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CONTENTS
editorial@gff.co.uk
Editor: Michael Lane
Deputy editor: Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox
Art director: Mark Windsor
Contributors: Lynda Searby, Nick Baines, Claire Bullen, Matthew Horwood, Patrick McGuigan, Greg Pitcher
opportunities@gff.co.uk
Sales and publishing director: Sally Coley
Senior sales account manager: Becky Haskett
I’ve been pondering how these loud, culturally dominant and increasingly perilous social media platforms will impact employers.
By Michael Lane, editor
There have long been debates about the pros and cons of social media but it feels like public discourse in 2025 has really begun to shi towards closer scrutiny of the latter.
You can’t avoid those muchtalked-about TV dramas examining the spread of toxic masculinity, the BBC’s bass-heavy ads about challenging disinformation and a creeping realisation about how much our smartphones are recording us and tailoring our feeds.
Even in our market I’ve noticed a change of sentiment. During the farm shop discussion that I chaired and reported on in our last issue, several owners around the table said they were using social media less for marketing and in their personal lives. The consensus was that we’re all bombarding each other too much these days.
Recently, I’ve been pondering how these loud, culturally dominant and increasingly perilous platforms will impact employers and their
relationships with sta .
There have been a few examples of social media activity leading to dismissals in the past. There was the man who appeared in a video post skiing naked and promptly lost his job. Then there was a lady who tweeted something racist as she got on a plane and was e ectively terminated when she landed. In the last month or so, some of you will have picked up on the case of the high-end supermarket employee who was sacked for posting cartoons, polls and opinions that he himself described as “conservative”. What they all have in common is that they went viral, with the supermarket employee re-posted by a very prominent social media boss (I’ll give you one guess…).
The rst two examples are e ectively wrongdoing while ‘o the clock’, but what’s bothering me is that the third one is not as clear cut. You may or may not agree with some of his posts but most of them
Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox, deputy editor
Accounts assistant: Julie Coates
Finance director: Ashley Warden support@gff.co.uk
Managing director: John Farrand
Associate managing director: Christabel Cairns
Partner relations director: Tortie Farrand
Chairman: Bob Farrand
Marketing officer: Jenna Morice
Marketing and operations
assistant: Frances Coleman
Sales assistant: Henry Coley
qualify as political opinion. And it wasn’t as though he was stood on the shop oor in his uniform forcing his views on customers.
So, were his employers right to sack him for expressing an opinion while his apron was rmly hung up?
I’m not defending any of the parties involved but it seems to me that this won’t be the last case of “free speech vs company values” that hits the headlines.
Not being entirely immune to the digital algorithms myself, I saw a post the other day about a street food outlet and noticed they had a handwritten sign – in several languages – politely requesting customers didn’t talk about politics or religion on the premises. I’m very much inclined to agree.
As always, this issue is very much about food & drink and the business of selling it. I hope it proves to be a welcome antidote to all the other “content” that seems to be in ltrating our lives these days.
Everything is a fermented product these days. Nevermind that we’ve been
and
wine for centuries. These inventive and (all importantly) new snacks are made with fermented, freezedried coconut and a variety of fondant fillings – coconut, cashew or almond. With their pleasing crispy exterior and soft, melting middle, very happy to munch on these at regardless of their gut-friendly properties.
PR & partnerships officer: Claire Fry
Data strategy & insight manager: Lindsay Farrar
Operations manager: Claire Powell
Operations coordinators: Chris Farrand, Sepi Rowshanaei, Chloë Warren-Wood
Operations & events coordinator: Zara Williams
Operations assistant: Jessica Radley
Published by The Guild of Fine Food Ltd Fine Food Digest is published 11 times a year and is available on subscription for £50 p.a. inc P&P.
Chutney and jam producer Cherry Tree Preserves has opened a shop in Weymouth, Dorset. The maker launched its first outlet in Minehead, Somerset last year and says it will open more in the future.
M&S is set to invest £50m in stores across the north west of England this year, having recently launched a new full-line store in Warrington. It has plans to open six more sites in Speke, Formby, ThorntonCleveleys, Warrington, Blackburn and Bolton.
11 councils have signed up to the Government’s High Street Rental Auction scheme, devised to fill vacant high street shops by allowing councils to auction leases for properties that have been empty for more than 12 months over a 24-month period.
US trade tari s increase odds of new EU-UK trade deal on fresh food
By Greg Pitcher
The tari war sparked by the US provides a perfect opportunity for the UK to strike a deal with the EU to reduce friction in crossChannel trade of fresh food, industry experts have claimed.
President Trump placed import duties of up to 125% on various countries and products in April before putting many of the fees on hold for 90 days.
Some countries retaliated with tari s on US goods, and share prices tumbled around the world as uncertainty grew about international trade.
Meanwhile UK prime minister Keir Starmer is set to attend a summit with European leaders in London on 29th May hoping to “strengthen the unique relationship” with the EU.
Hugo Meyer Esquerré, director of Provisions Wine and Cheese, said uncertainty about the future of trade across the Atlantic made it more pressing than
Teals founders reveal Lincs location for second site
Work has begun on another outpost for Somerset farm shop, Teals, this time on the Burghley Estate at Wothorpe in Lincolnshire.
Plans include a shop selling local food, drink and gifts; a restaurant, and a food-to-go offer. This collaboration with Burghley, Teals founder Ash Sinfield said, is “consistent with our
between producers and guests whilst cultivating a shared pride and enthusiasm for the region’s heritage, the faces, stories and dedication behind the products. By sourcing from nearby farms and artisanal makers, Teals also ensures access to the freshest ingredients from the local area, benefitting guests, the local economy and the environment.”
ever to improve the climate for buying and selling over the Channel.
He said stringent new rules and checks since Brexit had been “di cult” for the London-based importer, retailer and wholesaler.
A veterinary agreement – also known as a sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) deal – would reduce the need for checks that added delays, cost and uncertainty to imports of agri-food from Europe, Esquerré said.
“It would tackle in ation and help us
o er a greater range of products.”
With the EU staring down the barrel of a 20% tax to sell in the US, many producers on the continent will be eyeing increased business across the Channel, he added.
“What is happening around the world o ers the best opportunity to strike a trade deal between the UK and EU that will help restore some of the trading links the two places always had.”
John Clarke, trade policy adviser at public
a airs agency FIPRA, agreed that the tari war increased the chances of a new deal with Europe.
He warned that the stakes were high, with a recent European Commission strategy document mooting an agri-food safety taskforce to oversee “a powerful strengthening of controls on the ground”.
“Without a very strong veterinary or SPS agreement, the EU will legitimately introduce more rigorous health and safety checks on food imports, mainly meat and dairy,” said Clarke.
He called for a deal that would see health-check processes each side of the Channel either harmonised or recognised.
Number 10 Downing Street said in April that the forthcoming summit will “provide an opportunity to make further progress on areas which will deliver tangible bene ts for the people of the UK and the EU”.
Calls for extra UK import controls to address risk of animal-disease outbreaks
Livestock leaders have called for a crackdown on meat imports as a former minister and food standards chief questioned the Government’s readiness to deal with a major animal-disease outbreak.
National Farmers Union president Tom Bradshaw said members were “worried that the current import controls don’t match the scale of the threat to the nation’s biosecurity”.
Cases of foot and mouth in Germany earlier this year have been followed by reports of the disease’s emergence in Hungary. Meanwhile thousands of pigs have reportedly been
slaughtered in Italy in recent years following fears over African swine fever.
Bradshaw said:
“Disease outbreaks are not only a threat to the national economy, but the UK’s ability to trade.
“As an island nation we have a natural advantage, but this means nothing without fit-for-purpose import controls which address the needs and concerns of different sectors.
“We need to see a more comprehensive biosecurity plan established across Government with the necessary investment behind it to minimise the risks to British
farming and the food we produce.”
Lord Rooker, a former animal health minister and Food Standards Agency chair, said a disease outbreak could “destroy the public’s confidence”.
He added: “It should be central Government which drives biosecurity forward... but I’m not sure the awareness of the potential impacts is there.
“This Government has a habit of ignoring countryside issues, but this is not a countryside issue, it’s an economic one.
“It must be taken seriously. If not, we’re in real trouble.”
Trump’s tariffs slapped a 10% levy on all UK goods exports to the US
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING ABOUT...
...PROVIDING PERSONAL SERVICE
SANGITA TRYNER, DELILAH FINE FOODS
“We can learn some things from the big guys: information is king. But it is important how you use it; people can unsubscribe easily if you bombard them with rubbish. It is about finding out what people want and delivering it.”
VANESSA PITT, FODDER
“We operate a loyalty scheme and we are working to ensure we can achieve maximum benefit from that. We have a team of expert staff who know our products inside out. Our counters are permanently manned to interact with customers, and our staff, in turn, receive feedback from our customers.”
BRYAN ROBERTS, IGD
“Larger retailers have vast CRM systems, insights capabilities and loyalty schemes to underpin personalised communications and promotions. Smaller retailers have opportunities via mailing lists and genuinely personal service in store. We must remember the importance of human interaction and in-store experience – areas where independent retailers can excel.”
Indies should take steps to keep up with supermarkets’ data-driven strategies
By Greg Pitcher
Independent food retailers should learn from how chain grocers are targeting customers through technology, while ensuring they retain the human touch that can set them apart, key gures have urged.
Several major supermarkets have signaled their intention to focus on individual tastes and needs when selling their produce.
Waitrose revealed it is running trials of o ering “more personalised options” on deli counters, while Marks and Spencer chairman Archie Norman reportedly said he wanted M&S to become “the most personalised retailer in Britain”.
Tesco recently revealed a pilot scheme reducing prices for some Clubcard users’ frequent purchases. Sainsbury’s is reported to have partnered with an e-commerce specialist
to o er better options to customers at online checkouts.
Bryan Roberts, retail futures lead on loyalty for consultancy IGD, said advanced technology was becoming a “critical tool” for pro tability.
“As shoppers’ expectations continue to rise, retailers must create products and services that meet the growing demand for more personalisation.”
However, he said it was important for smaller shops to achieve this
New suppliers, less UPF helps Westmorland pro ts rise
Motorway services business
Westmorland hailed a reduction in ultra-processed food and investment in specialist counters as it increased profit last year.
The Cumbrian company posted pre-tax profit of £6.3m for the 12 months to 30 June 2024.
This was up almost a quarter from the prior year despite a small fall in turnover to £138.7m.
While the dip in revenue was primarily attributed to lower fuel prices, the firm said the rest of its business saw increased income.
Westmorland said it spent almost £7m on various projects in the latest period, with a chunk
of this going to extend Cairn Lodge Farmshop on the M74 south of Glasgow.
The company also invested in designs and plans for a mooted upgrade of its original Tebay Services on the M6 in Cumbria, which has its own farm shop.
Westmorland said it started working with 62 new producers, taking its total above 400 within 30mile radiuses of its various locations.
“Last year we undertook a review of our food sourcing policy with a view to reducing the amount of ultra-processed food (UPF) in our supply chain,” added the company in a report accompanying its latest results.
without losing the “human interaction and in-store experience” that gave them an edge over big chains.
Sangita Tryner, owner of Delilah Fine Foods in Nottingham, insisted that despite their budgets and databases, supermarkets could not personalise their o ers as well as independents.
“It is the way we di erentiate ourselves,” she said. “We talk to every person who comes through the door – if that isn’t personal, I don’t know what
is. And everything is made to order, I can’t imagine the bigger beasts doing that.”
However, she warned others not to be complacent.
“We need to get smarter about direct marketing, ensure it is reaching the right people. Getting information from people is important too, we don’t want to abuse it but we want to help them get the right product.”
Vanessa Pitt, general manager of Fodder, said the Yorkshire food hall was “very close” to customers so it understood their “needs and wants”.
She added that Fodder had recently introduced tasting tables so suppliers can “showcase their produce and receive feedback”.
“This level of service and interaction is completely standard for us but, as other retailers extend their o ers, I am sure we will continue to explore how we can improve our own,” said Pitt.
This led to “practical changes” such as switching to all-butter puff pastry and coldpressed rapeseed oil.
“We continue our focus on removing unnecessary UPF by cultivating our ethos of ‘home-cooked food’ throughout our business and supply chain.”
Westmorland said it had introduced gelato and coffee counters at all of its motorway services.
Westmorland is also set to open a fourth motorway site, Tatton Services, in Cheshire, after getting the green light from the Secretary of State in March. The services will include a farm shop, a 100-bed hotel, a filling station and 96 EV charging spaces.
Companies could see as much as 10% wiped from their annual turnover as the Competition and Markets’ Authority has been granted greater powers to punish breaches of consumer protection laws perceived as greenwashing. Focusing on the most “egregious harms”, the CMA will seek to tackle aggressive sales practices o ering blatantly false information – including misleading environmental claims. For example, it will clamp down on companies claiming a product is sustainable without accounting for a product’s full lifecycle, or making environmental claims that omit information about a product.
Indies recognise the need for a tailored customer experience but say loyalty schemes and data collection aren’t enough
Delilah named Deli of the Year at the FS&D Retailer Awards 2025
By Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox
Delilah Fine Foods of Nottingham was awarded two of the top prizes at the Farm Shop & Deli Retailer Awards 2025, announced at the Farm Shop & Deli Show at the NEC in Birmingham in April.
Judges described Delilah – established in 2005 by owner Sangita Tryner and already recipient of many accolades – as “an inspiration to all in retail, hospitality and service”, naming the business Deli of the Year for 2025, and regional winner for the Midlands.
They praised the business for its commitment to staff development, high training standards, sustainability efforts and strong relationships with suppliers.
Other notable victors included Field & Fork in Wootton Wawen, near Henley-in-Arden – launched by Mark Tate, Paul Tate
Former NFU chief hired by Defra
Ex-NFU President Baroness Batters has been appointed to lead a Farm Profitability Review being carried out by Defra, to support commercial improvements as part of the Government’s New Deal for Farmers.
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Steve Reed said Batters’ experience made her “uniquely placed” to take on the task.
Batters said it would be highly challenging, adding: “There will not be one ‘silver bullet’ to fire but I’m hopeful this review can make a difference to a sector that produces the nation’s food, underpins the rural economy and delivers so much for the environment.”
and Mark Cox in late 2023 – which was named Newcomer of the Year. Farmer Copleys claimed both the Large Farm Shop of the Year title and the regional award for the North of England.
Brunswick Organic Nursery Shop (BON Shop), part of a York-based charity providing jobs and training for people with learning
difficulties, was named Small Farm Shop of the Year.
The awards followed months of assessment by a panel of 24 judges. Online entries were shortlisted in November, followed by anonymous visits throughout January and February.
Chairman Nigel Barden was joined by co-chair
The Old Tractor Shed Farm Shop in Brookland, Kent, has installed vending machines outside its shop, and now offers milkshakes, fruits, vegetables, pies, cheese, eggs, meat and milk from dispensaries housed in a shipping container at the front of the farm shop. The food is accessible from 7am to 9pm. facebook.com/Theold tractorshedfarmshop
15 year-old Drewton’s Farm Shop near South Cave in Yorkshire has completed a £350,000 expansion, which includes the addition of a new dog-friendly dining area, The Terrace, and The Orangery, which it says will offer more flexibility to guests using its existing wedding and events space. drewtons.co.uk
Algy’s Farm Shop in Bintree, Norfolk, has quadrupled the size of its retail space with a new purpose-built structure. The former shop has now been turned into a café. algys.co.uk
Elaine Lemm, celebrated journalist and food writer, alongside judges including Fieldfare MD Matt Whelan, Moseley Farmer’s Market director Radley Russell, and senior trade, retail and wholesale figures.
Barden said that despite a cautious retail climate, it had been a strong year for the awards: “We are grateful for the quality of the entries and gratified that busy retailers still found time to take part.”
He noted that 25 additional visits were made to determine the winners, and that online retailers were “put through their paces.”
He described Delilah Fine Foods as an “overnight success of 20 years”, adding: “Sangita Tryner continues to motivate her team to run an excitingly ground-breaking deli.” “It’s been a privilege to see the hard graft and endeavour of all these talented retailers acknowledged.” farmshopanddelishow. co.uk/awards
IN BRIEF
In view of delivering the objectives of its National Food Strategy, the Gov’t has launched the Food Strategy Advisory, whose board will meet monthly to align health, industry and environmental goals.
Former Royal chef George Brentnall has been hired as the general manager at the Norfolk Food Hall, a £3m farm shop and restaurant set to open this month.
Five convictions have followed on an investigation by the NFCU which found meat deemed unfit for human consumption illegally diverted back into the food chain. The chicken, beef burgers, and lamb testicles had been sent to Fears Animal Byproducts to be into pet food or safely disposed of.
A farm shop that closed in May last year has reopened under new management. The Hog and Hen Farm Shop near Stonham Aspal in Suffolk has a new play area, which includes a sandpit, mud kitchen, slides and a zip wire; a revamped café menu and farm shop. facebook.com/ hogandhenfarmshop
Blackmarsh Farm, just outside Sherborne in Somerset is home to the Black Shed Flower Farm and, since January, The Farmyard Kitchen – a café selling dishes made with local ingredients. It has also submitted planning permission for a farm shop. huntsfoodhall.co.uk/ thefarmyardkitchen
Delilah Fine Foods, Kale and Corn and Farmer Copleys were among the winners of the Farm Shop & Deli Retailer Awards 2025
for 2025
Our Wildflower Meadow collection embraces three comforting fruit flavours, complementing the whimsical charm of nature. www.grandma-wilds.co.uk
IF I’D KNOWN THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW...
MATT HOMFRAY, partner, Forage Farm Shop & Kitchen, Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan
My family has farmed Penllyn Estate for 180 years. We first had the idea of opening a farm shop in the 1980s, when my grandfather ran the farm. But at that time the access road into the farm made it impossible to get planning consent. That all changed six years ago when we were approached by the council to sell some land for the local development plan. As part of the deal, we were able to build a new access road, and the sale of the land provided the capital investment for the shop.
We’ve always been blessed with good footfall by virtue of our location on the A48, so it has been a question of how to monetise that. We realised that the engine of our farm shop is our restaurant, and have been doubling down on this. We are soon expanding from 65 to 85 covers and have recently added a brasserie style evening dinner offering, fulfilling our dream of having a steakhouse that serves meat from our own Aberdeen Angus cattle. It’s not easy to straddle breakfast, lunch and dinner, because the vibe is totally different, but we want to be successful at all three.
Butchery is the heartbeat of our retail offering; it replicates the personalised high street experience with meat from the estate. The shop is all about supporting local producers; our planning consent stipulates that 70% of the produce must be Welsh. The difficulty here is that small producers rarely have a wholesale price. They are used to selling at farmers’ markets where they only have a retail price. They therefore struggle to offer us enough of a discount to make a margin on their products while maintaining price parity with their retail prices. We try to work with producers to find solutions, such as guaranteeing certain volumes, but we can’t always reach a mutually agreeable wholesale price and as a result, there are lots of fantastic products we would love to stock but can’t.
A couple of years ago, we tried launching a Pret-style ‘grab and go’ café, but the weather dependency of that made it difficult. On sunny days we would sell out and on rainy days it was dead. We couldn’t just dial our staff and our production up and down at short notice and we had to close it. That’s not to say it was a mistake - we spent a lot on the renovations but there was no way of knowing whether it would work until we actually tried it. Farm shops are not hugely profitable businesses - most can only hope to make 7.5% net profit and that is after they have optimised all their processes and worked out what works - which is where we are at.
Interview Lynda Searby
Photography Matthew Horwood
View from HQ
FFD’s publisher and Guild of Fine Food managing director John Farrand has his say
I’M ASSUMING THAT not many of you made it to the Continent for Easter. It is, a er all, the beginning of the retail year and you should have been behind the counter, on the production line or delivering last-minute orders. It’s full steam ahead to Christmas now, gang.
But if you did sneak over to France, Italy or Spain for a long weekend, were you tempted to conceal a pack of Jamon Ibérico, or a Reblochon in your bag?
Continental meats and cheeses have increased in price since Brexit policy has bitten, but if you get whacked with a £5,000 ne too, they’ll need to be mind-blowingly good to justify that price tag.
WORLD CHEESE AWARDS 2025 ENTRY OPENS NEXT MONTH
Entry to the World Cheese Awards 2025 opens next month, on Thursday 12th June.
Entry will close on Tuesday 16th September, or earlier if the entry cap is reached before the deadline. Don’t miss out on a spot, get your entries in early!
Cheesemakers wishing to take part can find out more about the competition and submitting entries here: gff. co.uk/worldcheese
This year’s awards are taking place in Bern, Switzerland from 13th to 15th November as part of the Capital of Cheese festival.
Because we are all food & drink professionals, we understand food security. We know that we need to protect our livestock farmers, and we know that the UK has higher welfare and food quality standards that need defending. We must protect our borders. Anyone who remembers 2001 and the smoking piles of cow carcasses will be resolute in not letting that happen again.
And so, the recent last-minute decision to block holidaymakers bringing back meat or dairy products from the EU may make sense, although my operational brain is melting at how to enforce that at every port. Once you’ve queued for an hour at passport control, you’ll queue for another at Camembert control.
This ends a loophole (or possibly an irony) that irked. In a recent end of 2024 snapshot report by the Food & Drink Federation, which states that exports from the UK to the EU were down a third in the last ve years, goes on to highlight issues around my current soapbox
subject: trade samples.
It reads: ‘Importing samples is needlessly complicated and is o en too costly for such a small quantity of product… A 2kg personal import of the same product can be brought into the UK with no requirements and consumed at home.’
Exporting samples is painful too, for the sake of balance. And you kind of need to do it when you are trying to woo overseas food & drink buyers.
Once you’ve queued for an hour at passport control, you’ll queue for another at Camembert control.
It must have been a busy few weeks (months? years?) for the Department for Business & Trade’s (DBT) ‘Check or Report a Trade Barrier’ website. All credit to them for asking, I say. And if endless part-shipment rejection and BTOM charges weren’t enough, we now have to contend with Tari Man and the confusion and cost he reigns over.
But is there an opportunity here? Should we try and be jolly while the ‘Superhero’ in the orange suit exudes his global trade superpowers? Our UK cheese and charcuterie makers may claim Brexit was good news. And might, just might US tari s placed on the EU (and Switzerland and Norway) mean that Europe look at our notinsigni cant market and say: we now want to sell you our Beaufort and you can sell us your Bigod?
It would lead to a frictionless trade agreement, given it’s all safe and disease free, and no one will be looking under your car at the border for stowaway San Daniele ham.
The Word on Westminster
By Edward Woodall Association of Convenience Stores
LAST MONTH, the Government released details of a new neighbourhood policing guarantee, aiming to put 13,000 new officers on the streets and ensuring that every community has a named officer. But will it make a difference to the levels of crime we’re seeing on our high streets?
We know from talking to retailers that there is immense frustration with the response from police when they report crime.
This is not the fault of the police – resources are stretched to breaking point and it’s not feasible for officers to attend every incident. However, the visibility of police in a community makes an enormous difference to the perception of safety, law and order.
At our annual conference, also last month, we heard from Joshua James from Fresh & Proper in
Fordham, Cambridgeshire. He has introduced ‘coffee with a cop’ – and free coffee for other blue light services to provide an incentive for emergency workers to just be a physical presence at the business. Even if they don’t come in all the time, criminals know that there’s a risk that an officer could be stopping by, so it makes that business safer. The addition of neighbourhood officers should have the same effect.
Looking into the detail of what’s been announced, we do have concerns when it comes to where policing is focused. The Government has said that it’s doubling down on targeting additional resources in town centres at peak times like Friday and Saturday night, when crime is at its most prevalent.
This unfortunately will come as no comfort to retailers who operate on housing estates, in rural areas and smaller towns and villages across the country that are also
seeing significant levels of crime. We’re engaging with the Home Office at the moment to ensure that this is not a one size fits all policy and that each Police and Crime Commissioner has the discretion to divert resources to different areas, so they are just focused on the middle of big centres.
Overall, this announcement has to be seen positively. Policy change is much needed, and is coming through the wider Crime and Policing Bill, but the most impactful thing for communities isn’t policy, it’s policing. We hope that with more officers on the beat, retailers will feel more confident in reporting crime and more investigations will lead to face time between businesses and officers to get a resolution which ultimately leads to lower offending and reoffending rates.
Edward Woodall is government relations director at the ACS edward.woodall@acs.org.uk
CONFESSIONS OF A DELI OWNER
ANONYMOUS TALES FROM BEHIND THE COUNTER
I love my customers. Honestly. I say it o en – sometimes warmly, sometimes through gritted teeth, and occasionally as a warning to myself not to scream in the walk-in fridge. Rural shoppers are, on the whole, a lovely bunch. They like a chat, they’ve got time on their hands, and o en, they’re here for the experience, not just the groceries. But (you knew there was a but) they can be spectacularly unadventurous.
There’s a national myth that British shoppers are ready to push the boat out. Let me tell you: most of them are still standing on the dock, staring at the water like it’s full of sharks. Compared to our European neighbours, we’re culinary cowards. I bring in exciting, highquality, locally made products and you’d think I was asking people to eat live scorpions.
We’ve all had that moment: you discover a brilliant new product,
something with real wow-factor. You’ve done the research, seen the demos, and you’re buzzing to bring it in. You give it pride of place on the shelf. You even run tastings or demos. And then – nothing.
Take my latest experiment: a glorious range of artisanal cheeses. Beautifully packaged, locally
I bring in exciting, high-quality, locally made products and you’d think I was asking people to eat live scorpions.
sourced, award-winning stu . I did everything – samples, signage, social media. I practically begged. And what happened? A mild ripple of interest, then weeks of silent rejection. Meanwhile, the usual vacuum-packed, depressingly uniform cheddar sells out faster than you can say “low expectations”. I understand that people want reliability and value, but must we confuse “reliable” with “unimaginative”? There’s a di erence between being costconscious and being downright dull. The fear of trying anything unfamiliar is so deeply entrenched, it makes innovation feel like a losing battle.
And it’s not just frustrating, it’s nancially punishing. I’m le with unsold stock that quietly eats away at my margins while the triedand-tested stu gets all the love. It creates a cycle where taking any risk feels foolish. Sometimes I wonder: is it that they don’t trust me to stock decent things, or a knee-jerk suspicion of anything that didn’t appear in last week’s Tesco ad? Either way, something’s got to give. I’m here to serve my community, but I’d also quite like to run a business that’s more than just a greatest hits collection of beige basics. Come on, folks. Live a little. Try the cheese.
1,700 The number of farms which have disappeared from the edges of towns and cities since 2010, totalling
56,000 hectares of land
Source: the Countryside Charity
Expert eye
PERRY WAKEMAN, CEO OF RENNET & RIND DESCRIBES THE ‘BUY INDEPENDENT DIFFERENCE’
Let me get straight to it.
Being an independent business is bloody hard. It’s early mornings, late nights, broken equipment, the odd tear (usually when you’ve just mopped the oor), and constantly walking the tightrope between passion and pro tability. But I wouldn’t swap it for the world.
Why? Because every pound spent with us stays here. It’s not lining the pockets of shareholders in Seattle or disappearing through some slippery tax loop in Luxembourg. It’s going back into the shop you love, the team you chat with, the cheesemakers we champion, and the wider community we’re proud to be part of.
And here’s the thing. It’s not just feel-good u . Studies show that around 63p to 70p of every £1 spent with an independent business stays in the local economy. Compare that to just 10 to 15p when you spend it with a chain or online giant. That’s a massive di erence.
This year, we made enough money to reinvest properly. Not into yachts or scale-up consultants,
but into re ning how we work. We installed an industrial dishwasher from Hopper, an independent business. The electrics? Done by Cambridge Electric. Our Stamford shop’s new awning? Sourced and soon to be installed by a local blinds and awnings company. Real people. Real livelihoods. Every penny of that cash stayed in our economy. That’s the “buy independent” di erence.
All our cheese is British, sourced from makers who milk the cows, turn the curds, and age the wheels. Families who, just like us, are more likely to put those pro ts back into their farms and villages. Now let’s take a look at the other side.
In 2020, Amazon’s Luxembourg operation took in €44 billion and paid zero corporation tax. In fact, it claimed €56 million in tax credits.
Starbucks? By 2012, they’d made over £3 billion in UK sales, and yet somehow paid virtually no UK corporation tax for three years. How? Royalty payments to a Dutch company. Bean purchases through Switzerland. Clever, legal structures that move cash out of the UK fast.
If that makes you feel a bit sick, good. You don’t have to wait for the Government to do something. You can. Vote with your wallet. Buy less from the giants. Buy better from the independents.
At Rennet & Rind, we’ll keep banging this drum. Not because it’s easy, but because it’s right.
We’re not just selling cheese. We’re proving what an independent business can be. rennetandrind.co.uk
Whether it’s staff training, business advice, event space, making industry connections or opportunities to meet trade buyers and food lovers, the Guild of Fine Food does far more than publish FFD. The Guild has been championing independent food & drink for over 30 years. Join us today and find out what we can do for your business.
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TRAINING
Our one-day course for anyone sourcing or selling cheese, delivered by industry and retail experts. Understand how cheese is made, how it should be stored and sold, gain skills to help communicate with customers and sell more cheese from a position of knowledge.
Cheesegeek looking to boost retail sales a er successful rescue deal
By Patrick McGuigan
Online cheesemonger and wholesaler Cheesegeek plans to increase sales to supermarkets, food halls and the catering and travel sectors, a er being rescued from administration by Scottish company Albex. Investors were le out of pocket following the pre-pack deal in March, a er the business ran into cash ow problems. These included entrepreneur Stephen Bartlett, who invested £150k a er Cheesegeek founder Edward Hancock successfully pitched on Dragon’s Den. Hancock, who continues as CEO, also raised £421k via crowdfunding in 2023 and invested £720k of his own money in the business.
Scottish food group Albex has a £450m turnover and 11 sites. In 2020 it acquired cheese cutter and packer Tom Walker & Sons in Durham, which supplies supermarkets with cheese selection packs. It will handle ful lment for Cheesegeek, backed by its distribution network.
This will allow Cheesegeek to concentrate on sales, marketing and branding for its online shop, but also to grow other channels, including supermarkets. A deal to supply Sainsbury’s last year su ered from supply “teething
problems” at Christmas, said Hancock, but these had now been resolved by the takeover and it would be “full steam ahead” with 150 stores taking Cheesegeek-branded selection boxes and cheeses.
“Albex has relationships with large retailers that we don’t have, and vice versa,” he said. “We can potentially become a one-stop shop for those that want large-scale, but also highend speciality cheese.”
He also hopes to grow sales with food halls, a er striking a deal to supply Selfridges last September, as well as restaurants that highlight Cheesegeek on the menu. Tom Walker’s cutting and packing capabilities will open up opportunities to supply trains,
NEWS IN BRIEF
The Cheese Bar group is opening a second Pick & Cheese restaurant in Berlin. Like the original London restaurant, the new site features a conveyor belt of cheese and is part of a new KERB street food market in Potsdamer Platz. It will specialise in German cheese.
The Chuckling Cheese Co has closed two stores in Middlesbrough and Doncaster due a decline in footfall and rising costs. It continues to operate stores in Skegness, Gateshead, Birmingham, and online.
The Little Shop of Cheese, which operates market stalls in Thame, Wendover and Leighton Buzzard, has opened its first bricks and mortar shop in Thame.
planes and sporting events. Hancock, who set up the company in 2017, blamed cash ow issues for the administration. “We’ve always been ambitious and scaled very quickly,” he said. “We tried to do everything ourselves – branding, marketing, sales, dispatch, cutting and portioning, technology. We were juggling a lot of plates and last year a few things went against us. It became a cash situation – we were on the right track but needed more funding.”
In a statement, Albex director Andrew Dalglish said “major investments” were planned for Cheesegeek. “Our funding gives them the stability needed to continue operating and more.”
Carwyn Adams, owner of Caws Cenarth in Carmarthenshire, has been so inspired by a recent trip to visit cheesemakers in France that he plans to develop a new cheese every month for the next 12 months. The limitededition Continental-style cheeses will be included as part of a new monthly cheese selection box, sold through the company’s website, which have been branded Carwyn’s Angels. The first as-yet-unnamed Angel cheese is a soft ewes’ milk brie with Adams keen to hear customers’ feedback.
THREE WAYS WITH...
Clara
Named Best English Cheese at the British & Irish Cheese Awards, this ash-coated goats’ log is made by the Cheese Cellar Dairy (part of Harvey & Brockless) in Evesham, Worcestershire. Lemony and grassy with a savoury breakdown beneath the dark, wrinkly rind, it’s just right for spring cheeseboards.
Onion marmalade
Harvey & Brockless development chef Gary Parsons is a fan of goats’ cheese with onion marmalade. He recommends mixing Croxton Manor Comfy Onion Marmalade with cooked mushrooms as a base layer for puff pastry discs, which can then be topped with cubes or slices of goats’ cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 180°C and garnish with fresh thyme leaves.
Beetroot crackers
The sweet earthiness of beetroot is a guaranteed success with the savoury, barnyardy notes of aged goats’ cheeses. There’s also a pleasing contrast between the white cheese and pink vegetable. For a simple, seasonal canapé, put round slices of Clara on top of a square Miller’s Earth beetroot and spinach cracker, and finish with a lick of honey and a few rocket leaves.
Witbier
There’s a floral, herbaceous quality to Clara that pairs nicely with the spicy, refreshing notes of Belgian witbier, often brewed with coriander and orange peel. While not from Belgium, the Japanese Hitachino Nest White Ale is a great example of the style. It’s hazy and fruity with big bursts of citrus that complement Clara’s lemony notes, while also cutting through the creaminess.
Founder Edward Hancock remains at the helm of Cheesegeek, which was bought out of administration by Albex
CHEESE
Hebridean Blue voluntarily recalled by maker for further E. coli testing
By Patrick McGuigan
Isle of Mull Cheese has voluntarily recalled its raw milk Hebridean Blue a er tests found a batch contained shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC).
The company told FFD that tests of one 107kg-batch from December had found the DNA of bacteria potentially connected to STEC 02H27. However, this result was from highly sensitive Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing, which can detect fragments of DNA from bacteria that might not still be active.
Isle of Mull said the cheese would have passed “normal testing” as pathogens were not found using agar plates. It also said that the cheese’s enterobacteriaceae count, of which E.coli is a subgroup, would normally be considered “perfect”. No cases of illness have been linked to the cheese.
“We take the safety of customers very seriously,” said the company in a statement. “Most varieties of cheese in the world are produced are from
raw milk. It has been used to preserve food for thousands of years. Producing raw milk cheese is tough.”
Isle of Mull has withdrawn all Hebridean Blue cheese for further testing, while its wellknown raw milk Cheddar is not a ected.
An Argyll and Bute Council spokesperson told FFD: “The Council has worked with the business and Food Standards Scotland on instigating a product recall of batch 8051224
CHEESE IN PROFILE with
What’s the story?
Jean Anthelme BrillatSavarin was a renowned 18th-century French food writer and gastronome whose legacy still influences gourmet cuisine today. In the 1930s this cheese was named in his honour by cheesemaker and affineur Henri Androuët. Today Brillat-Savarin is Brillat-Savarin
primarily produced in the regions of Normandy and Burgundy. It is classified as a ‘triple cream’ due to the addition of extra cream to the milk, giving it a high butterfat content and a rich, buttery, velvety texture.
How is it Made?
and further precautionary product withdrawals, to protect consumers. Food Standards Scotland has liaised with the NHS and standard processes of vigilance are being maintained. As far as is known there are no cases of illness associated with this incident.”
The incident follows other recent recalls for cheeses that have tested positive for E.coli, including Kirkham’s Lancashire and Monts & Terroirs’ Morbier in 2023.
BEHIND THE COUNTER TIPS OF THE TRADE
Katie Marjai, manager, The Cheeseworks, Cheltenham
Cheeseworks’ customers love a glass of wine with their cheese so much that the shop is opening a wine bar upstairs this month.
Shop manager Katie Marjai has played her part in stoking this enjoyment with some sensible cross-selling techniques. “We have a smaller range of wines than cheese, but we change them regularly and we enjoy advising on good matches,” she says. “We also run tasting nights every fortnight, which we will increase when the bar is open.”
Marjai uses the tastings to find popular matches, which she then recommends over the counter and through POS signage. She also has three golden rules: “First, what grows together goes together, so pair cheeses and wines from the same region. Second, match similar strengths, like fullbodied Cabernet Sauvignon with intense Cheddar. And third, contrasts, like a salty blue cheese with sweet wine.”
Her current favourite is washed rind Yarlington and May Hill – an off-dry white from local vineyard Three Choirs. “The wine is refreshing but the sweetness works with the strong rind,” she says. thecheeseworks.co.uk
Brillat-Savarin undergoes a slow coagulation process, initially beginning as a lactic-set cheese. The curd, when still wet, is cut and placed into moulds, where it continues to acidify as the whey drains naturally. Once formed, the cheeses are salted before being
typically for up to four weeks.
Appearance & texture: It has a white, fluffy, Penicillium Candidum rind and a soft, clotted cream texture with dairy and vegetal notes.
Variations: None.
Cheesemonger tip: Brillat-Savarin pairs particularly well with the bubbles and acidity of Champagne. It also goes
well with a Pinot Noir or Beaujolais.
Chef’s recommendation: Serve at the end of a meal with crusty bread, slices of fresh figs, juicy grapes, or crisp apples to add a refreshing sweetness and textural contrast.
One batch of the raw milk cheese from December tested positive
THE TASTE OF TRADITION.
BRITISH & IRISH CHEESE AWARDS
Best in show
The 29th edition of the British & Irish Cheese Awards revealed a cheese industry in admirable shape, with the calibre making the judges’ job even trickier than usual. Turn the page for a list of some of the top award-winners.
By Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox
An Alpine-style washed rind cheese from the Cotswolds took the top title at this year’s British & Irish Cheese Awards.
Burford, made by King Stone Dairy in Gloucestershire, was named Supreme Champion in the competition, now in its 29th year and hosted by the Bath & West Food & Drink Festival in Shepton Mallet, Somerset.
On 21st March, just under 600 entries were judged by 52 cheese professionals over the course of the day. These includes cheesemakers, cheesemongers, farmers, buyers, retailers, cheese writers, educators and journalists.
Entries were assessed in a rst round to gain a Bronze, Silver, Gold – or no – award, judged again to determine category winners, and evaluated once more to crown the Supreme Champion and Reserve Champion. This year, the runner-up prize went to Golden
We had more deliberation than ever before on the way to nding our Champion, which is testament to the outstanding quality on o er
Cross, a goat’s cheese made by Kevin, Alison and Matthew Blunt in East Sussex – also named Best So White Cheese and Best Export Cheese in the awards.
Burford is among the latest additions to the celebrated British cheesemaker’s collection, introduced by head cheesemaker at King Stone Dairy, David Jowett, last year. It joins the cheesemaker’s other European-inspired cheeses, now considered stalwarts in the UK: spruce bark-wrapped Rollright; 2023 Supreme Champion Ashcombe; Yarlington, a washed rind cheese co-developed with cider maker Tom Oliver; and, also introduced last year, two sheep’s milk cheeses – Bibury and Hidcote.
The fact that Burford is so new, Jowett said, made the team “especially proud to see [it] doing well so soon,” adding that it was “a tribute to the quality of farming and cra smanship of our teams”.
Among the other cheeses to triumph in this year’s awards was another 2024 invention, Bidlea Blue by Burt’s Cheese, crowned Best New Cheese. Meanwhile, Harvey & Brockless’ ash-coated cheese Clara was named Best English Cheese, and Caws Tei Cheese’s Saval, a creamy yet rich and pungent raw milk cheese, was crowned Best Welsh Cheese. Although the devolved nation took no gold medals, Anster from St Andrews Farmhouse Cheese Company was named Best Scottish Cheese.
Disappointingly, as a result of customs delays, no Irish cheeses made it to the awards on the day. They were judged separately on 24th March, with Killeen Farmhouse emerging
SUPREME CHAMPION
Burford
King Stone Dairy
Made with organic milk from Manor Farm in Chedworth, Burford was developed to reflect what head cheesemaker David Jowett describes as “the sweet complexity of the farm’s summer pastures”, but is now made year round.
The 8kg wheels undergo a maturation period of over five months, during which the rind is washed to develop its distinctive characteristics.
The cheese’s complex flavour changes with the seasons to reflect the pastures the cows graze on, with tasting notes including hints of charcuterie, hazelnut and tropical fruit. The texture is firm and smooth, with a rich mouthfeel.
BRITISH & IRISH CHEESE AWARDS
as the victor for its Mature Killeen Goat.
The situation was reminiscent of the absence of British cheeses at the World Cheese Awards in Portugal in November 2024, and would have been unlikely to occur without additional post-Brexit checks.
The Irish cheeses’ absence was particularly unfortunate on the day, given their success in previous editions of the British & Irish Cheese Awards –including a Reserve Champion win for Tipperary’s Cashel Blue last year. However, organisers said that the Irish entries were put through the same rigorous scrutiny as the other entrants, stating: “Some Irish exhibits were held up in customs, despite having all the correct paperwork. Thanks to the diligence and commitment of our team
and some loyal judges, the Best Irish award was able to be judged on Monday 24 March, when all of the Irish cheeses had eventually arrived.”
Judges noted that the overall calibre of cheese on display at the 2025 awards was among the best yet.
“We had more deliberation and debate than ever before on the way to nding our Champion, which is testament to the outstanding quality on o er from our cheesemakers across the UK and Ireland,” said Julius Longman, chairman of the awards.
“The skill and ingenuity of our cheesemakers [was] plain for all to see,” he added, pointing to how producers are not only cra ing exceptional cheese, but doing so in ways that respect sustainability, terroir and tradition.
MEET THE TROPHY WINNERS...
www.simplyroastedcrisps.co.uk
To pair is human
When she decided to give up drinking alcohol, ex-wine professional Alli Briaris was at a loss about what to match with her food. So she created her own drinks company.
By Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox
To be acutely aware of your senses can be a blessing or a curse. In Alli Briaris’ case, it’s been more of the former.
Aged 19, Briaris worked at Threshers in Bath, where she learned to articulate and distinguish nuanced avours – an exercise that sharpened her palate and ultimately set her on course to launch The Drinks Kitchen, her brand of nonalcoholic apéritifs. The range now includes four drinks: Orange Cinchona, Herb Verde, Spiced Rhubarb, and Grapefruit Piquante (RRP £27).
“Working there taught me about identifying avours in wine in a way that lots of people think is rubbish,” she tells FFD. “But when you’re tasting lots of wines, that’s how you have to describe them. So, from a really young age, I started thinking about avour di erently than you might normally.”
She went on to manage Threshers branches in Buckinghamshire and London before moving to the company’s head o ce in Welwyn Garden City. Wherever she went, food and drink were never far from her mind.
“My home life became about cooking –avours, chefs, restaurants, the whole thing. I was reading cookery books in the evenings, and in the day thinking about what wine to have with dinner.” But with wine so central to her life, she says, “it probably gave me an over-reliance on the idea that alcohol needed to be part of socialising.
“I would work late, take wine home. I’d have wine on my own. And I remember thinking, ‘this is just not good.’”
A turning point came when she changed jobs
and joined Gerber (later Refresco), a so drinks company. Over een years there, she learned how to scale production, manage costs, and turn creative ideas into commercially viable products.
One particular project – developing new avours – planted the seed for Briaris’ future.
“Among thousands of samples, one I tried was Cinchona, which became the foundation for my Orange Cinchona,” she says. That drink is now the most awarded in her range – and still her favourite. “It creates this incredible layered avour – a woodiness, mellowness, and bitterness. I just thought, ‘so drinks could be so much more than they are.’”
In 2020, Briaris stopped drinking altogether. She had just le her job, and the national lockdown gave her time to re ect. “Suddenly not having that stressful job made me think I could make a change,” she says – though it wasn’t easy.
“I felt completely bere . It sounds dramatic, but I honestly didn’t know how to enjoy meals in the same way. It was like the soundtrack had gone missing.”
The Drinks Kitchen was her solution to that problem.
“I’ve never been a so drinks drinker,” she says. “And what do you drink when you’re suddenly not drinking alcohol? Sparkling water
I just thought, ‘so drinks could be so much more than they are.’
can only get you so far.
“I kept thinking about that Cinchona and thought, ‘that is my Campari. That is my apéritif.’”
Orange Cinchona came rst, followed by Herb Verde – a Mojito-like drink with mint, gentian, rosemary and thyme.
“The Spiced Rhubarb was for my husband. He likes something sweeter – and it’s our biggest seller. Loads of people love rhubarb.”
Then came Grapefruit Piquante – inspired by a Margarita, with rosemary, mint and chilli –originally a limited edition, now made permanent.
“People loved it – they’d say, ‘you’re not getting rid of that one, are you?’ So I kept it.”
Briaris is now mulling over a oral avour.
“I want to use things like cardamom, sumac, lemon verbena… something bright and aromatic, but I just haven’t nailed it yet.”
The main thing holding her back at this point is capacity. The Drinks Kitchen remains a lean operation – just Briaris and, as of last year, her stepdaughter Tia.
“I still make everything in the food development centre. I started with a 25-litre bucket – now I’m up to 500 litres. It’s not glamorous. It’s hard on my back.”
For now, her focus is on expanding distribution. The Drinks Kitchen’s potential lies in its stockists – names that would be enviable for any producer.
They include Michelin-starred restaurant Grantley Hall, Selfridges, Daylesford, Darts Farm, Teals, and the Broadway Hotel – all relationships she’s built personally.
“That’s the bit I love,” she says. “If I go to any restaurant or shop and I like their food, then I always ask if they’d like to stock my drinks.”
As for Briaris’ potential, it lies where it always has: in her palate. Her instinct for avour, honed in the wine trade, has brought her this far – and she’s far from done. drinkskitchen.online
LA BANDIERA ORGANIC SINGLE-ESTATE
EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL APRIL 2025
La Bandiera Olive Oil is produced in the wine growing area of Bolgheri on the Tuscan coast. Over 1100 mature olive trees are harvested to produce the estate’s exclusive label, ultra premium olive oil.
The olives are harvested from the moraiolo, leccino and frantoio trees when they are just beginning to ripen in October and the characteristics are so typical of the area - full bodied with grassy, fruity and spicy aromas.
La Bandiera extra virgin olive oil is endorsed by the IGP (lndicazione Geografica Protetta). This certification is important to La Bandiera as it is a guarantee of origin; it provides consumers with a guarantee that the oil meets certain quality standards associated with the specific geographical area and the IGP label helps consumers identify and choose authentic olive oils of premium quality. The acidity levels of La Bandiera olive oil is consistently very low at less than 0.3% which puts us in the category of ultra premium extra virgin olive oil.
La Bandiera Olive Oil is produced in 500ml bottles (with a gift box) and 1 litre can. It is available through the online shop. The prices are £25 and £45 respectively. The wholesale price for a carton of 6 x 500ml bottles is £90.
CATEGORY FOCUS
A ne spread
This month’s product roundup is a varied feast, starting with bagged snacks, before moving on to jams & sweet preserves (p.29) and nally organic foods (p.30).
Compiled by Lynda Searby
A wholesome alternative to sugary snacks
These Chewy Oat Bars from The Netherlands have just arrived in Whole Foods Market, and BitesWeLove says it is hoping to expand its listings in the UK. They are made with wholesome ingredients such as gluten-free oats, chicory root fibre, brown rice and seeds, contain no added sugar or artificial sweeteners, are free from the top allergens and provide less than 114 high-fibre, low-sugar calories per bar. They are available in three flavours: Chocolate, Vanilla and Cinnamon Roll. RRP £1.50 per bar. biteswelove.nl
“Like a Spanish holiday in a bag” is how Essex crisp producer Fairfields Farm describes its latest limited edition. Chorizo & Red Wine flavour hand-cooked crisps have been introduced in 150g sharing bags ahead of the summer season. fairfieldsfarmcrisps.co.uk
Simply Roasted is tapping into the hot honey craze with its latest NPD. The introduction of Hot Honey brings the total number of HFSScompliant flavours in the brand’s ‘healthy’ crisp range to eight. Its crisps are roasted in a bespokedesigned oven rather than fried, which is said to result in a 50% lower fat content than the average crisp. RRP £2.49/ 93g. simplyroastedcrisps. co.uk
Having spent several years baking, seasoning and caramelising nuts, Cambrook has finally caved in to the temptation of coating some of its nuts in chocolate. The result is two new products: Chocolate Almonds (RRP £3.49/90g) and Salted Caramel Chocolate Hazelnuts (RRP £3.69/90g). Both are coated in small batches and in the latter, the hazelnuts are caramelised in Italian copper pans first. cambrookfoods.co.uk
Made For Drink has collaborated with Mr Trotter to bring to market a pork scratching flavoured potato crisp. This “gastronomic union” is said to provide the perfect accompaniment for any well-rounded ale, crisp lager or zippy white wine. RRP £1.45/40g. Madefordrink.com
March 2025 saw Popcorn Kitchen introduce strawberry chocolate pigs in popcorn blankets as the latest addition to its home-popping portfolio. The producer says that since ‘Pop at Home’ was launched in 2023, it has become its most successful gifting offering. Peter Pigs combines pig candy, popping corn kernels and Belgian milk chocolate buttons in a bottle, making 14 portions. RRP £13.99/480g. popcornkitchen.co.uk
Surrey-based snacks producer Ralph’s latest handmade, small batch treat is a Black Masala, Curry Leaf & Cashew Nut Mix – bringing the count to more than 50 creations. It joins a savoury line-up which includes Gruyère Biscuits, Spicy Honey & Rosemary Nut Mix, Wine Crackers, Fig & Almond Log and Olive Oil Crostini and Tomato & Nigella Seed Crostini. The RRP for 150g of Masala nuts is £6.50. ralph-s.co.uk
Guys Bakehouse has introduced Paprika Biscuit Melts for “sofa grazing without the guilt”. They are made with ‘real’ ingredients such as paprika, chilli powder and cheese, but Good Guys says they are lighter than many other snacks because it doesn’t spray on oils or flavourings. RRP £1.75. goodguysbakehouse.co.uk
Good
Developed as part of The Big Food Redesign Challenge run by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Mega Mix is BRAVE’s take on a traditional Bombay Mix. The Challenge invited the food industry to design products in a way that allows nature to thrive. Stepping up to the brief, BRAVE created a mix entirely with pulses - mostly British grown - and developed a crunchy ‘noodle’ made from upcycled British pea flour.
Mega Mix also reflects BRAVE’s mission of making snacks that are high in protein and fibre, vegan-friendly and nutritionally balanced.
RRP £1/26g; £2.20/100g. bravefoods.co.uk
Fermented foods are a massive trend, but not everybody likes kraut, kimchi, kombucha and kefir, which is why Fermenti has designed a fruit snack product that delivers gut loving cultures.
Branded ‘Coco Bites’, these snacks are made with fermented coconut, nuts and fruit.
“Our product lies in the sweet (and healthy) snacks category and it’s quite unique. It’s an ambient product, in a convenient ‘on the go’ format and full of live cultures to boost gut health,” says the company’s Laura Sanchez. So far there are three SKUs in the range: Banana & Pineapple, Mango & Passion Fruit and Tangy Raspberry.
Fermenti started selling last year via a few stockists, including Whole Foods and Planet Organic, and says its next commercial target is to expand sales to delis and food halls.
RRP £2.95 for a two-pack (12g). fermenti.co.uk
March saw Burts unveil its second new flavour of the year and a new look across its portfolio. Available in 40g packs, Mature Cheddar & Caramelised Onion Chutney Ridges blend Cheddar from Quicke’s Cheese Shop with caramelised onion chutney. The refreshed packaging highlights the “premium quality and big flavours” that define its hand-cooked potato chips offer, Burts says. burtschips.com
NALO’s latest nut mix promises to transport the tastebuds to the streets of Shanghai by invoking the taste of salt and pepper spare ribs. The brand has blended cinnamon, cayenne, fennel, clove, star anise and Szechuan pepper to reimagine this Chinese takeaway classic as a nut snack. Chinese Salt & Pepper Cashews have an RRP of £2.25 for a 40g pouch, £5.55 for a 95g jar. nalo.london
Raspberry Nut Clusters and Coconut & Almond Nut Clusters are Raise Snacks’ first HFSS-compliant products. Almonds, pecans and cashew nuts are melded into flavoured clusters that deliver a high fibre energy boost. WSP £0.69; RRP £1.79 for a 35g pouch. raisesnacks.co.uk
Ten PM’s Calm Bars contain ashwagandha, chamomile and magnesium - ingredients that are reputed to help with focus and stress relief. The vegan, gluten-free bars are also said to be great for digestive health, delivering 10g of fibre per serving, and containing no added sugar. The brand is sporting new packaging with the stated aim of pushing more into retail this year. RRP £2.69. tenpm.co
In La Granja, a small village in Valencia, CA Climent grows and roasts the only peanuts produced in Spain. The grower-producer restores abandoned fields and uses its own seeds from traditional Valencian varieties, the same ones used for generations. The peanuts are roasted in their shells, salted (or left unsalted) and packaged in compostable corn starch pouches. WSP £2.90; RRP £4.10/200g. cacliment.com
Popcorn Shed has introduced two new ‘Sheds’: Carrot Cake and Cinnamon Roll. The popcorn spiced caramel carrot cake flavoured popcorn in the Carrot Cake Shed is said to taste exactly like the real deal - it is even drizzled with cream cheese frosting. RRP £4.50/80g. popcornshed.com
Last month saw Taylors Snacks (formerly Mackie’s) launch three new flavours of ridge cut potato crisps to the trade via Cress Co and Petty Wood. Chip Shop Curry Sauce taps into the nostalgic flavour trend, Fiery Pickled Onion brings together two flavours that are being talked about on social media, and Blazin’ BBQ taps into the popularity of bold flavours. RRP £1.99/150g. taylorssnacks.com
Hailing from Norway, Wabba is a new snack that is made from beans but tastes like a chilli nut. Free from allergens, it is high in protein and low in carbs, fats and sugars. Since it was founded by Kristian Fredheim in 2023, Wabba has entered eight European markets via a smart network strategy and is now looking to break into the UK. wabba.no
Feast’s latest addition to its Slow
range mixes peanuts, cashews, almonds, pecans and macadamias, seasoned with Italian Pecorino cheese and black truffle. Every batch is handcrafted at the company’s manufacturing site in Co. Armagh. RRP £3.40/120g. forestfeast.com
Forest
Roasted Nuts
Feel the pulse Where have you BEAN all my life?
The Olives Et Al team discovered these little Beldi lemons in Marseille on their travels last year and knew they had to introduce them to a wider audience. Being much smaller than the average lemon means there is a much higher ratio of peel to flesh.
“This equals a more concentrated flavour and more zest, which is what you need for a true taste of the Moroccan souks,” says Olives Et Al’s Giles Henschel.
Described as a “superb store cupboard ingredient to turn to when you need a citrus boost”, they can be added to tagines, salads, stews, dressings, marinades and even cakes.
Case price £28.62 (£4.77 per 540g jar); RRP £7.95. olivesetal.co.uk
This month sees a new nut butter brand landing on UK shores, all the way from the Hibiscus Coast on New Zealand’s North Island. Forty Thieves will be exhibiting at NOPEX with six vegan-friendly nut butters, all of which are free from additives, dairy, gluten and palm oil.
The brand is the brainchild of Shyr and Brent Godfrey, who, in their version of the Ali Baba story, are the ‘thieves’ who seek out ‘hidden treasure’ in the form of nuts and seeds to produce “healthy and delicious” butters. Nuts are batch roasted, and the company uses precision millstones to get the grain just right. Forty Thieves uses jars made from 90% recycled glass, recycles its label backing and offsets its carbon emissions.
RRP is between £4.25 and £6.39 and the company is currently finalising a distribution agreement. fortythieves.co.nz
Tastees says this Pineapple Jam came about because a customer was looking for some for their cakes and couldn’t find a local stockist. It has since become one of the Co Louth producer’s best sellers, with people buying it to spread on toast, stir into natural yogurt and use in cocktail recipes. RRP £4.20/205g. tastees.sumupstore.com
Despite being a newcomer to the artisan conserves scene, The Jam Queen has made its presence felt by winning multiple accolades, including a Gold in the 2025 World Marmalade Awards for its Four Fruit Marmalade. Seville oranges, pink grapefruit, lemons and limes entwine in this tangy and slightly sweet preserve. Trade £3.20/225g; RRP £4.50. thejamqueen.square.site
Exploring new ways to enjoy their honey, the beekeeping food enthusiasts at Little Bees Larder have fused Sussex honey and citrus to create two “bitter sweet” marmalades: Seville Orange Honey Marmalade and Honey & Lemon Marmalade. WSP £4/226g; RRP £5. littlebeeslarder.co.uk
Thursday Cottage has added Clementine Curd to its smaller jar range and tweaked its Organic Lemon Curd recipe to intensify the lemon flavour, and to improve the colour and texture. Clementine Curd is priced at £9 for a case of 6 x 110g jars (RRP £2) and Organic Lemon Curd is priced at £19.25 for a case of 6 x 310g jars (RRP £4.25).
thursday-cottage.com
Having made raspberry jam for The Pig Hotel near Bath for over a decade, Heavenly Hedgerows often receives requests to sell it in normal sized jars. It has finally succumbed, launching Raspberry Jam in 240g jars (WSP £4; RRP £5.50). Made using British raspberries and sugar, the preserve uses apple instead of pectin as a base for a clear and natural set. heavenlyhedgerows. co.uk
Gingerbeard’s Preserves’ limited edition Gooseberry & Elderflower Jam is said to strike a perfect balance of tart, sweet and floral. The producer recommends spreading it on toast and crumpets, or mixing into yogurt. WSP £2.50/230g; RRP £4.15. gingerbeardspreserves. co.uk
Boddington’s Preserves has introduced three new fruit conserves. Made on the family farm in Cornwall, the Apricot, Cherry and Blackcurrant jams boast a high fruit content and pectin- and preservative-free labels. They are available to the trade via Holleys Fine Foods, priced at £2.81 (RRP £4.70).
boddingtonspreserves. co.uk
Ines Conserve is bringing one of Lazio’s best kept secrets to the international marketplace. Mosto Ambrato is produced by infusing slow-cooked Malvasia grape must with cinnamon, cloves, dried orange peel and star anise to enhance the fruity and floral notes characteristic of this variety. The result is a thick, rich jam that pairs with meats, cheeses, yoghurt and ice cream. federica.teodori24@ gmail.com
Sarah Churchill, founder of The Artisan Kitchen in Gloucester, describes her latest creation - Blackberry Jam - as a “celebration of bold, natural flavours”. The limited edition jam is crafted using British berries, allowing for a soft set and a high fruit content. RRP £6.50/200g. theartisankitchen.co.uk
organic jams & preserves
DEEP is a new nut butter brand, created because founder Alyssa Dominique was struggling to find any artisanal almond butters made with high quality ingredients. Each jar blends Spanish Marcona almonds, known for their plump and buttery richness, with subtly sweet Ferragnes almonds. The nuts are batch roasted and blended, and no oil, salt or sugar is added. WSP £6.30/225g; RRP £9. deepalmondbutter.com
Maliks Honeys, a family business on a mission to promote raw honey and support British beekeepers, has put a contemporary twist on traditional honey with Celtic Salt Infused Honey. This salted caramel-like blend of British honey and Celtic sea salt is said to be great for drizzling on desserts, cheeses or roasted vegetables. WSP £4.20 for 227g; RRP £7.99. malikshoney.com
After opening for strawberry picking for the first time last year, Fferm Ty Cynan Farm in North West Wales has embarked on a new ventureproducing its own ‘farm to jar’ strawberry jam. ‘Mefus’ jam wholesales at £2 a jar; RRP £3. tycynan.co.uk
Violet’s Orchard’s new Raspberry Preserve is said to be bright and fresh. A short and gentle cook retains the fruit’s colour and flavour integrity and results in a softer set, while a low sugar content allows the raspberries to sing. WSP £4/240g; RRP £5. Also new from the producer is Mandarin Marmalade with Kaffir Lime Leaves & Lemongrass. violetsorchard@gmail. com
The latest South African export to hit the UK is Buttanutt, a brand built around the macadamia nut. Its Cocoa Macadamia and Cinammon Macadamia butters contain nothing but dry roasted nuts and clean label ingredients such as cocoa and honey. Listings so far include Dugard & Daughters, Earlsfield Grocer and Artisan Food Club. WSP £5.24 for 250g; RRP £7.49. buttanutt.uk
Joining Stanhope Preserves’ marmalade lineup for 2025 is St Clements Marmalade, described as a “heady blend of fresh oranges and lemons”. Available in cases of 6 x 340g, as are the producer’s Orange & Cloves Marmalade and 3 Fruit Marmalade. RRP £5.50/£5.95. stanhopegifts.co.uk
artisanal
pasta made with ancient grains
Belvedere Organic is championing the Italian tradition of making pasta from ancient wheat varieties with a new range of organic einkorn and khorasan pastas developed for the UK market.
The einkorn is grown on the producerimporter’s family farm in Tuscany, and the khorasan is from a neighbouring farm. This is the second product to be launched under the Belvedere label - the producer-importer has been marketing coldpressed single estate EVOO from the family farm since 2021. RRP £6.50/500g. belvedereorganic.com
Pure Maple has put its syrups through the organic certification process and, in light of the change, has rebranded the range with a new Leone bottle shape to highlight its Canadian heritage. The Golden Delicate, Amber Rich and Dark Robust syrups have an RRP of £6-£7.89. puremaple.co.uk
At the beginning of the year, Mr Organic unveiled refreshed packaging designs across its portfolio of 120+ SKUs. As part of this exercise, the Italian organic brand moved its Pestos into larger jars, going from 130g to 190g. It says it hopes these bigger jars make them even more attractive to shoppers looking to feed their families authentic, Italian organic food. RRP £3.89. mr-organic.com
Artisan Olive Oil Company is now carrying this single estate EVOO from Spanish producer Nobleza del Sur. The oil is pressed from olives that are picked at the very beginning of the harvest in October, resulting in a high polyphenol content and low acidity. RRP is £24.95 for 500ml and it is stocked by the likes of Partridges, Valendi and Seed & Leaf. artisanoliveoilcompany. com
Ausha is claiming a UK first with its Organic Green Jackfruit Powder. Designed to make it easy to incorporate this nutrient-packed fruit into one’s diet, the powder can be used to give a vegan health boost to baking, cereals, porridge, juice and protein shakes. WSP £4.95; RRP £9.95/250g. ausha.co.uk
La Bandiera’s latest harvest of its organic, premium, single-estate, IGP extra virgin olive oil is now available to the trade. The oil – which is low in acidity and produced in the Bolgheri wine area on the Tuscan coast – is supplied in cases of 6x500ml bottles (trade price £90, RRP £25 per bottle) as well as 1-litre cans (RRP £45). labandieraoliveoil.com
Better Nature has ramped up the protein content of its Organic Tempeh to match that of its animalderived counterparts. The fermented soya bean product now provides 44g of protein per 200g pack - the same as six eggs and more than a chicken breast. The brand says it is hoping this will broaden its appeal among meateaters looking for healthy protein swaps. RRP from £2.70. betternaturetempeh.co
Wholefood collective Suma has doubled down on its organic range with a white pasta selection. The Orzo, Strozzapreti and Orecchiete come from a co-operative of 300 producers in Italy, made using heritage wheat and extruded through traditional bronze dies. RRP £1.89. cases of 12 x 500g, £17. suma.coop
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JOIN US AT THE UK’S LEADING SHOWCASE OF ARTISANAL FOOD & DRINK
Are you a buyer or producer and want to get involved? Scan the code to find out more
Speciality & Fine Food Fair, THE event where the fine food & drink community meets, is returning to Olympia London from 9-10 September 2025. Make sure you come along to discover innovative producers and condense a year’s worth of product sourcing into one inspiring journey.
Wessex Mill is an artisan flour brand milled in the heart of the beautiful North Wessex Downs. Family-owned, its milling history in Wessex goes back more than 125 years.
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This is Food and Drink. This is Wales.
The Welsh Government has a vision to create one of the most sustainable food and drink supply chains in the world.
A Carbon Reduction Pilot initiative was launched in 2024, and successfully worked with 60 businesses to help them baseline their carbon footprint and develop carbon reduction plans. Food and drink businesses based in Wales are now able to register for phase 2 of the scheme.
Wider support measures include a free Climate Adaptation Readiness Self-assessment to identify strengths and areas for development in climate preparedness. Find out more about the
It’s not easy being (more than) green
What does it mean to be a sustainable food business in 2025? We asked professionals in the independent space about their approach, and how businesses can do more than just tick boxes.
By Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox
ONCE CONSIDERED A synonym for environmental responsibility, sustainability has taken on many new dimensions over the years.
Beyond energy, carbon and plastic use, being sustainable now o en means accounting for things like biodiversity, social responsibility –and nancial viability.
“We always think about the environmental
We’ve tried not to shout about all these things. We’re actually just trying to do what we do – and people can interact with that.
Damian Blackburn, director and co-founder, Dark Woods Coffee
aspects, but every business has to start on a good footing,” says Damian Blackburn, co-founder of Dark Woods Co ee, a Yorkshire-based co ee roaster known for sustainable sourcing and strong producer ties. “You can’t have a positive impact unless you have a business that is there day to day for your employees, working closely with both customers and supply chains.”
But with this broader de nition in mind, it can be a bit of a mine eld for small food & drink businesses, with increasing pressure to be accountable on a multitude of fronts.
“We’ve become immensely tick boxy,” says Realfoods Organico founder Charles Redfern, who dedicates a lot of time to ensuring his brands, which include Organico and Fish4Ever, have a genuine positive impact – scrutinising everything from soil protection to water use. But, he adds, this level of accountability “has reached the point where I’m a bit worried that I’m spending too much time trying to prove myself”.
Redfern is a vocal critic of carbon accounting, o setting and the use of life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies, which he argues o en fail to re ect real conditions at the farm level. He argues that many of the most widely used metrics are overly simplistic, and is sceptical of industry-funded assessment tools.
“I don’t think it’s the place of what essentially
is the junk food industry and the mass production industry to create a metric,” he says, in the context of LCAs and carbon accounting frameworks used for product impact claims. “If they were really honest, they would have given it to people like Greenpeace or WWF. This is a problem of standard setting.”
In his view, certi cations should be holistic –factoring in things like pesticide use, biodiversity and transparency.
“From years of research in the organic trade board, we know that’s exactly what consumers are worried about,” he says. For this reason, his company was the rst in the UK to adopt the Planet Score, a front-of-pack environmental label developed in France, alongside organic certi cation.
Although he describes a “love-hate” relationship with B Corp, Redfern credits it with helping internal communication and transparency with his team – even though the scoring framework isn’t perfect.
Following the inclusion of several big companies who it would appear have used B Corp for PR purposes, rather than genuine reform, Blackburn sees it similarly, but says it’s worth being a part of it regardless.
“Sometimes we have to work with people
SUSTAINABILITY
Everyone can do something. You do a bit today, a bit more next month, and more next year. But you’ve got to be honest about where you are.
Paul Hargreaves, founder, Cotswold Fayre
that we don’t necessarily like or agree with. We can’t improve things overall unless we’re in that conversation,” he says.
B Corp has done a lot to change Paul Hargreaves’ business, too. When he started Cotswold Fayre in 1999, its social purpose was central to its identity.
“We employed three unemployable people initially – one with addiction issues, someone had just come out of prison – to try and give them a chance. That was in our DNA.”
Now operating as both wholesaler and retailer – with two Flourish shops in Somerset – the business has used frameworks like B Corp to identify likeminded suppliers and ensure consistent values across the company.
“Just over 80 of our suppliers are now B Corps,” he says.
“You’ve got a better business if you do this.
Revenue growth is higher, investment is easier, and you’re more attractive as a workplace – especially to younger people.”
Cotswold Fayre has even hosted workshops to help producers navigate the application process, known to be fairly tasking.
For Blackburn at Dark Woods Co ee, the work continues. While the company already invests heavily in sustainable sourcing at origin, it is now looking closer to home. It has reduced plastic across its products, and invested in both a commercial composter for the roastery,
ACCREDITATIONS EXPLAINED
The Soil Association introduced its organic certification scheme in 1973. It attests to a product being made without the use of synthetic pesticides, GMOs or antibiotics, checking things like soil health, biodiversity and animal welfare. To qualify, producers subject their processes to inspections, traceability audits, and must apply for reapproval every year. Transitioning to organic usually takes around two years, and producers must adapt to evolving standards to ensure their ongoing compliance.
and a eet of electric vehicles for wholesale deliveries.
That said, he adds, “we’re still using gas- red drum roasters – which feels traditional, but isn’t the future of co ee roasting. So yes, we still have a way to go.”
Considering the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool limited in its ability to measure environmental impact, the Planet Score was created by French consultancy firm, ITAB, and a group of NGOs in 2021. Not so much a certification but a rating, it assesses the climate impact, biodiversity, pesticide use and animal welfare considerations of a product. Producers must submit data and certifications to ensure the highest score possible in each metric. Though not widely used in the UK, the Planet Score is gaining traction in the EU.
Hargreaves agrees that businesses should focus on what’s relevant to their operation at any point in time.
“With farm-based producers, there’s more potential for doing stu with the land, such as biodiversity and carbon sequestration,” he says. “That’s what makes sense for them.”
Redfern argues that the most sustainable businesses are the
The really good thing would be if people looked me in the eye and just said what they were doing. That’s how it used to be – and it still matters.
Charles Redfern, founder, Realfoods Organico
US-based nonprofit B Lab created the B Corp scheme in 2006, with the idea of assessing businesses holistically rather than on a single metric. As well as being an environmental impact assessment, it measures a company’s positive impact on governance, as well as on its community, workers and customers. To qualify, businesses need to score 80 out of 200, providing documentation and undergoing audits to back up their claims. The B Corp process is notoriously long and complex, and companies must recertify every three years.
smaller, purpose-led ones that start with strong values – whether organic, regenerative, fair trade or focused on poverty alleviation – and stay focused on the areas where they can make a real di erence.
The best stance on sustainability, as Redfern sees it, is “either learn it – which is hard, you’ve got to gra – or shut up about it”.
Blackburn echoes this sentiment.
“We’ve tried not to shout about all these things. We’re actually just trying to do what we do – and people can interact with that.”
Businesses may stand a better chance of cutting through the noise by acknowledging that sustainability is neither static nor standardised – as illustrated by B Corp’s upcoming changes, which will require businesses to meet minimum standards across all assessed areas rather than rely on an overall score.
But in the end, all three agree that what sets the most credible businesses apart isn’t a perfect score or ambitious claims – it’s transparency.
“The really good thing would be if people looked me in the eye and just said what they were doing,” says Redfern. “That’s how it used to be – and it still matters.”
For Hargreaves, it’s about sharing the journey, wherever you are starting from.
“Everyone can do something. You do a bit today, a bit more next month, and more next year. But you’ve got to be honest about where you are.”
In the elds of our sun-drenched family farm, our farmer Juri tends the crops with a devotion for the land and for the ingredient. Using local artisans we turn our grain into exceptional pasta, of a quality not found outside Italy. Find me, Francesca, at this year’s Speciality Fine Food Fair and I will proudly show you the pasta and our farm’s other products.
www.belvedereorganic.com
For 29 years, the Natural Food Expo (part of Natural & Organic Products Expo) has been at the forefront of the natural, organic and sustainable industry, championing the growth and evolution of natural and organic food & drink.
Six reasons to visit… …Natural Food Expo
Keep up with the trends
Sustainability, ethics and health are becoming leading factors in consumers’ purchasing decisions. The show is curated with these priorities in mind, bringing together brands that are ahead of the curve in conscious consumerism – from regenerative agriculture to low-waste packaging and functional wellness.
Take
a seat at the seminars
Visitors can also engage in two days of thought-provoking discussions across two theatres, including keynote talks and dynamic panels, featuring voices from every corner of the industry. The speaker line-up includes Craig Sams (Green & Blacks), The Soil Association, Whole Foods Market, Planet Organic, The Vegan Society and many more.
Be the rst to visit the new Artisan Food & Drink Expo
For the rst time, the Natural Food Expo will host the Artisan Food & Drink Expo - a dedicated area celebrating cra smanship, provenance and smallbatch production. From gourmet pantry staples to farm-to-table delicacies, this space showcases the best of handmade, independently produced food and drink.
Save time and money
Discover
the latest launches
Natural Food Expo is the number one place to nd the latest launches. The show has an Innovation Showcase and a Launchpad Zone – presenting new challenger brands and exciting start-ups. Whether you’re on the lookout for fresh avours, or next-gen functional foods, the show is packed with exciting innovations.
Natural Food Expo isn’t just a trade show - it’s a community. The event is a powerful reminder of the shared values driving this industry forward. Come for the products, have meaningful conversations, and leave feeling energised by people driving positive change. To register for a free trade ticket, visit naturalfoodexpo.co.uk 1 4 2 5 3 6
Natural Food Expo is the ultimate onestop shop for busy buyers. With hundreds of natural, organic and sustainable suppliers under one roof, it’s the most e cient way to compare products, meet suppliers and make smart purchasing decisions. Refresh your range, discover new categories and streamline your sourcing process.
Be part of the community
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We produce, process and distribute products to a wide range of customers, from smallest independent restaurants and shops to the largest food manufacturers, retailers and caterers.
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The cost of co ee
Prices are going up everywhere, for everything. But when it’s a staple like the at white, deli-cafés are going to have to face up to the situation – and their customers.
By Nick Baines
MOST PEOPLE WILL have noticed that co ee is getting increasingly expensive. This all boils down to the fact that it’s traded as a commodity – bought and sold on a global exchange known as the C-Market.
As demand has outstripped annual harvests, stockpiles have dwindled, causing supply chain issues and driving up prices. This has happened at a time when extreme weather conditions have impacted crop yields in many co ee-growing regions. Combined with stock market speculation, and unfavourable exchange rates, the price of a cup of co ee has shot up.
Front-line co ee shops are wrestling with the fact that a at white will now o en break the £4 threshold, and even big-name instant brands are li ing prices by up to 40%. Consumers are having to reframe what a cup of co ee costs.
“A at white is probably the most popular drink most of our customers sell,” says Rachel Campbell, manager of Bad Hand Co ee, a roastery that supplies co ee shops, garden centres and delis, as well as operating an onsite café. “The thing is, rising costs are nothing new; everything from plant-based milks and quality cows’ milk to shipping, packaging, energy bills, wage bills and obviously the co ee itself all play a part.
“But we don’t want to lower our quality, service or our ethics, so we doubled down in those areas rather than retreat into lower grade
co ee. We also recently broke the £4 threshold for a at white in our own café – and have encouraged others to do so too. Otherwise, the margins are just too tight for everyone.”
It’s a similar story in Cornwall at Yallah Co ee. “This is certainly the most dramatic increase we’ve seen in many years,” says Sam Thomas, Yallah’s head of co ee. “In the speciality market, we always talk about the price needing to be higher for producers. So now it’s happening. If you’re a café owner considering what to do, make sure your roasters keep buying those good co ees.
“Why do people go back to cafés time and again? Because the service is great and they like your co ee. Shops need to stick to their guns,” he adds.
And while it’s easy to think baristaprepared co ee has got even more expensive, it’s not something instant co ee is immune to either. According to The Guardian, the retail price of a 200g jar of Nescafe Original – still Britain’s best-selling co ee – rose by 40% in the past year.
Devon-based Little’s Co ee produces premium instant co ee and has also felt the pinch. “Year over year, the increase in the C-Market has been about 140%, and there’s really no way to pass that full increase onto the customer,” says managing director Will Little. “So, there’s been a lot of mitigation –absorbing cost increases wherever possible.”
“At the end of the day, every co ee company is in the same boat,” he continues. “Our job is to provide value to our customers and continue o ering a high-quality product that changes people’s perception of instant co ee. We don’t want to compromise on quality,” he says. “Our products have always been in the premium price bracket, and that bracket is simply moving up with the rest of the market.”
FOUR WAYS TO...
...add value
If a cup of it is going to get more expensive then operators need to justify those costs to the consumer. Here are some suggestions to get customers their “money’s worth”.
Provenance & POS
Point of sale has been severely overlooked in most cafés. Reminding customers of where your coffee comes from, who roasts it, or the source of your milk can add strength and value at a time when consumers are looking for it.
Coffee combos
Combinations of pastries or cake with your coffee are a great way to offer value without having to dump the margin on the drink. It’s also an easy way to boost average spend and increase turnover. Sometimes the oldest tricks have the biggest impact.
Affogato to go 6oz cups filled with soft serve and a shot of espresso proved a popular trend at speciality coffee shops and a number of bakeries last summer and are a great way to keep strong a margin on your coffee offering.
No hidden costs
A lot of places charge extra for oat or nut milks, but milk prices continue to rise so some coffee shops have started taking an average and rolling that cost into their milky drinks, meaning there are no hidden surcharges.
WHY THE £4 FLAT WHITE MAKES SENSE
The team at Bad Hand Coffee in Bournemouth put out this infographic to help customers understand why a flat white is now tipping over the £4 mark. The numbers were taken from an average collated from discussions with several of their wholesale customers in Dorset.
Stew Gilbert
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Not what it says on the tin
It looks like a beer, but it’s a snack. Steve and Ruby Sailopal, founders of Curry Smugglers, created this irreverent take on classic South Indian bites as a way of honouring Desi cultureand their mothers’ recipes.
Interview by Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox
What were you doing before starting Curry Smugglers, and how did the idea come about?
Curry Smugglers is myself and my wife, Ruby. My background is in cra beer – surprise – and I’ve been doing that since 2008. I do consultancy work, and I’m also the founder of Good Karma Beer Co., a range of alcohol-free beers brewed in Kent using Kentish hops. What really struck us as a family is that South Asian snacks on supermarket shelves are in big bags, which don’t re ect the culture. South Asian culture is so colourful. As a brand, we want to showcase the energy of Indian bazaars and modern Britain. It’s an experience.
One day Ruby said to me, ‘why don’t you put snacks in your cans?’ It took nearly a year to get the branding right – that was so important. The idea started in 2020. A young girl called Lauren designed our logo – but sadly she passed away, she took her own life. That’s something we also want to talk about – mental health, especially in hospitality.
We paused the project, but felt we had to show Lauren’s work, so eventually we brought in another designer to nish the branding, and we started trading in October last year. It’s been an exciting journey, especially as neither of us had sold snacks before. These were always made for celebrations like Diwali or Christmas. To make them our living would be amazing.
How did you go about developing the recipes for the three cans?
The chakli is my mum’s recipe. I remember as a kid, watching her use this little device where you turn the lever and spirals come out into
hot oil. People would ask her to make them for weddings.
The other two snacks are Ruby’s mum’s recipes. It’s amazing to bring these back. They bring back happy memories, and with everything going on in the world, we wanted to put some positive energy out there.
We want the brand to be fun, bold, unapologetic, and to spread that Desi vibe. In the last year, we’ve seen so many Desi pubs
serving Indian food, owned by South Asian landlords. We had that in mind too. Britain’s so multicultural. This isn’t some unknown product. Everybody loves these snacks already. Bombay Mix is iconic – it’s already on supermarket shelves – it’s just boring. It needed more colour. It needed to enter the 2020s.
been key.
We’re not shy – even on social media, we’ll play Indian songs our English friends might not understand. But you’ve got to be who you are.
A few weeks a er launch, in the run-up to Christmas, we opened our online shop. That went well. Then in January, we got listed in Selfridges. That was a ‘wow’, goosebump moment. The buyer, Maria, loved it. She said it would really stand out on their shelves.
What’s the plan in terms of retail and ontrade sales – where would you like to be?
Right now, we’re focusing on independent delis and specialist cra beer shops. Also pubs – we want our cans in people’s hands while they’re having a pint or taking cans home. Superette also started stocking us.
I was a bit worried that the grocery side already stocked Bombay Mix, but the indies get it. They know this is nicer – this is an experience. It’s like when cra beer began: anti-establishment, pushing back on boring big brands. It’s the same in snacks – big companies making thousands of bags. But consumers want something more memorable.
What’s the six-month to long-term plan for you?
We want to have fun, be bold, unapologetic, and spread that Desi vibe
How did you commercialise the products? We started in a local kitchen in Margate. We bought machinery for the lids – they’re di erent from regular beer cans. Once we had stock, I opened my beer contact book. I reached out to beer bloggers like Melissa Cole and Matthew Curtis – they loved it. Orders came in from bottle shops and pubs like Heaton Hops in Stockport, Koelschip Yard in Glasgow, the Shakespeare in Margate. Fuggles in Tunbridge Wells has supported us from day one.
We haven’t done a hard sell. People embrace it because it’s unique, and the branding has
Right now, it’s just us two – doing everything. Social media, cooking, nance – you name it. The plan is to grow the brand and get a couple of wholesalers on board. Around June, we may do a little crowdfund to grow the team. The days just don’t end. Eventually, we want our own warehouse, proper logistics, and machinery. Then, work with a major retailer.
Are you planning to diversify your range?
Yes. Like in cra beer, we’ll do small-batch, special edition snacks. We’ve got one in the pipeline already. Later in the year, we’ll introduce something new – something we love to drink in India, brought here in a can. The aim is to have a core of ve main products, with rotating special editions to keep it fresh. currysmugglers.co
PRODUCTS & MERCHANDISING
New visual identity sets up Luscombe for further growth
By Lynda Searby
Devon so drinks producer Luscombe has unveiled a new visual identity to mark its 50th anniversary and support its future growth strategy.
The refresh was rolled out across all packaging, digital platforms, advertising and POS last month. Bottles and cans now feature product tasting notes and founder Gabriel David’s signature alongside a modern take on the Luscombe stripe.
The inclusion of tasting notes re ects growing consumer interest in pairing so drinks with food, says Luscombe.
“We’ve added tasting notes to our bottles to guide consumers’ choices when purchasing –whether to enjoy at home or when out,” MD Scott Cooper told FFD “This trend emphasises the importance of premium, versatile so drinks that complement a variety of dining occasions.”
He said the new design celebrates the company’s heritage and sets it up for the next stage of its growth, with a new executive team at
the helm.
“To celebrate our 50th anniversary, Gabriel decided on a brand refresh alongside a strategic plan to strengthen our presence in premium hospitality, leisure venues and retail.
“As part of this vision, Gabriel brought in a new executive team with a breadth of experience and expertise across the industry to ensure Luscombe continues to grow,” he explained.
Cooper is con dent that the brand is well positioned as low- and no-alcohol options proliferate.
He added: “With the continued rise of the ‘sober-curious’ movement, more consumers are seeking low- or no-alcohol alternatives without compromising on taste or experience. Our drinks o er a sophisticated alternative, allowing those who choose to moderate their alcohol intake to still enjoy complex and satisfying avours.”
NPD features in Luscombe’s future plans too – the brand con rmed that it is launching a new Mango & Peach Crush in both 270ml bottles and 320ml cans, and enlarging its range of tonics with new mixers.
Firebrand Brewing Co has treated its nonalcoholic beers Shorebreak and Little Wave to a makeover. The Cornish brewery says the new look is intended to make the brews stand out as vibrant choices “for those who love great beer without the buzz”. It claims the design reinforces Firebrand’s “bold, innovative and unmistakably Cornish” proposition, shining a light on the beers’ low calorie, gluten-free and vegan credentials. Operating out of a purpose-built brewery in Launceston, Firebrand encourages beer drinkers to ‘go beyond the usual’ with modern styles that explore new flavours. firebrandbrewing.co.uk
Founded in Devon in 1975, Luscombe has evolved from a small family cider making business into an international so drinks brand. Its drinks, which include bubblies, juices, ginger beers, crushes and tonics, blend organic fruit with the producer’s own source of Dartmoor spring water.
luscombe.co.uk
WHAT’S NEW
Fish4Ever has added designated origin Cornish Sardines to its portfolio - a ‘local shores’ success story the responsibly sourced tinned fish brand has been seeking to champion for many years. This launch will feature the brand’s new livery, including on-pack QR codes for consumers to trace each tin back to the boat that caught it. fish4ever.co.uk
Having established its name with its signature Cookie Dough and Gelato Bites, Doughlicious is breaking into ambient retail with a ‘grab and go’ oat-based cookie range. Soft Baked Gourmet Cookies are available in four vegan, gluten-free varieties: Double Chocolate Chip, Salted Caramel, Chocolate Chip and Banana Good Granola. RRP £1.99/82g. doughlicious.co.uk
London-based brewery MOMO has launched a new seasonal kombucha in collaboration with Natoora. Blood Orange Kombucha combines Sicilian Moro Blood Oranges with raw, unfiltered kombucha, raw cane sugar, hibiscus and elderflower. RRP £4.50 per 330ml bottle. momo-kombucha.com
Snack makers tap into ‘shroom boom’
One trend from the last three or four years is showing no signs of slowing, with mushrooms popping up in everything from coffee to meat alternatives.
This year has seen them advance into the ambient ‘on the go’ space, with a flurry of fungi-forward snack introductions.
“Mushrooms are trending in food and wellness, yet traditional snack aisles remain saturated with ultra-processed crisps,” said Fan Yang, founder of Other Foods, whose Gourmet Mushroom Chips have just launched in Whole Foods Market, Planet Organic,
Holland & Barrett, Ocado and Selfridges.
“Our snacks offer a high fibre, plant-based alternative with bold, umamipacked flavours.”
These so called “next generation crisps” are 100% real mushroom, minimally processed for maximum crunch umami flavour. They are billed as a guilt-free snack or accompaniment to wine, charcuterie and gourmet meals.
There are three varieties: Crunchy Truffle Shiitake; Crunchy Oyster Mushrooms; and Crunchy Trumpet
Mushrooms. RRP £2.59-2.99. Ireland-based Mushrooms and Love is another challenger making a play for a slice of the snacks market. Its Mushroom Crisps are produced from real mushrooms, fried until crispy, and then seasoned. So far, its snacks have only been available via the D2C channel, but the company says it is planning to expand into retail this year. mushroomsandlove.ie otherfoodsuk.com
WHAT’S NEW
Retailers with freezer space should check out this mini version of the beignet – French doughnuts – from Moi by Mademoiselle Desserts
Available in four flavours - Hazelnut & Cocoa, Apple, Red Fruits and Speculoos – RRP £3.50 per pack of eight. moibymd.co.uk
Belfast startup Based Food has created a range of plantbased mixes so home bakers can knock up eggless French toast and pancakes, chocolate brownies and rainbow cookies, simply by adding either milk or butter. RRP £4.89; trade prices from £3.50. basedfood.co.uk
Shatta Jam was developed to eliminate waste from Fil Foods’ habanero shatta production, using the fermentation brine to create this sweet, tart and aromatic product. The upcycled jam is a contemporary take on the traditional Palestinian condiment, and is already sold at Selfridges. WSP £4.50; RRP £6.99 (220g). getyourfil.today
My ingredient
Cra y Pickle Co. Kra y Kraut
Co-owner, Stonewell Spring Delicatessen, Lancaster
By Lynda Searby
The Cornish Distilling Co at Norton Barton Artisan Food Village has created a new metalpackaged spirits brand to tell its sustainability story.
“We have our own wind turbine and solar panel array here at Norton Barton, allowing our distillery to run entirely on electricity, but we haven’t shouted about this much in the past. Instead we have focused more on the quality of our alcohol - we are one of the few distilleries in the UK to ferment molasses from scratch to make our rum,” said Adam Tynan, head of sales & marketing at Norton Barton, whose other brands include Cornish Charcuterie and Whalesborough Cheese.
“We decided it was time to talk about being a windpowered distillery
Founded by Madi Myers and Arthur Serini with a mission to fight food waste, Crafty Pickle Co. produces raw, unpasteurised, naturally fermented sauerkrauts, kimchi and piccalilli.
They work in partnership with the charity FareShare to acquire surplus produce that would have otherwise been wasted, and turn it into some really tasty fermented products.
Our favourite is the Krafty Kraut, which, as you’d expect, is great with sausage and mash, but also pairs really well with charcuterie and cheese.
We discovered this German-style sauerkraut when we bought a couple of jars for one of our cheese-tasting evenings and it has since become a firm favourite in our shop.
We also use it in our famous hot reuben sandwiches, paired with melted Ogleshield, Cumbrian peppered pastrami and Lovingly Artisan sourdough. thecraftypickle.co.uk
The Cornish Distilling Co presents new spirits in aluminium bottles
– as far as I know we are the only one in the UK. We’re producing spirits from wind power, so our work literally starts ‘a er the storm’.”
A er The Storm is a way of not only “landing” this sustainability message, but also conveying the “romance” of the distillery’s rugged location on the Cornish coast.
The Cornish Distilling Co has chosen a metal bottle format for the brand, for reasons explained by Tynan: “We thought that if we were making sustainability a USP, we had better carry that through to the packaging. Metal is a lot lighter than glass, which bene ts the carbon footprint of the product through every supply chain step. Metal is also the most recycled material in the UK - the consumer understands that you can recycle metal.”
The distillery’s rum is the rst product to get the A er The Storm treatment, and will most likely be followed by gin and vodka, said Tynan.
The Bude distillery’s house rum is created using Norton Barton’s own bore hole water in the molasses fermentation, and Cornish spring water when proo ng the spirit down before it goes into the stills.
WSP will be £15 for 50cl; RRP around £30. cornishdistilling.co.uk
It’s great with sausage & mash, but also pairs well with cheese.
Italian-run pastry producer DiSanto & Family previewed its new palm-oil free range of cannoli at last month’s Farm Shop & Deli Show.
“Demand for palm-oil-free products has never been higher, and we’re proud to be at the forefront of meeting that need. While we already use sustainably sourced palm oil in our standard range, we recognise that some customers prefer completely palm oil-free options,” said DiSanto’s Manuela Polesello.
Initially, the palm-oil-free pastries will be available filled with pistachio, hazelnut, and dark chocolate creams, with more flavours in the pipeline. RRP £5.95-£6.95 for a retail pack of five cannoli.
Founded by brothers Ivan and Maurizio DiSanto, DiSanto & Family is an Italian familyrun pastry producer based in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. disantoandfamily.com
ALAN HEMPTON
The World of Food Starts in Downham Market
From the most exotic foods across the world to probably the best biscuits and cakes in the country, Shire Foods continues to supply an extraordinary range of local, national and international products to every corner of the UK.
NEW LOOK SAME GREAT TASTE
Our newly packaged premium range of products are available to order now!
We also offer an exclusive own-label service!
Add your shop’s logo to our premium products for Shire Fine Foods’ quality but with a personal touch. Contact us today for more information!
Nationwide deli ry, right to your doorstep! View our fu range of products online
Artisan creators of
Second generation retailer Antonio Picciuto has been around long enough to remember a time when olive oil was seen as an exotic item by most Britons. In a sense, his St Albans shop, Buongiorno Italia, re ects how our appetite for highquality Italian food has come into its own over the past 40 years.
Better than the good old days
IT IS THE week before Easter, and Buongiorno Italia is abuzz with activity.
The deli’s St Albans customers – the majority of whom order in Italian – are clearly getting a head start on their feast preparations. Shouts of “Buona Pasqua!” ring out across the store, and boxes of Colomba Pasquale (think panettone, but dove-shaped, and without raisins) ll the windows. At one point, I notice an elderly couple walk out carrying no fewer than 10 between them.
Behind the deli counter – a study in abundance, with its great logs of salami, mountains of cheese, and vibrant antipasti
VITAL STATISTICS
Location: 66 Lattimore Rd, St Albans AL1 3XR
Average basket size: £23
Typical customer profile: local families, young professionals, older shoppers Average margin: 40-60%
Products: 1,500
– owner Antonio Picciuto conducts the hubbub, ensuring that it never tips over into chaos. Espresso shots are pulled, Parma ham is sliced, and st-sized arancini are packed into takeaway boxes. He directs the sta members like musicians in an orchestra, turning their attention to any potential problems before they even arise.
It would be an exhausting job for most, but Picciuto seems thoroughly in his element. He’s bright-eyed even a er waking up at midnight to make his biweekly market visit, where he sources stalks of bitter puntarelle, globe-shaped Sicilian aubergines,
and much of the other vibrant produce arrayed outside the shop’s entrance.
It helps that he was practically born into the business. His parents – rst-generation Italian immigrants who hailed from a small village in Campania – opened the deli’s predecessor, Franco Stores, just a few storefronts away in 1978. Picciuto recalls it as a space that over owed with food, with “salamis hanging down o the ceilings” and Catholic iconography displayed in the windows.
Unthinkable as it is today, the 1970s were a time before Italian cuisine was widely
Interview and photos by Claire Bullen
consumed or accepted in Britain, when now-commonplace ingredients like pasta, olive oil, and Parmigiano Reggiano were still considered exotic novelties. As Buongiorno Italia’s website notes, Franco Stores’ clients were initially “mainly discerning Italians and adventurous English people”.
Although Picciuto is just 56, he has spent almost half a century working behind the counter, watching those slow evolutions in consumer taste unfold. “My parents didn’t have children, they had employees,” he says wryly. “We were slicing [ham] from 10, 11 years old, serving people from a very, very young age. I’ve been doing it all my life – and fortunately, I do love doing it.”
Picciuto took over the business from his parents when he was in his early twenties. “In 1991, my father wanted to turn it into a restaurant – and he did, he turned it into a very successful pizzeria. I didn’t really want to get into the restaurant game – he opened it with my brother – so I literally moved [the deli] next door,” he says. “And I just started from there.”
Buongiorno Italia has changed considerably in the three-and-a-half decades since – although, in all its iterations, it has always remained on the same street. The
deli has occupied its current location since 2011, a er a lease dispute with a landlord prompted Picciuto to purchase his own site.
Although Picciuto describes the current space as larger than the last, its shelves are so amply stocked with treats and temptations that it feels t to burst. One customer, overhearing our conversation, turns to me and whispers, “It’s an Aladdin’s cave!” with a conspiratorial smile.
“Customers can’t come in and see the same thing, day in, day out,” says Picciuto. “There’s always got to be something new, or there’s got to be enough selection for people to say, ‘I’m going to go back, I want to see what I can have this week.’ [...] This was something my father always drove into me – keep the shelves full. An empty shop is a boring shop.”
But novelty isn’t enough on its own. It’s also about quality – at one point, Picciuto despairs about the dreadful state of supermarket mozzarella – and about stocking products that beget accompanying purchases.
“I like to think of it as a little ecosystem. People come to the shop, they’ll buy
MUST-STOCKS
Vilani – Parma ham
Vilani – Ventricina salami
Caseificio Barone – Buffalo mozzarella and Burrata
Homemade lasagne
Loison – Panettone
Bonci – Panbriacone
Home-processed olive oil
Seggiano – Raw basil pesto
Salcis – Sausage with fennel
Merinda tomatoes
Bacca Nera – Negroamaro Primitivo
DELI OF THE MONTH
some tomatoes. And with that they’ll buy the bu alo mozzarella. With the bu alo mozzarella they’ll buy the Parma ham. With the Parma ham they’ll buy some olives and some artichokes,” Picciuto says. “Everything seems to attract something else, the bottle of wine, the local bread, the tiramisù. And that’s how our business works.”
The business also works in less orthodox ways. “Sorry, it’s a customer,” Picciuto says as his phone pings mid-conversation. He pauses to show me the WhatsApp group he runs for a selection of loyal shoppers. Mainly, he uses it to broadcast the latest produce he’s picked up at the market, or to highlight seasonal products that have just become available.
Sometimes, he even posts videos to entice sales. In one, he splits open a ripe summer g, rolls it in a slice of Parma ham, and tips back his head in ecstasy as he takes a bite. “Food of the gods!” he exclaims. Fig sales spiked shortly a erwards.
This rst-hand engagement with the shop’s clientele so transcends standard customer service practices that it feels almost like a familial form of hospitality. “We try to remember people’s names – I always say to the sta , make sure you say hello to people, make sure you greet them,” Picciuto says. “I hate people waiting, I hate people being unacknowledged.”
In his youth, a retail training scheme at Harrods taught him not just to regard customers with genuine engagement and professionalism, but also to take pride in the generous work of hospitality. The desire to feed people, and to make them happy,
seems to originate from somewhere even deeper. “Mangia, mangia,” he says as he brings a pistachio cannoli to accompany my macchiato, followed up by slices of salami and a wedge of pastiera, a ricotta tart eaten for Easter.
The ipside of this level of care is prescriptiveness, and Picciuto acknowledges that Italians can have a reputation for culinary strictness. He laughs while recalling the moment one sta member forbade a customer from ordering chicken with pesto. But he likes to take a di erent approach: “For me, if you enjoy it – if you want to put harissa in a pasta with chorizo – do it. Do you like it, do you enjoy it? Then enjoy it –don’t worry about it.”
Indeed, for all of its traditional, heritage products – Buongiorno Italia still sells the same ham that Picciuto’s parents did 40 years ago; “Parma ham is sacred to me,” he explains – the deli’s selection has also broadened in recent years. I spot jars of Middle Eastern sauces on the counter, and overhear what sounds like an order for hummus.
“The [local] Italian community has changed now,” Picciuto says. “We don’t have all the old-school Italians now but we have the new Italians who are professional people and want good-quality food, so we do serve a lot of the Italian people. But the majority of our customers are English; there are also Romanians, there are Albanians. It’s very multicultural.”
Buongiorno Italia has managed to strike a keen balancing act. On the one hand, it is still respecting its roots and its
longtime customers, whom Picciuto says the shop “inherited” from his father’s store. But it’s also making room for the new arrivals, shapeshi ing with St Albans as its demographics change, showing how the Italian deli is not static, but rather an idea that’s always in motion. Much like Picciuto himself.
Last year, the deli had the opportunity to expand into a “perfect” location in the town centre. Picciuto – who says he sometimes feels frustrated about the current shop’s limited oor space and location o the beaten path – considered the option seriously. But taking it on would have meant sacri cing the low rates and low overheads that have helped the business thrive, all while necessitating a more relentless pace of work.
“A friend of mine said to me, ‘If you get bigger, it’s going to be fantastic, it’s going to be brilliant. But you’re not going to live in a bigger house, you’re not going to drive a bigger car, you’re not going to go on better holidays.’ Basically, what he’s saying is, ‘You’ve done it. You’re there.’”
The formula is working. Despite the pressures of the cost-of-living crisis, trade is clearly healthy. And acclaim has spread more widely, too. Picciuto proudly shows me a copy of Theo Randall’s The Italian Deli Cookbook – right there, included in a list of Randall’s favourite Italian delis around the world, is Buongiorno Italia.
“What we have is good, is special, it’s nice, it’s lovely,” says Picciuto, allowing himself a moment of pride. “I do put a lot of passion in. I do put a lot of e ort in.”
buongiornoitalia.co.uk
This was something my father always drove into me – keep the shelves full. An empty shop is a boring shop.
Real Italian Wine & Food
London, Tuesday 29th April
There’s just one week left until the Italian Trade Agency’s participation at the 13th edition of the Real Italian Wine & Food event.
The event will be taking place at The Royal Horticultural Halls, 80 Vincent Square, SW1P 2PB, London, from 11am to 6pm.
ITA is delighted to be renewing its collaboration with Confartigianato Imprese to bring you some fantastic Italian companies.
Our exhibiting companies will be presenting specialities from all across Italy, from the northern regions including Veneto, to central Italy’s Marche, Umbria, and coming down to Puglia, Calabria and Sicilia. The products include vegetable preserves and conserves, chocolates, olive oil,
cheeses, pasta, baked products, charcuterie, non-alcoholic beverages, and wines.
Some of the exhibited companies are already represented in the UK, whilst others are keen to find a local importer or distributor.
We look forward to greeting you on Tuesday 29th April, and for you to embark on a culinary journey across Italy to savour some true delicacies.
To register your attendance, please visit www.realitalianwinefood.co.uk/register
Discover more about the exhibited companies by browsing their websites below!
Azienda Agricola Biasiotto www.vinibiasiotto.it
Marcantognini I Colori Del Cioccolato www.marcantogninicioccolato.com
Filotea Pasta www.filoteapasta.com
Le Carezze Organic Winery www.cantinalecarezze.it
The
Salumificio Ussia www.nduja.com
Casa Vinicola Fazio www.casavinicolafazio.it
Perilli www.frantoioperilli.com
Cantina Tudernum www.tudernum.it
Il Pasticcere Cristian Marzo www.marzoilpasticcere.it
Caseificio di Pietrantonio www.caseificiodipietrantonio.it
La Cerqua Tartufi www.lacerqua.com
Pastificio PMC www.pastificiopmc.com
Villa degli Olmi www.villadegliolmi.it
Blas mru Taste Wales
Discover a nation of food and drink innovators
22 & 23 October | 2025
International Convention Centre Wales, Celtic Manor, Newport, South Wales
Join us for the signature event of the Welsh food and drink industry, bringing together producers, suppliers, buyers, and food industry professionals from across the world. The Welsh Government’s Food & Drink Wales team have designed Blas Cymru / Taste Wales for professional buyers from retail, foodservice, hospitality, along with developers and chefs.
Key event highlights include:
• Meet an industry under one roof – participation from SALSA and BRCGS accredited companies
• Focus on innovation, with 200 new product ranges
• 3,000 product showcase with buyers able to browse independently
• Time e icient – diary system to arrange short introductory meetings
• Access expert knowledge from Food & Drink Wales to help identify suitable suppliers
• Rising Star Marketplace – connect with up and coming suppliers
For further information or to register to attend:
gov.wales/foodanddrinkwales
f FoodDrinkWales @FoodDrinkWales Food_Drink_Wales
l Bwyd a Diod Cymru | Food and Drink Wales
Expert View
INSIGHT6’S RICHARD
KNIGHT ON CUSTOMER SERVICE VS. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.
It’s not uncommon to confuse ‘customer service’ with ‘customer experience’.
Customer service is about supporting customers before, during and a er purchasing a product or service. It’s a reactive process and is o en about solving problems. Meanwhile, customer experience (o en shortened to CX) covers every customer interaction with a company, from that rst internet search to ongoing engagement.
Going deeper, customer service is the direct interaction during a transaction. It reacts to a customer’s issue, answering questions and providing a solution to satisfy them. Interactions occur via phone, email, face-to-face meetings or – in retailers’ cases – on the shop oor.
The key to good service is being responsive to requests and resolving queries or problems completely and quickly. If this is done with a
Customer service is a reactive process.
MODEL RETAILING
Well done. You’ve really earned that day off tomorrow. What are you going to do?
degree of personal interaction a customer will feel valued and be more loyal to your business.
Now, let’s look at experience (CX). This is a customer’s entire journey with a brand. Multiple touchpoints shape how customers feel and perceive the brand.
A well-designed and optimised website is a great starting point for a compelling customer journey. Once they’re on the premises – be that online or in a store – then they need to be able to experience the products you’re o ering, buy them seamlessly and feel engaged during transactions.
If the customer has had a smooth, positive experience across multiple touchpoints that
builds trust, creates positive emotions and leaves a lasting, favourable impression. The nal stage in the experience journey should be the customer leaving a glowing review online, recommending you to others, and making a repeat purchase.
To deliver exemplary service and experience, you must get sta on board. CX training will give them an understanding of the business’s goals beyond just selling. Customer service training will improve that instant, proactive response and personal touch when having to react to customers – especially if you have a retail premises.
You can also be proactive by conducting a customer journey mapping exercise – anticipating all of the touchpoints and the obstructions to them – and by capturing customer reactions to help improve your products and services.
Customer service and customer experience are di erent but need each other to be most e ective. Together, they shape a positive brand perception, turning satis ed customers into loyal advocates. Unhappy customers harm your pro ts.
If you need more assistance improving either of these key areas, insight6, can help. So, please get in touch. insight6.com
Oh. I’m going to a political rally. It’s all over social media.
I’m sure there’ll be something on his profile about this political stuff…
…oh dear. I hope he’s not been saying stuff like this to the customers.
Deli display queries
Setting up shop for good hygiene
Do all opened or cut products on display need to be covered with cling film?
No. Many products develop a natural outer protective skin, such as the pellicle on cured meats and fermented sausages and the mould and rind of cheese. Some have outer coatings applied such as wax or synthetic casings. However, for quality reasons, to stop the cut surface drying out it is advisable to cover it with deli wrap or similar.
Can I display products in direct sunlight in the shop window?
If the product is ambient stable then there would not be a safety issue. However, the quality of the product may be affected. If a product needs to be kept chilled, you could use a refrigerated window display unit, but the equipment may struggle to maintain food at 8˚C or below if it is in direct sunlight.
To stop a cut surface drying out, deli wrap is advisable.
Fine
Food’s Assured Code of Practice for Deli Retailing
The guide is available in PDF format (free for Guild members, £250+VAT for non-members). To request a copy of the Code,
This advice is an excerpt from the Guild of Fine Food’s Assured Code of Practice for Deli Retailing. The guide is available in PDF format (free for Guild Members, £250+VAT for nonmembers). To request a copy of the Code, email support@gff.co.uk
Can I talk to you a sec?
Pull yourself together. You’re going to have to dismiss him. Can’t have those kind of views associated with your business.
FFD says: Dismissing staff over their political opinions and their activity on social media is a path that is fraught with danger for employers. In many respects, there is a fine line between offensive views and personal opinion – so there would certainly be a case for unfair dismissal if you act too hastily. Seek advice from HR and legal experts before making a decision. There are currently cases with larger retailers that could also set precedents for the future. For further advice, email support@gff.co.uk
