous conditions on the roads pre-Christmas were the last things the Scottish speciality food sector needed in a year that had already started slowly thanks to an icy January. That said, the feeling in the industry is that the sector is in surprisingly good health – all things considered.

Recession has made money tight, no doubt about it, but the trend for higher quality, locally produced food is not going to disappear overnight.

Roy Anderton-Tyers, owner of Uncle Roy’s Comestible Concoctions, reports business up by 25% last financial year. “The recession’s not been such a problem at the top end of the market which is what speciality food is all about. People are spending less on holidays and house moves but they still want comfort.”

“Good food is not a luxury customers are shelving. They either buy into it or they don’t,” says Joe Wall, director of Dunfermline-based distributor The Cress Company. “Affluent customers won’t suddenly go ‘Tesco Value’. The market has calmed down – there aren’t as many shops opening as three years ago – but you adjust your expectations.”

Wall believes there’s such a thing as the right business in the right place at the right time. “Some areas were crying out for a speciality food offering, recession or not.” On the other hand, some of his Glasgow customers are in the wrong place at the wrong time. “The arrival of Scotland’s second Waitrose there has had a bigger impact than the economic climate.”

Farm shops continue to outperform other retail models. Rural Priorities grants, part of the Scotland Rural Development Programme, have been a shot in the arm. Scott Erwin, director of GreenCity Wholefoods in Glasgow, has seen many morph from ‘huts’ to slick year-round businesses combining retail space with cafés, all the while conventional restaurants and cafés turn

Valeriy Khromov/Dreamstime.com

Ahead of their annual Glasgow gathering, HILARY ARMSTRONG asked Scottish distributors and producers how the sector is fairing

to retail. (“You can always find space for a wee shelf,” he observes.) Farm shops able to capitalise on customers downgrading from restaurants are certainly sitting pretty. Tellingly, The Cress Company, is looking to launch a “small but dedicated range” of foodservice-oriented lines to suit such hybrid models. “Why sell good jars of jam in the shop but nasty stuff in the café?” asks Wall.

It will be interesting to see if others follow suit.

James Walker, managing director of Walkers Shortbread reckons the convenience sector is the one to watch. “The high street is more and more dominated by the multiples with increased activity in the convenience sector.” Independent food shops would be foolish not to think about developing their own ‘convenience’ proposition, he suggests, and Walkers has launched a mini shortbread aimed in part at the independent c-store.

‘Local’ is still the big buzzword, though products that can tick other boxes too are faring better.

Tilquhillie of Aberdeenshire’s gluten and dairyfree puddings and cereals are performing well for GreenCity Wholefoods, as are Huntly Herbs’ chutneys (the first organic chutneys in Scotland) and Ola Scottish rapeseed oil. ‘Organic’ still matters too, according to GreenCity director Scott Erwin who says sales of Montezuma’s organic chocolate are through the roof while the non-organic range hasn’t done so well for them. “People read a Mintel report that says ‘natural sells, organic doesn’t’ but they shouldn’t be too quick to change.”

There’s optimism in the air but 2011 is going to be tough. “Everyone’s nervous,” says James Walker. Soaring commodity prices, public spending cuts, above-inflation price increases, fuel prices, the VAT rise and a weak pound will force wholesalers and distributors to pass on costs while retailers shop around.

Fresh thinking will have to come into play.

For Uncle Roy’s, it’s a case of stimulating, not following, the market. Roy Anderton-Tyers’ more innovative products, such as edible flower petals, mustard oils and concentrated natural extracts (“not ‘me too’ products,” he says) are doing well for him. Meanwhile, at GreenCity, Erwin is looking to work with smaller producers all over Scotland. “If we’ve got the trucks on the road, we should get them out full and bring them back full. We could act as a conduit – there’s so much great stuff out there. Cooperativism’s definitely on people’s lips as a model.”

But if there’s one thing everyone agrees about: no one wants to be caught out next big freeze.

There’s an economic storm to weather first.

“People are spending less on holidays and house moves but they still want comfort” Roy Anderton-Tyers, Uncle Roy’s Vol.12 Issue 1 · January-February 2011

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scotland’s speciality food show

What’s on show for 2011 A Taste of Arran 74 Isle of Arran, North Ayrshire www.taste-of-arran.co.uk 01770 302374 A Taste of Arran provides a single marketing and sales point for 11 artisan food producers on the tiny Isle of Arran, offering rapid delivery across the UK through an established network of delivery partners. Products range from traditional Scottish oatcakes, cheeses, dairy ice creams & sorbets, fruit preserves and mustards to real ales and malt whisky.

www.bizerba.co.uk 01442 240751 Bizerba’s retail range offers the latest design and technology in electronic retail scales and system cash registers, communication software, merchandising information systems, label printers and price labellers. Part of the worldwide Bizerba GmbH family, Bizerba promises efficient day-today support for retail and foodservice businesses, with a range that also includes slicers and foodservice solutions.

AnCuig Seafoods 58 East Kilbride, Scotland www.ancuigseafoods.com 01355 581021 AnCuig Seafoods is the UK representative for Irish Premium Oysters, a family-owned business with a history of shellfish farming spanning 100 years. Its oysters are farmed off the coast of Donegal, an area with a proud tradition of oyster production. AnCuig Seafoods handles marketing, sales, ordering and billing for UK-based clients.

Black Rose Food 101 Spennymoor, County Durham www.blackrosefood.com 01388 819026 An importer and distributor of quality, authentic Spanish produce, Black Rose Food has been operating in Spain for over 50 years. From its distribution warehouse in Co Durham it supplies restaurants, tapas bars, delis and other retailers with products including Manchego cheese, Jamon Serrano, Jamon Iberico, fresh and cured chorizo, vegetables, paella rice, olives, and olive oils

Artroom Design 115 Kilmarnock, Ayrshire www.artroomdesign.co.uk 01563 543765 Good things come in small packages, according to Artroom, which specialises in designing “packaging that sells products”. Artroom says it offers “no agency fees, no account handlers – just creative, hardworking packaging by a creative hardworking designer, to suit your budget and your timescale”.

Blue Whole Blueberries 33b Whitchurch, Shropshire www.bluesauces.com 01948 710525 Blue Whole Blueberries is based at the family fruit farm on the Shropshire-Wales border, where hand-picked blueberries and herbs are used to produce an individually crafted range of South-East Asian-inspired syrups, sauces, dressings and drinks mixers.

Atkins & Potts 62 Newbury, Berkshire www.atkinsandpotts.co.uk 01635 254249 With a range that includes sauces, jams, relishes and more, Atkins & Potts is proud of what it calls its “kitchen cooking values”, making everything in small batches and ensuring all its products contain a high percentage of key ingredients. Its ranges contain classic recipes with a contemporary twist alongside new flavours and textures.

Balmaha Larder 111 Balmaha, Loch Lomond www.whiskycakes.com 01360 870253 Balmaha Larder specialises in handmade whisky cakes and confectionery, attractively packaged to make ideal gifts for any occasion.

BARO Lighting (UK) 92 Partington, Lancashire www.baro.co.uk 0161 777 9292 BARO Lighting provides energy-efficient retail lighting that is sensitive to food products, using patented reflectors and filters to protect food against premature bleaching and staling. Presenting food in the perfect light for particular product colours, and at the right level of illumination, can help maximise sales in any food outlet.

Belhaven Fruit Farm Dunbar, East Lothian www.belhavenfruitfarm.co.uk 01368 860573

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Berry Good 20 Watten, Caithness www.berry-good.co.uk 01955 621623 Berry Good’s award-winning fruit-infused vodka and gin is made the old fashioned way, with no artificial colours or flavours, and available throughout the UK. Made with Scottish fruit and spirits and packaged in 10cl and 50cl sizes, the vodka range includes Straight Strawberry, Really Raspberry and Strawberry & Black Pepper, while Berry Good’s Blackcurrant Gin is set to be joined by more gin flavours this year.

Bizerba UK Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire

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Border Biscuits 97 Lanark, Lanarkshire www.borderbiscuits.co.uk 01555 662886 With a range that runs from classics like butter petticoat tails and Viennese whirls to gourmet options including yogurt, cranberry & pumpkin seed crumbles, Border Biscuits has been baking biscuits for over 25 years. The Lanark-based company says it uses only the best ingredients to deliver flavours and textures that exceed expectations of the humble biscuit.

Breckland Orchard 106 Watton, Norfolk www.brecklandorchard.co.uk 07770 802 988 Breckland Orchard’s award-winning ‘posh pop’ is made with a spring water base plus juices, with no artificial colours, flavours or sweeteners. The range includes, pear & elderflower, strawberry & rhubarb and ginger beer with chilli. Produced in the heart of Norfolk, these drinks are available throughout the UK. Burbush Penrith 51 Penrith, Cumbria www.burbushs.co.uk 01768 863841 Burbush’s of Penrith has been producing quality pies, paté and cooked meats for delis, farm shops, food halls and restaurants since 1986. Its latest launch is a range of cooked meats including

January-February 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 1

traditionally cured ox tongue.

Cairn O’Mohr Country Wines 95 Errol, Perth & Kinross www.cairnomohr.co.uk 01821 642781 Perthshire’s Cairn O’Mohr uses berries, flowers and leaves straight from the fields, braes and hedges around the Carse of Gowrie to make a range of wines that have won numerous national awards over the years. Options include strawberry, raspberry, elderberry, bramble, gooseberry and oak leaf, along with sparkling wines and a parade of seasonal specials.

including delis, farm shops, cafés, hotels, visitor centres and independent retailers across Scotland and the North of England.

Dart Valley Foods 35 Winchester, Hampshire www.dartvalleyfoods.com 01256 397979 Dart Valley Foods is a specialist supplier of personalised gift foods that can help retailers create their own unique brand. Its comprehensive product range includes fruit preserves, marmalades, curds, biscuits, chutneys and more.

Campbells Shortbread 50 Callander, Perthshire www.campbellsshortbread.co.uk 01877 330013 Campbells Shortbread is showcasing its pure butter shortbread in what it describes as “stunning, unique, great value” gift cartons and tins. The company has been around since 1830 but it still coming up with new recipes and promises some exciting new lines for 2011.

Dempson Crooke 68 Maidstone, Kent www.dempson.co.uk 01622 727027 Dempson Crooke is a leading independent UK manufacturer of paper bags, carriers, sheeted paper wrapping products and serviettes, all of which can be supplied plain or printed, along with innovations such as the PortaBag and Box Bag. Clients range from food-to-go outlets to ecoconscious high street retailers.

Celtic Confectionery & Fine Foods 65 Harrogate, North Yorkshire www.celticconfectionery.co.uk 01423 883000 Celtic Confectionery offers a range of personalised, own-label confectionery including fudge, toffee, biscuits, shortbread, nougat, preserves and kids’ sweets. Its newly extended range includes over 200 lines, for which it can produce full colour artwork and exclusive designs for retail clients. For 2011, full colour caps have been added to all sweet jars and preserves.

The Dessert Depot 96 Ayr, Ayrshire www.thedessertdeport.co.uk.

01292 285566 The Dessert Depot is a family owned company established in 2002. It describes its range of tray bakes, cakes and desserts, including Puff Candy Crunch and Ginger Hedgehog tray bakes, as “both funky and original”. Its cake range includes White Chocolate & Coconut Explosion and Chocolate & Beetroot while its cheesecakes include Millionaires and Sticky Toffee

Christie and Callus Artisan Foods 22 Lochinver, Sutherland IV27 4LS www.onlineoatcakes.com 00353-86-809-5949 Newly established in the Highlands of Sutherland, Christie&Callus offers a unique range of flavoured oatcakes and flapjacks that it says is “like no other” on the market.

The Devenick Dairy Portlethen, Aberdeenshire www.devenickdairy.co.uk 01224 782476

Cochrane Cottage 63 Houston, Renfrewshire PA6 7ET www.cochranecottage.co.uk 07932654303 Cochrane Cottage is an artisan producer of balsamic dressings, fat-free drizzles, preserves and chutneys developed to suit modern palates. All “hand-made the old fashioned way”, the products are made using ingredients sourced locally where possible. Customers include delis, cafés, visitor attractions and garden centres, and Cochrane Cottage is working with several chefs to develop accompaniments for seasonal menus.

Coffee Direct (Scotland) 36 Torphichen, West Lothian EH48 4NY www.coffeedirect.co.uk 0800 849 8808 Coffee Direct (Scotland) is a supplier of quality coffee, espresso machines and barista equipment and can also help with barista training.

Cream o Galloway Dairy Company 90 Castle Douglas, Dumfries & Galloway www.creamogalloway.co.uk 01557 814040 Cream o Galloway produces natural dairy ice cream, made using organic milk from its own farm in Dumfries & Galloway, with no artificial ingredients. “Both our Luxury and Made Fair ranges are thick and creamy because of the cream content, not gums or thickeners,” it says. New flavours are available for 2011.

The Cress Company 25 Dunfermline, Fifeshire www.thecressco.co.uk 0845 643 1330 The Cress Company, based in Dunfermline, is a specialist wholesaler of fine food, distributing both ambient and chilled produce to customers

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EcoBags 82 Plymouth, Devon www.ecobags.co.uk 01752 600367 Family-run EcoBags, established in 2003, designs and supplies high quality logo-printed re-usable bags made from jute, cotton and non-woven materials. All EcoBags are custom made – they can be produced in any size, any shape and any colour – and the company only supplies independent businesses.

Edinburgh Tea & Coffee Co 59 Edinburgh, Midlothian www.edinburghteacoffee.co.uk 0131 669 9222 With a heritage dating back to 1812, Edinburgh Tea & Coffee now boasts a range of speciality coffees from around the world and fine teas with a ‘Scottish twist’, all hand-blended by its team in Edinburgh. The range includes tea and coffee gift collections, and its two latest additions are the Scottish Breakfast Selection and the Scottish Afternoon Tea Selection, particularly suitable for tourists or as a tea lover’s gift.

Ella Drinks/Bouvrage 47 Brechin, Angus www.bouvrage.com 01356 623115 Bouvrage raspberry juice from Ella Drinks delivers the “biting freshness and wonderful aroma” of Scotland’s famous raspberries in an all-natural, clean, crisp drink that can be enjoyed on its own or with a meal. Bouvrage raspberry juice is full of healthy antioxidant compounds too.

Fletchers of Auchtermuchty 128 Auchtermuchty, Fife www.seriouslygoodvenison.co.uk 01337 828369 Named Best Small Meat Producer in the UK at the 2010 Good Housekeeping Awards, Fletchers of Auchtermuchty supplies venison that has been traditionally hung for maximum flavour

Visit www.specialityfoodshow.co.uk to register for a FREE visitor ticket

Come and visit us on stand 93 at Scotland’s Speciality Food Show A complete range of manual, semi-automatic & fully automatic slicers suitable for sausages, ham, bacon, smoked - roast - fresh & stuffed meats, parma - sarreno & other speciality hams and cheese

Bizerba Slicers offer greater yield, quicker clean down, better quality slices time after time and give a fantastic return on investment; compared to other models on the market, Bizerba Slicers can offer a payback as quickly as year one. Bizerba’s design & build quality ensures the machines last longer added to which they are safe to operate & sleek in design with less food traps, ensuring the Bizerba Slicer is the most hygenic in the market.

NEW IN 2011 - Ceraclean surface finishing Exclusive to Bizerba in the food services industry

The Bizerba Food Processing range also includes High-Speed Automatic Slicing to 250 slices/min, with or without integrated checkweighing; Mincers, Tenderisers & Band Saws.

30% increase in abrasion resistance - longer lifespan & hygiene perfection 20% increase in gliding properties - less physical application & effortless work Takes half the time to clean - removeable components are dishwasher safe

BIZERBA (UK) Limited, Unit 1 Eastman Centre, Eastman Way, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP2 7DU Tel: 01442 240751 Fax: 01442 231328 Email: info@bizerba.co.uk Web: www.bizerba.co.uk

Handmade Artisan Desserts, Cakes and Tray Bakes

The Dessert Depot Ltd, Units 9-11, Green Street Lane Business Park, Ayr KA8 8BE Tel: 01292 285566 E-mail: admin@thedessertdepot.co.uk Web: www.the dessertdepot.co.uk Vol.12 Issue 01 · January-February 2011

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GARDINERS

Premier Wholesaler of over 5000 specialist products Call our friendly sales team for a product catalogue today

Exclusive to Greencity in the UK Olives, grilled vegetables and pates straight from Italy

for fine food

sales@greencity.co.uk 0141 554 7633 digest www.greencity.co.uk magazine 14.1210.ai 12/14/10

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Established in 1949, Gardiners of Scotland is a family company specialising in quality handmade confectionery, beautifully presented in cartons and tins. Our delicious Toffees are a welcome addition to the range.

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Gardiners of Scotland Ltd Turfholm Lesmahagow Lanarkshire ML11 0ED

Tel: 01555 894155 Fax: 01555 894901 e-mail: info@gardiners-scotland.com www.gardiners-scotland.com

You can visit us at STAND 3 where a warm welcome awaits you.

Little Doone Foods Sweet Balsamic Dressing

A select range of artisan produced Still all hand sweet balsamic dressings l Original crafted in small l Chilli l Lemon Zest l Garlic l Whisky batches to guarantee l Ginger Zest the finest of flavours ll Orange Raspberry l Strawberry every time l Minted Strawberry NEW

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January-February 2011 路 Vol.12 Issue 01

Garlic

Strawberry

Orange Zest

www.littledoone.co.uk

St Andrew Gardens, Dalry, Ayrshire KA24 4JZ Telephone: 01294 833114

Ginger

scotland’s speciality food show and tenderness. Its deer graze free-range in extensive grass pastures and are reared without growth promoters or antibiotics to ensure their meat contains no drug residues. Most of its’ products are wheat-free too.

Fosters Traditional Foods 9 Market Harborough, Leicestershire www.blueberry-group.net 01858 438000 Fosters is a 30-year-old business specialising in distributing traditional ambient food products to the independent, garden centre, farm shop, delicatessen and convenience sectors. It sells around 1,200 products and is a major supplier of seasonal food and food gift products, from sugar and chocolate confectionery to cakes and biscuits, jams and chutneys.

Fudge Kitchen 120 Lyminge, Kent www.fudgekitchen.co.uk 01303 864400 Fudge Kitchen has been making premium fudge for 25 years, and this creamy, natural, hand-made product is now available to delis, farm shops and other food retailers. Flavours include traditional toffee, Belgian Chocolate Swirl, After Dinner Mint and Vintage Vanilla. A range of premium fudge sauces is also available.

Galloway Lodge Preserves 91 Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries & Galloway www.gallowaylodge.co.uk 01557 814007 Galloway Lodge Preserves has been making preserves in the Galloway town of Gatehouse-of-Fleet for over 30 years but says every product today is made with as much care as the first, using Scottish fruit and the best ingredients.

Gardiners of Scotland Limited Lanark, Lanarkshire www.gardiners-scotland.com 01555 894155 The Gift of Oil Bolton, Lancashire

www.thegiftofoil.co.uk 01204 559555 The Gift of Oil works exclusively with family producers of single estate extra virgin olive oils and genuinely matured balsamic vinegars to offer award winning, top end products to the UK. The range includes oils from Sicily, Puglia, Alentejo and Kalamatta and vinegars from northern Italy, up to 25 years old, as well as oil and vinegar infusions.

Gordon & Durward 43 Crieff, Perthshire www.scottishsweets.co.uk 01764 653800 Gordon & Durward offers a range of Scottish confectionery made with quality ingredients in traditional copper boilers. It describes its fudge and tablet as “moist, sweet, buttery, full of flavour, and with that gorgeous texture that only comes from a copper boiler”. Gordon & Durward exclusively supplies quality independent shops.

Harp & Lyre 107 Gateshead, Tyne and Wear www.harpandlyre.co.uk 0191 460 9007 Harp & Lyre is a family-owned leaf tea specialist with a heritage stretching back three generations.

The family is personally involved in every aspect of tea selection, from visiting tea estates to working with master tea tasters to create its exclusive blends. Its Assam Orthodox blend is best for breakfast, with a medium to strong taste, while its Darjeeling blend is ideal for afternoon and evening with a light to medium taste. Harp & Lyre’s luxury tea bags are filled with the same high quality tea that it uses for its loose leaf products.

www.iosbakingco.co.uk 01478 611 114

Heather Hills Honey Farm 125 Blairgowrie, Perthshire www.heatherhills.com 01250 886252 With 1,300 hives and an estiimated 52 million bees, Heather Hills specialises in fine Scottish heather and Scottish blossom honey, along with handmade Scottish jams. It also imports connoisseur-quality single flower honeys from around the world and will be introducing show visitors to a New Zealand Manuka 10 along with Clover Cut Comb.

La Tua Pasta 34 London www.latuapasta.com 0208 961 8024 La Tua Pasta is an Italian family-run business producing award-winning artisanal fresh pasta, with a range that extends to more than 150 varieties of pasta, available fresh, pasteurized or frozen. Already a leading supplier to premium wholesalers and caterers in London, La Tua is now seeking distribution in Scotland and the north of England.

Hider Food Imports Hull, East Yorkshire www.hiderfoods.co.uk 01482 561137

Laura’s Chocolates 2 Kinross, Kinross-shire www.lauraschocolates.com 01577 861001 Laura’s Chocolates creates chocolate fudge, quality tray bakes, fun selection boxes and unusual eyecatching chocolate bars topped with everyday confectionary, all handmade using high quality Belgium chocolate. This year it is launching new selection boxes that bring together all its chocolate bars in mini versions, with variations for Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.

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GreenCity Wholefoods 10 Glasgow, Lanarkshire 0141 554 7633 www.greencity.co.uk Since 1978 GreenCity has established itself as one of Scotland’s premier wholesalers of speciality, fine foods and environmentally friendly products. It delivers organic, Fairtrade, gluten-free and other specialities throughout Scotland and northern England

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Guild of Fine Food 94 Wincanton, Somerset www.finefoodworld.co.uk 01963 824464 The Guild of Fine Food – organiser of the Scotland and Harrogate Speciality Food Shows – was formed in 1995 with a mission to create close links between suppliers and retailers in the independent food sector, and now has over 1,200 members. As well as providing a wide range of membership benefits, the Guild runs professionallyaccredited training programmes for shop staff, managers and owners, organises the Great Taste Awards and World Cheese Awards and publishes the speciality food and drink trade monthly Fine Food Digest.

Isabella’s Preserves 47 Edzell, Aberdeenshire www.isabellaspreserves.co.uk 01356 648 500 Isabella’s Preserves produces award-winning jams, marmalades, chutneys and sauces made in the north east of Scotland using the best Scottish ingredients. This luxury hand-made range is based on old family recipes and the jars are finished by hand with real tartan ribbon.

The Isle of Skye Baking Company Portree, Isle of Skye

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L’ail Olive 16 London www.lailolive.com 0208 441 4828 L’ail Olive describes its roasted smoked garlic in extra virgin olive oil, crispy smoked garlic and smoked chilli garlic as “versatile products that cross culinary borders”. The products, supplied in glass jars, are full flavoured but not overpowering, and can be used for mixing with noodles, pasta, bread dipping, stir-fry, cheeses and as toppings for seafood, vegetables and meat.

Link Print & Packaging 6 Farington, Lancashire www.linkpp.co.uk 01772 453838 Link Print & Packaging is showing its low-cost solutions for firms that want to produce labels inhouse, along with its sandwich and snack box packing station for small volume production. The main focus of Link’s stand will be the the Brother QL-650 and the TD-4000 printers, which it says are particularly well suited to small, speciality food & drink applications.

Love Leaf Tea 114 Newcastle Upon Tyne www.loveleaftea.com 0845 521 9877 Healthy teas and infusions with “a bit of something different” is how Love Leaf Tea describes its new range. If offers a selection of infusions focusing on wellness, Ayurveda and general well-being, marketed in funky and environmentally friendly packaging. The “energetic and vibrant” teas and infusions are now being offered to delis, farm shops and health food stores.

NEW TO GLASGOW FOR 2011

A model entrepreneur If there’s a female visitor to Scotland’s Speciality Food Show who doesn’t want a pair of Miss Coco’s chocolate ‘Louboutins’ (complete with signature red soles), we’d like to know about it.

These glittery chocolate shoes are just some of the girly goodies – all hand-made in Scotland from German and Belgian ingredients – that Sarah Finlay, the model and entrepreneur behind Cumbernauld’s Miss Coco, is showing at the SECC. Finlay boned up on chocolate-making while at Glasgow University and launched Miss Coco a year ago. Her brand of bling already fares well in local delis and chocolate shops but she has her sights set on Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, John Lewis and groups such as Peckham’s or Dobbies.

It’s the large-scale buyers Finlay hopes to meet at

the SECC. While her first year was spent learning about retail (around 70% of business is direct sales), the second will be devoted to understanding the wholesale market.

“I’ve never done a wholesale show before so this is an absolute start,” she says. “We’re already planning to tweak the range and packaging, so we want to gauge how the buyers like it and what wholesalers are looking for”.

Miss Coco’s latest lines – giant chocolate cupcakes, mini discs and hot choc dip (“they’ve done very well for us this year”) – all launched before Christmas but the January show is the first time buyers will see them.

“A lot could change. We might even pull a whole load. That’s what we’re going to find out.” www.misscoco.co.uk

Sarah Finlay (second left): first trade show

Visit www.specialityfoodshow.co.uk to register for a FREE visitor ticket

Vol.12 Issue 1 · January-February 2011

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scotland’s speciality food show NEW TO GLASGOW FOR 2011

Trotters: ‘Making something no-one else makes’

Cutting the mustard It all started with a jar of mostarda – a traditional condiment served with cold meat – that Byam Trotter’s parents brought back from northern Italy.

Unable to replenish their supply back home in Fife, Trotter’s mother whipped up a batch herself. Her recipe was the starting point for Trotter’s Independent Condiments, her son’s year-old speciality start-up.

Mostarda is a classic recipe that comes under the umbrella of ‘unusual and delicious handmade condiments’ that is the brand’s USP. “Making something that no one else makes seemed like a good opportunity. It removes a certain element of competition,” observes the 23-year-old event Little Doone Foods 42 Dalry, Ayrshire www.littledoone.co.uk 01294 833114 Little Doone’s range of artisan-produced sweet balsamic dressings will be showcased in a newformat glass bottle. Flavours include original, chilli, garlic, ginger, orange zest, strawberry and raspberry, and Little Doone will also be launching its new lemon zest and whisky flavours.

Mackie’s of Scotland 46 Aberdeenshire www.mackies.co.uk 0141 958 1303 Mackie’s of Scotland award-winning dairy ice cream is made on the family farm in Aberdeenshire, with whole milk and cream, no artificial ingredients and using 100% renewable energy. Mackie’s will also be showing its thick potato crisps, cooked in sunflower oil and seasoned with all-natural ingredients.

Mackintosh of Glendaveny Peterhead, Aberdeenshire www.macintoshofglendaveny.co.uk

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Mamook Graphics 102 Edinburgh, Midlothian www.mamook.co.uk 0131 476 3028 Mamook Graphics describes itself as a “versatile and friendly” design studio, working with a wide range of clients to create clear and distinctive designs that reflect their company’s values and gets them noticed. It designs everything from logos and brand identities to flyers, brochures and websites.

Miss Coco 45 Cumbernauld www.misscoco.co.uk 01236 737 554 The Miss Coco brand has been created by Sarah Finlay to provide “a chocolate experience that not only tastes fantastic but looks great too”. Its range includes chocolate discs in seven flavours from fiery chilli to rose and ginger, along with boxed chocolates, hot chocolate and ‘treats’ such as caramel drops and chocolate lollies.

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management graduate. “People have no choice but to come to me.”

He’s using Scotland’s Speciality Food Show, his first trade show, to get his name known and launch his Mojito Jelly (delicious with lamb or mackerel, apparently). Bloody Mary Chutney comes next.

He also wants to meet other small producers, since comparing experiences is as important to him at this stage as touting for business. He’s started small, living and working at his parents’ home, and has only just upgraded from homemade labels. The next step – going beyond Fife to reach Edinburgh and Glasgow stores – will be “a lot tougher”. The English market will have to wait another year,” he says. “I need the show

Nairn’s Oatcakes 80 Edinburgh, Midlothian www.nairns-oatcakes.com 0131 620 7000 Baked using wholegrain oats, the market-leading Nairn’s Oatcakes range consists of oatcakes, oat biscuits, oaty bakes and new gluten-free products which include porridge and muesli.

Northern Ireland Naturally 13 Belfast www.buynifood.com 028 9069 8225 Invest NI will host a number of Great Taste Awards winners on the Northern Ireland Naturally stand, where visitors can sample baked & breakfast goods, health foods, ice cream, meat, cheese, teas and coffees. Invest NI helps retailers and caterers access thousands of products from over 300 Northern Ireland suppliers, assisting with factory visits, sampling requests and more.

to give me some indication of how next year is going to go, and how much I can afford to expand and invest. But I’m very optimistic.” www.trottersindependent.co.uk

01890 781328 Peelham Farm produces quality lamb, mutton and field-raised beef-veal, along with free-range rare breed pork, including dry-cured and smoked ham, charcuterie and sausages. The company is committed to guaranteeing product integrity, traceability and taste from animals reared on home grown feed and forage, and includes ecological restoration and renewal in its land management.

01555 772277 Using outdoor reared pigs, Ramsay of Carluke creates old fashioned bacon that is full of flavour.

Rick Stein made Ramsay one of his Food Heroes when he brought along his TV crew to observe this age-old bacon curing process. As an accompaniment to the bacon, Ramsay produces a range of medal winning products, including black pudding, white pudding, fruit pudding, sausages, cooked meats and haggis.

Pentic Price Ticketing 123 London www.pendred.com 0208 4619389 Pentic supplies personalised counter tickets to butchers, delicatessens, cheese-mongers, fishmongers, bakers, cafés and specialist supermarkets. Its waterproof tickets are made from rigid PVC. Customers can choose from a wide range of shapes, giving flexibility to incorporate branding, logos and product descriptions, including all meat and fish regulations.

Pentic also supplies ticket stands, spikes, clips and pricing albums.

Reids of Caithness Caithness, Caithness-shire www.reidsofcaithness.com 01847 893574

Ola Oils 47 Inverurie, Aberdeenshire www.olaoils.co.uk 01467 622359 Husband and wife team John and Connie Sorrie launched Ola extra virgin cold pressed rapeseed oil in 2008 to give Scotland a healthier, locally produced alternative to olive oil. The rapeseed is grown on the Sorries’ farm near Inverurie, where it is also cold pressed and bottled. There is also a range of infused oils with lemon, basil, roasted garlic and chilli.

Prestige Shopfitting Services 19 Ferryhill, County Durham 01388 721322 Prestige is a family-owned business based in the north-east of England, selling and installing commercial refrigeration and air-conditioning nationwide. Trading since 1990, it completes over 1,000 refrigeration and air conditioning installations each year, half of which are either to existing customers or from recommendations. “Flexible working practices mean we complete full refits or single installations with little fuss and disruption,” the company says.

Parkers Packaging 48 Liverpool, Merseyside www.parkerspackaging.com 0151 547 6700 Parkers Packaging has been one of the UK’s leading suppliers of packaging to the food and dairy industries for over 50 years. This familyowned company supplies both paper and plastic packaging in sizes ranging from 50 ml up to 20 litre. Its award-winning label and print department can offer high standards of product decoration in realistic small production runs.

Pudsey Pickles 17 Leeds, Yorkshire www.pudseypickles.co.uk 0113 255 1959 The husband and wife team behind Pudsey Pickles were both professional chefs but had left the industry to raise their kids until a glut of vegetables tempted them back into the kitchen. They started selling their chutney at a local craft fair before progressed to farmers’ markets and local shops, and now they hope to market their jams, sauces, chutneys and mustards nationwide.

Peelham Farm Produce Berwick upon Tweed, Berwickshire www.peelham.co.uk

Ramsay of Carluke Carluke, South Lanarkshire www.ramsayofcarluke.co.uk

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Ross’s of Edinburgh 53 Edinburgh, Midlothian info@ross-of-edinburgh.co.uk 0131 4401717 Ross’s of Edinburgh is a family company making sugar confectionery for specialist sweet shops, the general confectionery trade and the Scottish gift market. Best known for Edinburgh Castle Rock its range covers a wide variety of flavours, colours and shapes in sticks and pieces packed in gift boxes, tins, 100g prepacks and large jars and bags for weighout sale. Ross’s also wholesales products from McCowans, Duncans, Romneys, R&W Scott and Paterson Arran.

Anthony Rowcliffe & Son 38 Tonbridge, Kent www.rowcliffe.co.uk 01892 838999 Anthony Rowcliffe is one of the longest-established cheese and speciality chilled food suppliers in the UK, offering next day delivery of cheeses, patés, salamis, olives and preserved fish. It regularly lists over 1,000 products and can source other specialities to order. Farmhouse British cheeses are cut down into sizes manageable for any delicatessen counter or kitchen. For more than four decades it has helped thousands of new independent delis, butchers and farm shop owners launch their businesses by offering free merchandising support and staff training.

Scotweigh Bankside, Stirlingshire www.scotweigh.co.uk 01324 611311 Established over 25 years ago, Scotweigh supplies weighing, labelling, scanning and invoicing system from reliable brands including Toshiba Tec and Mettler-Toledo. It also offers a comprehensive after-sales service.

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Visit www.specialityfoodshow.co.uk to register for a FREE visitor ticket

www.pudseypickles.co.uk email: info@pudseypickles.co.uk tel: 0113 2551959/07828158120

We make high quality chutneys & jams, with no artificial colours or preservatives, all our products are glutenfree and vegetarian, we are happy to supply to anywhere in the UK mainland

Award winning produce

Quality Artisan cheese

Quality yogurt producer

Made with our own cows milk

Scottish

Something different

Taste?

We have ticked all the box’s so come and try our wide range of produce and do the taste test yourself?

Visit us at the speciality food show in Glasgow stand number 105.

www.devenickdairy.co.uk info@devenickdairy.co.uk

or

01224 782476 Vol.12 Issue 01 · January-February 2011

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Mojito Jelly Britain’s much loved cocktail the Mojito, is now a condiment.

The idea to turn cocktail into a condiment came to me from the owner of the Little Italian Shop in St. Andrews, whom I supply with my other products. I am always looking for new, provocative and unusual condiments, a Mojito ticked all the boxes. It has taken me over 4 months of trial and error to get a recipe that I was happy with, but if you sample the final result you will agree, time well spent.

A Mojito is a Cuban cocktail that is made from limes, mint, sugar and rum I have taken the same ingredient to create a delicious jelly. Mojito Jelly is very versatile as it can be served with both sweet and savory dishes, the limes go really well with fish, especially mackerel, the Mint compliments lamb nicely and the sweetness is great with desserts like ice cream or crumbles. The jelly will melt over a hot dish to make a rather tasty sauce and the rum gives it an amazing and unique taste.

If this one takes off then watch this space for Bloody Mary Chutney!

Tel: 01333 360219 Email: condiments@trottersindependent.co.uk www.trottersindependent.co.uk

Westcombe Cheddar Traditional unpasteurised cheddar made by Tom Calver in the small village of Westcombe with the milk from our own herd of cows that graze on lush Somerset pastures.

are you stocking the Olives Et Al winners?

Tel: 01258 474300 Email: sales@olivesetal.co.uk

olivesetal.com

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January-February 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 01

Firm, smooth textured with a nutty savoury and slightly caramel flavour.

Contact Tom Calver on 01749 838 033 e-mail: tom@westcombedairy.com Approved distributor for CHR Hansen’s products

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scotland’s speciality food show Seagreens 14 Handcross, West Sussex www.seagreens.com 01444 400403 Seagreens’ wild, organic seaweed products have been widely flagged by the national press as among the leading seaweed food brands. They are said to provide the right micronutrient balance to provide a good foundation for every kind of diet and nutritional therapy. Last year Seagreens won an award for Marine Enterprise from the Crown Estate and it has pioneered standards for sustainable harvesting in the Outer Hebrides of seaweed for human consumption.

Silesia Grill Systems 81 York, Yorkshire www.silesiagrill.co.uk 01430 879967 Silesia Grill Systems has just celebrated 30 years of trading with its Velox High Speed contact grills. Ideal for heavy-duty restaurant work, these grills promote healthy eating as food can be cooked in its own juices with little, if any, added oil. Quick and versatile, Velox grills can prepare a wide range of foods from cooked breakfasts, omelettes and steaks to paninis and toasted sandwiches within minutes.

SLOEmotion 126 Barton Le Willows, Yorkshire www.sloemotion.com 0844 800 1911 Yorkshire based SLOEmotion’s sloe gin (Great Taste Awards gold 2008, sloe whisky (GTA two-star gold 2009) and other liqueurs are hand-made in the traditional way, while the infused sloes are then used in the company’s unique after-dinner chocolate truffles (Deliciously Yorkshire Awards winner 2008).

2010 saw SLOEmotion move “down the hedgerow” with the launch of damson gin.

Simple Simon’s Perfect Pie Factory 61 Coulter, Biggar, Lanarkshire www.simplesimonspies.co.uk 01899 220118 Simple Simon’s Perfect Pies are a complete mealfor-one in a pie. The 36 pies in the range are made with a base of 65g steamed shredded potato and 125g of main filling on top, enclosed in light crisp puff pastry. Fillings include several Great Taste Award winners. the including two gold star Honeyed Venison Collops. Pies are baked on the day of despatch for maximum freshness on arrival.

St Andrews Farmhouse Cheese Co 49 Anstruther, Fife www.standrewscheese.co.uk 01333 312580 Anster cheese from St Andrews, a bronze winner at last year’s British Cheese Awards, is the only artisan farmhouse cheese made in Fife. It has a crumbly texture and a lemony tang on the finish.

Red Anster, which won gold at the 2010 Royal Highland Show, is its sister cheese, which has added annatto colour along with fresh garlic and fresh chives. Both are made using unpasteurised milk from the Stewart family’s herd of home-bred cows near Anstruther.

Stoats Porridge Bars 57 Edinburgh, Midlothian www.stoatsporridgebars.co.uk 0131 657 9955 Stoats produces a range of premium products using Scottish oats and natural ingredients. The range includes porridge oat bars, oatcakes, porridge oat blends and pre-mixes, Porridge Pots, oat cookies, oatmeal, Oat Crunch and the new dairy- and sugar-free Uber Bar. Stoats will unveil its new branding and packaging at the show.

Summer Harvest Oils 64 Crieff, Perthshire www.summerharvestoils.co.uk 01786 474770 Summer Harvest’s multi-award-winning Scottish cold pressed rapeseed oil is made from a single variety of seed grown on the family farm in Madderty, Perthshire. Now used at many top Scottish restaurants including Andrew Fairlie @ Gleneagles, the oil was awarded two stars in the Great Taste Awards 2010. The range also includes dressings, infused oils and mayonnaises.

Taste of Bute 52 Kingarth, Isle of Bute www.tasteofbute.co.uk 01700 831652 Taste of Bute is a family-run business selling high quality artisan produce from an island location.

These include smoked meats and trout, organic smoked cheeses and speciality smoked sausages from The Plan Farm Smokehouse. Native breeds are matched to the environment to produce meat flavours that come naturally from free ranging, grass-fed animals.

Taylor Freezer Scotland East Kilbride, Lanarkshire www.taylor-company.com 01355 236422 Taylor Freezer supplies equipment for

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manufacturing soft serve ice cream, yoghurt, thick shakes, artisan ice cream, slush, frozen cocktail, smoothies and whipped cream.

Thistle Preserves 1 Brechin, Angus www.thistlepreserves.co.uk 01356 647455 This small family company based in the heart of the Scottish countryside produces traditional chutneys and preserves to old family recipes, using fresh produce from the bountiful supplies found in Angus. Each jar is finished and labelled by hand.

Terra Rossa 66 Sutton, Surrey www.terra-rossa.com 020 8661 9695 Terra Rossa’s Great Taste Awards-winning Arabian specialities include first cold pressed and infused extra virgin olive oils from Jordan, Palestine and Morocco, as well as zaatar, dukka and sumac herb and dipping mixes, zaatar & pine nut sauce, dukka harissa salsa and zaatar passata.

The products are also available as elegant gift sets, dipping kits in jute bags, hand-carved wooden boxes and natural corrugated cartons.

Tregothnan Truro, Cornwall dkitchen@tregothnan.com 01872 520000

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Trotter’s Independent Condiments 49 Leven, Fife www.trottersindependent.co.uk 07913548175 In 2009 Byam Trotter’s parents returned from Italy where they had enjoyed mostarda. When their search for a Scottish equivalent to the fruit and mustard-based relish came to nothing, Trotter’s Independent Condiments was born.

Since then Byam Trotter has added new recipes, from seasonal wild garlic pesto to Mojito jelly.

Uncle Roy’s Comestible Concoctions 12 Moffat, Dumfriesshire www.uncleroys.co.uk 01683 221076 Uncle Roy is once again showcasing his awardwinning and innovative products. New to the Glasgow show for 2011 are Uncle Roy’s awardwinning mustard seed oils – described as “the healthiest and tastiest culinary oils available” –– and his Extra Special Condiments, which are “high fruit content delights with a savoury twist”.

Thistly Cross Cider 87 Belhaven Fruit Farm, Dunbar, East Lothian www.thistlycrosscider.co.uk 01368 863246 Established in 2008, Thistly Cross Cider is currently the only Scottish producer known to the National Association of Cidermakers. It has developed a range of traditional ciders as well as Thistly Cross Red – a cider matured with strawberries; Thistly Cross Gold – matured with whisky barrel chips; and Thistly Cross Ginger - a cider matured with ginger.

Valt Vodka Company 130 Paisley, Glasgow www.valtvodka.com 0141 849 2090 Valt Vodka was dreamt up by two Scotsmen in a Manhattan bar, who envisaged a vodka “so refined, so cool and so pure that it could only be created one way”. This meant using Scottish malted barley, Scottish mountain water and a new quintuple micro-distillation process based on traditional copper pot stills. A “secret charcoal and chill filtration process” adds smoothness.

Victor James Confectionery 117 Glasgow, Lanarkshire 01360 440147 Victor James specialises in hand-made, quality confectionery using the best ingredients. Products include tablet, fudge and hand-made chocolates.

Tilquhillie Fine Foods 47 Banchory, Kincardineshire 01330 822037 Tilquhillie Fine Foods has two bakeries: one specialising in gluten-free oat breakfast cereals and making gluten-free puddings, cakes, biscuits and Christmas puddings, the other making clootie dumplings and own label products. All are presented in distinctive packaging.

Walkers Shortbread 30 Aberlour on Spey, Scotland www.walkersshortbread.com 07801 975401 Walkers Shortbread was established in 1898 and today bakes a selection of shortbread, biscuits, cakes, meringues and oatcakes, all free from artificial colours, flavourings or preservatives.

Walkers says it is “totally committed to independent and gifting outlets in Scotland”.

Tracklements 31 Malmsbury, Wiltshire www.tracklements.co.uk 01666 827044 Tracklements offers award-winning mustards, chutneys, jellies, sauces, relishes, pickles and mayonnaise, from traditional products like wholegrain mustard to chilled accompaniments and seasonal products. Available in retail and catering packs, Tracklements supports specialist retailers with a tailor-made promotional program.

Your Piece Baking Company 60 Nr Cupar, Fife www.yourpiecebakingcompany.com 01738 622851 Your Piece produces oatcakes, shortbread, porridge oats and breakfast cereal, all made with Fife-grown oats and no artificial ingredients, preservatives or hydrogenated fat. It aims to deliver unique recipes, packaged in an eyecatching format with a distinctive brand, all handmade in Fife, “the home of great baking”.

NEW TO GLASGOW FOR 2011

Scotland’s youngest oil baron Mackintosh of Glendaveny, Gregor Mackintosh’ cold-pressed rapeseed oil business, was born out of his degree dissertation at the Scottish Agricultural College in Aberdeen.

Mackintosh graduated in 2008, launched the brand from his family’s Aberdeenshire farm in March 2009 and hopes to have his ‘Scottish alternative to olive oil’ available nationwide by March 2011.

The brand is available already at 15 Asda stores across the North East but Mackintosh is keen to keep supplying the farm shops, delicatessens and butchers that supported him when he started. “They’re different markets and different customers but we’ve managed to

maintain a retail price match and we’re selling well in both markets. Press coverage has helped.”

Two years after launching during the credit crunch with a £5k grant and loan from the Princes Youth Business Trust Scotland, the company now has a team of four and expanded production facilities.

Mackintosh wants to capitalise on this at Scotland’s Speciality Food Show to grow his stockist base in the south of the country (“Glasgow’s an area we do well in”) and possibly England; to target catering distributors and processors and, potentially, to launch a new line, new labelling permitting.

“The workload at this end is quite intense. We’ve

Gregor Mackintosh: ‘Intense workload’

been so stretched with the lines we’ve got but product development is on the agenda for 2011.”

He’s also looking at the export market and taking his oils to the Far East. “Rapeseed oil is a very new product throughout Europe and indeed, the rest of the world.” www.mackintoshofglendaveny.co.uk

Visit www.specialityfoodshow.co.uk to register for a FREE visitor ticket

Vol.12 Issue 1 · January-February 2011

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ys ruary o e Tw utn Feb ch ed in w ch ne aun l ing e b

We produce a wide range of award winning jams, marmalades and chutneys by hand using the finest ingredients.

111 Great Taste Award winning products

Consumer demand for chutneys continues to increase every year and with this in mind we have been busy creating new flavours such as our Poppadom version.

Our passion for great tasting products and devotion to quality has been recognised, to date, by 111 Great Taste Awards.

Cottage Delight’s commitment is to the independent trade and we will never be seen on supermarkets shelves.

To share in our success please contact Linda on 01538 382020.

06/01/2011 10:51 about good food.

A family 1company passionate

TGF_Label_Advert-oldfont.pdf

www.cottagedelight.co.uk

NEW LABELS, SAME DELICIOUS RECIPES C

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CHUTNEYS - RELISHES - CONDIMENTS - GARLIC BUTTER - FRESH GARLIC - SWEET CLOVES GRAPPES & PLAITS - GARLIC GADGETS

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January-February 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 01

product update

pickles & chutneys

Savoury spoonfuls

ANNE BRUCE goes in search of the best new savoury accompaniments • Cheese specialist Paxton & Whitfield has added horseradish & beetroot relish to its range of branded accompaniments. The newcomer is made with beetroot grown in North Yorkshire combined with fresh horseradish for a blend of sweet and peppery flavours. RRP is £4.25 for 198g, with a trade price of £2.77 each in a case of 12.

• Hairy Bikers' favourite Raman's Handmade Relishes has recently launched a range of gourmet savoury relishes.

They were created using Yorkshire-produced fruit and vegetables, slow-cooked and infused with a selection of spices. There are six flavours in the range – aubergine, beetroot, tomato & onion, dessert apple & carrot, pepper and butternut squash.

These relishes can be used as accompaniments to cold meats and cheese, as a cooking paste to a casserole, a marinade, dip or even eaten straight off the spoon. They are priced at £3.00 per jar.

The Raman family will be remembered for winning the title Britain’s Best Cooking Family on the TV’s Hairy Bikers’ Cook-Off at the end of last year.

www.paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk

• Kitchen Garden’s new sweet, gently spiced red onion marmalade can be served with patés, savoury pies and quiches. As an ingredient it can be mixed with goats’ cheese in filo parcels or wrapped with sausage meat in mini sausage rolls for example. It is available in 315g jars, RRP £3.30. www.kitchengardenpreserves.co.uk

• Mojito cocktails as a condiment? Scottish producer Trotter’s is convinced the Cuban combination of limes, mint, sugar and rum in its Mojito jelly is a winner. The lime works well with fish such as mackerel, the mint complements lamb and the sweetness blends in with desserts like ice cream or crumbles. A Bloody Mary chutney is now in the pipeline. Jars are £4.50 www.trottersindependent.co.uk (RRP) for 280g.

www.ramans.co.uk

• A new ‘neep’ (swede) chutney has been launched by Henshelwoods Fine Foods to complement haggis, which is traditionally served with ‘neeps and tatties’. As haggis is increasingly being eaten in sausage or sliced form, Henshelwoods decided to create a ready-made accompaniment. The product was introduced in time for this month’s Burn’s Night but Henshelwoods says it also works with sausages, meats and some www.henshelwoodsfinefoods.co.uk cheeses.

• Chutneys and jams company Pudsey’s Pickles has just repackaged its range of chutneys including red onion marmalade, cider apple, spiced plum, beetroot, lime pickle, roast onion and jalapeño, tomato chutney and fire relish (made with scotch bonnets, nagra jakota and birds eye chillis). All are available in 8 oz (230g) jars with an RRP of between www.pudseypickles.co.uk £2.20 to £2.75.

• Described as “too thick to be a sauce and not quite a relish”, Saucish was launched by Suffolk’s Jules & Sharpie last year as an addition to the producer’s range of hot savoury jellies.

This one is made with tomatoes, peppers, onions, smoked paprika and scotch bonnet chillies, cooked slowly to create a ‘dollopy’ consistency and a deep full flavour. www.julesandsharpie.co.uk

• Mango & chilli (300g) and mango & ginger (320g) are the latest chutney flavours from Geeta’s Foods. All are made in India and are suitable for vegetarians and vegans. RRP for both products is £1.89. www.geetasfoods.com

• Huntly Herbs has launched a gift box containing six 42g jars of organic chutneys handmade by this small family business. The Huntly Herbs Little Box of Chutneys comes in a 14 x 9 x 5cm recycled card and includes varieties such as hot lemon relish and coriander chutney. Trade price is £5.50 per box, RRP £8.70. www.huntlyherbs.co.uk

• Hay-on-Wye based Chef on the Run Foods says it is seeing strong sales of its new Welsh cider & apple chutney. made with very dry Welsh cider, cider vinegar, local cooking apples, local welsh honey, British sugar, Welsh mustard and local onions. The product comes in 340g jars, RRP £3.50.

• Four Seasons Preserves has launched the Maya range of traditional Indian chutneys and pickles, including Bengal Apple, Hot Apple and Sweet Lime. There is also Lucknow Lime, made with limes, ginger, garlic and chillies. All are available in 220g jars with a trade price of £2.00 (minimum order 70 jars in any combination) with an RRP of £3.00.

The chutneys are also available in one litre catering buckets. 07787 566676 • Northern Ireland’s En-Place Foods has launched the Moyallon ‘love food’ branded range of chutney and relishes. Products include Wild cranberry chutney, spiced fruit chutney, cool pear & lime chutney and hot chilli pickle. The range is available in 275g retail jars, RRP £3.25, at a trade price of £24 for 12. Catering-size 1.3kg and 2.7kg packs are also available. www.en-placefoods.com

www.chefontherunfoods. co.uk Vol.12 Issue 1 · January-February 2011

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Winner of over

40 Great Taste ®

Miller Park, Station Road, Wigton, Cumbria CA7 9BA Tel/Fax: 016973 45974 Email: claire@claireshandmade.co.uk Web: www.claireshandmade.co.uk

Handmade sweet and savoury preserves and condiments Multi-award winning recipes made with all-natural ingredients A colourful array of products from traditional favourites to innovative specialities Powerful new branding and packaging with comprehensive retailer support Call Claire Kent for wholesale information…

Awards

Speciality Producer of the Year

embellish with relish ™

Traditionally handmade with passion and the finest ingredients to ensure quality without compromise.

FREE from: • artificial flavours • colourings • preservatives • gluten • nuts Suitable FOR: • vegetarians • vegans • coeliacs

015394 36614 The Square, Hawkshead, Cumbria, UK LA22 ONZ

NO minimum order

www.hawksheadrelish.com Fine Food World 100 x 141.5mm issue: Jan 2011-V12i1 File name: FFD-V12i1-100x141.50.pdf

SAVOUR THE FLAVOUR

SUN-DRENCHED, INNOVATIVE AND ETHICALLY SOURCED PRODUCTS FROM AFRICA Aubergine Pickle 2008

Spiced Beetroot Chutney 2009

Luxury Mango Chutney

Plum Chutney

CONTACT US ON 0141 887 2882 INFO@JUSTTRADINGSCOTLAND.CO.UK SEE US ON STAND 10 AT SCOTLAND’S SPECIALITY FOOD SHOW 46

January-February 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 01

product update • ‘Seriously sexy’ is how the people behind the new Coffee Fetish range describe their new premium brand.

Made with a blend of 100% Arabica beans, it is sourced from Brazil, then dry processed and medium roasted to offer up “vibrant nutty flavours infused with a sensuous dark chocolate aroma”. All beans are Utz Certified to give a reassurance of ethical, sustainable sourcing and are traceable back to the farmer that grew them. Pack size is 227g and the RRP is £6.99 for both pre-ground and whole bean formats.

A guide to coffee excellence Union Coffee and the Guild of Fine Food held a coffee masterclass for fine food retailers in Brighton last September, tasting blends and sharing ideas on how to maximise sales in the category. The coffee shop revolution has happened says Union, now it is time for a coffee bean revolution. Here are Union's five top tips.

Some shoppers buy on taste, some on origin. Aim to cover all the bases.

www.coffeefetish.co.uk

Back to the grind Looking to top up your coffee offer? ANNE BRUCE suggests a few New Year ideas.

• Knightsbridge-based Sea Island Coffee launched a new range of luxury gift-boxed coffees in tins last autumn. Options are Jamaica Blue Mountain (125g) with an RRP of £19.99, Hawaii Kona (125g) at £17.99, the best selling Kopi Luwak (125g) at £39.99 and Kopi Luwak (50g) at £17.99. All are presented in tins rather than the bags that Sea Island generally uses. Larger 250g tins and a Valentine’s tin are due soon. www.seaislandcoffee.com • Made from slow roasted 100% high-grade Arabica coffee, Little’s new Premium instant coffees come in four varieties: Kenyan, Espress, Colombian, and Decaffeinated.

Their launch follows Little’s flavoured instant coffees launched three years ago and builds on the company's brand principle that, given the right beans, roasted with care, instant coffee can be “unrecognisably good”. The 50g jars carry a wholesale price of £1.40 and have a RRP of between £2.35 and £2.85. The company is also celebrating the sale of its millionth jar of flavoured instant coffee, which MD Henry Little says shows instant coffee has become a viable speciality line. www.littlesltd.com

coffee

• Union Hand-Roasted has launched a new range of four whole bean coffees to retailers. These coffees have been chosen to provide a range of taste profiles, from light to dark styles, and a mix of blends and single estates.

Developed for boutique delis, foodstores and independent coffee shops, this new whole bean range is packaged in the same distinct indigo coloured 227g packs as Union’s current ground cafetière range but with a new label to differentiate them. The RRPs are £3.75-£4.25, with a trade list prices of £15.60-£16.95 for a case of 6 x 227g. All Union coffee is directly traded in a sustainable manner with prices paid to farmers above the Fairtrade standard. www.unionroasted.com

1 Offer choice Ensure your coffees reflect a range of region/origin and taste. Some customers buy on origin; others look for taste profiles.

2 Knowledge is power Explaining why you stock coffees of high quality helps position your business in the customer's mind as authoritative and differentiated from the mainstream. So learn the language of coffee. You should be able to talk about your range in taste and flavour terms. Body, acidity and aroma are key descriptors. It's about much more than the one-dimensional descriptor of ‘mild, medium and strong’.

3 Intrigue and entice Take advantage of upsell opportunities.

Present coffee in an engaging way with tastings or food matching ideas. For example, Union’s Brazil Lambari is a perfect accompaniment to a Danish pastry, while a Sumatra coffee (more full-bodied) is excellent after dinner.

4 Get the display right Ensure your display reflects the differences between your coffees.

Perhaps use a simple guide based on coffee tastes. Coffee roasters and suppliers should be able to provide this information. Packs that use visual cues to differentiate by coffee style are a good ‘ready-made’ way to communicate this to customers.

• Grumpy Mule has launched mini coffee tins and mini tin gift sets for 2011. Individual mini tins of organic & Fairtrade certified coffee are available in three origins: Sumatra Gayo Highlands, Colombia Equidad or Bolivia Café Femenino. Each high quality, gun-metal finish tin contains 75g of ground coffee.

They are sold in cases of 12 at £1.90 per unit (RSP £2.95). The mini tin gift sets contains three mini tins in a presentation box and are priced at £7.49 (RSP £11.95) with four units per case.

5 Consider usage The vast majority of home consumption is still by cafetières. However, espressobased usage in the home is growing as consumers invest in traditional and bean-to-cup machines. Ensure your range caters for both needs. Some styles will be more suited to a particular brewing method. Again your coffee supplier/roaster will be able to advise. www.unionroasted.com

www.grumpymule.co.uk Vol.12 Issue 1 · January-February 2011

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EvEr thought about your own labEl coffEE? jam, marmalade & conserve ALL HOME MADE Exciting flavours and combinations present a modern twist on some very old favourites. Come and meet us at The Anglesey Show and taste some of our best loved recipes.

Create exclusivity and repeat sales by applying your company branding to our stunning premium Arabica coffees and unique blends sourced from all around the coffee growing world. Improving customer loyalty and your cash flow!

Telephone 01248 712 988

www.angleseyfarmfoods.com

Huntly Herbs award-winning handmade organic preserves

GB-ORG-05

A small family business producing a delicious range of chutneys made by hand on our Aberdeenshire farm, many of them from fruit, vegetables and herbs we have grown ourselves. Currently available throughout Scotland and seeking a distributor or wholesaler for elsewhere in the UK. Winner of the 2009 UK National Chutney Challenge and a 2010 Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Award.

Huntly Herbs, Whitestones, Gartly, Huntly, Aberdeenshire, AB54 4SB t: 01466 720 247 e: huntlyherbs@hotmail.com

www.huntlyherbs.co.uk

Jan2011-final ad_Layout 1 07/01/2011 08:51 Page 1

To find out more about our own label service contact 01664 820111 or info@cherizena.co.uk Cherizena Coffee Beans, Wartnaby LE14 3HY

A TASTE OF OUR EXTENSIVE RANGE OF

FAIRTRADE DISTINCTIVE COFFEES

We’ve been sourcing and roasting Fairtrade coffee for 10 years Not only does our Fairtrade coffee taste great, you can be sure that you are helping to improve lives and protect the natural environment with every cup.

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January-February 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 01

The Roastery Bent Ley Industrial Estate Holmfirth, HD9 4EP

Tel: 01484 855500 email: coffee@grumpymule.co.uk

www.grumpymule.co.uk

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0191 460 9007 www.harpandlyre.co.uk

• Distributor Cotswold Fayre has taken on the Clippy’s Apples range of jams, jellies, chutneys & relishes, all of which are made using British fruit. The Cheshire-based small producer says the deal came after it redesigned its packaging in the light of advice from top retail ‘dragons’ at the Harrogate Speciality Food Show last summer. www.clippys.com

• A selection of organic convenience meals under the Lifestyle Organic brand has been launched through Pride in Food. Consumers just add water to the meals and bring them to the boil for a few minutes before serving, allowing breakfasts, main courses and

puddings to be prepared in 10 minutes or less. RRPs for the 120g stand-up pouches (450g cooked) range from £1.69 to £1.99.

01832 270196 info@prideinfood.co.uk

• Potato chip maker Tyrrells has unveiled a gourmet popcorn range. Proper Popcorn was launched initially in large sharing packs sizes but Tyrrells says smaller snack packs will be available nationwide from this month. Proper Popcorn is available in three seasonings – lightly sea salted, sweet & salty and sour cream & jalapeno chilli – and any retailer purchasing all three flavours will get a standing display unit free of charge.

01568 720244 www.tyrrellspotatochips.co.uk

• ChoccaMocca real Belgian drinking chocolate is available in two flavours: 100% real Belgian milk and 100% real Belgian dark. Packed in elegant brushed silver-look tins with a colour co-ordinated label, each contains 150g drinking chocolate. RRP is £3.50. The product is supplied with shelf-ready display cases of 10 tins and is available direct from brand owner The Original Candy Co or from Cotswold Fayre.

• Country Puddings has introduced a new range of classic steamed English puddings from its kitchen in the Lake District. They include syrup sponge pudding, which is an allbutter sponge smothered with golden syrup, and jam sponge pudding, a combination of Country Puddings’ own seedless raspberry jam and an all-butter sponge. The products are made in individual pots and packed in a single variety twin-pack.

01768 480864 info@countrypuddings.co.uk

• Founded by chocolatier Soumya Dinesh Ramanan and partner Dinesh Ramanan, Cherish aims to develop sales of its fresh, hand-crafted free-from chocolates through “select village farm shops and garden centres that retail high quality produce” as well as through its own online shop. Its dark, milk and white flavours, sold in boxes ranging in size from 150g-500g, include Minty Moments (below) – a dark chocolate with fresh mint leaves blended in a white ganache centre.

0800 612 5651 www.cherishchocolates.co.uk

Argos Bakery found a cost effective solution for the new packaging of its handmade biscuits by using designs created by NXL Design, creative design partner of film producer National Flexible. The Orkney based company wanted to change its packaging from clear film with labels to a pre-printed registered film but wanted to avoid hefty origination costs for the

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Winter warmer from Devon As part of its winter range, Rod and Ben’s has launched an organic soup loaded with lentils, local bacon and carrots, leeks, onions, celery and parsley from its award-winning farm in Devon. The organic lentil and bacon soup pots are 600g and have a RRP of £3.40. It is described as a warming and substantial soup perfect for chilly winter days.

01392 833833

www.rodandbenssoups.com

Americans go wild in London American wild rice has been given another big promotional push in a major marketing exercise by the USA Rice Federation in a campaign alongside London wholesaler Community Foods. Wild Rice is being promoted until the end of January in Community Foods’ bi-monthly catalogue, with a direct mailing of the Wild Rice brochure going to 600 top Community Foods customers and POS and leaflet distribution in the warehouse. Wild Rice is said to be growing in popularity in Britain, and is positioned as a versatile, quality ingredient with a delicate flavour.

Community Foods specialises in natural and organic grains, nuts, seeds and pulses and its customers include delis, restaurants and health food shops. www.usarice.com

www.communityfoods.co.uk

GreenCity takes on Gaudiano range GreenCity Wholefoods has begun marketing a new range of organic olives, patés and grilled vegetables produced by the Gaudiano family in the Foggia region in Southern Italy.

Various sizes of olive are available, including a selection stuffed with almonds, capers, chilli peppers, garlic and cranberry, while the patés are available in three flavours. Trade prices start at £5.95 for a case of 4 x 314g and £8.75 for 4 x 580g.

0141 554 7633 sales@greencity.co.uk

01628 520927 www.chocca-mocca.com

THE SOURCE

S U P LI E P

products, packaging & promotions

product news from Guild accredited suppliers

• Harp & Lyre says its luxury tea bags are filled with the same quality tea that goes into its loose leaf packs, including its Assam Orthodox and Darjeeling signature blends. The Assam blend has a medium to strong taste and is ideal for breakfast, while the Darjeeling delivers a light to medium taste for afternoon or evening use.

EDITE CR

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shelftalk

Looking for suppliers accredited by the Guild of Fine Food?

Follow the logo

ingredients, equipment and services for producers new style packs. In practice, NXL managed to reproduce the bakery’s artwork while keeping costs to a minimum. The end result is a quality, printed film from National Flexible for its flow wrap biscuit packs that are designed to “bring a real sense of Orkney to the product”.

01274 685566 www.nationalflexible.co.uk Vol.12 Issue 1 · January-February 2011

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classified

BAKING EQUIPMENT BOILERS BOTTLES & JARS BUSINESSES FOR SALE CL EXHIBITION EQUIPMENT FOOD PROCESSING EQUIPMENT HYGIENE PRO PACKAGING PHOTOGRAPHY RECRUITMENT REFRIGERATION SECURITY SH WANTED WEB DESIGN BAKING EQUIPMENT BOILERS BOTTLES & JARS BUS EPOS TECHNOLOGY EXHIBITION EQUIPMENT FOOD PROCESSING EQUIP • baking equipment

• bottles & jars

• ingredients

• labelling

• ingredients

• labelling

In a pickle about where to buy your food jars?

See our extensive range of bakery and food processing equipment at www.bakeryequipment.co.uk Contact us at: 0116 254 or email

2121

sales@bakeryequipment.co.uk

D T Saunders Ltd

103 London Road, Leicester LE2 0PF • baking equipment

Then look no further!

• Authorised distributors for Ardagh glass, Allied Glass and Beatson Clark • Nationwide delivery service available • Free samples available • Glass jars, Beer bottles, Food grade pails, Plastic bottles Think SPINKS for high quality glass and plastic containers.

Contact us for further information: Spinks Compak t: 0113 2350662 · e: emma.speight@spinks.co.uk www.spinkscompak.com

• food processing machinery

Do you make PIES or other sorts of pastry products?

We make incredibly versatile PIE MACHINES

Doves Farm Foods

OR EMAIL spencer@johnhuntbolton.co.uk

We mill and bake high-quality, delicious and healthful products suitable for special diets Speciality flour Baking requisites Gluten free premium pasta Delicious gluten free cookies Organic flapjacks & cereal bars Gluten free breakfast cereals

JOHN HUNT (Bolton) Ltd

Order online: www.dovesfarm.co.uk or call our sales team on 01488 684 880

VISIT www.johnhuntbolton.co.uk TO SEE OUR RANGE OF MACHINES, PLUS VIDEO CLIPS OF THE MACHINES IN OPERATION OR CALL + 44 (0) 1204 521831 / 532798 OR FAX + 44 (0) 1204 527306

Rasbottom St, Bolton, England BL3 5BZ

Print Your Own Food Labels

Fine Food Classified 2010:Layout • food processing machinery

• ingredients

• insurance

Serving chocolatiers for 40 years

Suppliers of equipment for artisan producers of fruit juices, wines, ciders and oils. Our wide range extends from extraction processes to filtration, bottling and sealing.

Confectionery and Gift Packaging � Chocolate � Ingredients �

Griottines and Framboisines � Machinery and Display Units �

Ring us on: 01628 668836 or visit us at: QuickLabel.co.uk

Tel no: 01404 892100 Fax no: 01404 890263 Email: info@vigoltd.com

www.vigoltd.com

• bottles & jars

HS HS French Flint Ltd FF Speciality Glassware for the more discerning producer.

Unit 4G, The Leathermarket, Weston Street, London SE1 3ER

Tel: 020 7407 3200 Fax: 020 7407 5877

www.FrenchFlint.com

• food processing machinery

www.keylink.org Tel: 0114 245 5400

• ingredients

Sweeten up your sales.

Advertise in Fine Food Digest.

01963 824464

• labelling

L A B E L S

L T D

Ring us on Freephone 0800 096 2720

January-February 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 1

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LOTHING COLD TRANSPORT DESIGN CONSULTANTS EPOS TECHNOLOGY ODUCTS INGREDIENTS INSURANCE LABEL SUPPLIERS LEGAL SERVICES HOPFITTING TICKETING TRAINING LEASING Call & ourDESIGN sales teamSUNDRIES on 01963 824464 today to discuss the rightVEHICLE classified heading SINESSES FOR SALE CLOTHING COLD TRANSPORT DESIGN CONSULTANTS , ingredients or services for your equipment PMENT HYGIENE PRODUCTS INGREDIENTS INSURANCE LABEL SUPPLIERS • labelling

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Heat seal machines for pots, bottles, trays and ALL types of packaging

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Low cost hand operated, semi automatic and fully automated systems Specialist suppliers to small & medium sized food companies

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Seal-it-Systems (SIS) Ltd Tel: +44(0)1254 239619 Email: info@seal-it-systems.co.uk Web: www.seal-it-systems.co.uk

To download demo’s go to www.foodhygienecd.net Or call: 01507 477589

By J. O. Training

• labelling

• packaging

• refrigeration

• ingredients

• packaging

• training

Don’t leave advertisers in the dark – tell them you saw them in

• miscellaneous

Stuart Gates Food Solutions Practical advice for speciality food producers and retailers

A unique range of plastic packaging for food Reliable leadtimes and service - sensible minimum order size Products available from stock in transparent

Visit www.innavisions.com or call us for a brochure TEL: 01886 832283 EMAIL: nick.wild@innavisions.com • ingredients

01963 824464

• refrigeration

• packaging

Do your labels lack lustre? Find something flashier in

I have 30 years experience in your market so if you think I can help please contact me on grocergates2@aol.com

digest

Tel: 07867 506495 Vol.12 Issue 1 · January-February 2011

51

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