FFD August 2012

DELI OF THE MONTH 46

‘It’s going to get a bit bouncy, so we need to be there for each other,’ says Angus Ferguson

CORNISH FOOD HALL 15 Elwyn Jones tells us why he’s climbing into bed with Waitrose

EWAN VENTERS 4

There’s no shortage of advice for the former Selfridges food boss as he’s named CEO at the mighty Fortnums August 2012 · Vol 13 Issue 7

GET IT WRAPPED Forget the summer-that-wasn’t – it’s already time to place those festive food and gift orders CHEF’S SELECTION 41 Stokes, Hillfarm Oils and Adnams’ gin are Madalene BonviniHamel’s local heroes at The British Larder

BOYD’S BABY 11 Sandy Boyd opens the doors of his latest project: the £6.5m Bodnant Welsh Food complex

NEWS CHEESEWIRE CHRISTMAS PRODUCTS SPECIALITY TEAS READY-MEALS & SOUPS SHELF TALK BRAND & PACKAGING DESIGN

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August 2012 路 Vol.13 Issue 7

What’s new this month:

Opinion

local food housed in the same building as a Waitrose is eerily close to the model I described in last month’s FFD: a shopping mall in France where a covered boulevard BOB FARRAND leading from the car park to the superstore entrance is filled with independent food retailers.

If high streets are dying, outA forlorn email from a Guild member of-town retail parks must be running a successful 137-year-old packed with proper shops run by family-owned delicatessen alerted small family businesses, otherwise me to a new ruling from the independent food retailing will European Court of Justice. disappear.

Twenty-seven judges sitting in Ask traders at Helston Farmers Luxembourg have decreed: “If an Market (set up employee falls ill by one of Jones’s during a period If the government, daughters) and of paid annual they’ll likely agree. leave, they should banks and European legislators are out to They’re sited in be entitled to a car park next rearrange that crush the little guys, to Lidl and both period of paid small businesses will parties do rather annual leave, even need to sleep with the well from the if this means that arrangement. it will be carrying enemy to survive The farmers it over to the love the footfall generated by the following leave year.” supermarket and on market days the In other words, if one of your store’s turnover increases by more assistants gets food poisoning on than 50%. holiday, they can have another Farm shops, butchers, cheese holiday in lieu – whenever it suits shops and delis mostly do local them. food better than supermarkets.

Combine this with the latest They employ trained staff who talk gem from trendy super-dad Dave about the producers and the food is Cameron, that mothers should be fresher and often cheaper because able to transfer six months paid supermarkets need fat margins to maternity leave to their partners, and pay bosses even fatter salaries and you could be forgiven for thinking keep hungry shareholders happy. my paranoia holds some substance.

And they’ll always have the odd If you do nothing else this shelf-stacker willing to step in when month, read Mick Whitworth’s one of your staff gets a dose of interview with Cornish Food Hall salmonella from a kebab in Corfu boss Elwyn Jones on page 15. If, as or takes six months off because the my fears suggest, the government, wife’s just had another baby. the banks and our European Now that’s not really going to legislators are out to crush the little work, is it? guys, small businesses will need to sleep with the enemy to survive.

Bob Farrand is publisher of Fine Food Elwyn Jones’ concept of an Digest and national director of the independent food hall selling 80% Guild of Fine Food

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EDITORIAL editorial@finefoodworld.co.uk Editor: Mick Whitworth Assistant editor: Michael Lane News editor: Patrick McGuigan Art director: Mark Windsor Editorial production: Richard Charnley Contributors: Lynda Searby, Clare Hargreaves

ADVERTISING advertise@finefoodworld.co.uk Sales manager: Sally Coley Advertisement sales: Becky Stacey, Gavin Weeks Published by Great Taste Publications Ltd and the Guild of Fine Food Ltd Chairman/FFD publisher: Bob Farrand Managing director/associate publisher: John Farrand Director/membership secretary: Linda Farrand Marketing & circulation manager: Tortie Farrand Administrators: Charlie Westcar, Julie Coates Accounts: Stephen Guppy, Denise Ballance

GENERAL ENQUIRIES Tel: 01963 824464 Fax: 01963 824651 info@finefoodworld.co.uk www.finefoodworld.co.uk Guild of Fine Food, Guild House, Station Road, Wincanton, Somerset BA9 9FE UK Fine Food Digest is published 11 times a year and is available on subscription for £43pa inclusive of post and packing.

Printed by: Advent Colour, Hants, UK © Great Taste Publications Ltd and The Guild of Fine Food Ltd 2012. 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, photographs or illustrations.

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Editor’s choice

Selected by Mick Whitworth

Granny Mary’s Potted Beef wsutherland.originalrecipes@gmail.com

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One for all you lovely farm-shop owners I reckon – if you've got a bit of free space on your chillers. This is from a new small business that's currently selling mainly on farmers' markets in the Nottingham area.

William Sutherland has taken a decidedly off-trend product – potted beef – and created a hand-produced, short shelf-life, chilled version in a far more appealing package than those long-life supermarket sandwich spreads. Yes, he’s the great-grandson of the woman whose name is attached to the supermarket potted beefs, but this product is strictly ‘no relation’.

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www.ffdonline.co.uk Vol.13 Issue 7 · August 2012

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fine food news Consultants line up with advice to keep Fortnum & Mason in profit after Aspinall’s turnaround

New boss Venters urged to ‘reinvigorate’ Fortnums

By PATRICK McGUIGAN

The new CEO of Fortnum & Mason should reinvigorate the iconic store with new food concessions and a better takeaway offering targeting local trade.

These are among the suggestions from industry consultants as Ewan Venters takes up his post as the man in charge of Fortnums this month.

Venters joined from Selfridges where, as director of food and restaurants, he raised the store’s profile with a series of headline-grabbing product launches, concessions and pop-up restaurants.

A former Sainsbury's category management specialist who also ran specialist supply operations for wholesaler Brakes, he takes over from Beverley Aspinall, who resigned in April after seven years in charge.

Both Fortnums and Selfridges are owned by the Weston family, who also control multinational grocery giant Associated British Foods Aspinall oversaw a £24m remodelling of the Piccadilly store in 2007, followed by a root-and-branch review that turned a loss of £5.9m in 2008-9 into a £1.1m profit by 2010-11.

Sales rose 8% to £54.9m in the same period.

Venters was not available for interview as FFD went to press, but industry observers told us he must now revamp the famously traditional store’s offer to maintain this progress.

“Fortnums has to move with the times or it risks becoming irrelevant,” said retail consultant Adam Van den Bussche, who previously headed Harrods’ restaurants and food hall.

“The store makes money from selling Fortnum-branded tea, biscuits, chutney and jam to tourists, but the reputation and kudos should really come from its fresh food, with cutting edge fish, meat and cheese.”

Adding more concessions would be an “easy win” for Venters, he said.

“I think he will also reduce the retail offering and increase the restaurant side. That’s where they can maintain the excitement. It’s not very densely merchandised in the non-food areas on the second and third floors, so there’s definitely space to put in more destination counters and quick turnaround dining options.”

PR consultant Andre Dang – previously a buyer for Harrods food hall – said bringing in concessions would help cut costs, but Venters’ biggest challenge will be changing customer perceptions of the store, which is seen as very British but “overly fussy” by

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August 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 7

Beverley Aspinall took Fortnums out of the red; Ewan Venters now has to maintain its 'relevance', say experts younger shoppers. “The brand can be reinvigorated through its buying by bringing a more contemporary take on British tradition and culture, but with a sense of humour and play,” he said, adding that more needs to be done to attract local customers – a point echoed

by Maureen Hinton, lead retail analyst at Verdict Research. “A lot of people work in that area. The store needs to have a greater focus on fresh food and food-togo so it becomes more of a destination for local shoppers rather than just tourists,” she said.

“The Westons do invest in their businesses and take a long-term view.

Venters won’t have the money that Beverley Aspinall had for remodelling the store, but he will get support.”

As FFD went to press, Selfridges had yet to appoint a new food chief. www.fortnumandmason.com

Ewan Venters at Selfridges l 2006 Selfridges sells the world’s most expensive sandwich (containing wagyu beef, truffles and foie gras) for £85 l 2007 The Wonder Bar opens with visitors able to buy 25ml ‘sips’ of some of the world’s most expensive wines. It has to abandon the practice soon after because the system contravenes weights and measures legislation. The law is amended in 2011. l 2008 Following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Selfridges launches the Credit Crunch chocolate bar made with honeycomb and Valrhona chocolate.

l2 009 Pierre Koffmann recreates his three-Michelin-starred restaurant La Tante Claire on the rooftop of Selfridges during the London Restaurant Festival. l2 010 Chef Mark Hix opens his restaurant, Champagne and caviar bar in the store. l2 011 Project Ocean sees a new sustainable fish sourcing policy introduced across the store’s food halls and restaurants. l2 012 Butcher’s concession Jack O’Shea is caught selling foie gras to customers asking for ‘French fillet’, contravening the store’s policy not to sell the product, and is swiftly removed from the food hall.

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comment

Big opportunities ... starting with a new carpet

Jamie Oliver opens Italian deli in Bath

By EVE REID

Fortnum & Mason has big opportunities with its layout and merchandising. It’s a difficult store to navigate; customers are walking around aimlessly.

The basement food hall is set out in such a way that your eyes are drawn away from the meat, fish and cheese counters to blank walls.

The fixtures on the first floor are too high and it needs to link product zones better. Food and drink that

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It’s a difficult store to navigate; customers are walking around aimlessly

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naturally go together should be displayed in close proximity.

Selfridges is really good at framing a different mood on each floor, but there are no real highs and lows between floors at Fortnums, apart from the tea salon on the top floor.

There just isn’t enough energy and excitement. A lot of the product packaging is lovely, mixing modern colours with traditional designs, but they don’t sit well with the old fashioned fixtures and the sombre interior design. The red carpet has to go!

There are also a small number of lines displayed in very high volumes. You could take away half the stock and have space for concessions, tastings and demonstrations.

Eve Reid is managing director of Metamorphosis Group, which specialises in merchandising, store planning and retail techniques.

Venters added sparkle to Selfridges with pop-ups and concessions

IN BRIEF l Local planners have approved a scheme to regenerate New Covent Garden Market in London. Under the proposals, new market facilities and a new centre for food and flowers will be built at the current site of the wholesale market in Nine Elms, Battersea. l Valvona & Crolla in Edinburgh was named the best Italian deli in the UK in a public vote as part of the inaugural Bertolli Spread Olive D'Oro Awards. Gusto in Cheltenham and La Parmigiana in Swnasea came second and third respectively.

The store sells Jme-branded products alongside those from other suppliers

By PATRICK McGUIGAN

He's put his name to restaurants, cookery schools and speciality food, but now Jamie Oliver is bringing his all conquering brand to fine food retailing with a chain of delicatessens.

The celebrity chef opened his first deli under the Jamie's Italian brand last month in Bath with plans to roll out the concept to further sites. The company would not reveal how many locations are planned or the timescale for the roll-out, but the Jamie's Italian restaurant business has grown rapidly since launching in 2008 with 30 restaurants now open in the UK The new Deli at Jamie's Italian in Bath is a stand-alone shop located opposite the restaurant, which sells Jme-branded and homemade products alongside those from other suppliers. Fresh pasta is made in the window of the store throughout the day, which is available to take home with freshly prepared sauces, while a cheese and charcuterie counter

offers Continental and locally sourced products. A small eat-in area serves coffee, freshly baked pastries, cakes and sandwiches, which are also available to take away.

Iain Keith-Smith, who owns the Chandos deli chain, with seven shops in the South West including Bath, said that he could see the new brand working on a national scale. “The hard part as you grow is maintaining standards over a huge estate, but if anyone can make it work it's Jamie Oliver,” he said. “I can see the deli concept working well with the restaurants, which already have a national presence.”

He added that he did not see the deli as competition to his own store.

“It's not what other companies do that affect your business, but what you do in-store that makes the difference,” he said. “It's good for the city as a whole to have quality food retailers and restaurants.” www.jamieoliver.com/italian

Britain’s Top 50 Foods unveiled as Great Taste 2012 nears climax The Top 50 Foods in Britain were revealed as FFD went to press, after the final judging of the 2012 Great Taste Awards at London's Royal Garden Hotel.

They include Capra Nouveau, a Vacherin-style goats’ milk cheese from Shropshire artisan producer Brockhall Farm, and a pear juice pressed and bottled at Worcestershire’s Pershore Horticultural College.

Last year’s supreme champion, McCartney’s of Moira, saw both its now-famous corned beef and a new corned pork make the cut, as did J. Lawrie & Sons, whose Jaffy’s Mallaig kippers won best Scottish speciality last year.

Each of the top 50 products – chosen from the 123 entries awarded a coveted three-star gold earlier this year – is now in contention for the Golden Fork awards to be held in London in September and the title of

Great Taste Supreme Champion.

This year a record 8,807 products were entered into the Great Taste scheme run by the Guild of Fine Food. More than 300 judges took part this year, including Masterchef winner and restaurateur Mat Follas, restaurant critic Charles Campion, food writers Lucas Hollweg and Xanthe Clay and over 300 food buyers from leading food halls, delicatessens and farm shops.

• To read the full Top 50, see FFD next month or visit the Great Taste Awards website. www.greattasteawards.co.uk/top50

l Cornish producer Deli Farm Charcuterie has hired a general manager to oversee the daily running of the firm as well as driving sales. Founder Jean Edwards moved to appoint Marc Dennis, who has 13 years’ experience in the meat industry, because she wants to concentrate on new product development and market research. l A Yorkshire businessman has started importing and supplying premium Spanish food and drink to delis across the county. Grey’s Fine Foods, a retail and wholesale operation set up by Spanish-born Javier De La Hormaza, will offer more than 100 products including milk-fed lamb, acorn-fed Ibérico ham, marron glacé and 100-year-old Peinado Reserva brandy.

l Fanny's Farm Shop in Merstham, Surrey, has been granted a licence to hold weddings. The retailer plans to host ceremonies in its intimate Treehouse function room with receptions held in the farm shop restaurant. l M&S came top in YouGov’s latest BrandIndex ranking of supermarket brands followed

by Sainsbury's and Waitrose in second and third respectively. The consumer poll ranks retailers on six criteria: quality, value, customer satisfaction, corporate reputation, general impression, and whether shoppers would recommend it.

Tesco fell from fifth to seventh place. l Pupils from the Nicholson Institute on the Isle of Lewis have won Stag Bakeries’ Schools Partnership Challenge, with a recipe for white chocolate & apple cake. The cake has now gone into production and is available for retailers to order.

For regular news updates from FFD visit:

www.ffdonline.co.uk Vol.13 Issue 7 · August 2012

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fine food news Whole Foods’ UK turnover rises – but so do its losses

By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Sales increased at Whole Foods Market’s UK business last year, but the retailer saw losses widen as it invested in new stores.

In the year to September 25, 2011, the retailer made a £4.4m loss, compared to a £3.1m loss the year before, despite sales increasing 9.3% to £50.6m. There are currently six Whole Foods stores in the UK after a new outlet was opened in Glasgow last November and the Soho branch was relocated to bigger premises in May of this year. Another outlet is due to open in Cheltenham and two in London in 2012/13.

“Though sales were up during the fiscal year, it was not enough to pull Whole Foods out of the red as the retailer continues to pour money into new store construction,” said Katie Mathis, retail analyst at Planet Retail. “In the short term, the new

stores opened in the 2012 fiscal year and those planned for 2013 will likely result in a loss. In the long term, Whole Foods expansion throughout the UK should prove profitable as it becomes

of the year. Like-for-like sales in community-owned shops grew by 9.4% last year and average profit was up 29%, at a time when sales at supermarkets, including Tesco, have stalled.

Out of the 286 community shops that have opened, only 13 have closed – a 95% survival rate.

The Plunkett Foundation said this compares extremely positively with other small businesses nationally, which are estimated to

an established part of the retail landscape and consumers begin to feel more confident, or at least more comfortable, with the state of the economy.” www.wholefoodsmarket.com

have a five-year survival rate of 46.8%.

“Community-owned shops succeed where commercial ventures have failed because they engage with the whole community, said chief executive Peter Couchman. “When the owners are the customers, the business can directly respond to consumers’ needs in a way that larger retailers just aren’t able to. They can stock food produced by local farmers or offer other services like cafés, meeting places or delivery services.” www.plunkett.co.uk

If I'd known then what I know now...

bought-in sandwich fillings – everything you eat in the shop is available to buy as a retail product and it's really good quality. If you want cheap wafer-thin ham go to Neil Tofield Field and Forrest, Lindfield, West Sussex the Co-op down the road. We serve and sell Dukeshill, which might cost more but has a truly amazing flavour.

It's been a similar learning curve wasn’t the way I wanted to go.

The main thing I’ve learned about with deciding which products to sell.

But from day one people asked running a small shop in a village Just stocking what you for coffee, so I is that you have to be responsive like doesn’t necessarily bought a coffee and flexible. If something’s not If something’s not translate into what machine. Then they working, change it. If a product isn’t working, change it. customers want. I’ve would say how selling, get it off the shelves and get had to change the lovely it would be something else in.

If a product isn’t product range as to have somewhere selling, get it off We opened last June after gone along to to sit, so by moving completely refurbishing what was the shelves and get we've suit what people in the all the prep area previously an art shop, with a new something else in. village really want. At downstairs I kitchen in the basement and fitting first I was concerned managed to squeeze out the ground floor shop. In the about stepping on other people’s in 12 covers without losing any retail beginning I had no intention of toes in the village. I originally didn’t space. having a café. I wanted it to be a deli. stock ham at all because the local We’ve stuck to our original Some people call themselves delis butcher sells it, but I had so many principles, but just adapted them when in fact they are just glorified people coming in asking me for it a bit. For example, we don't use sandwich bars. I was conscious that

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August 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 7

l Selfridges has decided to stop selling the high-yielding Elsanta variety of strawberries. The store said it would only stock the Jubilee variety because Elsanta, which it stocked last year, was less flavoursome than loweryielding varieties. “As far as we are concerned the Jubilee is the besttasting berry on the market,” said fresh food buyer Andrew Cavanna. l Expowest Exhibitions, which organises trade shows for the tourism, catering and hospitality sector in the South West, has been acquired by Somerset-based Hale Events. Events organised by Expowest include The Source at Westpoint in partnership with Taste of the West.

Community shops seeing more sales growth than supermarkets More than 100 new communityowned village shops have opened in the past five years with average sales growth across the sector significantly outstripping the supermarkets.

According to a new report from the Plunkett Foundation, which assists in setting up co-operatives, there are now 273 communityowned village shops in the UK, up from 162 in 2007. A further 20 are expected to open by the end

IN BRIEF

l Eateries that mix elements of traditional restaurants with fast food businesses are growing market share rapidly in the foodservice sector, according to a new report. So called ‘fast-casual’ restaurants such as Nando’s, where customers pay for their meals when ordered, are out-performing fast food restaurants, said analysts NPD Group. l When the Olympic relay passed through Lyme Regis last month, everyone was able to get their hands on the torch thanks to the Town Mill Cheesemonger. The retailer sold Mendip Moments ice cream in edible 24-carat gold cones similar in shape to the torches.

For regular news updates from FFD visit:

www.ffdonline.co.uk that I eventually gave in. There is some crossover with the butcher, but that's just healthy competition. I’ve learned that there’s no point getting too worked up about it.

I’ve got a full-time manager at the shop now, which allows me to focus on other projects. My background is in investment banking and I’m currently doing some project work for an old contact. Not being tied to the shop means I can also look into opening a second outlet.

The plan is to open another shop in one of the surrounding towns with a bigger café element.

I always wanted to start small and remain debt-free, so that we had room to manoeuvre. A year after opening we don’t owe anyone anything and the shop pays for itself.

There aren’t many small businesses that can say that.

Interview by PATRICK McGUIGAN

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fine food news Deli of the Year finalists named

GOLDEN ERA: Cold pressed rapeseed oil producer Farrington’s has completed a six-month, £200,000 investment programme at its farm in Hargrave, Northamptonshire. The company, which has a turnover of over £1m, has upgraded all areas of the business including seed storage, pressing facilities and the bottling line.

Ultracomida in Aberystwyth (pictured), The Scottish Deli in Dunkeld and Arcadia Deli in Belfast are among the 10 regional winners in Olives Et Al’s 2012 Deli of the Year competition.

Other regional winners are Bloomfields Fine Foods, near Swindon (South West region), Haley & Clifford, Leeds (North East), Delifonseca Dockside, Liverpool (North West), Truffles, Ross on Wye (West Midlands), The Alberts Deli, Richmond on Thames (London), The Butcher’s Hall & Country Grocer, Forest Green (South East) and Delilah, Nottingham (East Midlands).

Over 300 delis were nominated, with more than 12,000 shoppers voting for their favourite store.

All 10 delis will now be visited

by judges before the 2012 national champion is announced at the Great Taste Awards dinner in London on September 3.

The Deli of the Year scheme is supported by the Guild of Fine Food.

This year will also see producers Godminster, Tracklements, Fudges, Laverstoke Park, Luscombe, Choc-onChoc and Capreolus sending boxes of products to each regional winner. www.delioftheyear.co.uk

Charlie Turnbull: ‘Delis need to justify their premium prices’

By MICK WHITWORTH

If delis and farm shops expect to sell at a premium to the multiples they need to constantly justify their higher prices, according to Dorset deli owner Charlie Turnbull.

“We like to think we’re in a premium business,” said Turnbull.

“That’s shorthand for strong margins, and it’s the reason we operate at 3545% [gross margin].

“But we cannot just tell our customers we’re more expensive. We have to be able to demonstrate why it’s worth a premium.”

Speaking at the Better Retailing course in Harrogate in June, Turnbull – a former accountant – told an

audience of independent store owners and managers: “We’re in a really lovely business – quality food – and sometimes it’s easy to take it for granted. Don’t: you need to quantify and justify your premium all the time.”

Quality and, in the case of cheese, condition are the key points of difference, Turnbull said.

“I buy the same brie as Waitrose – Rouzaire – but it tastes better every day because I look after it every day.

If shoppers want brie to be right tonight, they go to Turnbulls.”

But higher margins could also be justified through the ambience of the store, through added-value services

Letter from Farrington's I’m constantly on the lookout for new and innovative products. These are what maintain our shop’s real point of difference to the multiples.

Yes, we do make lots of our own products, but giving breadth of range and variety to our customers is crucial.

I visit all the usual trade shows, both locally and further afield, and I either seem to find the same things at show after show or come away feeling that the small artisan producer has been priced out of attendance.

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Quality and condition are key points of difference, says Turnbull

such as gift-wrapping and cutting to order, and by passing on knowledge about provenance.

independents complain.

One brand of children’s healthy fruit drink did this earlier on in the year. We can now buy a 12-pack from Tesco cheaper than we can get it from the distributor. Are we just supposed to grin and bear it?

I feel really used as a buyer. spud machine that knocks out You get producers in and see them 300 artery-blocking grease balls grow, only to find that loyalty to the every minute. independents is easily discarded.

We seem to be caught in a loop.

I went to Frome Street Market We find a good supplier ticking the last Sunday and to boxes of provenance, my surprise it was quality and We seem to be heaving with over difference. But then, caught in a loop.

150 stalls doing a surprise surprise, We find a good great trade. Given without warning supplier, ticking the some of the really or consultation, we see their boxes, but without novel and exciting producers there, my products sat on the warning we see basket was full of supermarket shelf. potential.

These producers sell their products sat on the supermarket However, even their souls and then with a flow of new shelf. wonder why the Independents and artisan producers alike should hold firm against the multiples says PAUL CASTLE

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“If you can name three reasons why your products are better, start putting those reasons on your labelling and train your staff to communicate them.

“We are fattening the price by having a narrative about the products. The quality may be there, but we have to be able to express it.”

Better Retailing was organised by the Guild of Fine Food alongside the Harrogate Speciality Food Show.

Aimed at helping existing retailers improve their business performance, it is a sister course to the Guild’s Retail Ready course for new start-ups.

producers to replace them, those who sell out present us with a problem. Customers perceive us as more expensive than the Big Four, which only damages the independent sector further.

“When a product hits the shelves of the supermarket, it comes off ours.” If the independents like us don’t maintain this stance, we will never break this horrible cycle of events.

I know of several farm-based producers who would rather swim in their slurry tank for a week than sell to a multiple. For that I applaud them, and they will be the first to say they have a better, stronger business because of it.

Paul Castle is business manager at the award-winning Farrington’s Farm Shop near Bristol and provides consultancy services to other farm retailers. Email: paul@farringtons.co.uk

Vol.13 Issue 7 · August 2012

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August 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 7

fine food news new openings

Opening or expanding a shop? Email details to editorial@finefoodworld.co.uk

Bodnant’s £6.5m centre showcases Welsh food

what’s in store l More than 70% of the produce will come from Wales. More than 60 employees, 95% from the local area, have been recruited.

l The centre houses a 70-seater restaurant and 100-seater tearoom. The executive chef is Peter Jackson, chairman of The Welsh National Culinary Team.

l The dairy is headed by Aled Rowlands, who is making a Cheshire-style cheese called Aberwen that was made in the Conwy valley for over 300 years. An orange version called Abergoch, coloured with carrot juice, is also in production.

l Suppliers include Halen Môn sea

The centre, masterminded by Sandy Boyd (inset right), features a farm shop, restaurant, café, dairy and bakery

By PATRICK McGUIGAN

The MD of Bodnant Welsh Food hopes the food centre will act as a platform for improving standards and showcasing the principality’s food to a larger audience.

Last month, Sandy Boyd welcomed Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall to the official opening of the £6.5m centre, which is housed in several 18th century farm buildings on the Bodnant Estate in North Wales.

Boyd, who previously set up

Revills

Defford, Worcestershire Revills has extended its premises to accommodate more people on its increasingly popular asparagus tours.

With the addition of a refurbished old barn the farm shop can also expand its range and improve customers’ shopping experience. “We intend to look at fresh meats and to increase the deli range, as we are surrounded by good local producers,” said

food centres at Chatsworth and Ludlow, told FFD: “Wales has rightly been hailed for its primary produce, but its packaged, processed food is starting to catch up.”

“Thanks to initiatives such as the True Taste awards, standards have really improved and we hope to be part of that. We want to showcase Welsh food and drink, but also be a place where small producers can come and see what the competition is doing, pick up ideas and improve quality.”

The 6,000 sq ft centre, which includes a restaurant, café, farm shop, dairy, bakery and cookery school, was developed with funding from the Welsh Government and the European Regional Development Fund as well as investment from the estate's owners Michael and Caroline McLaren.

It is also home to the new National Beekeeping Centre for Wales.

Boyd said he was still keen to hear from small producers,

manager Darren Hedges. “We also have plans to build a new kitchen for the tearoom and new toilets over the next few years.” www.revillsfarmshop.co.uk

Earsham Street Deli Bungay, Suffolk

The Bungay-based deli has taken over the running of the farm shop at the Chilli Company in nearby Mendlesham. Now called the Deli at the Chilli Farm, the new shop specialises in locally sourced and homemade food, while the Chilli Company's owners have opened a separate shop dedicated to their own chilli and smoked products.

“Previously, I think people were a little confused by the product range but by separating the two elements, it's much clearer,” said Earsham Street Deli owner Michelle Barker. “With the shop already set up and a café

upstairs, this was a great opportunity for us to expand.” www.chillicompany.com

salt, Adesso marinades, Welsh Speciality Foods jellies, Pant Glas Bach preserves, Seren Foods spicy jellies and Kokonoir Handmade Chocolates. Meat comes from the estate or nearby farms, including Welsh Black beef air aged for 21 days and salt marsh lamb.

particularly Welsh suppliers. “We've got more bara brith than we know what to do with, but we're still looking for other packaged products such as ready-meals and crackers,” he said.

“We plan to produce a lot of the food that we sell on site in the dairy, bakery and in the restaurant kitchens. In the longer term we will be looking to wholesale these products to retailers in other regions and London.” www.bodnant-welshfood.co.uk

producers, and make sure to taste everything before listing. “Our emphasis is really on quality and we do not want to compromise on this,“ said Jo. Husband Nick added: “We didn't want to be like the farm shops in the area focusing completely on local, so we tend to stock what we think tastes really good.”

The range includes cheese from Italian specialist Vallebona, smoked salmon from Inverawe and preserves from local supplier Ouse Valley. www.facebook.com/ DelicatusFineFoods/infok

Delicatus Fine Foods Wadhurst, East Sussex

Nick and Jo Savy, who recently moved back from the Seychelles to open Delicatus Fine Foods, are taking an eclectic approach to product sourcing. They carry products from local, British and international Vol.13 Issue 7 · August 2012

11

fine food news Cheese stands steal the show at Harrogate

After being pipped to the post last year, distributor Cheese Cellar (top left) collected the Tiptree-sponsored Best Stand award at the Harrogate Speciality Food Show, held at the end of June.

In a reversal of last year’s result, determined by visitor votes, Michael Lee Fine Cheeses took second place.

Visitors were also entered into a prize draw for a hamper of Tiptree goods, which was won by The Cheese Deli in Keswick.

Meanwhile, first-time exhibitor Jumi (top right) – a specialist Swiss cheese importer – was chosen by retail legend Tony Howard as his pick of the exhibitors.

Both these accolades are all the more impressive given the record number of exhibitors at this year’s show – in excess of 150.

Visitor numbers also hit new levels with well over 1,000 retailers and caterers passing through the show over the course of two days.

Highlights of the show included two Dragon’s Den style ‘Feed The Dragon’ sessions, where exhibitors pitched their products to buyers from stores including Harrods, Booths, Fodder and Lewis & Cooper. www.finefoodworld.co.uk

James sticks with supermarkets despite de-listing by Asda

By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Alex James (pictured right) has hit back at reports that Asda has delisted most of his controversial flavoured cheese range less than a year after it was launched.

A spokeswoman for the popstar-turned-cheesemaker told FFD that although Asda had delisted six of the Alex James Presents range, as widely reported last month, it had also increased distribution of the remaining three products (Best Ever cheddar, spring onion and sweet chilli) from 150 stores to 300.

She also said that honing the initial range to a handful of bestselling lines had always been part

of the strategy. The original range, including products such as cheddar & ketchup slices, cheddar tikka masala and Spudsworth melting cubes, came in for widespread criticism from food bloggers and journalists when it was launched last year.

The spokeswoman admitted

some products in the range had been given deliberately provocative names to “rile certain food snobs” and generate publicity.

“Getting a debate going, creating some noise was really our only weapon as we had no money to advertise or promote in any other way,” she said. “Why would anybody write about a supermarket brand otherwise, especially the broadsheets? We managed to generate millions in PR.” James is currently developing a range of Continental cheeses to be sold in supermarkets and will launch a new Guernsey cows’ milk cheese called Goddess in September.

Online package cuts cost of handling staff contracts Employment consultancy HR4UK has launched a system for managing staff contracts and handbooks that will save businesses time and cut paperwork.

The firm’s Employment Handbook is an online contract and handbook storage system, which automatically updates employees’ contracts whenever the law changes.

Rather than re-issuing staff with

12

August 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 7

documents, employees can just log into the system and download the revised versions from a dedicated website.

The system is available as part of a basic package free to Guild of Fine Food members. For others, system set-up costs range between £175 and £875, while subscriptions start at £40 per month depending on the number of employees and other services used. Subscriptions run on

a month-by-month basis and can be stopped at any time without a cancellation fee.

HR4UK managing director Peter Abraham said failing to issue contracts was illegal, and likened it to driving without a licence: you can get away with it until something goes wrong. “People think it’s optional to have contracts. It isn’t: the law says you must.” www.hr4uk.com

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August 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 7

fine food news Interview

Truro’s Cornish Food Hall will share space with Waitrose. Some might call it consorting with the enemy, but founder Elwyn Jones tells MICK WHITWORTH he hopes to offer a new model for local food retailing.

If you can’t beat ’em…

The Cornish Food Hall l Set to open early in 2014 l 5,000 sq ft retail space, plus prep and storage

l Café and demo kitchen on mezzanine level

l 80% of products sourced from Cornwall

l Open 8am-8pm to match the adjoining 25,000 sq ft Waitrose

I

t’s three months since local government secretary Eric Pickles gave the green light to plans for a controversial greenfield development on the edge of Cornwall’s main city.

The £40m Truro Eastern District Centre (TEDC) will see a swathe of farmland disappear under a 1,300-space park-and-ride and nearly 100 new homes. But it will also include one unique feature: a 5,000 sq ft local food hall and 25,000 sq ft Waitrose under one roof.

Some 80% of products in the Cornish Food Hall will be from the county, and its operators expect to easily beat their big neighbour pricewise on local meat and fresh produce, thanks to a shorter supply chain and less need for packaging. Waitrose, meanwhile, will lead the way on mainstream groceries and non-foods and says it will avoid competing on local specialities.

Now, the food hall’s operators are looking to recruit a big-hitter to develop and run the store. You could count the obvious candidates on the fingers of two hands. But whoever takes the job will need both experience and a thick hide.

The TEDC is a partnership between Cornwall Council, the Duchy of Cornwall (which owns the land), Waitrose and The Taste of Cornwall, a company set up to specifically to develop the local food hall concept.

The plans attracted vehement local opposition, with antis arguing the edge-of-town development will damage city centre trade and threaten its twice-weekly farmers’ market.

But according to The Taste of Cornwall’s chairman, Elwyn Jones, the

Elwyn Jones says planning policy should be changed to require out-of-town superstore sites to incorporate a local food element

food hall could generate up to £8m in new sales for Cornish producers, putting their products where more consumers will see them and offering an alternative route to market for farmers fed up with the brutal buying tactics of the multiples.

He sums up his argument like this: “Around 97% of all food sold now is sold by major retailers or online.

Farmers’ markets and local food shops only have 3% of the market. So our target is the 97% of people who buy everything from a one-stop, onetrolley supermarket.”

Jones also disputes the new store will take money out of the town. “I’m convinced the locals who shop at Truro Farmers’ Market will continue to shop there.”

When FFD met with Jones he had just returned from a round of store visits, picking the brains of established

food hall managers including André Birkett at Chatsworth Farm Shop and Heather Parry at Fodder in Harrogate.

Now he’s looking for “a mix of André and Heather” to take the Cornish Food Hall project forward. “We need someone who’s done this before,” he told FFD. What he doesn’t want is a formuladriven supermarket manager. Which is interesting, because not only will the Cornish Food Hall be sharing space with Waitrose behind the centre’s rather un-Cornish neo-classical entrance, but it is being partly funded by the supermarket.

The food hall – which will be looser in format than the Waitrose store, with a circular fresh food counter and no straight aisles – is expected to cost around £2m to fit out. Waitrose is initially footing around half of this, as well as offering unlimited advice and support, to ensure the whole site meets its usual standards.

That leaves Jones and his seven co-directors to find £1m, and they are awaiting the outcome of a grant application this month with some concern – although Jones says he deliberately chose board members with deep pockets, just in case. Five are large-scale farmers or producers, including Launceston specialist butcher Philip Warren (who will lead the food hall’s butchery section) and the Hon Evelyn Boscawen of Tregothnan Estate, which has numerous tenant farmers.

Jones made his money in computer stationery, but comes from a dairy farming family. He conceived the shared-site retailing idea a decade ago, after discovering how much

food was being channeled through a handful of multiples. “That means there’s very little left for town centre shops, so I thought: the obvious place for a specialist shop is right next to a supermarket.” He approached Waitrose, as “the people who support local producers”.

It has taken years to find a site but it seems the Truro option ticked boxes for everyone, with the council needing land for a second park-andride, and Waitrose better placed to get planning for a new store if it incorporated a local food element.

Waitrose won’t say if it is looking for similar tie-ups elsewhere to help it secure out-of-town sites, but it seems likely. In a statement, development surveyor John Banham told FFD: "We're pleased to be involved in an innovative scheme which provides local producers with an additional platform to sell their produce, where they can benefit from the footfall of a larger food store.”

Jones is more direct, saying he’d like to see such schemes supported by national planning policy – not least because supermarkets are now the only businesses with the cash reserves to buy out-of-town sites. “So if Waitrose wanted to develop a store in [FFD’s base] Wincanton, the council could say, ‘Okay, but we’ll have 30% of the floorspace for local food, so go and form a partnership with your local food group’.”

He adds: “I know there are sceptics, but I’d like to believe that if this works and we can dramatically increase the amount of local food that’s sold, other people will think, ‘This is a really good model’.”

Vol.13 Issue 7 · August 2012

15

AOC, the sign of special products...

A traditional cheese

The cheese of western Switzerland, with a delicate, distinguished flavour.

Made since at least 1115 AD in and around the small town of Gruyères, today it is still produced by village cheese dairies in western Switzerland according to the traditional recipe.

Le Gruyère AOC owes its characteristic delicacy and flavour to the top quality raw milk produced by cows fed on grass in the summer and hay in winter, coupled with the skill of the mastercheesemakers.

No less than 400 litres of fresh milk are needed to produce a single wheel weighing around 35kg.

During the slow maturation process, which takes several months in special cheese cellars, the wheels are turned regularly and rubbed down with saltywater. The maturing process lasts between five and 18 months.

Each cheese is systematically identified by the number of the mould and code of the cheese dairy. The day and month of production are also noted on the wheel. These black markings are made with casein, the cheese protein. No artificial additives are involved here either.

Le Gruyère AOC takes pride of place on any cheese platter. It makes for a delicious desert and can be used in tasty warm dishes. What’s more, no real fondue would be complete without genuine Gruyère AOC.

From this time on, the name ‘Gruyère AOC’ and the code of the production facility appears on the heel of each wheel of Gruyère AOC as an effective way of preventing fakes and guaranteeing authenticity.

This technique employs branding irons, which give an indentation in the wheel. It is this marking that makes it possible to identify and trace each individual cheese.

The humidity and rind washing process develops the characteristic appearance of the cheese and assists in bringing the cheese into full maturity.

This is what gives Le Gruyère AOC its famous, distinct flavour. It’s no great surprise that this authentic gift of nature is appreciated by cheeselovers throughout the world.

www.gruyere.com ruyere.com Cheeses from Switzerland.

Switzerland. Naturally.

16 August 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 7

www.switzerland-cheese.com

cheesewire Le Grand Fromage

ALL CHANGE: Shepherds Purse has embarked on a full rebrand and packaging redesign as founder Judy Bell moves to the position of chairman and daughters Katie Matten and Caroline Bell take over the running of the business. The Yorkshire cheese-maker's newly launched Harrogate Blue, which was named best new dairy product in the Cheese & Dairy Awards at last month's Great Yorkshire Show, is the first product to carry the new branding, created by Leeds-based Robot Food. The move coincides with Judy Bell's daughters taking over the day-today management of the business. Katie Matten has been making cheese for 15 years, while Caroline Bell returns to Shepherds Purse after five years at Apple.

Bob Farrand

I

n the past, I’ve handed out stick to supermarkets for adding their name to nationally branded cheese. You know what I mean – Waitrose’s Davidstowe mature or Tesco’s Finest farmhouse cheddar, but in tiny print at the foot of the label they tell you which farm actually made it.

I’ve dished out criticism to retail classes in cheese competitions that allow supermarkets to enter ‘their’ cheeses. Supermarkets don’t make cheese. Last year, I declined to judge at one show because the organiser refused entry to a cheese sold under the name of an independent deli because “these classes are reserved for supermarkets”.

I must now eat a slice of humble cheese pie. Supermarket cheeses are different. Ford Farm Cave Aged farmhouse cheddar won Supreme at last year’s Nantwich Show. This year, Asda entered their ‘Extra Special’ Ford Farm Cave Aged farmhouse cheddar into Great Taste. We don’t encourage entries from supermarkets but allow it if the maker is named on the packaging.

I used a spare wedge on a recent cheese training day and

I must now eat a ❛slice of humble pie.

Supermarket cheeses are different.

❜

was stunned. It was sweet – very much in the modern style and not a traditional farmhouse cheddar – delivering that wonderfully complex flavour finishing with a touch of acidity at the back of the throat.

I decided to investigate and bought several supermarketbranded cheddars along with examples exclusively branded by the same producers. The variation between what appeared to be the same cheese was enormous.

Each supermarket version clearly does reflect widely differing taste preferences from each buying team. This has screwed me up!

Supermarkets should describe on every pack of nationally branded cheese if the flavour profile is unique to them. Because if I buy a wedge emblazoned with the name of the cheese that won Nantwich, I want to know it’s the same flavour as the one the judges awarded Supreme.

FFD publisher Bob Farrand is chairman of the UK Cheese Guild

news & views from the cheese counter

www.shepherdspurse.co.uk www.robotfood.co.uk l For more brand & packaging redesigns turn to p45

Comté to build on UK sales growth after TV chef boost

By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Sales of Comté in the UK grew by over a quarter between 2009 and 2011 with the trend expected to continue this year after being featured on TV by celebrity chefs.

According to figures from the Comité Interprofessionnel du Gruyère de Comté (CIGC), nearly 195 tonnes of the unpasteurised mountain cheese was exported to the UK last year, up 26% on 2009 and representing a 15% rise on 2010.

The CIGC invested €200,000 promoting Comté in the UK during that period and has recently pledged to invest a similar amount over the next two years after renewing its contract with UK ad agency MBA. Sales in 2012 are expected to reach new heights after Heston Blumenthal featured Comté in an episode devoted to cheese as part of the How to Cook Like Heston series, while Raymond Blanc dedicated an hour-long show to Comté in his The Very Hungry Frenchman series.

Waitrose said its sales of Comté rose by 189% in the week after the

Almost 195 tonnes of Comté was exported to the UK in 2011

Blumenthal show was aired.

The Comté marketing campaign plans to build on the TV exposure through social media, including Twitter and Facebook, and by attending consumer food shows and festivals where tastings are a key focus.

“We’ve broadened our approach and are now going directly

into the consumer world through foodie events. Moving forward we want to increase awareness among the UK public in general,” said a spokesperson.

The CIGC is made up of 3,000 farmers, 160 dairies and 16 affineurs producing more than 50,000 tonnes of Comté each year. www.comtecheese.co.uk

County Down goat farm goes soft

By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Growing interest in speciality cheeses in Northern Ireland has prompted a County Down-based goat farm to diversify into cheese-making.

Leggygowan Farm has launched a soft blue and a soft white, both of which are made with pasteurised milk from a herd of almost 100 goats at its 20-acre small holding.

“We’ve found that there’s demand for distinctively Irish farmhouse cheese,” said Adam Kelly, one of three brothers who runs the family business. “Currently we are

Leggygowan's soft blue and white

using a rented facility which we access on a limited basis for our cheese making. Our own production facility

at the farm is under construction so our plan is to be in full production at the farm for next year's milking cycle starting in February. The remainder of this year will be spent getting our samples and brand awareness out there.”

The plan is to build up sales locally before looking into exports to the mainland and the Republic of Ireland next year, he added. “We are speaking to food supply companies to establish the best method for distribution.” www.leggygowanfarm.co.uk

Vol.13 Issue 7 · August 2012

17

WORLD CHEESE AWARDS CHAMPION 2010 Supreme Champion Bath & West 2010

When it comes to exceptional cheddar, the old ways are still the best.

Our award-winning, traditional truckles are wrapped in muslin and allowed to breathe as they slowly mature, resulting in a creamy complex flavour with a long finish.

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August 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 7

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cheesewire

news & views from the cheese counter

Under the microscope University of Nottingham professor and food safety expert Christine Dodd is among the speakers at The Science of Artisan Cheese.

Artisan makers often rely more on instinct than science but a conference organised

by Neal’s Yard and the SCA aims to change that. PATRICK McGUIGAN reports.

Y

ou might think we have discovered all there is to know about a food that pre-dates recorded history, but there is still a lot of that we don't fully understand about cheese.

While large creameries have technical teams dedicated to understanding the science behind industrial cheese-making, artisan producers often rely on instinct, experience and methods handed down over generations. Some farmhouse cheese-makers even view the science behind what is going on in their vats and maturing rooms with suspicion.

It's a situation that a new conference organised by the Specialist Cheesemaker's Association (SCA) and Neal's Yard Dairy aims to address.

Taking place from the August 28-29 in Somerset, The Science of Artisan Cheese aims to create discussion between scientists and cheese-makers.

“It’s often said that cheesemaking is a combination of art and science, but many people – cheesemakers and non-cheese-makers

Bronwen Percival says cheesemaking is ‘ripe for collaboration’

alike - often express ambivalence about the role of science,” says Brownen Percival, a buyer at Neal's Yard Dairy, who is helping to organise the conference. “For many, ‘using science’ is analogous to ‘becoming industrial’. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. All good cheese-makers are in control. The role of science in farmhouse cheesemaking is to help us understand where the control lies so we can work with our raw materials to produce the most expressive, unique, and amazing cheese possible.”

Speakers at the conference include Harold McGee, author of the influential food science book McGee on Food and Cooking, and scientists from Harvard University, the Vermont Institute of Artisan Cheese, the University of Toulouse and the University of Guelph, plus the French technical institute Actilait and the French Institute for Agricultural Research.

“Within the past decade, collaborations between scientists and chefs, baristas, mixologists and others within the food industry have led to fantastic progress in those fields,” says Percival. “Cheese-making, which combines an incredibly complex natural product (milk) with complex production methods, is far from completely understood. This is a field which is ripe for collaboration.”

Percival says the impacts of acidification and drainage are among the technical challenges facing artisan makers.

“There also needs to be better understanding of what makes ‘good milk’ for raw milk cheesemaking, not only in term of safety, but also from a flavour perspective,” she adds.

“There is a lot of boring raw milk out there and yet the inherent quality and flavour potential of the milk is the single most important factor that will impact the quality of the cheese.”

As well as connecting scientists with cheese-makers, the conference also aims to involve public health officials, with EHOs, FSA representatives and supermarket quality assurance managers all invited. Food safety expert Professor Christine Dodd of the University of Nottingham will also be speaking at the conference.

“Only if the information is shared openly across the industry - and given the opportunity to be challenged by everyone with a stake in making, certifying, or selling cheese - can it ultimately be implemented successfully,” says Percival.

Registration for the conference, which includes attendance at all sessions and meals, is £350 plus VAT. For more information email bronwen@nealsyarddairy.co.uk. www.nealsyarddairy.co.uk www.specialistcheesemakers.co.uk

Dewlay opens on-site shop Lancashire cheese producer Dewlay is tapping into the growing market for food tourism after opening a shop at its creamery.

The company, which produces PDO-protected Beacon Fell Traditional Lancashire Cheese and Garstang Blue, has already welcomed coach tours, social groups and schools to the shop.

“While we are cheese-makers first and foremost, we realised that offering a customer experience was a way of promoting our brand in

the market place,” said technical manager Laura Barnes. “The dairy already had a viewing gallery to see the cheese-making process and we found this was proving more and more popular.”

The shop sells the full range of Dewlay's cheeses plus accompaniments such as chutneys, cheese knives and boards.

Pre-booked guided tours are proving popular with visitors including schools and WI and farming groups www.dewlay.com

Vol.13 Issue 7 · August 2012

19

Innovation is our tradition …

Slicing machines from Bizerba are always a decisive step ahead of their time.

They set world-wide standards when it comes to hygiene, safety, energy and performance.

At the same time, they define an optimum level that is continuously surpassed to achieve our next developments.

So every new slicer generation is the sum of perfectly matched future-oriented details. This includes innovative ways of handling materials as well as manufacturing precision, ease of use and the systematic reduction in the number of joints.

As we are never satisfied with the results, we are continuously looking for solutions that will make your daily work easier.

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For details call 01963 32286 email: info@keenscheddar.co.uk www.keenscheddar.co.uk 20

August 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 7

JOIN US for the most glittering evening in the fine food calendar as we discover the foods that struck GOLD at GREAT TASTE 2012 Don’t miss the Great Taste Golden Fork Awards Monday September 3 2012 – Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington, London

J

oin us in the company of leading chefs, food writers, top retailers and the very best food producers for fine food’s biggest night of the year.

Tension will mount as you watch the judging unfold on the big screen, until the moment when members of the supreme jury make their final choice for Great Taste Supreme Champion 2012.

Two golden opportunities in a single evening.

Firstly, after walking the red carpet into the Palace Suite, be part of the pre-dinner reception, enjoy an early evening drink as you taste 3-star Gold award winning products from Great Taste 2012 and meet the people who made them.

Next, join us for a sumptuous four course meal created by Royal Garden Hotel chef, Steve Munkley using Great Taste Award-winning foods and matched with fine wines selected by the Guild of Fine Food to complement the stunning gold-standard ingredients.

In between courses, the story of this year’s Awards will unfold as BBC Radio 2’s Nigel Barden along with Guild director, Bob Farrand announce the winners of the 2012 Golden Forks and the winner of the Delicatessen of the Year.

If you are in the business of fine food, this really is the best night of the year.

Book your seat today but hurry, places are limited Please hurry, as only 350 dinner seats are available. To book your places please email charlie.westcar@finefoodworld.co.uk or call the Guild on 01963 824464.

Ticket prices for the reception and dinner are: £108 per person for Guild of Fine Food members inc ½ bottle of wine and VAT and £120 inc ½ bottle of wine and VAT for non-members Tables seat 10. Dress code – jacket and tie and a dash of gold.

THUR SDAY COT TAGE H A N D M A D E

P R E S E R V E S

thursday cottage ltd trewlands farm tiptree colchester essex co5 0rf Telephone: 01621 814529 Fax: 01621 814555 jams@thursday-cottage.com www.thursday-cottage.com

The Wooden Spoon Preserving Company remains truly artisan – hand-made, no outsourcing in any range (other than honey!). This year we have developed our hamper preserve range to include 5 227g flavours and also have a wider variety of 113g flavours available.

As well as being a leader in the bottled fruits market, we produce a delicious range of No Added Sugar high fruit spreads.

Our standard range of products is designed to suit a wide range of clients, but we also offer a bespoke production service available by consultation.

Tel: 01233 812251 Fax: 01233 813326 Email: sales@thewoodenspoon.co.uk Web: www.thewoodenspoon.co.uk 22

August 2012 ¡ Vol.13 Issue 7

product update

christmas

Festive fare Mummy’s Yummies is adding another original mix to its homebaking range for Christmas 2012. The Christmas biscuit truffle mix will be available in 0.5 litre kilner jars (trade £6.29, RRP £9.99) decorated with seasonal ribbons and is a rich non-bake mix laced with dark chocolate, cranberries, and raisins. www.mummy-yummies.com

Gourmet popcorn maker Joe & Seph’s has launched a mince pie variety (RRP £2.99) containing caramel, brandyinfused fruit and almonds. All of the firm’s popcorn is hand-made, air-popped (as opposed to basted in oil), and flavoured using 100% natural ingredients. It comes in a wide range of flavours, both sweet and savoury, and is available nationwide. www.joeandsephs.co.uk

Opies’ luxury fruits in branded alcohol are well-suited for festive gift giving. The range features both peaches and figs with Courvoisier brandy, stem ginger with Teachers whisky, baby pears with Luxardo amaretto, black cherries in Luxardo kirsch and apricots with Drambuie. All six are produced in Kent and packed in globe jars. www.b-opie.com Previously exclusive to Harrods, Alternative Meats’ three gold star Great Taste Award-winning Welsh Wagyu beef fat (120ml, wholesale £7.50) is now being sold to the wider trade. The firm also offers it as part of a gift set with a Welsh Wagyu roasting joint.

The WI Foods branded range continues to expand apace and it will now be offering several specific seasonal lines including traditional mincemeat (340g), apricots in brandy, peaches in brandy (both 250g) and a brandy and Port Christmas pudding (450g). It has also assembled a number of jute gift bags, offering duos and trios of products.

Pieminister has developed three special festive pies.

The Three kings pie (British turkey breast, outdoor reared smoked bacon and a pork & herb stuffing topped with cranberries) Christingle pie (honey roast parsnips & cheddar cheese with chestnuts) and Deer Santa pie (British venison, dry cure bacon, red wine & puy lentils) will all be available from November with an RRP or £2.99.

www.wifoods.co.uk

www.pieminister.co.uk

seasonal gift packs

www.alternativemeats.co.uk

Infusion oils offers gift sets of its infused Cotswold rapeseed oil in wooden boxes (wholesale £9.99) or jute bags (£7.75).

It’s never too early to place your Christmas orders so MICHAEL LANE rounds up some of this year’s gift sets, stockingfillers and yuletide treats

Paxton & Whitfield is now offering a bone handle cheese knife & sharpener set (trade £12.50 excl. VAT/ RRP £25.00). www.paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk

www.infusionoils.co.uk

Organic chutney and jam producer Huntly Herbs has launched a Three Little Jars gift wrap. Each wrap features three 40ml jars, which can be all the same or any combination from the firm’s range.

Portuguese food specialist Micarmo is importing several products that would work well as foodie gifts or as part of a festive meal. It has fig, almond and fennel cakes (180g) from the Algarve as well as 420g jars of Rocha pears in port (trade £7.99), both of which work well as cheese accompaniments. Its wine jellies (available in Touriga Nacional, Moscatel, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon varieties) cost £4.50 each to the trade. www.micarmo.co.uk

Penzance’s Polgoon Vineyard & Orchard has added to its collection of Aval (Cornish for apple) Methodé Traditionelle sparkling drinks. Aval Royale combines vintage Aval with pure blackcurrant juice to create the Cornish take on Kir Royale.

It comes in 75cl bottles (wholesale £7.95). www. polgoonvineyard. vpweb.co.uk

Labour Of Love has three tasting boxes of its preseves, which are all made with berries foraged from local hedgerows. Its Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This (four sweet 120g pots) and Spice Up Your Life (four savoury 120g pots) both have a trade price of £11.

The large Tasting Box (nine sweet and savoury pots) costs £20.50. www.labouroflovepreserves.co.uk

www.huntlyherbs.co.uk

Vol.13 Issue 7 · August 2012

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product update Children’s healthy snack company Born To Be Yummy has launched Woccy Choccy HoHo-Ho Bites – a blend of white mallows, flavoured cranberries, chocolate, crispies and biscuit. Each snowflake and Christmas tree paper chain gift box (RRP £2.95) contains 10 bites. www.borntobeyummy.co.uk

christmas Morton’s Traditional Taste, a specialist in Norfolk Black and bronze turkeys, has developed several new lines this year. It has a two bird roast – a whole free range chicken layered with chestnut, orange & thyme stuffing and filled with duck breast – and a chicken & duck ballotine with orange & thyme stuffing wrapped in streaky bacon. Both will be available from September.

Steenbergs’ Fairtrade organic drinking chocolates, made with cocoa from the Dominican Republic, have been repackaged in stocking filler-sized 125g silver tins. The three varieties are hot chocolate (trade £2.75), chilli hot chocolate (£2.95), and Christmas hot chocolate (£3.15). www.steenbergs.co.uk

www.freerangeturkeys.co.uk

Chesil Smokery is now able to supply its gift boxes to delis or fulfil orders on their behalf. The Dorset-based producer offers a range of goods including hot and cold smoked salmon, smoked venison, and smoked cod roe. www.chesilsmokery.com

Roots & Wings has launched a raft of Christmas products, including allbutter mince pies (mini 12x25g RRP £5.99, standard 6x50g RRP £5.95) and Christmas puddings (100g RRP £2.59, 454g RRP £7.45) in two sizes.

Atkins and Potts’ brandy sauce now comes in a table top bottle. It is available direct or via Hider in cases 6x240g units (wholesale £2.27 per unit, RRP £3.25)

www.rootsandwingsorganic.com

www. atkinsandpotts. co.uk

Hope and Greenwood’s range of Christmas gifts for 2012 includes a Jolly Advent Calendar (RRP £4.99) filled with milk chocolates and featuring a Race to the North Pole game on the back.

It also has a Jolly Christmas Fudge Cottage (RRP £7.99) and a bumper Tuck Box packed full of Hope and Greenwood treats (£40) www.hopeandgreenwood.co.uk

Sussex-based artisan chocolatier Cocoa Loco has created a range of organic and fairtrade chocolate gifts for Christmas. This includes milk and white chocolate penguins (110g), white chocolate snowflakes (100g), milk chocolate gingerbread boys (100g) and white chocolate snowmen (110g), all of which have an RRP of £3.99. The products will be available from September in cases of six.

This Christmas, Image on Food is introducing gift tins filled with an assortment of handdecorated festive gingerbread biscuits. One is filled with gingerbread while the other features an assortment of traditional Christmas designs.

Each silver tin (trade price £13.77) contains between 13 and 16 biscuits. Also new this year is the gingerbread advent calendar (trade £10.12), which contains 24 gingerbread biscuits. Tins are available exclusively through Cotswold Fayre and the advent calendars through Hider Foods.

www.cocoaloco.co.uk

seasonal gift packs

www.imageonfood.co.uk

Artisan food producer Gourmet Spice Company has created taster gift packs of its bestselling range of three aged balsamic vinegar infusions – its signature spiced aromatic, blackberry & rosemary, and the new fig & date – in 100ml bottles (trade £12, RRP £19). www.tastespice.co.uk

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August 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 7

Ouse Valley Foods has launched three Essential Collection gift packs (4x100g pots). The jelly (green chilli, mint, red chilli and redcurrant), marmalade (lemon & lavender, orange, sharp lime and St Clement’s marmalade with whiskey) and chutney & pickle (cheeseboard chutney, Victorian spiced marrow & whiskey chutney, picnic pickle and red onion marmalade) packs all have a trade price of £6. www.ousevalleyfoods. com

Norfolk Garden Preserves has new gift packs (£4.50 each), which allow customers to choose between six of its festive products to mix and match. www.gardenpreserves.co.uk

Mrs Bridges has developed a Christmas shopping bag hamper for the festive season. It contains a selection of individually wrapped items from its range including Christmas preserve, Christmas marmalade, Christmas chutney, cranberry sauce with Port, redcurrant jelly and stem ginger & lemon cookies. The Christmas shopping bag hamper is sold in cases of two units, with an RRP of £14.95 per bag. www. mrsbridges. co.uk

THE ESSENCE OF QUALITY FOR CHRISTMAS 2012 Our new packaging design has a celebratory style that really enhances the Christmas Product Range. With a satin finish, our striking new design features an embossed green bow, gold foil lettering and a small fleet of twinkling red stars. The range includes a brand NEW confectionery carton, all designed to catch your customer’s eye. Of course, it goes without saying that the carefully selected, delicious contents are, as ever, the essence of quality.

www.hiderfoods.co.uk

01482 504333

sales@hiderfoods.co.uk

A NEW range of British Extra Virgin Rapeseed Oils from Deli-cious OnTap Our Plain & Naturally Infused Rapeseed Oils are grown, harvested, cold-pressed and filtered in the heart of Staffordshire. n A rich source of Omega 3 & High in Vitamin E n Unique triple filtering gives our oil an extra light, nutty flavour n A healthy, locally produced alternative to Olive Oil n Very versatile and also suitable for high heat cooking n Not chemically extracted at any stage. n All-Natural product and GM Free.

For Sales, Ordering and more information contact Rowcliffe on: 01892 838999 or email: sales@rowcliffe.co.uk

www.deliciousontap.co.uk

Vol.13 Issue 7 · August 2012

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Pr ic es

Packaging & Creative Presentation

FR EE

to m a ex or in cl d ud e la e V rs n AT o d .T v UK er e m r on s& £ co 12 nd 5 al l iti

Retail Ideas for 2012

Bread & Dip Server

WJACK £19.95

LG/CK1 £36.20

(50m)

Union Jack Satin Ribbon (Basket Sold Separately)

Latte Vivo Cheese Knives Set

FNBTB £1.39

Foldable Shopping Bag Red Telephone Box

RD23 £0.87

55mm Card Holder

on sa pp ly.

V27106 £8.64

KTRS/CH £1.39

Kraft Tray with Check print

de liv er y

HOCPG £0.87

Pig Print Cotton Shopper

JM180/UJ £1.29

Small Jute Bag Union Jack

Luxury handmade Scottish Tablet - Gift Boxes, Grab Bags and Bars.

Excellent Trade Prices All Handmade in small batches - so smooth it just melts in your mouth

RD/DWL £97.45

NWDSET £69.95

Nested set of 5 wooden crates (excludes Risers) C OMO ODE C PR A

TIM

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LIN

nt* discou

ON

ENT ER

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55 10

£10 E YOU ORD

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Retail Display Unit includes stand (Unassembled) and 3 x DWL wicker Trays

Over 800 products delivered from stock, direct to your door.

www.wbc.co.uk

Freephone 08000 85 85 95 26

August 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 7

Contact Details: Donnie Montgomery, Tablet Maker 07826 444 145 www.LochLevenTabletCompany.co.uk @ScottishTablet facebook.com/Lochleventabletcompany

product update

christmas

A cunning plan for a happy Christmas How Gonalston Farm Shop’s Georgie Mason gets the best return from the festive season

By MICK WHITWORTH

If you haven’t got a plan in place for Christmas by the time you read this, then you’re already behind the game, according to Gonalston Farm Shop owner Georgie Mason.

Speaking at the Guild of Fine Food’s Better Retailing course at Harrogate in late June, the Nottinghamshire retailer said her festive planning started as early as January, with an inquest into the previous season’s performance.

Buying for the following Christmas then starts in February, with gift shopping at the Spring Fair in Birmingham, while the bulk of ambient food orders are placed by mid-summer. “If you can get your Christmas orders put to bed by July you will feel a whole lot happier,” she told delegates.

Mason recommends involving employees in the New Year review, weighing up the success of everything from staff rotas to the choice of turkey supplier. “Your team will tell you what worked and

Festive displays at Gonalston

what didn’t.”

Although tinsel and trees are kept well out of the customer’s sight until late autumn, Mason likes her decorations and non-food gifts to be delivered by mid-August, while her summer students are still available for the time-consuming job of unpacking and pricing them.

“All our Christmas gift items are individually priced with peelable stickers,” she says, “unless I’ve done

Christmas pudding spiced discs (150g, trade £2.99, RRP £5.50) and its chocolate gingerbread houses (300g, trade £8.00, RRP £15.00) are part of an extensive range of festive specialities produced by James Chocolates.

The firm also has an assorted macaroon gift box (340g, trade £9.78, RRP £18.00), which features raspberry, pistachio, coffee & caramel and vanilla hazelnut praline varieties.

a really good deal and got them on a multi-buy.”

Ambient stock starts to arrive in mid-September, when it will be sorted, checked for price and quality and, if it doesn’t have one, allocated a barcode. Products that are not emblazoned with Christmas imagery will start to go out on the shelves right away. “Christmas doesn’t start in earnest until after Halloween,” said Mason, “and you don’t want a Santa in sight until then.”

However, after October 31 she looks to maximise takings while customers have money in their pockets. “If you’re doing a Halloween event, you need to get Halloween out and get Christmas in literally overnight,” she advised. “TV and press advertising for Christmas starts as soon as Halloween is out of the way, but once you get to the 15th of the month your shoppers will be thinking, ‘We can’t spend any more until we get our next paycheque.’

“Run a mid-week festive food

Artisan chocolatier School of Choc is offering its 100g white, dark and milk chocolate bars with seasonal designs (minimum order 10 units) or personalised wrappers (minimum order 50 units) to the trade for £1.15 (excl VAT) per unit.

It also has boxes of six and 12 assorted hand-made chocolate truffles (trade £3.50 and £6.50 excl VAT) as well as praline or ganache chocolate Xmas puds (£4.50 excl VAT for seven chocolates). www.schoolofchoc.com

event early in November and you’re getting a share of the second-tolast pay-cheque of the year, as well as creating two Saturdays in one week.”

Georgie Mason says:

l Plan what you want to order.

Don’t be rushed. l Analyse last year’s sales figures before the reps comes to see you. If in doubt, leave the product out. l Check every item when it arrives for date, barcode and quality. Ask yourself: is it worth more or less than you expected? Ask your team what they think, and if the product’s not good enough, send it back. l On special deals, pass on the savings to customers. Christmas may be about making money but your shoppers need to see some value too.

Divine Chocolate has launched several new lines including dark chocolate after dinner ginger thins (200g, RRP £3.50) and dark chocolate coins (75g, RRP £2.00), as well as dark, milk and white chocolate Christmas trees (100g RRP £4.00). www.divinechocolate. com

The latest crop of European Christmas treats imported by Bespoke Foods include decorated gingerbread houses and DIY gingerbread man and gingerbread house kits from Germany. It also has milk chocolate cornflake houses and bags of Pfeffernusse, ZImsterne (cinnamon stars), gingerbread men in various sizes and chocolate cornflake houses. Bespoke is carrying mixed cases of chocolate spoons – in milk, dark and latte machiatto– for dipping in milk to make hot chocolate. www.bespoke-foods.co.uk

seasonal gift packs

www.jameschocolates.co.uk

The Tea Makers of London has introduced a range of gifts and hampers this festive season including a selection of 3-6 caddy gift sets of finest green teas, white teas and black teas. There is also a selection of tea accessories including authentic artisan Yixing teapots, which come in a magnetic box. Prices range from £12.99 - £125.00. www.theteamakers.co.uk

Mrs Fudges’ Favourites Pack (RRP £20) contains a selection of the firm’s biscuits including dark chocolate florentines, stem ginger biscuits dipped in dark chocolate and jalapeño wafers, all packed in an 85th anniversary jute bag. www.fudges.co.uk

Bellevue’s gift set is a collection of five tea wallets featuring breakfast, Earl Grey, Sencha green, rooibos and peppermint teas & infusions.

Each wallet contains six individually wrapped string & tag tea bags packed in a foil pouch. The set costs £5.50 to the trade and is available in cases of eight units. www.bellevue-tea.com

The Bay Tree Food Co has launched a range of three gift boxes filled with a selection of Bay Tree best sellers. The Sweet Treat box (raspberry jam, Very lemon curd, blackcurrant jam, strawberry jam, chocolate chunk), the picnic/sandwich box (Piccalilli, Somerset ale chutney, farmhouse pickle and cider jelly) and the Christmas box (Christmas marmalade, Christmas pickle, Coronation sauce and cranberry sauce) all have an RRP of £16.50. www.thebaytree.co.uk

Vol.13 Issue 7 · August 2012

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Call Claire Kent for wholesale information‌ 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, including special Christmas products Multi-award winning recipes made with all-natural ingredients A colourful array of products from traditional favourites to innovative specialities Powerful branding and packaging with comprehensive retailer support SALSA Accredited

Selsley Gourmet Mulling Syrup is an old family recipe recreated to produce Christmas in a bottle.

Mix with red wine, cider, sharp apple juice or ginger beer for a fabulous warming drink or use to make divine desserts, tarts, pies and crumbles. Please call to place an order or request more information. 01285 760716, or contact us via e-mail: sales@selsleyfoods.com www.selsleyfoods.com

Exciting new products now available from James Chocolates www.mrsbridges.co.uk

All handmade in Somerset for the independent retailer.

Call 01749 831330 and quote FFD08 for a brochure and samples 28

August 2012 ¡ Vol.13 Issue 7

product update Goupie, a chewy chocolate confection made by Simpson’s of Hawkhurst, will be available in two Christmas flavours. A Taste of Christmas is made with spices, dried fruits and nuts while the Belgian dark chocolate Boozy Christmas features Prunes D’Agen steeped in Biddenden cider and French brandy. Cases of 6x180g cost £15.75 and are available direct or from Cotswold Fayre.

christmas

Montezuma’s has unveiled a new Christmas design for 2012 and expanded its range. The previously successful Christmas truffle box will be joined by the Christmas Tipple box which will include some “very boozy truffles”. Both 220g boxes (RRP £11.99) contain 16 truffles. www.montezumas.co.uk

www.goupie.co.uk

House of Dorchester will be rolling out a number festive ranges from its Poundbury factory.

The chocolatier’s Taste of Luxury collection includes milk chocolate Christmas trees, Twelve Days of Christmas chocolate pictorials and gingerbread stir-in hot chocolate (all in cases of 12 for £33, £59.40, and £10.32 respectively). It also produces a range of Festive truffles (£45.60 for case of 12) and has a number of lines aimed at children including tins and advent calendars featuring artwork from children’s author Racey Helps. www.hodchoc.com

Davenport’s Chocolates has developed mulled wine truffles. Its organic butter ganache truffles get a dose of vintage Port and are infused with cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and orange oil before being enrobed in dark chocolate. They come in boxes of 12 or 24 (trade £5.72 and £10.32 respectively). www.davenportschocolates.com

Lick the Spoon has added to its range of Christmas baubles this year. Joining the Christmas orange are the Victoriana raspberry bauble filled with chocolate-coated dried raspberries and a Christmas snowball filled with dipped ginger (RRP £19.95). The chocolatier will also be reviving its penguin in a snow globe as well as taking a side step into the bakery market with a box of hand-decorated gingerbreads (RRP £12.95).

seasonal gift packs

www.lickthespoon.co.uk

Confectionery importer and distributor House of Sarunds has a number of lines it thinks will do well this Christmas.

It carries a range of Cavalier chocolate bars made with natural sweetener Stevia.

The Cavalier fruity bar selection (pack Size 32 x 42g) features milk banana cocoanibs, dark lemon lime, dark orange, and white coconut. The firm also has a range of St Valentines liquorice products including soft liquorice pieces in 300g boxes (eight per case) as well as “melt in the mouth” Turkish delight from Sebahat in 6x400g packs. www.sarunds.co.uk

Supernature’s classic (lemon, ginger, garlic, chilli ) and herb ranges (basil, coriander, oregano and garden mint) range of infused rapeseed oil now come in 4x100ml gift packs.

Each pack (supplied to the trade in cases of six) has an RRP of £10.95.

Arabian food specialist Terra Rossa has a mini gift box containing three of its Great Taste Award-winning olive oils: Sinolea, lemon- and chilli-infused. The box has an RRP of £9.95. www.terra-rossa.com

www.supernature.uk.com

Condiment producer Tracklements has created a festive gift box called All The Trimmings. The set contains four handmade accompaniments – fig relish, Christmas chutney, cranberry sauce with Port and Cumberland sauce – and will be available from September in cases of 6 at a trade price of £36. www.tracklements.co.uk

Artisan Biscuits has two new lines it is launching as gifts for children.

Its Two by Two Ark tin (RRP £10.95) is filled with pairs of all-butter and malted milk biscuits in the shape of monkeys, hippos, kangaroos and elephants with the odd Noah in there too. Its My Favourite Bear Adventure Book tin (RRP £9.95) is packed with Muddy Bear (chocolate) and Go Bananas Bear (banana) biscuits.

Both products feature web links to further activities online. www.artisanbiscuits.co.uk

Vol.13 Issue 7 · August 2012

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The taste of pure English mint revived for the 21st century

LOOSE LEAF

TEA &

QUALITY PROVENANCE INDEPENDENT WWW.THEGILDEDTEAPOT .COM FIND US ON

30

August 2012 路 Vol.13 Issue 7

&

For more about our award-winning Black Mitcham peppermint chocolates and tea: visit www.summerdownmint.com

product update

teas

Caddy cool

There are now 21 varieties in The Drury Tea & Coffee Company’s pyramid teabag range, following the launch of two new blends: British breakfast and white tea with rose & pomegranate. Cost prices for a 15-bag carton are £2.65 and £3.75 respectively.

LYNDA SEARBY delves into the tea chest to find out what’s new in speciality tea Newby’s hand-tied flowering teas are now available in gift sets (RRP £43.70). The natural flowering tea gift box contains passion, harmony, love, union and midnight bulbs, while the flavoured tea gift box contains jasmine, milky flower, blueberry, lychee and rose teas. www. newbyteas. co.uk

The biodegradeable pyramid teabag range from Ireland’s Solaris Tea is said to combine the benefits of organic looseleaf tea with the convenience of a teabag. The five varieties in the range - chunmee green, peppermint delight, chamomile dream, rooibos cacao chai and jasmine green - all have an RRP of £ 4.99. www.solarisbotanicals.com

www.drurypyramids.co.uk

Tea charms – a new concept from Flora Tea – are made of compressed loose tea leaves mixed with dried aromatic flowers and formed into artistic shapes that dissolve in hot water. They are due to be launched at the Speciality & Fine Food Fair in September in assorted collections of three or five charms (RRPs £6.99-7.99 and £9.9912.99 respectively). www.floratea.com

With an RRP of £31.50 for 50g, Jing’s pre-rain Dragon Well Supreme won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it is known to connoisseurs as China’s most famous tea and according to Jing founder Edward Eisler, the 2012 crop is the best in years. Dragon Well Supreme is grown in the Lion’s Peak area of China’s West Lake in Hangzhou, and is hand-fired in hot woks to give a subtle sweet chestnut flavour. www.jingtea.com

Top sellers…

h, Deli, Horwic ... at Thyme Bolton

Drink Me Chai has extended its chai latte range with a new green tea chai, described as a “creamy blend of green tea, milk and exotic spices containing those all-important antioxidants and compounds that help in maintaining good health”. Trade price is £11.40 for a case of 6x250g tubs or £33.67 for 4x1kg tubs.

Lancashire

Tea

t ish breakfas Teapigs Engl ermint rice & pepp Teapigs liquo breakfast rew English Make Us a B

www.drinkmechai.co.uk

ice Yogi Tea licor

LuLin Teas is expanding its ‘daily cup’ range of everyday teas to include a wider selection of pure teas and blends. While the details have not yet been finalised, the enlarged range will definitely see English breakfast and Earl Grey joining existing green, black, oolong, puerh, mint green and goji tisane varieties.

The daily cup range is presented in tubes made from recycled material weighing 100g-150g and with an RRP of £7.50-£10.95. www.lulin-teas.com

Café de Cuba has been appointed exclusive UK and Ireland distributor for tea brand Cha Teas, which sources its tea from single estates in the Darjeeling and Assam regions.

There are six variants in the range – pure black, pure green, Earl Grey, very berry, spring mint and golden mango – all of which come in 25-bag tins. The trade price is £3.65 and the RRP £5.50-£6. www.cha-teas.com www.cubascoffee.com

The Tea Makers has teamed up with Belgian company Cezhum bvba to launch six organic green teas with functional herbs under the Organic T+H brand.

Each of the six variants - antioxidants, cholesterol, detox, digest, energy and slim – is positioned on a specific health platform. The RRP for a 20-bag carton is £4.50-£4.95. Trade buyers get discounts of 40-50%. www.theteamakers.co.uk

After less than a year in business, The Ramsbury Tea Company has branched out beyond core offerings like English breakfast, Earl Grey and peppermint to offer more specialist teas, including rose congou keemun, formosa choice oolong, lemon grey, pu-erh, organic single-estate Assam and decaffeinated Ceylon.

The teas retail at between £3.99 and £4.99 for 15 bags. www.ramsburytea.co.uk

The Mama Tea range of herbal teas for mums and mums-to-be has been treated to a packaging overhaul it hopes will reinforce the brand’s niche positioning. www.mamatea.com

Bag a bargain tea maker As any tea connoisseur will know, tea making is as much about the accessories as the tea itself, and Attic Teas is offering readers a discount of 10% off its Attic tea maker (first order only) if they mention the Guild of Fine Food when placing an order. The 500ml capacity clear tea maker is designed to take the hassle out of loose leaf tea drinking. Trade price before discount is £9.50 + vat and RRP is £18.95. Minimum order is one box of 30. ric@attictea.com www.attictea.com Vol.13 Issue 7 · August 2012

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CHA teas are hand picked and sourced from the foothills of the Himalayas.

CHA teas are Organic and Certified by the EU Regulatory Authorities.

Cha teas are all real teas (no herbal infusions). Our black and green teas are available as pure teas or with a variety of naturally extracted flavours.

Solaris Tea Award-winning, Organic, Speciality Teas

by Master Tea Blender Jörg Müller

* 100% Whole Leaf Tea * Biodegradable Pyramid Bags * No added aromas * Exciting blend combinations * 1st flush Green Teas

Solaris Botanicals Ltd Tel: +353 91 750020 / Mobile (UK): 079 03262720 Email - info@solarisbotanicals.com www.solaristea.com

Distribution for UK and Ireland Cafè de Cuba, Dublin, Ireland Tel + 353 (0) 1 7089085 / Mobile: +353 (0) 87 2059018 Email: info@cha-teas.com www.cha-teas.com

SolarisAdvertA4.indd 1

17/10/2011 14:54

Drury Pyramid Tea Bags Leaf tea in the bag

75 years’ experience of blending goes into these new pyramid teabags from Drury and there’s a world of tea to choose from black, green and white teas, oolong, flavoured and tisanes.

Made from biodegradable material, the pyramid shape of these bags dramatically improves infusion. We also use larger leaf, better quality teas for optimum taste.

Striking art deco style packaging and matching POS material evokes the era when Drury first started blending fine teas.

The Drury Tea & Coffee Co Ltd. London SE1 5UF

Tel: 020 7740 1100 www.drurypyramids.co.uk 32

August 2012 · Vol.13 Drury-pyramid-Ad2.indd 1

Issue 7

9/3/12 11:06:06

product update

teas

Top sellers…

and ers, Redhill ... at Cullend ey Reigate, Surr

Hampstead Tea director Kiran Tawadey claims what sets his company’s new range of flavoured teas apart from others is that they contain organic fruit extracts and are based on Darjeeling tea from the Makaibari estate. Three varieties – black vanilla, red fruits and lemon & orange – are available from all major health food wholesalers. 20 bags retail for £2.19.

yday brew Teapigs ever chilli ew mint & Make us a br my Teapigs tum tonic

rice Teapigs liquo t in & pepperm Tea Ministry of berry organic rasp

www.hampsteadtea.com

Tapping into the flowering teas trend is Choi Time, with a new ‘orange ruffle’ tea made from white needle green tea leaves hand-woven with an orange chrysanthemum and presented in a glass canister.

Trade price is usually £60 for a case of six units, but Choi Time is offering readers a 10% discount. www.choitime.com

Loose leaf specialist Love Leaf Tea has introduced two new herbal infusions for healthconscious tea drinkers. The ‘feel well’ infusion combines aniseed, chamomile blossom and sage blossom (RRP £3.85 for 60g), while cherry & vanilla was designed to harness cherry’s reputed benefits, which include anti-inflammatory effects and a high antioxidant capacity (RRP £3.60 for 60g). www.loveleaftea.com

We Are Tea’s new ‘superteas’ are designed to either ‘perk you up’ or ‘chill you out’. Daintea (the slimming tea), Serenitea (the calming tea), Revitalise (the rejuvenating tea) and Activitea (the energising tea), are sold in whole-leaf, biodegradable teabag format, in cartons of 15 (RRP £4.95). www.wearetea.com

Retailers on the look-out for truly unique products may be interested in teas from Japanese producers Issin-en and Kayano, whose teas aren’t yet on sale in the UK despite picking up several stars in last year’s Great Taste Awards.

Himefuuki is an organic black tea, satsuma-kaori is an organic rice-flavoured green tea and tsuki-no-sizuku is an organic panfired green tea.

The Kandula Tea Company has added four spiced fruit infusions to its collection of whole leaf teas. Imported from Sri Lanka, they are blends of real fruits and herbs with Ceylon spices.

The origin is carried through into the distinctive packaging design. Each carton contains 15 pyramid bags of either strawberry hibiscus, lemon ginger, mango green tea or Moroccan mint and has an RRP of £3.95. www.kandulatea.com

Designed to transport the drinker to an English summer garden, ‘queen of berries’ from Tea Palace blends black tea with strawberries, raspberries and blackcurrants. RRP is £9.50 for a bespoke caddy. Also new for summer from Tea Palace is ‘jasmine white monkey’, which marries the rare Chinese green tea with whole jasmine blossoms. RRP is £11.50 for a 75g caddy. www.teapalace.com

my813@ad.wakwak.com

Tea talk Edward Berry, MD of Ludlow Food Centre, is a keen client of his old employer Newby Tea

Bloom’s affordable luxury tea collection now includes five herbal tea tonics designed to support people’s changing needs throughout the day: hibiscus & lemongrass to kick-start the day, lemon verbena & ginger root as a mid-morning tea, peppermint & fennel as a digestive lunchtime tea, rooibos & cinnamon for afternoon drinking and chamomile & nettle as a calming evening tea. They come in boxes of 10 or 20 silk pyramid tea bags (RRP £2.95 or £4.95), or Bloom does a 5-tea box set of 50 bags (RRP £14.50).

“Our challenge is to offer an interesting range of teas, both in loose leaf and bag format, that is in keeping with our values. We are very much a local business, sourcing the majority of produce not only from the surrounding area, but from the estate in which the Ludlow Food Centre is located.

As tea is not grown in Shropshire we, like others, rely on teas that are grown in the major countries, but hopefully with a story and quality that gives us some individuality in our selection.

www.bloomtea.co.uk

“We sell loose leaf teas from Ledbury-based Clare Trumper, whose teas are also served in our café. The story is a strong ethical one with Fairtrade accreditation.

“We have also recently added teas from Newby [where Berry was formerly chief operating officer]. While these are all in bags (aficionados only drink loose leaf, but this represents less than 5% of total sales) the lengths that this Anglo-Indian operation goes to pack its teas for the freshest results are exemplary. Despite being a small company in tea terms, it packs all of its own teas.

We particularly like the masala chai. With its blend of spices it makes for a nice warming cup.”

The culinary world is warming to the chilli-chocolate combo and now Yogi Tea has created a chillichocolate tea blend. Yogi Tea Choco Chili uses cocoa shells to capture the essence of chocolate taste without the calorific content, along with chilli, ginger and cinnamon. The result, says Yogi Tea, is a richly warming brew that can be enjoyed with milk or a spoonful of honey. Available from September, the tea has an RRP of £2.19 for a box of 17 bags. www.yogiproducts.com

Since January, Equal Exchange rooibos tea has been sourced from women farmers at Heiveld Cooperative in South Africa, as part of a drive by Equal Exchange to improve the status of women in third world countries. www.equalexchange.co.uk

Created by the Harris Tea Company, Tea India is a new brand that aims to fuse tradition with the vibrancy of modern India. The first teas in the range are a high-Assam content black tea blend (RRP £2.69 for 80 bags) and three chais: masala, vanilla and cardamom (RRP £2.49 for 40 bags). www.teaindia.co.uk

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August 2012 路 Vol.13 Issue 7

product update

ready-meals & soups

Ready-made trade From the healthy to the decadent, LYNDA SEARBY seeks out the latest pre-prepared products on the market Another Irish producer looking to break into the UK market is vegan ready meal producer Dees. The County Cork company has started supplying UK retailers with meals such as Tex-Mex sweet potato & bean chilli and Thai butternut squash, potato & lentil, after signing a distribution agreement with Marigold Health Foods. www.dees.ie

Chicken & chorizo pie (RRP £4.49) and fisherman’s pie (RRP £3.49) are the latest additions to Cloughbane Farm Shop’s range. Having secured listings across major outlets in Ireland, such as Sainsbury’s, Dobbies and Superquinn, the County Tyrone farm-kitchen business is now seeking to expand its presence in the UK. www.cloughbanefarm.com

Frozen food and produce supplier Field Fare has added five new dishes to its ready-meal range for summer 2012: cottage pie (RRP £3.75), minted lamb casserole (RRP £4.99), smoked haddock parcel (RRP £3.75), family-size steak & ale pie (RRP £7.99), blackberry & apple crumble (RRP £3.79), roasted vegetable lasagne (RRP £3.79) and moules marinières (RRP £3.59). Also new is a rustic vegetable & bacon medley, which is sold loose so customers can help themselves. www.field-fare.com

Delish Dish frozen ready-meals now come in board trays with film lids and cardboard sleeves. Besides looking smarter, the new packaging is recyclable and enables most meals to be re-heated in the oven or microwave, says the Cheshire-based producer.

Thai vegetable, Thai chicken and a new recipe gazpacho are the summer additions to Rod and Ben’s soup line-up. The 600g retail pots have RRPs of £3.49-3.99 and are available to the trade via Hawkridge Farmhouse Dairy Produce, Marigold Health Foods, Coombe Farm Direct, J&R Food Services, Queenswood Natural Foods and Plough to Plate.

www.rhamar.com

In response to customer feedback, Charlie Bigham’s has switched to chicken rather than beef in its teriyaki dish, and made the recipe of its Catalan chicken dish more authentic, by adding butterbeans and a deeper tomato flavour.

Yorkshire’s Hayloft Foods has launched two new soups: Thunder & Lightening (cannellini bean & black olive soup) and leek soup with feta, smoked paprika & dill (RRP £2.75-2.99).

Founder Juliette Brown Forden says the typical British weather was the inspiration behind Thunder & Lightening, and that the leek soup is an attempt to make the classic leek & potato soup combo into a “fine dining experience”.

www.bighams.com

www.hayloftfoods.co.uk

www.rodandbens.com

www.delishdish.co.uk

One to watch Already known on the London farmers’ market circuit, Tasteful Foods is gearing up to launch its ready-meals to the retail trade later this summer. The meals were designed alongside England rugby team nutritionist Matt Lovell and use locally sourced free-range chicken and grass-fed lamb.

At launch, the range will comprise Thai chicken curry

Fine food distributor R.H. Amar has become exclusive UK distributor for Greek mezze, antipasti and ready meal specialist Palirria.

Products in Palirria’s portfolio include traditional Greek dishes dolmas (vine leaves stuffed with rice), gigantes (baked giant beans) and imam (aubergines in tomato sauce). RRPs for the 280g ‘upside down’ cans range from £1.69-£2.59.

The introduction of tomato & blue, roasted Mediterranean, watercress & orange and chilled gazpacho signals the arrival of summer at Dorset Blue Soup.

The seasonal soups come in 500ml pots (RRP £2.99-3.25). www.dorsetblue.co.uk

Spanish food importer Delicioso has tracked down a new canned casserole based on one of Spain’s most famous bean stews – Fabada Asturiana.

The recipe was designed by Michelin-starred chef Jesus Sanchez for Spanish producer Campanal and combines long butter beans called ‘fabes’ with chorizo, morcilla (Spanish black pudding), Ibérico bacon and pork fat, cooked in olive oil and flavoured with paprika, saffron and salt. Fabada Asturiana comes in a 425g tin. Trade price is £34 for a case of 12, and RRP is around £4.99. www.delicioso.co.uk

Retailers looking to tap into the lucrative baby food market should check out So Baby Organics’ new handmade stage one purées, launched to complement its existing textured baby meals. The four purées in the range – sweetcorn chowder, butternut squash & orange, lentil & veggie and minted pea & potato – come in 110g portions (RRP £1.55). www.so-baby.co.uk

with baby corn, sweet potato & mange tout, Moroccan lamb stew with lentils, sweet potato & carrots, Spanish chicken, chorizo & chickpeas with red onions & cherry tomatoes in a spicy tomato sauce, Mexican chilli with dark chocolate and Thai veg curry with aubergine, broad beans & baby corn. The meals will be sized at around 400g, and will retail at £5.50-£6.

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New for Christmas – Delicious fig bonbons, hand-made in Cataluña by a master chocolatier!

Katy Rodger’s Artisan Dairy range has been hand created to emphasise the natural quality of the milk. There are no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives in any of the chilled product range. Simple fresh fruit compotes are added to provide delicious flavour to the fruit yogurts.

The packaging has been carefully designed to highlight the natural goodness of the product, no gimmicks, just clear, simple and elegant; it looks fantastic on the shelf.

• Natural Yogurt, • Fresh Fruit Yogurt • Crème Fraiche • Knockraich Crowdie • Dairy Ice Cream • Frozen Yogurt

Scottish Artisan Dairy Produce Our pastures, our herd, our milk, our dairy, naturally...

Christmas brochure available now!

With no minimum order quantity and next-day delivery throughout the UK, let us bring the best of Spanish food to your door For more information, please phone 01865 340055 or email info@delicioso.co.uk

Speciality Importer of the Year 2008 telephone 01865 340055 | info@delicioso.co.uk | www.delicioso.co.uk

www.knockraich.com

blend drizzle smoked Special Christmas Range

– the hugely popular Mulled Wine, Mulled Cider and Christmas Mead. Great for Christmas parties, hampers and gifts. Or just drinking in front of the fire!

Plus a new Cider Gift Box – the perfect gift for Cider lovers.

Plus – delicious warming tipples – wines and liqueurs.

marinade enhance aroma infuse

The Lyme Bay Winery, Shute, Axminster, Devon EX13 7PW Tel 01297 551 355 · sales@lymebaywinery.co.uk www.lymebaywinery.co.uk 36

August 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 7

The smoked olive Smoked olive oil, Smoked olives, ... info@thesmokedolive.co.uk T. 07852 932066

A promotional feature for the Guild of Fine Food

AUGUST’S MONEY MAKING PROMOTIONS The Guild of Fine Food has developed its Retail Promotion Scheme to help retailers survive recession hit Britain. We are negotiating with our producer members and have handpicked a selection of great products on which we’ve secured big discounts unique to Guild retail members.

HARP & LYRE

JAZZ HANDS ARTISAN PASTA

BONNY CONFECTIONERY

Harp & Lyre’s Great Taste Awardwinning luxury blends are created by master tea tasters. Their finest quality tippy golden leaf teas are picked during the peak second flush season, exclusively from the Protected Geographical Indication tea gardens of Darjeeling and Assam. These signature blends have an RRP of £7.95 for boxes leaf tea in mesh tea bags and £8.95£9.95 for loose leaf teas, offering a 40% margin for retailers.

THE DEAL: Buy 2 cases get 1 free.

Also offering a mixed case for first time buyers.

AVAILABILITY: Nationwide. Free delivery.

CONTACT: Abraham on 01914 609007 or sales@harpandlyre.co.uk

This Somerset-based firm produces a range of fresh and dried pasta, ravioli and sauces using traditional methods and natural ingredients.

Its dried pasta range (wholesale price £2.25, sold in cases of 9) features six varieties – plain egg, squid ink, spinach, tomato chilli, garlic and two types of tricolore.

THE DEAL: Purchase any 4 cases of dried pasta and get a 5th free AVAILABILITY: Nationwide. Free delivery (mainland) CONTACT: Steve or Juliette on 07432 351001 or jazzhands@artisanpasta.co.uk

Bonny is now offering its gourmet marshmallows in a new format specifically for cafés. Its Hot Drink Dipper (two marshmallow cubes on a wooden stirrer) is designed for stirring and melting into coffees and hot chocolates, and can be sold as an add-on to customers for RRP £0.99. Each case (£13.20) contains 24 dippers in a resealable container. Dippers come in natural vanilla, double chocolate, caramel and mint chocolate flavours THE DEAL: No minimum order and free delivery on first order of hot drink dippers AVAILABILITY: Nationwide CONTACT: Cordie on 08443 104180 or cordie@ bonnyconfectionery.co.uk

OLIVE BRANCH The producer has launched a new range of olive oil jams – a unique blend of Olive Branch olive oil, Cretan honey and dried fruit. The four flavours are strawberry, apricot, cherry and forest fruits. Cases contain 12 jars, four of each flavour.

THE DEAL: Buy a case of 500ml Olive Branch olive oil and receive a case of olive oil jam FREE AVAILABILITY: Nationwide, free delivery CONTACT: Maria on 01442 240602 or info@myolivebranch.co.uk

ODYSEA

PURE TEA

Odysea is carrying the Karyatis 1kg jar range, which includes hot mixed chillies, Atlas green olives, jumbo natural black olives, jumbo Kalamata olives and colossal green olives. All products come in cases of six.

THE DEAL: 50% off the Karyatis 1kg jar range in August and September AVAILABILITY: Nationwide CONTACT: Martin Bumpsteed on 07769 670278 or martin@odysea.com

Pure Tea is now offering 15 of its loose organic varieties in pyramid tea bags, which allow them the leaves the freedom to unfurl. Each box (trade £3.75, RRP £5.85) contains 15 pyramid bags.

THE DEAL: 15% discount and free delivery on first time orders AVAILABILITY: Nationwide CONTACT: Charlene Brett on 01225 839616 or info@puretea.uk.com

THE MINIATURE BAKERY The Miniature Bakery says its Chocolate Biscuit Selection and its new range of Mini Selections are ideal for hampers and Christmas gifts.

Customers can now preorder these lines for the coming months.

THE DEAL: Order a minimum of 8 cases of Chocolate Biscuit Selection or Mini Selections in August for delivery in September or October and receive a 10% discount.

AVAILABILITY: Nationwide. Free delivery on orders over 8 cases CONTACT: Tim Little on 01924 359900 or tim@ theminiaturebakery.com

UNCLE ROY’S The latest addition to Uncle Roy’s line-up of all natural extracts is a range of all natural food colourings. These colourings – available in red, yellow, blue, green and black – have so far proved popular with chefs and home bakers alike.

THE DEAL: Buy one case each of red, yellow, blue and green colouring and get a case of black (worth £9.95) free.

AVAILABILITY: Nationwide as part of any carriage paid order CONTACT: Uncle Roy on 01683 221076 or uncleroy@ uncleroys.co.uk

GUILD RETAIL PROMOTION SUMMARY (Available to Guild members only)

COMPANY

DEAL

TEL

EMAIL

BONNY CONFECTIONERY No minimum order and free delivery on first Hot Drink

Dippers order Buy 2 cases get 1 free HARP & LYRE

08443 104180 cordie@bonnyconfectionery.co.uk

JAZZ HANDS ARTISAN PASTA Buy 4 cases of dried pasta get 5th free Get 10% off orders of at least 8 cases of biscuit selections THE MINIATURE BAKERY

for delivery in September or October

07432 351001 jazzhands@artisanpasta.co.uk 01924 359900 tim@theminiaturebakery.com

ODYSEA OLIVE BRANCH

50% off the Karyatis 1kg jar range in August and September Buy a case of 500ml Olive Branch olive oil, get a case of olive oil jam free

07769 670278 martin@odysea.com 01442 240602 info@myolivebranch.co.uk

PURE TEA UNCLE ROY’s

15% discount and free delivery on first time orders Buy one case each of red, yellow, blue and green food colourings and get a case of black free

01225 839616 info@puretea.uk.com 01683 221076 uncleroy@uncleroys.co.uk

01914 609007 sales@harpandlyre.co.uk

RETAIL MEMBERS – To sign up to the retail promotion scheme contact: tortie.farrand@finefoodworld.co.uk or ring her on 01963 824464 to ensure you receive your shelf-barkers to help promote these discounts instore.

SUPPLIER MEMBERS – want to take part? Contact sally.coley@finefoodworld.co.uk for more information.

Vol.13 Issue 7 · August 2012

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HEALTHY ICED TEAS AND GREEN TEAS

Our luxury Christmas Marmalade joins our festive range.

Spiced liqueur and succulent oranges provide a sensational seasonal combination

tea Peach iced ere hiding h

Raspberr y green tea

•NEW•

View our Christmas range at...

✓

✓

NO PRESERVATIVES

✓

HEALTHY ANTIOXIDANTS

NO ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS & ADDITIVES

✓

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REFRESHING

330ml BOTTLES

Metro Drinks Limited, The Workshop, Endlewick House, Arlington, East Sussex BN26 6RU +44 (0) 1323 485602 · info@metrodrinks.co.uk · www.metrodrinks.co.uk

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August 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 7

shelftalk

products, promotions & people

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Little Doone gears up for move into southern stores

By MICK WHITWORTH

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Ayrshire-based balsamic dressings specialist Little Doone is planning its first serious move into southern England this autumn after “massively” upping its production capacity for 2012.

The family firm will be exhibiting at next month’s Speciality & Fine Food Fair at London’s Olympia, chasing stockists in the Midlands and South after drumming up consumer interest at the BBC Good Food Show Summer in Birmingham in June. It currently sells mainly in Scotland and the north of England.

“Since that show we’ve seen a sharp uplift in online orders as people look for the dressings, but as yet there are few outlets in the South,” said Colin Hanna, who runs the business with wife Tanya.

Little Doone has recently taken on a second 750 sq ft production unit at its Dalry base, with a bespoke filling line for its bestselling 250ml plastic bottle format.

Hanna said the move had cost in the region of £30,000 and had enabled it to separate its glass and plastic bottling operations.

“We’re hoping this will finally allow some level of inventory to be built up,” he added.

Little Doone exhibited at S U P LI E P

Co-owner Colin Hanna and two of Little Doone’s newest dressings

A young building surveyor whose great-grandmother lent her name to a mass-market potted meats brand is targeting fine food stores with a chilled, premium version of his ancestor’s recipe.

William Sutherland is the greatgrandson of Mary Sutherland, whose home-made potted beef was turned into a commercial product by her husband Edwin in the late 1920s.

The Sutherlands ambient meat spreads brand became a household name and is now owned by food giant Greencore.

William – who qualified as a surveyor four years ago just as the construction market was collapsing – has been making potted meats at home to Mary’s original recipe.

He has now set up a company, Original Recipes, to sell the products commercially under the Granny Mary’s Potted Beef brand.

Working with his father Alistair, he has taken on a small unit in

Chesterfield to produce and pack potted beef in a range of sizes and formats, from re-usable 90g kilner jars (£3.05 trade, RRP £3.80) to 200g, 500g and 900g terrines, with a shelf life of around two weeks.

The Sutherlands have been at farmers’ markets in Nottinghamshire, and are now targeting premium retailers and caterers.

“I’ve gone back to my greatThe Granny Mary’s range includes kilner jars, single-serve pots and deli terrines

granny’s recipe, which is 85% shin and chuck beef with just beef stock, salt, butter and spices,” William Sutherland told FFD. Original Recipes is sharing production space in Chesterfield with Nick Buckingham, formerly head chef at the Cavendish Hotel, on Derbyshire’s Chatsworth Estate.

Buckingham has been helping with recipe development, and the company is in talks with Thornbridge Brewery about a possible version with Jaipur IPA jelly topping, to be used in its pub-restaurants.

WBC bags jute specialist Canby

wsutherland.originalrecipes@gmail. com

www.littledoone.co.uk

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Gift packaging and display materials supplier WBC has S U P LI E P purchased premium jute bag producer Canby. It said the acquisition will benefit Canby’s customers by offering them a wider range of branding options.

Established in 2002, Canby produces personalised bags in cotton, jute and juco.

WBC marketing director James Hayward said: “The sale of jute continues to go from strength to strength with many independent retailers using bags-for-life as a way to increase impulse sales at the till, while at the same time advertising and increasing brand awareness.”

WBC is also expecting growth in natural bag use due to a proposed 5p tax on plastic bags in Scotland.

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By MICK WHITWORTH

starred chef Martin Wishart.

In 2011 the Scottish Government placed an order for Little Doone raspberry and whisky dressings as “examples of fine Scottish produce” for inclusion in prize hampers, goodie bags and at functions during Scotland Week in America and Canada.

Hanna said Little Doone planned to expand into the American market “in the medium term”.

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Sutherland revives Granny Mary’s potted meat recipe

in the FFD Editor’s Choice selection (see page 49).

Hanna is targeting 50% sales increase this year on top of nearly 40% growth in 2011. “Over the past two years we’ve averaged one new trade customer a week, and that’s accelerating,” he said. New Scottish clients include Hopetoun House Farm Shop, the Peckham’s chain of upmarket grocery shops and The Honours restaurant in Edinburgh, owned by Michelin

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Harrogate Speciality Food Show in June, where it unveiled several new varieties including a sweet balsamic dressing with 10-year-old single malt whisky, developed with Arran Distillers and carrying the Arran Malt logo.

It also launched smoked garlic and lime dressings, taking its full range to 13, although Hanna said its Original dressing still accounts for 40% of sales.

The lime dressing was one of 16 products featured at Harrogate

www.wbc.co.uk

www.canby.co.uk

Vol.13 Issue 7 · August 2012

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G NO C RE W AL L AT O FO FF R ER S

Jazz up your winter roast with rich, glossy gravies and deliciously different stuffings from Kent’s Kitchen.

The chicken, beef and onion gravies will enhance the meat, are easy to make and don’t need refrigeration after opening.

The sensational stuffings just need water before popping in the oven.

Flavours include: Rustic red onion, herb & horseradish Apple, sage & onion Apricot, apple & ginger Cranberry & orange Visit www.kentskitchen.co.uk, email emma@kentskitchen.co.uk or call 01732 758024

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August 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 7

DELIVERING GREAT VALUE PRODUCTS FROM THE EVERYDAY TO THE EXCEPTIONAL w w w. l e f k t r o . c o . u k

E: sales@lef ktro.co.uk T: 01460 242 588

L E F K T R O U K LT D

shelftalk

CHEF’S SELECTION

Top chefs tell CLARE HARGREAVES their deli essentials

Blackburn: ‘Put coffee on a par with wine’ Panama Hacienda La Esmeralda coffee has citrus and floral notes like Coffee is undervalued and a Gewürztraminer from the Alsace. should be merchandised S U P LI E P Blackburn said that terroir has as in the same way as wine, much bearing on coffee production according to Grumpy Mule’s Damian as it does on winemaking but that Blackburn the roasting of coffee is an added Hosting a joint coffee and wine dimension. tasting at the Harrogate Speciality Retailers should look to stock Food Show in June, Blackburn said lighter roasts as retailers should the dark roasts make more of popularised the provenance

by American of coffee. producers mask “In a shop the natural environment, flavours of coffee is coffee. undervalued.

The serving People will pay temperature £10 and up was also key for a bottle of to optimising wine but £5 the flavour of for a pack of coffee, which coffee is seen Blackburn as a little too illustrated with much,” he said. a cold brewed “There’s a lot Panama Perci N2 more education coffee. in the wine “A coffee’s industry. People Blackburn hosted a coffee and wine flavours are know about the tasting at this year's Harrogate show really going to processes and start to open up as it cools down,” the differences between New World he added. and Old World.”

Blackburn suggested that coffee In his presentation, Blackburn could be placed side by side on the encouraged the audience to taste shelves with wine and labelled with wines and coffee in tandem to the same amount of detail. highlight similarities in tasting notes. For example, Grumpy Mule’s www.grumpymule.co.uk EDITE CR

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By MICHAEL LANE

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Olive Branch has taken an unusual sidestep into the S U P LI E P preserves category with the launch of its new range of four jams made with its Cretan extra virgin olive oil.

The brand’s co-founder Kamil Shah told FFD that the move is in keeping with the brand’s ethos of using olive oil for health reasons.

“The idea behind the product is it’s really good for you to have a spoonful of olive oil in the morning,” he said. “In Greece mothers give it to their babies but, in all honesty, who

Chef patron The British Larder, Woodbridge, Suffolk www.britishlarder.co.uk

Stokes barbeque sauce www.stokessauces.co.uk

This sauce, made nearby, is fruity and fresh, with a rounded lasting flavour. It’s the best barbecue sauce on the market by miles and saves me time as I don’t need to make my own. The sauce is more expensive than some other brands but it’s worth it for the quality, plus you use less because of its good flavour.

We serve it as a condiment with our homemade burgers and hand-cut chips. We also mix a spoonful into our raw burger mix. We buy it in 2 litre tubs and in small squeezy bottles for the garden and patio.

Maple Farm spelt grains www.maplefarmkelsale.co.uk

These locally grown organic grains are more rustic than some available on the market, so you will have to do a bit of de-husking. But their lovely, earthy flavour and keen price make it worthwhile. In the game season we serve them with venison, teal, partridge and pheasant. The pairing works well as grains are what these birds have eaten. The spelt is sold at the farm gate and at farmers’ markets but we usually buy in bulk through local produce delivery service The Suffolk Providore.

Adnams First Rate gin (48%abv) www.adnams.co.uk

This silky smooth award-winning gin, made by Suffolk distiller and brewer Adnams, is distilled from three locally grown grains and infused with a blend of 13 botanicals.

We put it in cocktails such as our rhubarb & gin spritzer.

We also use it to cure rainbow trout as the spices in the gin work perfectly with the earthiness of the fish. The hibiscus and juniper tones are also good with mulberries, so we put the gin in our mulberry & gin Bakewell tart. I buy direct from the Woodbridge Adnams Shop. It’s expensive, but I believe in buying for quality rather than quantity.

Arabica Food and Spice sumac

Olive oil supplier launches range of ‘healthy’ jams

By MICHAEL LANE

Madalene Bonvini-Hamel

www.arabicafoodandspice.com

in England is going to do that?”

Each 250g pot of the jam, which comes in strawberry, apricot, cherry and forest fruits, is 25% olive oil mixed with dried fruit and honey sourced from Cretan producers.

Shah said that using honey as a sweetener rather than “mountains of sugar” further boosts the product’s healthy credentials.

The jam is available direct from Olive Branch in mixed case of 12 jars (three of each flavour) for £36.00 (incl. delivery). Each jar has an RRP of £4.99. www.myolivebranch.co.uk

I’ve tried a number of sumacs and this one really stands out.

I buy it online or, if I’m in London, from the company’s stall at Borough Market or its concession in Selfridges. I use sumac as a seasoning, and because it’s lemony, on desserts too. I put a sprinkling onto lobster and crab – just enough to get a bit of fizz on your tongue. I also put it on the blackcurrant mousse I serve with coconut & blackcurrant financier. It brings all the flavours together and balances out the sweetness and acidity.

Hillfarm Oils mayonnaise www.hillfarmoils.com

There are lots of mayonnaises out there, but this is something different – which may be why it won a two-star gold in the 2010 Great Taste Awards. It’s rich and creamy and looks and tastes genuinely homemade. You only need a little so it saves money.

It’s made by Hillfarm, near here, from their own extra virgin cold pressed rapeseed oil which gives it a fruit and nut taste and a deep yellow hue. We use the mayonnaise in the coleslaw we serve with burgers. In short, it’s the perfect chef’s cheat.

Madalene’s first book, The British Larder: a cookbook for all seasons will be published by Absolute Press in November.

Sponsored by

Found in all good delis Cheeses from Switzerland.

Olive Branch's jam comes in strawberry, apricot, cherry and forest fruits

Switzerland. Naturally.

www.switzerland-cheese.com

Vol.13 Issue 7 · August 2012

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11.06.12 17:59

Lottie Shaw’s family have been baking in Yorkshire for over

100 years and their traditional award winning recipes have been passed down through the generations.

Lottie has taken the family Yorkshire Parkin recipe and developed a range for independant retail including theYorkshire Parkin, Parkin Pudding, Parkin Biscuits, Gingerbread Men and Flapjack and we have our Seriously Good Mince Pies available at Christmas for all to enjoy.

Our products are available now through Moordale Foods, Hider Foods & Cotswold Fayre.

For further details please contact:

lottie@lottieshaws.co.uk

www.lottieshaws.co.uk S10963_Exclusivity Advert_v2_A5_v2 cream 26/06/2012 14:04 Page 1

- a great choice for the independent trade A family owned business supplying the very finest food & drink for almost 50 years Call our dedicated sales team on

g 01482 504333

C www.hiderfoods.co.uk

View all our product ranges online at

Hider Food Imports Ltd Wiltshire Road, Hull, East Yorkshire HU4 6PA e. sales@hiderfoods.co.uk

Just a few of our best-selling brands...

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This seasonal edition has notes of allspice which complement the coffee’s dried fruit notes and rich, butterscotch finish. It is available in a 227g filter ground pack (RRP £4.95) as well as both 250g and 1kg wholebean packs for cafés, coffee bars and restaurants.

www.cottagedelight.co.uk

Producer Cottage Delight is already looking towards Autumn with its new collection of rich and flavourful cooking sauces, which it says are packed full of premium ingredients.

Inspired by classic gastro pub dishes, all five flavours come with an on-pack recipe or serving suggestion.

As well as serving up to six people, the Orico jars can be used to create eyecatching in-store displays.

Caramelised red onion & stout; smokey apricot; creamy peppercorn; balsamic & red wine; and lemon, white wine & garlic all have an RRP of £4.50.

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English truffle oil

New directory

TRUFFLEHUNTER

WBC

The Gloucestershire-based supplier has created the first 100% English truffle oil made with Cotswold Gold cold pressed extra virgin rapeseed oil, English truffles hunted wild in Wiltshire and Somerset, and TruffleHunter’s own black summer truffle flavour. The oil, which has a shelf life of two years, is available in 100ml (wholesale £3.59, RRP £5.45) bottles and 250ml for foodservice.

www.wbc.co.uk

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range of pure farm-pressed fruit juices to the Scottish market earlier in the year, Fife Fruit Merchants introduced the brand south of the border at this year’s Harrogate Speciality Food Show. Its apple, apple & elderflower, apple & raspberry and apple & bramble are all pasteurised so they have a longer shelf life.

www.littlesltd.com

The Devon-based coffee roaster plans to offer its additive-free flavoured instant coffee (made with high quality Arabica) in single serve stick packs. The sticks will initially be available in Little's rich hazelnut and Bourbon vanilla flavours, sold in cartons of eight sticks for the retail market and in 200 unit cases for foodservice. The packaging of these new products is in line with a recent company-wide redesign that is being phased in over the next few months.

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Currently seeking distributors, the Isle of Wight-based producer is launching its range (which includes a chilli cherry drizzle, a raspberry dressing and a dipping oil) to the mainland. All of these products are made with locally produced rapeseed oil and fruit vinegar in small batches. Cases of 9x250ml bottles (RRP £4.95 per bottle) cost £27.

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www.keziefoods.co.uk

2012 2013

Cheese, but not as we know it

LITTLE’S SPECIALITY COFFEE

www.wildislandstore.co.uk

Exotic meat and game specialist Kezie Foods has developed a range of frozen gourmet ready-meals under a new brand Wild Gathering.

The 12-strong range, which will be available to the trade from autumn, includes wild boar hunters stew, North Indian reindeer curry and Hungarian elk goulash.

All of these additive- and preservative-free meals are handmade in Scotland and 11 out of the 12 recipes are completely dairy- and gluten-free.

These products are designed as meal centres, which Kezie says provide retailers with upselling opportunities through side dishes.

Meals are sold in 300g single servings and 600g twin servings.

RRP for the twin servings range from £6.75 to £9.75.

The producer claims this offers retailers a potential profit margin of between £2.50 and £3.60 per unit sold.

PACKAGING & CREATIVE PRESENTATION

Single serve coffee

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Oils, dressings and vinegars

Gift packaging and retail display supplier WBC has released a new product directory featuring more than 850 lines designed to help independents add value and increase sales margins. Products are available from stock, at trade prices, in low quantities, and delivered on a next-day service.

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Looking for suppliers accredited by the Guild of Fine Food?

Follow the logo

Tablet gift box

HIGHLAND FAVOURS www.lochleventabletcompany.co.uk

The producer has developed a 150g grab bag (trade £1.90) and 250g gift box (trade £3.50) of its luxury handmade Scottish tablet fudge.

While its tablet sells well all year, Highland Favours says it makes an ideal Christmas stocking filler or dinner party treat.

Having successfully launched its

www.crispysnacks.co.uk

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Crispy Snacks’ new Crunchy Cheese range are not cheese-flavoured chips but just cheese that has been dried using patented MIRVAC technology.

The products, which are made using 20% reduced fat cheese, come in three varieties – cheese with a la Italiana seasoning, cheese & carrot with bell pepper seasoning, and cheese & onion – and are available in cases of 24x20g bags.

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Pure fruit juice

FIFE FRUIT MERCHANTS

Vol.13 Issue 7 · August 2012

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A promotional feature for Avery

Your fine food perfectly I packaged f you take pride in the quality of food and produce you offer, there’s no reason you can’t be as proud of your packaging and display materials.

Creating eye-catching window signage and beautifully branded labels and tags for packaging or displays is no longer a costly, time-consuming process with Avery’s new Small Business Solutions range.

From perfectly packaged products that are just too good to say no to, right through to stylish signage and handy shelf tags that display special offers and essential extra product information. Now thanks to Avery, you can easily create all this and more from your home or work computer and printer.

Avery’s brand new Small Business Solutions range features a variety of versatile, fully customisable merchandising and marketing materials including hanging bags, product and shelf tags, pricing labels, stylish textured labels and brown kraft labels, as well as window signage and brochures. There’s even customisable

business cards and compliment slips too, for all your business needs. You can also create your very own QR code labels - great for linking customers directly to your website, Facebook or Twitter page from your products and promotional literature.

Best of all, every product in the range can be designed online and simply printed off at home as often as you like, making bulk ordering on branding materials a thing of the past!

All the design inspiration you need for your food business is just a click away with Avery’s free Design and Print Online software, where you can create your own QR codes too. You can easily personalise your materials with your very own graphics, or choose from Avery’s extensive online gallery of free designs. With thousands of stylish, professional designs to choose from, you can now be as proud of your presentation as you are of your produce!

To find out more visit www.avery.eu/smallbiz

Good food comes in great packaging

Tamper evident & film sealable plastic food packaging Reliable leadtimes and service – sensible minimum order size Products available from stock in transparent Sizes available from 30ml to 5000ml

Visit www.innavisions.com or call us for a brochure TEL; 01886 832283 EMAIL; nick.wild@innavisions.com 44

August 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 7

As award-winning industry leaders in the conception and production of cutting-edge packaging, we believe in taking the time and care to understand the needs of every client, offering a premium bespoke service from design to delivery.

Our pool of talent is ready to find the unique solution for your product. So whether you require design, sourcing, packing, co-packing, or our full suite of services; the Alexir Partnership is the complete package.

Contact: sales@alexir.co.uk partnership

shelftalk

products, promotions & people

Designs of the times Who's doing what in packaging design? Here are some recent branding exercises

So Baby

Crosta & Mollica

Figment The packaging design brief from Crosta & Mollica was to emphasise the “Really Italian” nature of its regional bakery products. Figment’s redesign employs a strong black and yellow colour scheme and exaggerated ampersand to deliver striking contrast and visibility. A distinctive yellow ribbon banding depicting the traditional Italian bakery shop canopy helps to create a memorable brand. Each product also has a region number to assign it to the specific part of Italy where it was made – again bringing to life the “made in Italy” message.

Mayday Organic baby food producer So Baby commissioned London design company Mayday to come up with a more impactful brand identity and packaging so its products could compete in a crowded market.

The existing designs lacked confidence and it was difficult for consumers to tell the flavours apart, so Mayday – whose other clients include Hampstead Tea and Womersley – opted to avoid the baby imagery that is normally used in this category. It chose a fresh colour palette and stressed the handmade and locally sourced credentials of the products. The new design also allowed Mayday to put the essential ingredients and legal copy on the base of the pack, freeing up space on top to create greater impact, clearer branding and better product differentiation.

Sphere Design Liverpool-based Sphere was charged with the task of rebranding and completely redesigning the packaging for Wiltshire cured bacon producer Case & Sons.

The firm came up with distinctive black and gold wallets in order to position the products as a “top tier” brand and has since created a companion website and support materials.

www.maydaylivingbrands.com www.so-baby.co.uk

www.spheredesign.co.uk www.caseandsonstraditionalpork.co.uk

www.figmentcreative.co.uk www.crostamollica.com

Case & Sons

Walker’s Nonsuch Toffee

Sue Landon The challenge for Sue Landon was to display Walker’s 100g bar tray toffee range upright without the products suffering from coldflow and losing shape. The designer was also briefed to revamp the wrapper to emphasise Englishness.

A clear protective tray for each individual bar overcame any shaping issues while the addition of a Union Jack to the existing ‘whack and unwrap’ logo lends a national identity to the product. www.suelandondesign. co.uk www.walkers-nonsuch. co.uk

Avery Avery has recently developed a whole range of create-yourown branding materials aimed at high-end, boutique and independent retailers. The system allows retailers to design their own brown kraft packaging labels, window signage, QR codes, tags, food packaging bags and display materials of all sorts, then print them from home printers. www.avery.co.uk Vol.13 Issue 7 · August 2012

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shelftalk

Angus Ferguson: ‘We allow people to choose their own price-point, from £5 to £200’

Cantina culture Deli of the Month INTERVIEW BY MICK WHITWORTH

Angus Ferguson’s DemiJohn chain now has three stores in northern Britain, but the Italian-inspired ‘liquid deli’ concept nearly fell at the first hurdle

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n summer 2004, newly retired army officer Angus Ferguson had just signed the lease on his first shop, in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket district, when he found one tiny detail he’d overlooked.

Amid vociferous local campaigning against what The Scotsman had dubbed a “seven days a week booze culture” and complaints of drinkers fighting and vomiting in the streets, the city hadn’t granted a new liquor licence in the Grassmarket for 15 years.

And here were Ferguson and his wife Frances, wanting to open “the world’s first liquid deli” – offering free tastings of alcohol all day long.

“The licensing board sat about five days before we were due to open,” he says. “All our money was spent, and we’d had to leave all our stock sitting in the garage. If we hadn’t got the licence we’d have been immediately broke and I’d have had to eat humble pie and go back into the army.”

Fortunately, however, the former Black Watch officer is also brimming with positivity. “I just thought: nothing is insurmountable.”

Rather than employ a “shiny suited solicitor”, he began a personal campaign, firing off scores of letters and sharing interminable cups of tea and coffee with local residents, convincing them that DemiJohn was a "grown-up" business that would enhance the area, not a drinking den.

And it worked. Despite a shaky start at the licensing board meeting, where his application was slated for immediate refusal, Ferguson was surprised to find he had secured the backing not only of the Grassmarket’s local councillor but of the very “old ladies with blue rinses and handbags” who had been among his chief opponents.

“Unbeknownst to us, we’d turned them round.”

Ferguson’s influencing skills are a legacy of his 10 years in the

Royal Highland Regiment, and they’re evident the moment I walk into DemiJohn’s York store at 11am on a late June morning.“We meet at last!” he says, thrusting out a friendly hand, and within minutes he’s passing spoons of balsamic vinegar and shot glasses of fruit liqueur to me faster than I can handle them.

By 11.30am I’ve sampled a Tuscan single estate olive oil from Villa Montalbano; the same oil with a dash of 12-year-old Balsamico Tradizionale from the Tagliavini family in Ponterotto, just north of Modena; a raspberry vinegar from the kitchens of Burberry Fruit Farm in Comrie, Perthshire; a Seville orange gin liqueur from the Hingston family in Worcestershire (“I call it ‘marmalade gin’,” says Ferguson); a gooseberry gin liqueur made by former hospital pharmacist Rosie Sedgwick in Cheshire; a rhubarb vodka from Andrew Lyle, who grows four acres of rhubarb

products, promotions & people a year on his farm near Inverness; and a Brammle (blackberry) Scotch whisky liqueur from Robin and Derry Ford’s Scots Cheer in East Lothian.

And possibly some others. I did rather lose track.

Ferguson styles DemiJohn as “the liquid deli where you taste the origin”. Visually, it bears little resemblance to any deli I’ve seen, with a range of just 30 or so oils and vinegars and a similar number of liqueurs and spirits, and nowt else except the fancy bottles to buy them in. There’s no solid food at all.

Among the latest additions is a wild bullace liqueur, again made

by Colin and Phylis Hingston. The scarce, damson-like hedgerow fruit gives a bitter edge that could go horribly wrong but doesn’t, and like many of the liqueurs in DemiJohn the trick is in some clever balancing of flavours.

The business has 14-15 “very talented” producers, says Ferguson, many of them farmhouse operations, and DemiJohn has worked with them to create products that will justify top-ofthe-market prices. Most of the liqueurs sell at between £3.80 and £5.20 for 100ml – and that’s before you’ve paid £2.50-plus for a fancy, refillable bottle to take them home in. The priciest balsamic is the Tagliavini family’s 25-year-old Extravecchio. “It’s £50 for 100ml and it’s world class,” says Ferguson.

“But the others are for everyday consumption.”

Products are arranged along each wall – oils one side, alcohol the other – in globular glass demijohns, with rows of empty bottles for filling and a few others ready-filled and in gift-packs. It could be a posh apothecary’s shop or a perfumery.

But the schtick is pure deli: get you in there, stick a spoon or a shot glass in your hand, wow you with a tasting then charm you with the back-story.

Ferguson says the soft sell is a key part of the way DemiJohn does business. “We’re very, very gentle. And I think that comes from the belief that we’re the best, so we don’t need to act like carpet salesmen.”

Do some potential punters find the unusual look of the shop off-putting? “There’s definitely a scariness about venturing through the door,” he confirms. “Some people think it looks complicated and that they won’t understand it. Some might even construe it as a bit silly.

But with the foodie revolution people don’t all want to buy from Tescopolis.

“We give them a bit of the story, and you can see it in people’s faces: it’s different, it’s fun.”

Ferguson opened DemiJohn with wife Frances just a month after he retired from the military.

They began in Edinburgh’s Victoria Street, opened in Glasgow’s bohemian West End in 2006, then

The format is unusual, but ‘people don’t all want to buy from Tescopolis’

set up a web sales operation before Derry Ford, deciding there must launching store number three in be scope to do something good York in 2009. They’re hoping to with these artisan-made products. open a fourth next year, possibly The business today is almost a cocloser to London. operative, he says, inasmuch as it’s The business was inspired partly underpinned by the small producers

by Ferguson’s travels in khaki: in for which it provides a retail outlet.

10 years with the Royal Highland The company has just secured Regiment he and his wife ate and funding from Scottish Enterprise to drank their way around many of the develop its online shop – it already UK’s overseas outposts. “When we sends product all over the world – came back, I could have done the and Ferguson says: “I think Scottish great ex-army thing of banking or Enterprise thought that if they security, but it was food for me.” helped us, they’d also be creating The roots of his taste-beforejobs in all these other businesses you-buy format around the lie in a year country.”

We give them a bit of spent on work DemiJohn the story, and you can placement in turned over see it in people’s faces: southern Italy around £750,000 while studying last year (roughly it’s different, it’s fun.

Industrial Design £250k per store) at the University of Northumbria. In and, with growth running at around those days, he says, students knew 30%, Ferguson hopes to top £1m how to drink and he would fill jerry this year. That’s not a huge figure cans with wine from the bulk drums for a business with outlets in three found in local cantinas. He grew to major cities, but he says the shops love the Italian approach to food. are in secondary locations, so rents “It’s the simplicity of it. I was there are not prohibitive. And with just way before Jamie Oliver.”

60 products bought in bulk and At first, he envisaged DemiJohn displayed on simple timber shelving as “a massive emporium full of olive the capital tied up in each store is oils”, but he widened into liqueurs minimal. The Edinburgh shop was after meeting the likes of Robin and set up with a £14.5k investment

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and repaid that within months of opening.

But DemiJohn is so different from a conventional deli that it’s hard to grasp Ferguson’s business model, or see how he has kept afloat, selling relatively small quantities of very expensive products in a high-service environment during a downturn.

Engagement with the customer is part of the answer, he says.

“There’s definitely an art to what we do – and there’s a reason why not everyone is doing it. It’s staff intensive. A lot of people operate on beep retailing [he mimes a supermarket checkout scanner] and you can’t engage like that.”

He thinks the idea of refillable bottles appeals in a recession – an estimated 25% of sales are refills – but more importantly, shoppers can opt to trade down if money is tight.

“We allow people to choose their own price-point, from £5 to £200.”

He also looks for opportunities to sell outside the four walls of the shop. His latest venture is a DemiJohn cocktail bar, which was due to be launched at the sadly washed-out Scottish Game Fair but should feature at the Huddersfield Food & Drink festival this month.

And then there are trade sales.

“Lots of other businesses say, ‘Angus, will you supply us?’ And we do if we can see a bit of cross-over.

“We do a little bit of bottling and sell gift sets to a few other nice delis. We also have mixologists who take the odd bottle to their bars to mix cocktails, and are then telling people ‘This stuff is only available in DemiJohn’.

“And we have very good relationships with people like The Iglu bar and bistro in Edinburgh, whose customers are hardcore foodies.”

He adds: “People ask how you get through a recession, and part of the answer is to get close to businesses that are complementary.

There’s a lot you can do. It’s good old-fashioned social networking – it’s called talking.”

Supplier relationships have been important too. Although Ferguson describes himself as “such a Scot” when it comes to paying bills and an avid negotiator (“I could have been a Turkish rug seller”) he says he’s not going down the Tesco route of screwing suppliers into bankruptcy to make billions for himself. “This is a long-term thing, and I want us all to still be here in 10 years’ time.”

What goes around comes around, and when Ferguson asked his suppliers for extra credit when he was opening the York shop not one of them refused. “I do think it’s worth doing business the oldfashioned way,” he says. “Look at what’s happening in Europe. That’s an implosion. It’s going to get a little bit bouncy, so we need to be there for each other.” www.demijohn.co.uk

Vol.13 Issue 7 · August 2012

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RetailReady 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 October 9-10 2012.

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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August 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 7

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.

❞

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

shelftalk

products, promotions & people

Stars of my shelves at Harrogate 2012 Visitors to June’s Harrogate Speciality Food Show couldn’t miss MICK WHITWORTH’s personal Editor’s Choice of new products – handsomely displayed on WBC shelving Kandula Strawberry hibiscus infusion tea bags Thumbs-up all round in the FFD office, where we do get through some hot beverages.

A good balance of fruit and spices, and you can really taste every ingredient.

Munchy Seeds Honey seeds These inspire a lot of that Michel-Roux-nodding-inapproval you see on Masterchef. A little burst of sweetness you can kid yourself is healthy.

The Smoked Olive Anchovy smoked olives Anchovy stuffed olives for people who don’t like anchovies – like my wife, who freaked out over these and wolfed the lot.

Forest Pig Charcuterie Shropshire coppa A worthy British alternative to Continental charcuterie, Forest Pig’s spicy, flavoursome coppa uses neck meat from free-range pigs that are finished in Shropshire woodland.

Little Doone Sweet balsamic dressing - lime zest Little Doone dressing always deliver what they say on the label. I sat in the office, sipping this off the spoon as if it were a liqueur.

Cheese Cellar Dell’ami Putanesca olives Putanesca is my fall-back pungent pasta sauce and this new mix, using tangy, pitted Halkidiki olives, has all that sun-dried tomato, chilli and caper flavour in a fresh form.

Adlington Midshires rosé veal Rose veal offers a higher-welfare alternative to the calf meat that many consumers are squeamish about, so why not encourage it. A natural for farm shops.

Scrubbys Foods Vegetable crisps I’m not a big consumer of veg crisps myself, but I do know there’s not a great choice now Tyrrells has bought Glennans.

These are well branded, with a bit of humour. Could fill a gap.

The Fresh Pasta Company Hand-made artichoke heart tortelloni FPC is uncommonly good at making DIY pasta seem not worth the fiddle. The perfect quick ‘kitchen supper’ for hard-working politicians everywhere.

Metro Drinks Folkington’s cloudy pear juice Not-from-concentrate Conference and Comice juice, plus Kentish Conference purée. Nice premium feel and suits my sweet tooth.

Jumi & HP Belper Knolle cows’ milk cheese It’s a weird little thing, and you wouldn’t eat it on its own, but Jumi’s signature product – a hard-dried ball of cow’s milk cheese with garlic and Himalayan salt, rolled in black pepper – is an incredible addition to pasta. It’s fun to use, too.

Etruscany Pasta Toscana whole wheat pasta If your response to the phrase “whole wheat pasta” is “why?” then look away now. I found this brand’s penne a little hard work at the recommended cooking time, but the spaghetti, with a little oil and grated Belper Knolle (also featured here) made a meal in itself.

Olive Branch Extra virgin olive oil What I like most about this pleasantly peppery little number is the label, using a little schematic diagram to push its key messages – “hand-picked”, “brimming with goodness”, “high grade”. The kind of friendly branding Jamie O might come out with.

GST Europe Gemignani Italian sun-dried tomatoes with black truffle slices One for the serious truffle-lover, inasmuch as the tomatoes and olive oil are thoroughly infused with the stuff. The Tuscan producer has been preserving truffles for half a century.

Davenport’s Chocolates Vintage Collection chocolates Davenport’s Jane Williams delivers a well-presented selection of handmade chocs with more than a nod to the retro market.

Bonny Confectionery Bonny Mallows strawberry & vanilla marshmallow pops A terrific little gift package. RRP is £2.99 and I could imagine it going higher in some outlets: what well-heeled granny would deny her granddaughter one of these?

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classified • baking equipment

Do you make PIES or other sorts of pastry products?

We make incredibly versatile PIE MACHINES 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

 Packaging Ltd • food processing machinery

• ingredients

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Suppliers of bottling and packaging equipment to artisan producers in the food production industry.

Depositing & filling machines Capping and crowning machines Labelling and coding machines Label dispensers Tel: 01920 484050 E: nosborne@acosales.co.uk www.acosales.co.uk

OR EMAIL spencer@johnhuntbolton.co.uk

JOHN HUNT (Bolton) Ltd Rasbottom St, Bolton, England BL3 5BZ

• baking equipment

• ingredients food processing machinery

• labelling

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The heart of UK food manufacturing

Sugar Dextrose Sweetened condensed milk

Butter Dairy powders Bespoke dairy blends

All prices are GB Pounds Sterling and are supplied ex-VAT and ex-Works unless otherwise stated. The goods hereby supplied shall Tel:in (01454) 411446 remainsales@garrettingredients.co.uk the property of the seller until such time as payment for the product has been made in full. Any discrepancies to be made in writing www.garrettingredients.co.uk within 7 days of receipt. All goods are supplied against our standard terms and conditions which are available on request.

E & O.E. Company Reg. GB996055 VAT Reg. No. 801981926

• bottles & jars

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

Freshness & Flavour sealed in ice

Pure, Chilled or Frozen Lemon, Lime & Orange Zest & Juices

can be supplied as non-organic, organic or wax-free

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

Tel: 020 7407 3200 Fax: 020 7407 5877

www.FrenchFlint.com

• food processing machinery

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

Tel: 01404 892100 Fax: 01404 890263 Email: info@vigoltd.com www.vigoltd.com

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Produced to order by FA Young Farm Produce Ltd., Timsbury, Bath, Somerset BA2 0FQ

01761 470523 F: 01761 471018 E: info@zumozest.com w: www.zumozest.com

T:

Fine Food Classified 2012_Layout 2 28/06/2 • ingredients • labelling

The one-stop shop for everyone working with chocolate...

Chocolate Ingredients Décor Packaging

• labelling

Ser ving the Food and Drink industr y since 1980

Self adhesive labels and swing tags for food and drinks Visit our website for examples of our work and testimonials www.inkreadible.com or ring us to discuss your requirements 0800 096 2720 email: sales@inkreadible.com

Equipment Moulds

www.keylink.org Tel: 0114 245 5400

Tel: 01603 721804 Mobile: 07711437242 www.fda-packaging.com

Call our sales team on 01963 824464 today to discuss the right classified heading for your equipment, ingredients or services

• packaging

• packaging

• packaging

• refrigeration

Packaging CODING AND MARKING SYSTEMS FOR FOOD AND PHARMACEUTICAL

Foil & PET Diaphragms

New

Paper packaging, labelled and direct print containers

• packaging Tamper Evident Packaging

Tamper evident & film sealable plastic food packaging

Hire

Hire-to-Buy

Reliable leadtimes and service - sensible minimum order size Sizes available from 30ml to 5000ml Visit www.innavisions.com or call us for a brochure TEL: 01886 832283 EMAIL: nick.wild@innavisions.com • refrigeration

Heat seal machines for pots, bottles, trays and ALL types of packaging Low cost hand operated, semi automatic and fully automated systems Specialist suppliers to small & medium sized food companies

BUY ONLINE www.

Refurbished

Offline sleeve and watch strap band feeders Ink jet printers - 5yr warranty on new units Hot Foil & Thermal Transfer Printers Laser coding systems

SiS

Seal-it-Systems

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

FOOD SAFETY

DEPOSITORS & PACKAGING SYSTEMS MEATS/SEAFOODS & READY MEALS Depositors for sauces and dressings Pot fillers and liquid fillers Vertical Form Fill Seal Thermoformers Tray sealers Pumps

Make sure you’re meeting legal requirements for food safety.

Level 2 Food Safety online £25 Level 3 Food Safety online £125 Meat managers hygiene and HACCP training of all levels

At your own premises or in Skipton, North Yorks.

01756 708526 / office@vwa.co.uk

t: 0151 547 6700

For more information call 01962 761761 info@printsafe.co.uk www.printsafe.co.uk

Purchase with confidence from a company that has been trading since 1952!

• temperature moitoring

Training from the Guild of Fine Food What will you learn?

1. The five golden rules for increasing deli sales 2. How to select the best cheese and charcuterie 3. How to create the best counter display • ingredients • training 4. How to avoid bad quality cheese and charcuterie 5. How to sell proactively rather than reactively 6. The difference between artisan and mass-produced cheeses and meats through comparative tastings For more information:

Training & Consultancy

Verner Wheelock Associates

parkerspackagingdirect.com

• packaging

• training

E-mail: linda.farrand@finefoodworld.co.uk Tel: 01963 824464 www.finefoodworld.co.uk

• training

www.vwa.co.uk • washing equipment

• packaging

Course costs

Members of The Guild of Fine Food just £70, plus VAT (@ 20%). Non-members £95, plus VAT (@ 20%). *NB. Unfortunately there is a £10 plus VAT (@ 20%) surcharge for London training dates due to higher venue costs.

Vol.13 Issue 7 · August 2012

51

cafés | caterers | delis | farm shops | hotels | restaurants | retailers | wholesalers

The quintessential trade event for fine food

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August 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 7