FFD March 2011

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March 2011 · Vol 12 Issue 2

at the heart of speciality food and drink

BuBBLING uNDER Find out what’s new in premium soft drinks for summer 2011 DELI OF THE MONTH ‘I look at other deli owners and think I’m quite lucky,’ says Perth’s Diane Brown

JAMIE OLIVER Will delis buy into the TV chef’s ‘exclusive to independents’ Jme range?

HOW THE EXPERTS DO… FRESH FISH

We take advice from The Scallop Shell’s Garry Rosser

INSIDE: TESCO TARGETS LOCAL FOOD LUCY’S OF AMBLESIDE TRAINING BATH SOFT CHEESE IFE11 THE FOOD COMPANY 32

March 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 2

opinion

in this issue

There aren’t too many delis in South Africa. During a recent holiday we found just one, although we discovered hundreds of farm shops, or ‘farm stalls’ as they’re called down there. There are also lots of Woolworths stores – a cross between Waitrose and M&S. So much so that Woolworths’ Essentials range is a direct crib of Waitrose’s. Or perhaps it was the other way round.

We also visited a couple of cheese-makers. One told me how Woolworths listed her extra mature cheese last Christmas and soon sold out. A month later she received a chunky invoice for the cost of training its staff on how to sell her product.

Supermarkets are gangsters globally, not just in the UK. At a Woolworths checkout I found the latest edition of Jamie, the magazine published for Lord Jamie of Oliver. He’s a global brand so it’s no surprise to come home and find he’s just launched a gourmet food range exclusively for independent retailers (see p49 of this issue).

HRH the Prince of Wales did something similar in 1990 when he launched Duchy Originals. The range was exclusive to independents and no two delis within a 30-mile radius were to be offered stock, so we got behind it and helped recruit shops good enough to be appointed ‘Duchy approved retailers’.

The idea held promise at a time when this country was down to its last 1,000 delis. And anyway, I figured there are more ways to get your knighthood than bribing politicians or running supermarkets. But it all went disastrously wrong. Every promise was broken and Waitrose finally rescued Duchy following its virtual disintegration into a tacky franchising operation.

Right now, margin may be more attractive to delis than celebrity branding. According to Ludlow Food Centre’s Sandy Boyd (see p11), retailers should sell more foods produced in-house, particularly as it appears Tesco is bored with competing against discount supermarkets – not enough margin, presumably – and has rejoined the local food bandwagon (p4).

Deli owner Damian Caldwell (p8) confirms the universal truth that there’s more margin in catering than in retailing fine food. Catering, appearing in Sainsbury’s commercials and producing cookbooks made Jamie Oliver his first, second, third and tenth million. So why bother with speciality food retailing?

HRH donated Duchy profits (when he made any) to his Princes’ Trust but Jamie already pumps shed-loads of cash into good causes while campaigning against junk food and providing catering apprenticeships for deprived teenagers. He’s food royalty and with wife, Jools and kids, Poppy, Daisy, Petal and Buddy, could it be that he’s now set his sights on being crowned King Jamie?

In the land of the celebrity chef, the lure of supermarket cash has long been king. Jamie will need delis and farm shops to trust him first.

❝Right now, margin may be more attractive to delis than celebrity branding❞

Bob Farrand

fine food news

Tesco targets lucrative on-line local food market p4

how the experts do: fresh fish & shellfish

Hints and tips from Gary Rosser of The Scallop Shell, Beckington, Somerset p29

IFE preview

The UK’s biggest food show is still packed with speciality food exhibitors p33

product update: soft drinks

The latest launches in premium soft drinks and how sector pioneer Luscombe is retaining its ‘magic’ p37

training

Courses for butchers, bakers and... cheese-makers p41

focus on: brand design

Bibijis prepares to take its hot new look to market p45

regulars:

news deli of the month deli chef cheesewire shelf talk

4 17 21 23 49

EDITORIAL Editor: Mick Whitworth News editor: Patrick McGuigan Art director: Mark Windsor Editorial production: Richard Charnley Contributors: Gail Hunt, Lynda Searby

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

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

What they’re saying ❝People’s palates are becoming more discerning, but at the same time there’s this dumbing down. There are a lot of companies out there trying to get into premium drinks, imagining it’s a bigger market than it is. But their products are all promise and no delivery❞ Gabriel David, Luscombe Drinks – p37

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

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

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

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

Vol.11 Issue 1 · January-February 2010

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fine food news Tesco is playing down its low-price message and again muscling in on deli and farm shop territory

Tesco back on ‘local’ bandwagon after detour into discounting Shoppers type in a postcode to find local foods available through Tesco

By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Tesco is targeting the increasingly lucrative online market for local food with a dedicated website where customers can learn about and buy products made in their region.

The new ‘local sourcing’ microsite showcases producers within a 50 mile radius of Tesco stores through photos and articles.

Shoppers can also opt to be shown producers within a 30 or 100 mile radius and can nominate local products they would like to see stocked.

Shoppers add local products to their online basket as they browse the site, before ‘checking out’ as normal via the main tesco.com website.

The move comes at a time when many delis and farm shops are trying to boost their online sales, alongside a growing number of stand-alone local food delivery websites, such as The Virtual Farmers Market, Love Your Larder and Big Barn.

Marcus Carter, MD of the Virtual Farmers Market, told FFD high street delis and farm shops were likely to be the biggest losers from the new Tesco site.

“If people can top up their normal home delivery shop with some local lines, it might be enough to put them off visiting their local specialist retailer,” he said.

Natalie Berg, an analyst at Planet Retail, said the new website was part of Tesco’s strategy to distance itself from the campaign it ran during the recession which claimed it was ‘Britain’s biggest discounter’.

“Tesco is trying to change people’s perception, moving away more from the discounter lines that were the focus in the recession and focusing more on quality.

Local food is emerging once again as a way of doing this after a really difficult year for consumers last year.”

Sandy Boyd, MD of the Ludlow Food Centre, told FFD that Tesco staff visited his store unannounced last month to look at prices and product range. “The supermarkets know local food has taken a huge market share and research shows it has a long way to grow. They dropped local two years ago because of the recession in favour of value lines, but there’s a feeling they are now coming back to local.”

Tesco said it had launched the new site following research commissioned in November, which found that 44% of shoppers bought more local food now than they did five years ago, and 28% bought more than they did one year ago.

Meanwhile, online grocery shopping

in the UK is predicted to nearly double to £9.5bn in five years compared to its current level of £4.8bn, according to research published by IGD. “We currently have about 4,000 local products, which fluctuates across the year depending on seasonality of produce,” said a Tesco spokesman. “We are always looking for new producers and products which are produced locally that might be of interest to our customers.”

When ‘local’ FOOD means… Dutch Tesco might trumpet its local credentials online, but in Scotland the National Farmers’ Union has criticised the retailer, along with Asda, for shunning homeproduced pork and chicken in favour of cheap imports.

NFU Scotland carried out a spot check on Tesco’s Bathgate store and found that its “3 for £10” offer only applied to Dutch chicken and pork, while no British bacon appeared to be available. Fresh pork shelves were stocked with Dutch, French and Northern Irish product, despite carrying a ‘Specially Selected Scotch Pork’ banner. The only Scottish pork

found was a small selection of belly pork.

Asda was criticised for stocking imported bacon, gammon, pork chops and bacon joints.

NFU Scotland president Jim McLaren said: “Pig and poultry producers across the country have faced an astronomical increase in their feed costs. At the very time when we need UK supermarkets to stand by UK producers, this quick look at the shelves has found Tesco and Asda appearing to shun producers here while making the most of the opportunities presented by the collapse in prices seen in Europe.”

Blow to Cumbrian suppliers as Lucy’s of Ambleside folds

By MICK WHITWORTH

Lucy’s Specialist Grocers: closed after 20 years

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Cumbrian retailer Lucy Nicholson says high petrol costs, rising food prices and “more and more pressure from the financial institutions” were largely to blame for the shock collapse of her Lucy’s of Ambleside food empire.

The business, which included a deli, a café-restaurant and a wine bar & bistro, went into voluntary liquidation on February 11 with debts exceeding £500,000.

Its Lucy’s on a Plate café and restaurant and Lucy4 Wine Bar & Bistro in Ambleside have been taken over by a new company, The Taste District, and will continue to trade, although Nicholson told FFD she is neither a director nor shareholder in the new concern.

But her deli, Lucy’s Specialist Grocers,

March 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 2

with which she started the business in 1989, has closed. Nicholson said the shop had been hit hard by falling consumer spending, the rise of online shopping and competition from supermarkets, and had taken the rest of the business down with it.

The news is a blow to Ambleside, where Lucy’s has been a significant tourist draw, and to local suppliers. It has been spending around £1m a year in the Cumbrian economy.

Nicholson said her smallest suppliers had been paid cash-on-delivery in recent months. She hoped some others owed more than £1,000 would claw back losses by continuing to trade with The Taste District.

The biggest creditors are Nicholson’s bank, NatWest, HM Revenue & Customs

and the North West Development Agency, which provided a £250,000 transitional loan in 2009 to help Lucy’s through the recession.

The business hit the rocks in January when the bank withdrew its support.

Nicholson said: “It became apparent at the start of the year that we would not be able to sustain sufficient business through the doors to continue through to the summer season.”

Her other businesses, Lucy’s Catering and the LucyCooks cookery school, which is based in nearby Staveley, are so far unaffected. The cookware shop at LucyCooks may eventually be extended to include food products, but Nicholson said the business needed to “consolidate and regroup” first.

inbrief shopfitting Borough bolsters British food offer

South East producers: helping counter Borough Market’s Continental drift

Borough Market has opened a new farmers’ market section as it works to ‘rebalance’ its offering with more British and locally sourced food.

The City & Country Farmers’ Market (CCFM), which has opened in Borough’s Jubilee Market, contains a 23-strong group of farmers and small producers from the South East of England.

Glenis Reagon, MD of Borough Market, said: “CCFM will be bringing an exciting range of new traders to Borough, which highlight excellent local produce… as we attempt to rebalance the range of exceptional quality food that

is on offer.” Chris Elder, who founded CCFM and now runs 10 markets in total across the capital, said: “The idea is for Borough to increase the amount of local produce to go alongside the fine food from abroad that is already there. People who live in the area will be able to come to the market and buy ingredients to cook at home.”

Producers at the market are mainly from Sussex, Hampshire and Kent. Products include cream, milk and buttermilk from Hook & Son, free range poultry from Laycroft and game from Martyn James Game.

Axe falls early at Yorkshire food group The Regional Food Group for Yorkshire and Humber has been forced to cut staff numbers by more than half following the early termination of funding from Regional Development Agency (RDA) Yorkshire Forward.

The workforce at the group, which is branded as Deliciouslyorkshire, has been cut from 27 to 12 after the RDA said it would stop all funding in March of this year, 12 months earlier than originally agreed.

“It’s unfortunate, at a time when local food and drink continues to need support, that we’ve had to lose some experienced professionals,” said Deliciouslyorkshire chief executive Jonathan Knight. “However, we’ve built up a supportive and engaged membership, a strong brand and a specialised core team. It’s a matter of doing more with less, but still focusing on what the sector needs: strong trade networks, timely technical services and vigorous promotion of the food and drink sector.”

A programme of consumer and trade shows is planned for the year, said Knight, along with several

business workshops, the Great Yorkshire Show and the Deliciouslyorkshire awards in November. Members will also take part in a meet the buyer event with officials from the Olympic organising committee at IFE.

The food group will continue to take part in trade and consumer shows this year

Demand for venison outstrips supply

British venison: more producers are needed

Retailers may soon be forced to turn to venison imported from New Zealand as demand for the meat threatens to outstrip supply from British producers.

That’s the warning from the British Deer Farm & Park

Association (BDFPA), which is working to encourage more parkland farms in the UK to start farming red and fallow deer.

According to the BDFPA, consumer demand for venison has risen by 25% in the past year leading to a potential shortage of British meat.

“Venison demand is seeing unprecedented growth across all sectors of the UK retail, catering and online markets. But the dearth of home-grown product presents an opening for New Zealand’s deer farming industry – the largest in the world,” said the trade body.

“As an organisation we’re here to offer support and practical advice to parkland owners and farmers helping them to profitably supply the increasingly strong demand for venison,” said vice-chairman of the BDFPA Nigel Sampson. “UK Parkland is ideal for deer farming, and the addition of deer to this often underused land can supply an additional income for the estate, as well as enhancing the local landscape.”

Fife-based biscuit brand Your Piece Baking Co has agreed a distribution deal with Whole Foods Market in the US via a US importer. Three lines are being listed by the retailer in its North East and North Atlantic stores: handmade porridge oatcakes, handmade oatmeal shortbread and handmade oatmeal shortbread with chocolate chips. ● Regional food group Heart of England Fine Foods has added a new category to its Diamond Awards, which recognise the region’s start-up food and drink producers.

Entrants to The Midcounties Cooperative New Business Award will be judged on issues such as animal welfare, sourcing policies and working with the local community.

Winners will be revealed in May.

North Yorkshire deli and food producer Lewis & Cooper says it sold a record £416,000-worth of hampers online and from its stores in the three months leading up to Christmas. ● Slow Food is launching a smartphone app to accompany the first edition of its Italian Slow Wine book this month. “Unlike all existing Italian wine guides,” it says, “Slow Wine adopts a new approach to wine criticism and looks beyond what is in the glass, considering ethical and environmental values as well as taste and value for money.”

Editors Giancarlo Gariglio and Fabio Giavedoni visited more than 2,000 cellars to produce the guide.

The Forum of Private Business is urging SMEs to sign up to its new Get Britain Trading campaign, calling on government to make ‘radical changes’ on tax, regulation and fuel duties to bolster the small business sector. Details at www. getbritaintrading.co.uk ● The Guild of Fine Food is working with Accredited Supplier members to provide a new programme of promotions exclusively for Guild members’ shops. The 10 best deals put forward by suppliers during each month-long promotional period will be chosen by the Guild. They will include price promotions and freestock offers, and will be supported by generic point-of-sale material.

mike.cook@finefoodworld.co.uk Vol.12 Issue 2 · March 2011

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news food halls

Union wheels in Walkers and Kellogg’s in bid to boost footfall

By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Union Market has introduced further changes to the layout and product range at its eight-month-old store in Fulham amid reports of continuing low footfall.

Big brands such as Walkers crisps, Kellogg’s cereals and Heinz Spaghetti Hoops have been brought in alongside the original range of products from small British producers. Pet food and a cigarette display behind the tills have also been introduced.

Meanwhile, the restaurant and wine sections have swapped locations and the deli counter moved next to a condensed butchery counter to improve the customer shopping experience. An upmarket takeaway sandwich counter has also been introduced.

FFD correspondents who have visited the store at key trading times in recent

months have noted low customer numbers, but founder Tony Bromovsky told FFD the recent changes had resulted in “a significant increase in sales”.

“It has been quiet, but it’s getting busier as we approach the summer.

These changes will really drive footfall and convince our wonderful customers that there is even more to buy,” he said. “The changes result from the kind of fine tuning you would expect in the early stages of a start up. We’re rebalancing the product blend between usual and unusual.”

He added that further Union Market outlets would be added in 2012.

• Former Union Market buying chief Aylie Cooke, who left the business in November, has rejoined her previous employer Whole Foods Market as associate grocery co-ordinator.

Founder Tony Bromovski says ‘It’s been quiet, but it’s getting busier’

pop-up shops

inbrief

Pop-up deli becomes regular outlet for market traders A monthly local food market at a shopping village near Lichfield in Staffordshire has evolved into a fortnightly ‘pop up’ deli, run by one of the original stallholders.

Nigel Lindsell of Lonely Pony Preserves previously ran a stall at Heart of the Country’s monthly Village Market, but has now agreed

to run a full deli, selling his own preserves alongside products from other stallholders, every other weekend.

The fortnightly Village Deli is housed in a large marquee and will sell many of the products previously sold at the market by individual companies, including

Lonely Pony’s monthly market stall has evolved into a regular deli

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March 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 2

Romney lamb, Just Oil rapeseed oil and local free-range eggs.

“Although initially we may work on a traditional retailer/ supplier basis I would love it to develop into a true co-operative arrangement where we can rotate who does the selling on the day,” said Lindsell.

“Having sold on farmers’ markets myself, I know the frustration that the small producer can have by only being able to be in one place at a time. Through this arrangement we can help small suppliers to get their produce in front of more customers more often.”

The shopping village in Lichfield is home to a number of permanent independent retailers, including a fashion boutique, furniture shop and beauty salon.

MD Kate Stubbs said the fortnightly deli could grow into a permanent six-day a week shop in the future. “This is a great way of building up the business step by step and developing customer loyalty,” she said.

Cheshire deli Godfrey C Williams has been named a North West regional winner in the 2010 Countryside Alliance awards. The family-owned store in Sandbach took the title in the Local Food category. Other regional winners included Redhill Farm Free Range Pork of Gainsborough, Lincs, and local food group Hampshire Fare. The national winners will be named later this month. ● Gloucestershire-based preserves specialist Kitchen Garden Foods says it is recruiting new staff for its office, warehouse and kitchen and investing in new kit to help it cope with increased production after “an exceptionally good year in 2010”.

Lewes cheesemonger Cheese Please has been named Sussex Food Shop of the Year 20102011 for the second year running in the Sussex Food and Drink Awards. ● Chase Vodka, the potato-based spirit from Tyrrells Potato Chips founder Will Chase, has gone on sale in 240 Waitrose stores nationwide.

Vol.12 Issue 2 路 March 2011

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

distributors

Damian Caldwell, Halsey’s Delicatessen & Tearooms, Hitchin, Herts We’ve been in business five years and we’ve changed the shop massively in that time. It was quite dark with heavy wooden shelves when we took it over, so we’ve opened it up and made it more welcoming. We also decided to put in a tea room, which has been a great success.

The only problem is that it isn’t big enough.

We should have had a bit more courage in our convictions and converted more of the shop.

There’s an old adage in the restaurant trade that you need at least 30 covers to make money, and it really is true. We’ve just added another eight covers by condensing some of our retail lines, which has taken seating up to 32.

Margins are much higher in a café than in retail, but the wage costs are phenomenal so before the expansion the tearoom was probably pulling in about the same as the deli. That should change with the extra seats because I’ve not had to increase my wage bill at all.

When I was looking at which retail displays I could take out to increase the tearoom, I spent time

“There’s an adage in the restaurant trade that you need 30 covers to make money, and it really is true” calculating how much profit each one generated by day and by week. I then compared it to how much that same footprint would generate with an extra eight covers.

It’s the kind of thing I wish I’d done much earlier.

I should have been more analytical and kept a much closer eye on sales. In the beginning I was led by my heart. I had it in my head that we must stock products like soupe de poisson so that the shop looked and felt like a proper deli. But when I looked at the numbers, it turned out we only sold eight jars over 12 months. Soupe de poisson came off the shelf pretty quickly after that!

We’re much more analytical about our product range now. If it’s not selling, we get rid of it. It’s the cheese and the cooked meats that sell really well. So we extended the cheese range and now cook more of our own products like rare roast beef, marmalade glazed hams and Nigella’s Coca-Cola ham. Homecooked products automatically give you a point of difference. You can tell people where it comes from, how it was made and what to do with it.

I’ve also learned that you really do need to check every single price that comes in from your suppliers.

I left it for a year in the beginning and found out that we were making about 10p on each pie we sold – and they were one of our biggest selling products.

Interview by PATRICK McGUIGAN

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March 2010 · Vol.11 Issue 2

Rowcliffe to handle Paxton’s ambient food and accessories Wholesaler Rowcliffe has agreed a deal to distribute branded ambient products from cheesemonger Paxton & Whitfield, including chutneys, crackers and cheese biscuits.

The range, which also includes cheese serving accessories, such as cheeseboards and knives, is available from this month.

“We’ve been looking for a fine food producer who could supply us with the quality of product we were looking for to complement our cheese offering. Paxton & Whitfield’s ambient and accessories ranges were the perfect answer,” said Steve Smith, sales director at Rowcliffe. “Paxton & Whitfield are able to take advantage of our distribution operation and we will be able to take advantage of their expertise in fine food products for cheese as well as its brand equity.”

Paxton & Whitfield has four shops, a mail order operation and a cheese wholesale business, which will continue to be run separately to Rowcliffe’s.

Customers include Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, Harrods, Caprice Holdings and The Goring hotel.

delicatessens

Locals won over by Welsh deli up a loyal following. We’re already part of the Newly opened Deli a Go Go in Whitchurch community.” near Cardiff is working to win over residents The deli stocks over 40 cheeses, including after it experienced strong opposition from locals many from local Welsh producers, as well as during the planning stage. a range of charcuterie, olives, wine and locally A petition with around 1,800 signatures was sourced food and drink. submitted to planners before the shop opened, The takeaway sandwich menu is divided which argued that the village was already between ‘classics’, such as cheese and coleslaw, ‘saturated’ with places to eat. and ‘specialities’ including Perl Wen and Speaking at a planning committee meeting, cranberry. The shop’s ‘signature’ sandwich is salt Cllr Cathy Pearcy had said: “There are a lot of beef on caraway rye bread. food outlets in Whitchurch village. I do think “There’s a butcher, baker and fishmonger we are going to get to saturation point with this in Whitchurch, but there was nowhere to village. It's a lovely village but it's being taken get those extra fine food ingredients to make over by takeaway premises and restaurants.” a complete meal,” said Davidson. “In terms In the end, owners Beverly and Nick of sandwiches, there is a Baguette Express, a Davidson managed to win planning permission Greggs and pre-packed options form the Coand opened the shop, 16-seater café and op, but nothing like us using Welsh ingredients.” takeaway in January. Since then locals have been very positive, said Beverly Davidson.

“Some of the other restaurants and coffee shops in the local area got involved and people ended up thinking we were going to be a kebab shop or some kind of fast food outlet. When we looked at the petition, there were signatures from people from Portsmouth, London and even the Philippines,” she said.

“People misjudged us, but since we opened we’ve had nothing but compliments and have built Deli a Go Go: not the ‘kebab shop’ some feared

Vol.12 Issue 2 路 March 2011

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Free samples on request Free samples available on request to registered resellers. Please quote ref: FFDSamples The Bath Soft Cheese Co. Magazine: Fine Food Digest Deadline: 11 November ’10 Size: Half Page 204 x 141.5mm Prepared: Hugh Padfield

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March 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 2

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Letter from Ludlow

news farm shops

Chatsworth triumphs again in annual FARMA awards Chatsworth Farm Shop near Pilsley in Derbyshire has been named National Farm Retailer of the Year for the second time in three years by the National Farmers’ Retail and Markets’ Association (FARMA).

Shop manager Andre Birkett collected the award from Andrew Heywood of sponsor Lakeland Computer Consultancy Services at a ceremony in Dorset at the end of the January.

The retailer, which also won the title in 2009, was praised by judges for its consistently high standards. Mike Blee, chairman of the FARMA judges, said: “Professional retailing

and production with great displays and meticulous attention to detail puts Chatsworth into the top tier of farm shops in the UK, if not the world.

Since last winning the award in 2009, the business has continued to grow, adapting its business plan and format to cope with the changes in the economy, and opening two new retail outlets. A ‘must see’ for everyone in the industry.”

FARMA TO FORK: Andre Birkett of Chatsworth (left) collects the trophy from Andrew Heywood of LCCS

community shops

Plunkett forecasts a 20% rise in community shops by 2013 food and drink from local suppliers, according to the report. Local produce was cited as the most profitable product category by community shops.

James Alcock, community retail manager at the Plunkett Foundation, said: “Community ownership not only ensures vital lifelines continue in rural communities, it utilises one million hours of volunteer time per year. Only eight of the 259 community shops to open have ever closed, giving them a 97% success rate; it’s clear how resilient the community ownership model is.”

Peter Couchman, the Plunkett Foundation’s chief executive, added: “Communities want to take more control of their own shops, pubs and other vital services, and this report is a clear indication that the community-ownership model works.

But they are still facing barriers in many cases, and our hope is that through legislation like the Right to Buy, the Government will help to remove such barriers, ensuring communities can deliver the Big Society vision.”

Plunkett Foundation says local food is key to village shops Delis and farm shops are being joined by a new breed of local food retailer, with a new report showing that openings of community-owned shops are accelerating.

The report from the Plunkett Foundation found that at the beginning of 2011 there were 251 community-owned village shops in the UK with a total estimated turnover of £33m – and it expects another 50 to open in the next two years.

Locally sourced food is a key point of difference for the shops, with 98% of businesses selling

With ingredient costs soaring, Ludlow Food Centre’s SANDY BOYD is keeping closer tabs on margins Rising food commodity prices have been in the headlines and we’re starting to feel the impact. We’re affected in different ways because we sit on both sides of the fence, selling products from small local producers but also making a lot of food ourselves.

With wheat prices nearly doubling in the past year, we’ve recently had to swallow another increase in the flour price to go with one just before Christmas, and we’re expecting the cost of meat to go up in the near future. This has a big impact on the products we make in-house, like bread or meat pies.

The small producers that supply the shop with grocery products are also saying they will have to put up prices soon. We’ve had one or two increases

“Customers expect price rises, but putting them up in one go is dangerous’’ already and we’re bracing ourselves for a lot more before Easter.

I think customers do expect price rises going forward, but putting them up in one go is a dangerous move. I would rather introduce increases as they occur, bit by bit. It might also mean doing a promotion on a product that has gone up in price to keep customers interested.

The difficulty we have is that the supermarkets have much greater bargaining power. They simply will not accept big price increases from their suppliers which means independents have to watch their step. If we go too far, customers will vote with their feet.

Watching prices and making sure we respond to them is critical. Forget about your pricing for a few months and you’ll soon see profit margins eroded.

Our Eureka recipe system for the products we make ourselves helps in this regard. Every Monday we get a report showing how much ingredients costs have increased and what our margin is. This week we’ve got five pages of price increases, which are mainly bakery, meat, ice cream, jams and pickles.

If the cost of something has gone up 1%, but we still have a 70% margin, I’m comfortable. However, I’ve just seen that the cost of a raspberry Bakewell tart has gone up 1.9%, but the margin is now only 40%.

We’ll have to increase the price of that.

If you only pay close attention to costs and margins once every two or three months you’ll soon find you’re working your rocks off for nothing. It’s a cliché, but there’s a lot of truth in the old adage about ‘working smarter, not harder’.

Interview by PATRICK McGUIGAN Vol.11 Issue 10 · December 2010

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March 2011 路 Vol.12 Issue 2

fine food news

shopfitting better retailing GORDON LEATHERDALE

loyalty schemes

Ice offers national loyalty scheme for local shops Farm shops, food producers and delivery companies are signing up to a national loyalty card scheme that encourages consumers to buy from sustainable businesses.

Shoppers who are members of the freeto-join scheme, called Ice, earn credits when they buy from eco-friendly companies, which can be redeemed with any of the participating businesses.

The loyalty programme includes fashion, house and garden, utility, travel and gift companies, and has now been extended to locally sourced food and drink.

Working with farm shop organisation FARMA, Ice has signed up retailers including Craigies, Bashall Barn and Alder Carr with more set to join this year. Artisan producers and delivery companies, such as Sacred Spirits and British Fine Foods, have also joined.

Paul Castle, chief operating officer at Farrington’s Farm Shop near Bristol, which is part of the programme, said: “This is about all the ‘little guy’ farm shops co-ordinating together for the first time and could have a massive effect on consumers as they will now be rewarded on a national level. None of us could ever do this alone. By coming together in the Ice loyalty programme we can persuade consumers to buy

food direct from their local farm shop.”

Three Ice credits are awarded for every £2 spent with a farm shop, whether that is online, over the phone or in-store. These are worth at least 1p each, although this can rise to 2p.

Credits are stored in an online account.

Farrington’s and Alder Carr have also successfully trialled technology for swiping Ice loyalty cards in store and this is now ready to be rolled out to other farm shops.

Ice Organisation chief executive Jude Thorne, said: “In terms of food there is little doubt farm shops offer consumers who want to buy locally produced food better value and taste with fewer food miles.”

Jude Thorne: ‘Farm shops offer better value and fewer food miles’

“Don’t forget that when customers are in your shop, they’re all yours for as long as they’re on site’

delicatessens

North Norfolk deli regroups around home-made foods Byfords of Holt has marked its 10th anniversary by refurbishing and expanding its popular deli with a greater emphasis on homemade foods.

Iain Wilson: home-made means better margins

There’s an awful lot of buzz around social media marketing of late. But does it really make a difference to your bottom line? How can you really engage customers?

Waitrose, with 241 stores and £5bn in sales, has 15,000 Facebook fans (averaging 63 fans per store).

Tesco doesn’t fare much better. This, combined with a number of ‘fans’ making complaints, makes Facebook seem to me a bit of a waste of time and possibly a danger because fans can write anything.

See the Waitrose staff Facebook page for examples.

Focus on three ways of promoting yourselves.

Firstly, there is no better way to do this than providing a great customer offer. Time and time again, when I see stores and delis, the busier ones have simply got their offer and shopping experience right. From my own experience, this is by far the best form of engagement.

Second, communicate the message to a captive audience. In our industry, this is the best form of social marketing whether this is in store, externally or word of mouth. People like to talk.

Thirdly, email newsletters. I subscribe to several dozen newsletters from various outlets to keep

Renamed Byfords Store, the new shop has an improved selection of bread, cakes, pastries and desserts, which are all made on site, as well as selling around 30 different home-cooked ready meals. Stone-baked pizzas and a tossed salad and pasta bar are also new additions.

Floor space in the shop has been increased by around 10% by consolidating a store room and removing a fireplace. Oak cabinets, Carrera marble and glass with silver gilded lettering have been used to refurbish the interior.

“It’s not enough just to buy in products and sell them on anymore,” said the shop’s owner Iain Wilson. “Competition in the deli market is so strong with supermarkets doing things a lot better now. The only way to have a point of difference and get that extra margin is to make the food yourself. It’s what people are after and it allows you to be so much more creative and give customers a truly artisan food experience.”

Byfords has also added 30 extra seats to its café, taking it to a total of 120 covers, and has upgraded its ‘posh’ B&B rooms.

my eye on things, and the best by far is the regular update from Darts Farm at Topsham near Exeter (www.dartsfarm.co.uk). I look forward to receiving these because they’re such fun, given the variety and quality of their monthly themed demos and food club events. Copy these good ideas: there’s a whole marketing department at Darts that publishes relevant, fantastic emails each month that you can learn from, for free.

Like Darts Farm, you have to back up your email newsletters with substance, so start small by drawing attention to new products and making price comparisons on best-sellers, and simply keep plugging away. Think about drawing in suppliers to help provide special offers on certain lines.

(Suppliers: think about promoting yourselves too by offering this service to your customers!)

Anything newsworthy and which provides value and excitement to your customers is worth mentioning.

Back up your messaging with substance and value.

So don’t rely purely on social networking for your customer engagement. Rely on yourself and your colleagues and think about what will captivate your customers. By all means use other technology, but be aware of its limited return on investment.

Finally, don’t forget that when customers are in your shop, they’re all yours for as long as they you’ve got them one site. You can’t get a more captive audience than that. gordon@stcatherinesltd.co.uk Vol.7 Issue 1 · January 2006

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March 2011 路 Vol.12 Issue 2

fine food news

shopfitting

competitions

Guild lends weight to Deli of the Year Deli of the Year organiser Olives Et Al has secured the backing of the Guild of Fine Food for the scheme, which was launched last year and is based heavily on votes from the general public.

Entries for this year’s competition open on April 4, and Guild national director and FFD publisher Bob Farrand said the organisation would be backing the quest to indentify the best delis in Britain.

“We’re throwing our weight behind the Deli of the Year competition as this sector is the bedrock of our organisation,“ he said. “The idea is sound, and Olives Et Al has put tremendous energy and resources into a brilliant but simple concept: encourage people to tell you what they like about their favourite deli or farm shop, then tell everyone else about it!”

Last year’s winner, Lawson’s of Aldeburgh in Suffolk, said the victory had made a huge impact on its business in terms of customer awareness and loyalty.

Olives Et Al has put “deli attitude” rather than breadth of range or smart premises at the heart of the competition. “Delis are an important part of the food culture in the UK, and to walk into a great deli is like no other food experience,” said MD Giles Henschel.

Customers are asked to name their favourite deli outlet through online nominations, postcards and other voting methods. Entries are then assessed by a panel of independent food experts, who then visit the shortlisted delis.

The competition website will go live at the beginning of next month. www.delioftheyear.co.uk

2010 winner Lawson’s of Aldeburgh says customer awareness and loyalty were boosted by the victory

BOOKS • In its latest move to promote the good honest loaf over mass-produced supermarket pap, the Real Bread Campaign has published a guide to setting up a traditional local bakery.

Knead to Know: the Real Bread starter (£15, or £10 to Real Bread Campaign members) is a 140-page handbook for running a small, community-based bakery either as a sole trader, partnership or co-operative. It includes sections on setting up a bakehouse, buying equipment, organising insurance and promoting real bread locally, as well as the basics of breadmaking. The guide was written with practical contributions from numerous craft bakers and bakery operators, including Richard Bertinet of The Bertinet Kitchen, Aiden Chapman of Phoenix Bakery and Paul Merry of Panary. Order it through the campaign website: www.realbreadcampaign.org

BEYOND CHEESE: The Caraway Biscuit is one of four varieties launched by iconic London cheesemonger and wholesaler La Fromagerie, owned and run by Patricia Michelson, in its first serious attempt to build a brand beyond cheese. The range, which also includes oat, charcoal and 100% rye biscuits, is being produced for La Fromagerie by savoury biscuit specialist Shropshire Fine Herbs. Each pack features a clear cheese-pairing suggestion on the front, with further cheese, wine and beer matching ideas elsewhere on-pack. The products were developed by Sarah Bilney, La Fromagerie’s general manager, who has set up a separate business to source and market the branded range. Patricia Michelson said the on-pack suggestions would help deli stockists be “more adventurous” when cross-selling biscuits with their cheeses. • Full story next month. www.lafromagerie.co.uk

delicatessens

Whole Foods and Stein’s join Amelia Rope stockists Artisan chocolate maker Amelia Rope, a former Masterchef contestant, has just taken her second order from Stein’s Deli and has been listed by Whole Foods Market. It adds to a client list that already includes Selfridges and Harvey Nichols in London as well as delis including Caracoli in Alresford and Guildford, and Gwyneth & Grey in Guernsey.

Rope, who has just joined the Guild of Fine Food as an accredited supplier, has also added three new varieties to her flavoured bar

• From The Town Mill Cheesemonger in Lyme Regis, Dorset, to Stornoway Farmers’ Market in the Outer Hebrides, The Good Produce Guide 2011 (Hardie Grant, £12.99) lists over 1,000 places to buy “the best food in Britain”. It’s the second edition of this paperback by Telegraph columnist Rose Prince, who gives an “individually researched” report on each outlet – and the publishers point out that no-one has paid to make an appearance in the guide. Those featured include delis, farm shops, town centre markets, butchers and bakers, as well as a fair number of artisan and speciality food producers. There’s even a listing for the food hall at Fenwick’s department store.

range: dark ginger, pale mandarin and pale lime with sea salt.

“They’re made using single origin couverture and organic aromatherapy oils,” she told FFD, “and the sea salt is from Maldon.” RRP for the bars is £5.60 for 100g, which Rope says is “30g heavier than the bars from most premium chocolatiers”.

Other flavours from Rope, who trained on the Valrhona Les Bonbons de Chocolat course, include dark spearmint and dark lemon. She also produces both ‘dark’ and ‘pale’ plain chocolate bars. www.ameliarope.co.uk

• Need some inspiration for next month’s deli-café menu or for recipe sheets to encourage purchases from the deli? How about celery & Stilton soup or rhubarb & custard, two of the suggested recipes for April from Mark Hix British Seasonal Food. The chef, restaurateur and food writer’s “month-by-month journey through the edible bounty of these islands”, first published in 2008, has just appeared in paperback (Quadrille, £14.99).

Understandably the book is heavy on fresh seasonal produce and meats – roast partridge with wild mushrooms and autumn greens, for example – but there’s plenty here to inspire your customers to buy quality ingredients, especially if you feature fruit & veg, game or fish in your product offer.

Vol.12 Issue 2 · March 2011

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March 2011 路 Vol.12 Issue 2

deli of the month

Interview by MICK WHITWORTH

Diane Brown: ‘Cheese is our big thing.

It’s what people associate us with.’

Sunny side up Its average basket may have fallen a fraction, but Provender Brown deli has seen a 7% rise in transactions over the last year. No wonder owner Diane Brown is smiling.

D

iane Brown takes it in good part when I call her in mid February, a few weeks after visiting her fine Perth deli, and ask if she could say something just a little less positive about it. I’d just been working through this month’s news pages – stories of shops closing or under pressure – and they made my notes from my first interview with Brown, a finalist in Olives Et Al’s 2010 Deli of the Year competition, look a bit Pollyanna-ish. Does everything always run so smoothly at Provender Brown?

“After you’d been to see us,” she tells me, “I did wonder if I’d painted a bit of a rosy picture. Like every deli, we have our issues.”

The former chartered surveyor set up shop six years ago after returning to Scotland from the south-east of England with her young family, and found a “pretty instant” market for what she was offering: a true deli with a particularly strong line in cheese, and a good ambient selection but nothing to frighten the horses in what remains a fairly conservative part of the world.

She has enjoyed steady if not spectacular growth every year since, has felt relatively little pressure from supermarkets, and went through the recession with “no real falling off” of trade.

“Without wishing to jinx ourselves,” she told me

back in January, “I think we’re lucky here.”

Perth has always been a good spot for quality independents, although there are currently a lot of empty premises in the town centre. Plans for a major redevelopment have been shelved because of the downturn, which means there are still too few big units to attract multiples and create a shopping experience on the scale of Sterling or Dundee. “We, and a lot of the other independents, are destination stores,” says Brown, “but we’d all benefit if the town was busier.”

Private sector employers, notably Aviva and Scottish & Southern Energy, provide a degree of local job security, but there’s also a lot of public sector employment that could be set to take a hammering. Nonetheless, says Brown: “Perth has a huge catchment area, there’s a lot of money in the region and a lot of people who have been fairly immune to the downturn.”

After my phone call, however, she admits Provender Brown’s route to profitability wasn’t quite as smooth as it first sounded. “Despite a lot of research and planning, it took a lot longer to break even that I’d predicted. We’re turning a reasonable profit now but it’s been a long haul.”

Given a second stab at setting up shop, she would, for starters, spend a lot less on

“It took a lot longer to break even that I’d predicted.

We’re turning a reasonable profit now but it’s been a long haul.”

Vol.12 Issue 2 · March 2011

17

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March 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 2

deli of the month marketing. “It’s all done by word of mouth now, but we had a big marketing push when we first opened, which was probably a mistake.

“Our website was another error. It was meant to be done in such as way that we could adapt it to include e-commerce, but actually it’s just a static brochure site. I can’t easily alter or update it.”

Her freezer section hasn’t really earned its keep either, she says, although that has been addressed with a new range of frozen ready-meals from local chef Jeremy Wares. These are “flying out”, despite being fairly pricey: around £5 for one portion and as much as £15 for a family size dish. And Brown has just added a range of Moray Seafoods’ frozen seafood, including cooked lobster, crabmeat, langoustines, and scallops. “That may seem like an odd decision during a recession – it is expensive – but it’s doing okay, and I think it’s more important than ever that we maintain a point of difference.”

Perhaps Brown’s biggest regrets are not having a café or a kitchen area – both of which will probably remain an impossibility unless she can find bigger premises. “I do really wonder if I should have a café, and I’ve toyed with putting in a bar with a few stools at the window. But that’s probably too little to be worthwhile. You need a certain critical mass to make it work, otherwise you just get a couple of people nursing one cup of coffee each all morning and you end up with staff hanging around with nothing to do.

“But if I was doing this again I’d definitely have some kind of kitchen facility, so we could make our own soups and quiches. I don’t think the customer suffers, because what we do have is locally made. But our margin suffers.”

I visited in late January, straight after Scotland’s Speciality Food Show in Glasgow, when the streets of Perth were still lined by heaps of compacted snow. It was “the worst possible time of the year” to see the shop, said Brown: there wasn’t much stock on the shelves, she reckoned, and not much cheese in the chilled cabinet. But it still looked pretty good to me – and you could see why 2010’s visiting Deli of the Year judge thought it ticked the boxes for ‘deli attitude”.

When assistant manager Martine Jacquemin, who has been with Brown since the outset, began talking me through a few of the shop’s best cheeses, she started with an jaw-droppingly good Gorgonzola Dolcificato Costa Special Reserve, made by Mario Costa – and laughed at my expression when I tasted it. “It’s the best in the universe – and I’m not joking,” she said. “I love it when people say they don’t like gorgonzola, because they always get that look on their faces when they try this one.”

“Martine is completely zany, and people love her,” Brown tells me. “She’s incredibly knowledgeable on food in general and cheese in particular, and she’s got a rare ability to communicate with customers about taste, balance and acidity.”

She continues: “Cheese is our big thing. It’s what people associate us with. When I first came back here after living in the South East I used to get really frustrated that I couldn’t get what I needed for recipes and I’d end up driving all the way to IJ Mellis’s in St Andrews to buy it.” She now sources largely through Rowcliffe and Clarks Speciality Foods in Edinburgh, as well as using smaller wholesalers like Lymekilns in Glasgow, and buying direct from a few cheese-makers, including Humphrey Errington of Lanark Blue fame.

Products like pomegranate molasses are explained through shelf-talkers to inspire conservative Perthshire shoppers to try something new

PROVENDER BROWN’S MUST-STOCKS ●D ukeshill Wiltshire ham ●G ordal olives ● I sle of Mull cheddar

●A damsons of Pittenweem oatcakes ● I nverawe smoked salmon ●C harles Macleod Stornoway black

pudding D alchonzie Fruit Farm preserves S carletts Scottish blossom honey C arnaroli rice P até de Campagne (Rowcliffe) C harbonnel et Walker pink Champagne truffles ●P atchwork brandy & herb and Welsh Dragon patés ●C ooking chorizo ●T eruel Serrano ham ●S pinata Calabrese salami ● ● ● ● ●

As well a crowd-pleasing cheese counter, Provender Brown features a surprisingly hefty wine and spirits selection, most of it sourced from Alliance Wines. “Spirits don’t turn as quickly as the rest of our stock,” Brown says, “but there’s a real market for unusual ones, like Italian liqueurs that you can’t get in the supermarkets. People are often surprised to see things here and they’ll make a spontaneous purchase, even if it’s £30.” Kümmel, the sweet aniseed and caraway flavoured liqueur, is one example, selling well beside the till at Christmas.

But Brown says she sometimes questions the size of her wine range, which provides 9% of turnover but takes significantly more than 9% of her retail space. “I’m not sure people really think of us as a wine shop – they buy single bottles as gifts or to drink that evening, because they trust us, but we don’t sell many cases. I’m not sure we’d sell any less if we carried less stock.”

Brown was able to sink a fair bit of capital into Provender Brown when she opened, and since her husband brings in a decent income as a financial advisor she has only needed a modest return from the deli to maintain a good work-life balance.

“I look at other deli owners, stuck behind their counters seven days a week, and think I’m quite lucky,” she says. “For the first few years I was working all the time, but more recently I’ve been able to take myself out of the rota and only work four or five days a week.”

But her husband doesn’t bring home “investment banker” sums, she adds. “It’s not that we don’t need the deli to earn money.”

Prompted by our second conversation, she carries out a quick trading analysis that shows that her alcohol sales and ambient food sales are slightly down year on year, while fresh deli sales are slightly up. In the 12 months to January, overall turnover was up 7% – but nearly all that growth came in the first half of 2010. “All through the recession sales held up, but it was about the time the government announced its austerity measures that things started to tighten.

People are probably being more cautious.”

That’s reflected in a drop in Provender Brown’s average basket size: at around £12, it was down nearly 4% year on year. But the good news is that the number of transactions actually rose 7.5% over the same period.

Perth’s shoppers may have become a little more prudent but it seems they’re actually visiting Provender Brown in greater numbers than a year ago. So who could deny Diane Brown her optimism? www.provenderbrown.co.uk Vol.12 Issue 2 · March 2011

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delichef

putting deli ingredients to work

interview

By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Steve Rowse The Food Company Marks Tey, Essex

A

Japanese-style teppanyaki grill is not something you expect to see in the café of an Essex food hall with a commitment to British food. But head to The Food Company at Marks Tey near Colchester and, sure enough, there’s a big iron hot plate in the open kitchen of the mezzanine-level 60-seater café.

The man behind the teppanyaki is head chef Steve Rowse, who is more likely to be cooking up a Blythburgh pork chop from the food hall’s butchery counter on the grill than using it for yakitori chicken or some other Japanese speciality.

“We installed the teppanyaki grill, not because we wanted to do Japanese food but to add theatre,” says Rowse. “People can see me cooking away in the kitchen. It also really speeds up service because I can have lots of different dishes on the go at once. It means we can pretty much cook to order, so people are getting food fresh and hot from the grill.”

Founded in 2000, The Food Company is positioned as an alternative shopping destination to the anodyne supermarket chains.

Covering 11,000 sq ft of retail space with a butcher’s, baker’s and fishmonger’s, the shop aims to tempt people away from their supermarket fix with good quality British food and attentive customer service.

Burgers, steaks and fishcakes all make regular appearances on the teppanyaki, although Rowse does give a nod to Far Eastern flavours in chicken stir-fry with beansprouts and noodles, and prawn kebabs with Thai spiced pasta.

The eclectic menu enables the café to show off the food hall’s prowess, says Rowse. “The idea is that every ingredient on the menu can be bought in the store downstairs. If customers want to know the recipe, I’m happy to talk to them about it. We’ve also been thinking about recipe cards.”

The café’s eclectic menu is designed to showcase what’s it the foodhall, says Steve Rowse (pictured above right)

Blythburgh Pork Chop with Fondant Potato, Squash & Spinach Ingredients: 4 x 8oz (225g) Blythburgh pork chops 4 x baking potatoes 1 butternut squash (diced) 1 bag of baby spinach (washed) 100g rosemary 100g thyme Small clove of garlic 250g of melted butter 2 tbsp local honey (Knights Farm, Tendering, Essex) Method: Wash and peel potatoes. Cut into uniform rectangles and fry in melted butter with herbs and garlic until golden brown.

Meanwhile toss butternut squash in olive oil and salt and pepper then drizzle with 1tb sp of honey.

Place browned potatoes and butternut squash in a moderate oven and roast until soft – approx 30 mins.

Heat olive oil in a frying pan (or teppanyaki!) and seal pork chops on both sides.

Remove and place on a baking tray, drizzle 1 tbsp of honey over chops and put in oven for 7-10 minutes.

Wilt washed spinach in the frying pan. Remove and keep warm.

To serve: Plate up chops, spinach, potatoes & butternut squash.

De-glaze butternut pan with a little chicken stock, reduce & season then drizzle over the chops.

Rowse sources all his ingredients from the food hall. “I talk to the butcher and fishmonger each morning about what needs using up and what is in season,” he says. “I buy from the various counters at trade price and have a set margin I’m trying to achieve. Because we’re only ordering a day or two at a time it also means we have virtually no wastage.”

Fish comes from Channel Fisheries in Brixham, while meat is sourced from various local farms. Other producers include Stokes (Essfoods), Brick Kiln Farm eggs, Pinneys of Orford smoked salmon and Jules & Sharpie’s chilli jams. Jam and ketchup come courtesy of one of Essex’s best known producers, Wilkin & Sons, under the Tiptree brand.

The restaurant is not the only location showcasing The Food Company’s wares. A second kitchen on the shop floor is headed by Cordon Bleu trained chef Penny Campbell, who cranks out a steady stream of homemade takeaway products for two large counters.

“We get people popping by to pick up a homemade meal for one or two people, but we also have customers phoning through orders for large dinner parties at the weekend,” says Campbell. “I’m sure some of them might fib a little and say they cooked it themselves. Sometime they even bring in their own dishes and we make the food to go in them. I have also given out details of the recipe to customers so that if anyone asks they know how it was made!”

Campbell is also responsible for the growing outside catering business.

“Outside catering is a really good marketing tool for the food hall,” she says. “If we’re doing a wedding or a party for 100 guests, at some point most of them will ask where the food is from. It’s a great way of giving people an introduction to what we’re all about.”

Penny Campbell: ‘Outside catering is another good marketing tool’

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Vol.12 Issue 2 · March 2011

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March 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 2

cheese wire

Expansion proves hard slog for soft cheese producer The Padfield family’s hopes for a new dairy lie firmly in the hands of north east Somerset’s planners

By Mick Whitworth

The Bath Soft Cheese Co will find out next month whether its plans for a new 5,000 sq ft cheese dairy, sunk beneath a grass roof into a Somerset hillside, have got the green light from local councillors.

Father and son team Graham and Hugh Padfield (pictured above) had hoped to begin the development last autumn but the project was delayed when Bath & North East Somerset planners raised doubts about the ‘agricultural’ nature of the building.

“It came down to whether it’s primarily an agricultural development,” says Hugh Padfield, who joined the family business as joint MD last year after a seven-year stint in marketing with Vodafone.

“We’ve been farming here for four generations and the primary purpose of the cheese dairy is to add value to our milk and make farming here viable. So we thought it was agricultural and had hoped the planners would agree.”

Sadly, however, they didn’t and now the Padfields await the outcome of a fresh application, which goes before the planning committee in April. If it’s approved the new dairy will potentially double their current 30-tonnes-a-year cheese output, leaving them better placed to meet seasonal sales surges and one-off orders, like this year’s request to supply cheese for Royal Ascot.

Park Farm at Kelston, just outside Bath, is an organic unit with a milking herd of 160

cows producing around 1m litres a year. Up to a third is used in cheeses that include the white mould-ripened Bath Soft Cheese, which sells at between two and six weeks, the more mature, semi-hard Wyfe of Bath, a gold medal winner at last year’s British Cheese Awards, and Bath Blue.

Wyfe of Bath also won the Tesco Cheese Challenge back in 2006, giving the Padfields an automatic listing in 160 Tesco supermarkets, and their products have been sold by Waitrose and Sainsbury. But as the recession bit they found themselves squeezed out on cost grounds.

Hugh Padfield told FFD: “One supermarket buyer actually told us their customers can’t afford our cheese at the moment. He said, ‘How can you get your unit cost down?’ But we don’t want to get our costs down if that means sacrificing quality.

“We want our cheese to continue to be hand-made, to continue to be organic, and if supermarkets can’t persuade their customers to put a value on that then maybe they’re not the right channel for us.”

He continues: “Two things are essential with speciality cheese: showing the customer it’s better by allowing them to taste it and then giving them the story behind it. Any independent deli can do that.”

So, while the proposed dairy development would tick all the health & hygiene boxes to let the Padfields serve larger clients –

Mini Real Cheese JOHN FARRAND I like to see passionate individuals behind a cheesecounter, but it does create challenges when you're looking for staff. Do you go for the loud, articulate individual who really doesn’t know much about cheese but is full of enthusiasm? Or do you go for the quiet one – a little grey in places but reliable and with an enviable knowledge of all things dairy?

Sat around the table with some of the country’s best independent retailers recently, they almost unanimously went for personality over knowledge.

Bland and homogenous doesn’t do if you’re standing behind a counter, or indeed serving in a restaurant. In fact, despite what our society seems keen on, I’m all up for some eccentricity and colour in all walks of life.

The ability to chat comfortably with customers or to jump into the aisle at a trade show and engage with a foot-sore buyer is nigh impossible to teach.

Sending staff to a supplier’s farm to see the cows and help make the cheese is easy. Heading off for a day of comparative tastings on one of our Cheese Guild courses is inexpensive and instantly motivating.

The keen ones ‘get it’ straight away. But learning how to banter confidently or even bullshit a little to create some retail theatre... that training course doesn’t exist.

Which is why I nearly cried when I sat round that supper table with those same retailers in what was a very good restaurant. The waiter was confident. His advice on the wine to have with our chosen food

“The waiter continued to charm us until it came to the cheese, when his self-possessed, cuff-linked assertiveness vanished” – an excellent Gigondas – was, in my humble opinion, relevant and a solid recommendation. He continued to charm us until it came to the cheese, when the selfpossessed, cuff-linked assertiveness vanished.

It’s a problem delis and farm shops are cracking, often through training and getting their staff out to meet cheese-makers. But foodservice hasn’t cottoned on to the need for a kind of ‘sommelier for cheese’.

This may sound like an old drum to be banging, but can’t we help each other with this? Can’t delis help local pubs with their cheeseboards and provide some simple tasting notes? Why don’t restaurants spend as much time educating their waiters about cheese as they do about wine? Why are people like Amnon Paldi of Premier Cheese and Patricia Michelson of La Fromagerie, who spend time with their foodservice customers, the exception, not the rule?

It could be that things are changing. I heard of a great initiative this week organised by South West Food and Drink. There’s a full-on tour of food producers in the region – nine in two days – laid on for eminent, opinion-forming London chefs. Preaching to the converted maybe, but if those trail-blazers make it cool to know more about where the food on their menus comes from and who makes it, it may just catch on front-of-house.

• John Farrand is associate publisher of FFD and a director of the Guild of Fine Food Vol.7 Issue 1 · January 2006

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cheesewire and remove some of the day-to-day problems of operating in a jumble of converted barns – they will use the extra volume to move further into their core market of independent delis, as well as selling through farmers’ markets.

“In particular, it will help us cope with the sales peak at Christmas,” says Hugh Padfield.

“This year we ran out of cheese.”

Bath Soft Cheese sells through distributors including Rowcliffe, Cheese Cellar, Hawkridge and Hamish Johnston, and it has “some great long-term customers”, including The Fine Cheese Co in Bath – which also distributes to a lot of independents – and Paxton & Whitfield.

But it is also stepping up its activity at farmers’ markets after almost giving up on this channel last year. Graham Padfield says: “When you start out, markets are a great way of getting your message out there. But whether you make any money out of it is questionable.

“Our takings at Bath farmers’ market are

barely adequate to pay someone to run the stall, and last year I found I was getting quite disillusioned.

“But in London, where Hugh still has a flat and where he spends half the week, the scene is totally different, partly because most people shop on foot.”

In the past few months The Bath Soft Cheese Co has begun trading at 10 farmers’ markets around London and as FFD went to press it was hoping to gain a slot in a new section of Borough Market that is being operated by City & Country Farmers’ Markets, giving it direct consumer contact in the capital for the first time.

Hugh says: “Markets give us a unique opportunity, not just to talk to customers but also to ensure they get our cheeses à point, as the French say. My feeling is that, as we get bigger, we want to focus on selling through delis and farmers markets in a way that makes sure the cheese arrives in the best possible condition.” www.parkfarm.co.uk

Recipes dating back 20 years – or is it 200?

The Bath Soft Cheese Co’s products – three of which are variations on the same brie-style curd – are all made to recipes developed by Graham Padfield over the last two decades.

But as a largely self-taught cheese-maker he drew on documentary evidence suggesting some form of soft white-mould cheese is traditional to the Bath area. Bath cheese is even mentioned in a letter, dating from 1801, to Admiral Lord Nelson – a connection the cheese-maker likes to make the most of.

“When you’re starting out, you think ‘if only there was a local style of cheese that we could make’,” says Padfield. “We didn’t want to produce another cheddar. So we went to the reference library and we found there were at least three variations on a recipe for Bath cheese. They all talked of the cheese being left to grow a white mould. One of them said, ‘It’s ripe when it spreads like butter’.

“People think of mould-ripened soft cheese as fundamentally French – brie is called the King of Cheeses in France – and they’ll say

ours is like a brie or camembert. But it’s actually a traditional English cheese.”

Bath Soft Cheese is produced in 4” square blocks but there is also a circular Bath Brie version and the deeper Kelston Park which, because it keeps a firmer paste for longer, is easier for chefs to portion.

The Bath Blue, he says, is the hardest to make. “You need to keep an open texture, but if it gets too moist or too dry the mould won’t grow.”

The unpressed, semi-soft Wyfe of Bath, formed in cloth-lined plastic ‘baskets’ and sold from six months maturity onwards, was a later development that has proved much the easiest cheese to manage. “We’re selling the soft white at two weeks old with a four-week life.

If we over-make we end up throwing it away; if we under-make we lose sales, which is worse. But with the Wyfe of Bath we build up a store that we can drawn on, and it just gets a subtly stronger flavour as it ages. We even mature a very small number for 18 months.”

Buffalo Blue goes on sale in Booths Yorkshire-based Shepherd’s Purse has signed a deal to supply Booths stores across the North with Blue Buffalo cheese, made with milk from Laverstoke Park Farm’s herd of buffalos in Hampshire. The cheese, which was launched in 2002 but has only been available in small volumes because of previously limited supplies of buffalo milk, is now available in 21 Booths stores.

Former racing driver Jody Scheckter, who founded Laverstoke Park Farm in 1996, has increased his herd of water buffalo from an initial 250 to over 2,000, so he is now able to supply the organic milk in greater volumes.

Buffalo Blue will join Shepherd’s Purse’s Yorkshire Blue cheese, made with cows’ milk, and Mrs Bell’s Blue, made with ewes’ milk, in Booth’s stores.

Katie Bell, sales and marketing director at Shepherd’s Purse, said: “Buffalo Blue is made to the same recipe as our famous Mrs Bell’s Blue and Yorkshire Blue, but is slightly tweaked to adapt to the special qualities of Jody's buffalo milk. The result is a creamy texture with a luxurious, smooth, yet tangy flavour, which is clean and refreshing to the palate.”

The cheese is also wholesaled to delis and farm shops.

“We are not aware of any independents located near Booths stores which would be affected by this launch,” said Bell. “If there was a problem and it was brought to our attention we would speak directly to the independent affected to see how we could support them.” www.shepherdspurse.co.uk Buffalo Blue: made with Laverstoke milk

Ice cream maker to aid distribution An organic cheese company has teamed up with a local ice cream producer that it supplies with milk, in an effort to increase distribution. Woefuldane Organic Dairy in Minchinhampton, Gloucs, supplies local ice cream producer Winstones with milk from its herd of shorthorn cows, but hopes to increase sales of its cheeses by ‘piggy backing’ distribution with its larger neighbour.

Melissa Ravenhill, who owns Woefuldane, currently sells her cheeses through her own shop and farmers’ markets. Winstones supplies its ice cream to the Co-op, Asda and Waitrose, as well as to around 1,000 delis, pubs, restaurants and ice cream parlours across the region and in Bristol and London using its own delivery vans. It will now also distribute six of Woefuldane’s cheeses, plus organic milk and cream. “This is about giving Woelfudane a route to market and offering our customers a range of dairy products that are all made with the same organic milk,” said Winstones’ marketing manager Ben Vear. www.woefuldaneorganics.co.uk

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March 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 2

Cheese Cheese Cheese

Supporting the independent trade British and Continental cheese specialists

Carron Lodge Cheese

Tel: 01995 640352 Fax: 01995 641040 Email: carronlodge@talk21.com

Is this the best new product of 2011?

We have just received our first order of smoked anchovies and they are absolutely stunning!

The UK has fallen in love with marinated fresh anchovies and their fresh, natural oily flavour. Add to this the fact they can help reduce cholesterol, are rich in protein and a source of vitamins and minerals, you have a delicious, healthy deli product. We are also selling plenty of the natural, garlic, Provencal and oriental varieties – creating a diverse anchovy range. The new smoked option has so much flavour, without the saltiness of the cured fish normally sold in tins or jars.

In convenient 500g tubs we think these are going to loved by your customers for tapas, just snacking or in the kitchen.

For a real Farmhouse cheese made in the New Forest, Hampshire.

Makers of Lyburn Gold, Stoney Cross and Old Winchester.

Be one of the first with this exciting new taste experience.

01892 838999 www.rowcliffe.co.uk Vol.12 Issue 2 ¡ March 2011

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March 2011 路 Vol.12 Issue 2

cheesewire Milk Link to drive up volumes at Trevarrian Creamery One of Britain’s largest cheese manufacturers has taken over Cornish Country Larder (CCL) and plans to ramp up production and distribution of its well-known soft cheeses, such as St Endellion, Cornish Brie and Gevrik goats’ cheese.

Milk Link, which is owned by 1,500 British dairy farmers and claims to be the largest producer of British cheese, acquired CCL and its Trevarrian Creamery in January for an undisclosed sum after previously supplying the company with milk.

In a statement Milk Link said it plans to invest in the cheese-maker’s processing capacity, product quality and service levels, while increasing national distribution.

Neil Kennedy, Milk Link’s chief executive, said: “The deal provides an opportunity for us to grow and develop an already successful business by leveraging our wider, national customer base, proven know-how in sales and marketing, operations and logistics, and new product and packaging development.”

CCL currently supplies independents and all the major supermarkets with products including

brie, camembert, Village Green waxed goats’ cheese and Chatel soft cows’ milk cheese. It also produces Duchy Organic Brie exclusively for Waitrose.

Milk Link owns five other creameries, including two producing speciality cheeses: Tuxford & Tebbutt, which makes Stilton, and Reece’s in Cheshire, which produces crumbly territorials such as Caerphilly, Cheshire, Lancashire and Wensleydale.

The company said it could not comment on CCL’s future strategy for independent customers.

CCL’s Cornish brie: now owned by Milk Link

Premier seeks producers for cheese showcase event Wholesaler Premier Cheese, which also owns the La Cave à Fromage shops, is on the hunt for cheese producers for a market it is organising in Beaconsfield, Bucks, next month.

Taking place on Saturday April 9 in Beaconsfield Market Place, the Cheese Makers’ Market will see around 50 British and Irish cheese companies selling directly to the public, while chefs will run a series of cookery demonstrations using cheese as an ingredient.

Laverstoke, Bath Soft Cheese and Montgomery’s are some of the producers that will attend the event, which could be held annually if successful. Due to be opened

by Michelin-starred chef Alain Roux and celebrity cheesemaker Alex James, the market is being organised by Premier in conjunction with the Real Food Festival.

“There are still stalls available for cheese-makers and you don’t have to be a Premier supplier to attend,” said Premier Cheese director Amnon Paldi. “We’ve kept costs to the bare minimum to encourage small producers to attend. It’s going to be a fun day where cheese-makers can talk to the public and sell some product.” information@cheese.biz

Premier specialises in British farmhouse varieties

CHEESY GRINS: Tom Parr, fresh food buyer at Harvey Nichols in Leeds, poses with Fivemiletown Creamery’s Heather Orlowski after striking a deal to list the company’s cheeses. Since last month, the Yorkshire store is stocking an extensive range of the Northern Ireland company’s brie, oakwood smoked, goat’s milk and marinaded cheeses. “We have already seen positive feedback from customers for their creamy Ballybrie and Cooneen,” said Parr.

Mervyn McCaughey, Fivemiletown Creamery’s managing director, added: “This is a tremendous boost for us. We look forward to working with the food team at Harvey Nichols on a range of promotional initiatives.”

Something in the air for blue cheese the food and drink sector. The research findings will be shared with producers of other blue cheeses, such as Stilton, to help improve their quality and consistency.

“This is an exciting research project with farreaching potential for one of the East Midlands’ most famous products and exports,” said Food and Drink iNet interim director Richard Worrall.

“We don't really know exactly how the various micro-organisms in blue cheeses are interacting and working. If we can help to provide a clearer picture about their role in blue cheese production it will help cheese producers in a number of different ways, and ultimately make them more competitive.”

Lead researcher Dr Kostas Gkatzionis said that secondary flora have a significant impact on the properties of the final product in both a positive way, by contributing to the flavour of the cheese, but also in a negative way by producing bitter smells and poor formation of the blue veins.

“This grant will help us to understand in more detail the microbiological issues that concern the production of cheeses, and as a result should bring a range of benefits to the whole blue cheese industry,” said Dr Gkatzionis.

Researcher Dr Kostas Gkatzionis: ‘Benefits to blue cheese industry’ Stichelton Dairy has teamed up with scientists to investigate what effect naturally occurring flora in the atmosphere have on the taste, texture and smell of blue cheese.

The research into the microbiology of blue cheese production is being carried out by the University of Northampton in conjunction with the University of Nottingham and Stichelton.

In particular, scientists will investigate the impact of ‘secondary flora’ – uncontrolled bacteria that occurs naturally in the cheese room and helps give cheese its unique properties.

The £79,000 project has secured funding of almost £49,000 from the Food and Drink iNet, which co-ordinates support for innovation for businesses, universities and individuals working in

Vol.12 Issue 2 · March 2011

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howtheexperts do…

fresh fish & shellfish It’s a tough sector for speciality food shops to master, but MICK WHITWORTH finds one of the best fishmongers in Britain operating from a Somerset farm shop Garry Rosser The Scallop Shell, White Row Country Stores, Beckington, Somerset

W

hen it comes to selling fresh fish, many try but few succeed. Do it badly and you’ll soon have customers turning up their noses in more senses than one. So Steve and Heather Tucker of White Row Country Foods, on the A36 near Frome in Somerset, must be chuffed with the reception given to their farm shop’s fresh fish offer since it was added two years ago.

Their secret was hooking up with a specialist in the shape of chef Garry Rosser, who runs the fish counter and ‘seafood deli’ as his own business under the banner of The Scallop Shell.

Within a year of opening, it was listed

by The Times among the 10 best fishmongers in Britain.

Rosser is a protégé of chef, restaurateur and food writer Mitch Tonks, now the owner of three West Country fish restaurants including The Seahorse in Dartmouth. Rosser worked under Tonks at FishWorks, his chain of seafood cafés-cum-fishshops, for nearly a decade from 2000 until the business started to collapse under its own weight. “The first five years were amazing,” says Rosser, who eventually became group head chef and also ran FishWorks’ seafood school. “Then they floated on the stock market for the second time to raise capital, opened seven restaurants in nine months, and the cracks began to show.”

FishWorks was sold out of administration in 2009, but Rosser still speaks glowingly of his old mentor. “Mitch is inspirational. I remember him taking us on a 24-hour visit to Barcelona. At 3am we were on the main fishmarket and by 7am we were in La Boqueria, sitting at a tapas bar eating langoustine and pig’s head stew and drinking cava. Mitch’s dream would be to set up a table in a fishmarket and cook dinner there, and that’s how he runs his restaurants.”

At FishWorks Rosser developed a serious knowledge of seafood. “All chefs can cook but it’s only when you specialise you find out how little you really know. It’s not until you boil a fresh crab, for example, that you

understand its juiciness and sweetness compared with pasteurised crabmeat.”

After he left FishWorks, Rosser rejoined Tonks, who was working as a consultant for Young’s Seafood. The mass-market supplier had led the way on sustainable sourcing but needed to change public perceptions that fish should be cheap. “We had this idea to sell fish from a van, all prepared and oven-ready, under the Young’s name,” says Rosser, who began taking a branded vehicle to markets and farm shops around Wiltshire and Somerset, including White Row, while also pondering his next career move.

When Steve Tucker suggested he open his own in-store fishmongers’ concession, Rosser rushed

Garry Rosser: ‘Work with a wholesaler for a week and you’ll learn what fresh fish really looks like’

With over 40 species caught in British waters, Rosser flags the West Country provenance of fish and shellfish Vol.12 Issue 2 ·March 2011

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howtheexpertsdo... fresh fish & shellfish home to crack open a bottle of Champagne. But when he sat down to do a cash-flow forecast, reality struck.

“Once I put in the fit-out costs, the rents and allowed myself a decent salary, it didn’t stack up.”

Luckily, the Tuckers were willing to be flexible – and to fit out the fishmongers’ section at their own expense. Once installed, Rosser also commandeered some backroom kitchen space and now 40% of his sales come from added-value products made in-house, ranging from ovenready, frozen, ‘crisp-fried’ fillets to fresh smoked haddock & leek tarts.

We asked Garry Rosser for his thoughts and advice on bolting a fresh fish offer onto a deli or farm shop: • Your wholesaler is so, so important. You must have a good relationship with them. In theory, fish can last three weeks, but you wouldn’t want to sell it then. Wholesalers will have some stock caught the day before and some caught the week before and they can use all sorts of tricks to pass that older fish on. Once you’ve accepted fish that’s not fresh it becomes your problem, not theirs.

• Try to buy your fish whole, not filleted. A lot of chefs have their fish prepared for them, but as soon as it’s filleted you lose most of the signs that it’s fresh, like bright eyes, red gills and moist, shiny skin.

• Ask your supplier if you can work with them for a week, unpaid. That way you’re going to find out what fresh fish really looks like, you’ll understand all the tricks wholesalers use to ‘get out of jail’, and you’ll build a bond with the people who will be selling to you. Whenever I visit my main supplier, Channel Fisheries in Brixham, I always take a case of beer with me. People always look after their friends!

• You’ll soon learn to fillet fish if you work on a fish market for a week.

They’ll put you in a corner with a stone of whiting and a stone of dabs, which cost them pence, and by the time you’ve filleted that lot you’ll know more about it than most chefs.

• Wholesalers have minimum orders but most will deliver to restaurants that might take £100-worth or might take as little as £30. The chances of you ordering less than £100 are quite slim. And you can order as much as you need of each fish – 1kg, 10kg, whatever you want.

• Fishmongers generally work on a 100% mark-up, but if you’re filleting your fish you’ll need to double that. If you buy whole fish at £10 a kilo, by the time you’ve filleted it you’ve only got 500g. If you sell that at £20 a kilo you’ll only break even.

• More than 40 species of fish are caught in British waters but most 30

March 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 2

shoppers can only name four: cod, salmon, plaice and haddock. Those should be the start of your range.

Then you have your prime fish – turbot, wild sea bass and Dover sole. Those are the ones that should scare you because you can lose a lot of money if they don’t sell. And then you should stock three or four under-rated fish like gurnard, grey mullet, megrim and pout whiting. If you put all of those on your counter – plus mackerel, if you can get it really fresh – that’s a good range, even before you’ve added any smoked fish.

And you can add shellfish – mussels, oysters, clams and lobsters – to dot around the display.

• Fish are wild – so don’t display them in straight lines on your counter. Supermarkets do straight lines because they work to standard layouts. You want to create a ‘wow’ factor. Use props that symbolise fish, like seaweed or parsley. Why not put a whole basket of lemons on the display? But there’s a thin line between ‘rustic’ and ‘scruffy’, and you need to refresh the display twice a day.

• You do need a proper fish fridge.

Most fridges have air circulation, which can dry fish out. A fish fridge doesn’t have moving air but it has drainage, so as the ice slowly melts the fish isn’t left sitting in dirty water.

• As soon as you put fish out on the counter it’s starting to spoil. Even if you’ve bought really good fish, you’ve got a maximum of three days life once you’ve put it on display.

• If your fish counter smells, you’re either selling old fish or you’re not

Use fresh parsley, lemon and seaweed to dress your fish display

The Scallop Shell shifts 400 of its own fish cakes every week

cleaning down properly. You can use all the chemicals you like, but the best form of cleaning is to use lots and lots of water. Create a wet floor area you can mop down well every night.

• Blackboards should be used to inspire, not to get rid of old fish.

A lot of people think: ‘I’ve got a bit of old turbot. Let’s put it on the blackboard and hopefully old Doris will buy it.’ If it’s on the board, it should be because you’re excited about it.

• Don’t cut prices to get rid of fish.

It encourages people to buy when the quality isn’t as good, and you won’t achieve the margins you need. You need to think of better ways to use up fish that hasn’t sold. You have to create something.

• Avoid wholesaling as a means of turning stock. A lot of fishmongers do it, but it’s not a good route. The margins are not as good, restaurants want 30 days’ credit and a lot won’t pay even after that.

• Wastage is the scariest thing, so try to buy fish that has more than one use. With smoked salmon, we’ve got four ways of using is: hand-sliced on the counter, hand-sliced in vac-packs, in fish cakes or in smoked salmon mousse.

• The more you can make in-house the better. We give our fish a threeday span on the counter, then use it in the kitchen to make products for the fish deli. We make about 400 fish cakes a week, which we sell at £1.95 each, and we’ve just started our own crisp-fried range that we sell from the freezer. Today I’ve got turbot fish fingers on the counter. I’m not going to get my usual margin but at least I’m getting a return. I don’t try to compete with supermarkets – they’d kill me. But a supermarket is never going to sell crisp-fried John Dory or crisp-fried red gurnard. www.thescallopshell.co.uk

Come and try our exciting new range of mayonnaise at IFE stand N1031a

www.sussexgold.co.uk info@sussexgold.co.uk 01403 711956

Vol.12 Issue 2 路 March 2011 Tyrrells_POPCORN_FFD_100x141.5.indd 1

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showpreviews

IFE/natural food show

Where small players star on an international stage It’s the UK’s biggest food show and a playground for the corporates, yet IFE is packed with speciality food exhibitors. We ask where the show fits into the fine food calendar.

T

he biennial IFE at London’s Excel – straplined the ‘international food & drink event’ – has long been the biggest trade show in British food & drink. But with Olympia’s Speciality & Fine Food Fair – organised, like IFE,

by Fresh RM – now at the heart of the speciality food calendar, and with Excel in Docklands not the easiest venue for a time-pressed deli owner to reach, what role does IFE fulfil for our sector these days?

Event director Christopher McCuin insists that despite competition from more targeted speciality food shows IFE “offers something unique to independent speciality stores and buyers from delis and other outlets”.

The show’s Speciality & Regional Food From Britain section, he says, will itself be one of the year’s largest gatherings of smaller producers in the UK. But buyers will also be able to browse IFE’s Walk the World area, designed to bring “the best new products from across the globe” to the UK. “This year, buyers will be able to speak to producers from Morocco, Italy, Bulgaria, Germany, France and more, making it an ideal opportunity to find artisan products that are just being launched here.”

A new feature this year – hosted within the Speciality section – is The World of Olive Oil, where visitors will be able to sample oils from a number of leading producers. “The aim is to help deli, farm shop and food hall buyers sample the very best olive oil products which offer real points of difference,” says McCuin.

In truth, IFE is as much about putting UK fine food suppliers in front of a new audience as it is about providing a buying opportunity for delis and farm shops. “The scale of this show means its reach extends to every continent,” McCuin says, and many exhibitors make no bones

about using IFE, not to target British independents but to court buyers that are normally rather harder to reach.

“You’re looking at the big-hitters that are too posh to go to the other well-known shows,” says Rufus Carter, MD of paté-maker Patchwork, “like the big decision-makers from [major contract caterers] Compass, Gate Gourmet, Alpha and Rail Gourmet. And, while it’s not for us, you’ll also have the likes of Sainsbury’s at the show.”

Carter acknowledges a trip to IFE is a bigger commitment for both independent retailers and smaller producers than some of the dedicated fine food events, not least because of travel time and the cost of overnight stays in the capital. “Even after you’ve

VISITING IFE11

When: March 13-16 2011 Where: ExCel London E16 1XL Opening times: Sun March 13, 11.00-17.00 Mon March 14, 10.00-17.30 Tues March 15, 10.00-17.30 Wed March 16, 10.00-16.30 Tickets: Register free in advance on the show website or £30 on the door www.ife.co.uk

travelled to London it’s still 40 minutes from Euston, and there are two halls to get round. To see everything you need at least three days.

“We know we’ll do retail business with some of the larger farm shops and garden centres that have a big workforce and can afford the time to stay overnight, and you never know which independents might turn up.”

Distributor Petty Wood is taking a stand at IFE11 after an absence of several years. Brand director Giles Reynolds told FFD the FreshRM team had lined up “a significant number of diverse buyers”, from overseas visitors to major multiple retailers, foodservice operators and a large number of independents. As well as showcasing its own brands, Petty Wood will be featuring 45 gold-winning products from the 2010 Great Taste Awards for which it is acting as distributor.

“We believe the Great Taste Award winners will appeal both to speciality stores and more mainstream retailers who are looking to differentiate their range,” Reynolds says.

At premium soft drinks specialist James White Drinks, owner Lawrence Mallinson says that, although less targeted than Olympia, IFE is a good show for delis, farm shops and independent caterers “as well as large supermarket, contract caterers and export customers”.

For smaller UK suppliers, he says, it’s worth being part of the Speciality & Regional Food from Britain section, “because the show is enormous and the type of customers we are looking for all gravitate there”. He adds: “Even the bigger boys go there, as it’s a great source of ideas for them.”

This year sees a change in format for the regional food section. The English contingent among the 200odd exhibitors will, for the first time, be loosely grouped within an English pavilion organised by the English Food & Drink Alliance, the umbrella body for the country’s regional food groups. Alliance chair Jonathan Knight, who also heads the Yorkshire & Humber food group, says Vol.12 Issue 2 · March 2011

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March 2011 路 Vol.12 Issue 2

product update showpreviews the new format is a first step towards creating fully fledged English-branded sections at UK and overseas shows along the lines of the established Welsh and Scottish pavilions.

Regional groups such as Taste of the West and Heart of England Fine Foods will still have their own identity within the English section, Knight says. “So in some ways we are still in transition. But it’s a way to establish better branding for English food, and we can take the same idea to Anuga in Germany or SIAL in France.”

Visitors to the English pavilion will be able to take a look at the English Regional Kitchen – a demo kitchen featuring regional chefs including Select Lincolnshire ambassador Rachel Green, Stephanie Moon from Yorkshire & Humber and Stacy Stewart representing the North East England Food & Drink Group.

The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), meanwhile, will be bringing companies together under its wellestablished True Taste brand to pursue overseas sales in particular.

WAG is looking for small firms with potential to grow into the next Rachel’s Organic or Ty Nant spring water. Jon Parker, head of its market development unit, said WAG was working hard to ensure those producers it helped to attend different shows were relevant to each audience.

With IFE such an international show, he said, “there’s no point in taking along a company that’s not interested in the export market”. “We do provide a level of financial support, depending on company size, but they are still paying to attend. So it’s about maximising what they can get out of it for the time they’re there.”

Patchwork’s Rufus Carter told FFD: “From a networking point of view we need to be at IFE – it’s still the flagship show in the UK – but we are definitely not there on a jolly. We talked long and hard about why we were going, and we’ve already started making appointments with buyers and journalists. We are expecting it to be a brilliant, brilliant show.”

IFE/natural pickles &food chutneys show Getting serious about natural foods

April sees a new show-within-a-show at Natural & Organic Products Europe

“We need to be at IFE – it’s still the flagship show the UK.” Rufus Carter Patchwork

I

f The Natural Food Show sounds like a new event to you – well, it is and it isn’t. Food and drink has been part of the well-established Natural & Organic Products Europe event for a while, but as that sector increasingly shakes off its tie-dye and lentils image and mainstream food retailers look for new niches to explore, the show organisers are keen to spotlight what’s on offer here for food buyers – and not just in the health and wholefoods market.

So at this year’s Natural & Organic, at London’s Olympia from April 34, there’s a new show-within-a-show dedicated to food, with an exhibitor list that includes half a dozen familiar speciality brands like Union Hand Roasted, Clearspring and Lawncourt Harvest (maker of Munchy Seeds) alongside around 70 more hardcore health food brands.

“The ‘Natural & Organic’ title is well understood by our loyal visitors, but it’s less meaningful to a food buyer who hasn’t previously been exposed to the event,” says Carsten Holm, MD of organiser Diversified Business Communications, explaining the need for the separate food section. “The Natural Food Show is the only UK food show that specifically promotes natural and organic and the idea of a healthy, sustainable lifestyle. Our exhibitors therefore reflect the same values.”

Lawrence Mallinson of James White Drinks, which is exhibiting both at the Natural Food Show and this month’s IFE11, told FFD: “For us, the Natural Food Show is the way to reach the health food market. It’s a sector largely supplied by specialist wholesalers like Marigold, Suma, Tree of Life, Goodness, Infinity and Green City, and you need to have products that are very much health-targeted.”

James White will be showing its organic Beet It stamina shot, designed to help manage blood pressure as well as offering sports performance benefits. “I don’t think this is a show that those offering fine food alone – even good, healthy food or even organic food – should really do,” says Mallinson. “And if you are going to do it, you really want to have listings already with several of those major specialist wholesalers.”

Carsten Holm says exhibiting at shows like lunch! or the Speciality & Fine Food Fair shouldn’t exclude suppliers from The Natural Food Show.

“Different shows reach different audiences and meet different needs.”

VISITING THE NATURAL FOOD SHOW When: April 3-4 2011 Where: Grand Hall, Olympia, London W14 8UX Opening times: Sunday April 3, 9.30-17.30

Monday April 4, 9.30-17.00 Entry tickets: Register free in advance on the show website or by calling 01923 690674.

Entry costs £20 on the door Show website: www.naturalfoodshow.co.uk

Vol.12 Issue 2 · March 2011

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March 2011 路 Vol.12 Issue 2

product update

soft drinks

Soft and sophisticated LYNDA SEARBY checks out the latest launches in premium soft drinks, and we talk to one of the sector’s pioneers • Step aside Red Bull: apparently coconut water is the latest energy drink. Several celebrities have been spotted quaffing the juice, which is claimed to be fat-free, full of electrolytes and packed with more nutrients than milk. Keen to get a slice of the action, organic brand Biona has launched the first canned organic coconut water and hopes to give the likes of Vita Coco and Cocowell a run for their money. www.windmillorganics. com

• Husband and wife team Nurses Cottage Drinks introduced a plum pressé at Pershore Plum Festival last August, and the drink has proved so popular they’ve made it a permanent fixture. Pershore Plum Pressé joins existing variants sparkling elderflower and plum potion and is made from Worcestershire plums and Cotswold spring water.

• Simply Nectar has given its range a shake-up by sprucing up its bottles and introducing its first berry variant.

Raspberry takes its place alongside apple, apricot, banana, mango, peach, pear and orange juice and citron pressé.

The juices are made solely from fruit, with no added sugar.

Now available from Hider Foods, Simply Nectar juices come in glass bottles in two sizes, 25cl and 75cl, with an RRP of £1.49-£1.99 and £3.49-£3.99 respectively. www. simplynectar.com

www.bredonhillfoods.co.uk

A little less rustic, but Luscombe’s still got the ‘magic’

By MICK WHITWORTH

Gabriel David seems almost apologetic as he ushers me into his office at Luscombe Drinks’ production plant near Buckfastleigh, just off the southern edge of Dartmoor National Park.

Until two years ago the business was based amid the granite-walled barns of the nearby family farm, where they’ve made cider for decades and where David set up his organic soft drinks business in the late 1990s.

Now it has moved into a purposebuilt, leasehold unit in a converted modern farm building at nearby Lower Dean, and the “rather artistic” production methods necessitated by Luscombe Farm’s hotch-potch of barns have been superseded by a less rustic but more practical factory set-up.

David is worried there might be “a slight erosion in the feel people get for the brand”. “At our old place,” he says, “I’d pick up a cordless phone while I was on the bottling line and customers could hear chickens crowing in the background. Here, we’ve got four fixed phone lines coming in and it can sound more like a call centre.”

But if that’s a downside of growth, David can probably live with it. Since he came into the family firm he has taken it from an ailing £50,000-ayear cider business to a £2m-plus premium soft drinks concern that ranks Fortnum’s, Selfridges and Heston Blumenthal among its clients.

Luscombe’s cider is still produced and stored at the old farm but all its premium soft drinks – like its flagship Sicilian lemonade, made with real Sicilian lemons, spring water, organic raw cane sugar and a dash of organic Madagascan vanilla – now emerge from the end of a pristine Italian-built bottling line at the new site.

If anyone has noticed a difference in the product it should only be for the better, given the greater consistency the new set-up allows. And David reckons his team has somehow retained the “magic” that won it those big-name clients, even though the source of that magic is hard to pin down. “We didn’t ‘sell in’ to Heston Blumenthal,” he says. “He has bought Gabriel David: there are copycats out there, but they’ve been ‘dumbed down’

into because it seems to deliver for him.”

David continues: “Anyone can set up a drinks company, but they can’t get the same nuances as us. Since we launched our Sicilian lemonade I’ve seen at least four other versions out there. Pizza Express have one.

Sainsbury have one. But they are nothing like ours because, almost by definition, everything has been dumbed down.”

Premium soft drinks were virtually unheard of when David joined the family firm after 10 years living in Sicily, and started creating products with the fruit he knew best. “When we began it was just unfermented cider juice, bottled. We didn’t pay too much attention to flavour. At one stage we were buying shed-loads of apples through the supermarket gradeout system, but then we changed to buying English apples, from Hereford and Kent, for our standard juice. It’s difficult to find juicing fruit here in Devon – most of it’s grown for cider – but we do make a Devon juice too, which is dryer, with a bit more tannin and a good depth of flavour.”

There are now around 16 drinks on Luscombe’s list, from Cranberry Crush to Elderflower Bubbly and ‘hot’ and

‘cool’ ginger beers. Other producers now offer similar-sounding drinks, but David reckons his apple & apricot and apple & pear varieties in particular are different to anyone else’s – the first given “a tad of orange flower water”, the latter with “a little bit of vanilla for warmth”.

He says there are two contradictory trends in the drinks market right now.

“On the one hand, people’s palates are becoming more discerning, but at the same time there’s this dumbing down. There are a lot of companies out there trying to get into premium drinks, imagining that it’s a bigger market than it is. But their products are all promise and no delivery.” www.luscombe.co.uk Vol.12 Issue 2 · March 2011

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March 2011 路 Vol.12 Issue 2

product update

soft drinks

• A quince and apple juice drink has become the talk of social networking site Twitter following the launch of a new cerise pink label. The juice, which contains 25% quince and 75% Jona red apples, is described by maker Drove Orchards as ‘fragrant...at once sweet and slightly dry’.

• Firefly, a producer of natural energy tonics, concocted a ‘Love Potion’ for Valentine’s Day. The drink blends passionfruit, blueberry and jasmine with sensory botanicals angelica, chocolate and damiana, which are reputed to have aphrodisiac qualities. RRP is £1.49 for a 330ml bottle. www.fireflytonics.com

www.droveorchards.com

• James White made its foray into sports nutrition last year with a product that founder Lawrence Mallinson describes as his “most mad idea to date”. Beet It organic beetroot stamina shots, which consist of a concentrated dose of organic beetroot juice cut with lemon, are being supplied to the England, Scotland and Wales rugby teams, Premiership football teams and Olympic sports teams. A more routine development has been the launch of new labels for Manic Organic, the company’s range of pressed organic juices, which are bottled in PET for a long, ambient shelf life. www.jameswhite.co.uk

• Multi-5 is a potent new fruit juice blend from Bertrams Exclusiv. Made from five fruits (apple, grape, blackcurrant, banana and raspberry), the drink is also enriched with iron. It comes in a 300ml glass bottle and is available in the UK from Dan International, which offers a wholesale delivery service to independent retailers and snack bars. www.daninternational.com

• If staying in really is the new going out, funkin’s mocktail mix pouches should be right on-trend.

The mixers are designed to enable people to make booze-free mocktails at home without any mess or effort – all they need to do is fill a glass with ice, pour in a mixer pouch, add a splash of tonic water or other non-alcoholic base, stir and serve. New to the range for 2011 are Virgin Margarita and Virgin Strawberry Daiquiri mixes. Both have an RRP of 99p. www.funkin.co.uk

• Fentimans Rose Lemonade is now available in a 275ml single serve bottle (RRP £1.10) as well as the original ‘take home’ 750ml bottle.

In producing the botanically brewed beverage, ingredients such as lemon juice and pure Rose Otto oil from Rose Valley in Bulgaria are fermented for seven days. www.fentimans.com

• Apple juice specialist Chegworth Valley has launched two new juice blends. Apple & rhubarb and apple & beetroot both retail at £2.75 per litre. www. chegworthvalley. com

• Nourish Kefir has improved the recipe of its organic probiotic kefir smoothies by sweetening them with raw organic agave nectar rather than sugar. Nourish Kefir drinks are made with living kefir cultures, fermented in organic cows’ milk, following the traditional method from the Caucasus, where kefir evolved hundreds of years ago. The smoothies are available in 50ml and 500ml bottles, in strawberry and blueberry & pomegranate flavours. www.nourishkefir.co.uk

• Following its launch at Christmas markets around the country in December, The Orchard Pig hopes its mulled apple juice will continue to prove popular now the festivities are over. The juice is designed to be drunk warm and according to the company, ‘can add real interest for non-drinkers at parties, with its wonderful cinnamon aroma’, though it adds that ‘the addition of a cheeky rum or brandy adds real spice’. www.orchardpig.co.uk

• Targeting the adult alcoholalternative market is bar owner Peter Spanton with a range that has just been extended to include three new tonics. Beverage No 3 combines flavours of cardamom and extracts of cucumber, No 4 blends fresh garden mint and aromatic bitters with dark chocolate, and No 5 is described as ‘a sophisticated spicy lemonade’ with lemongrass and ginger. www.peterspantonbeverages.com

• Alcohol-free wine doesn’t have the best image but Birchmere Enterprise is hoping to change that by introducing a de-alcoholised sparkling wine from Henkell & Co in Wiesbaden, Germany. Söhnlein Brillant, which comes in white and rosé form, is produced the ‘normal’ way (with alcohol) but the alcohol is removed by vacuum-distillation – a method that retains the wine’s flavour, according to Birchmere. Also new from Germany are Voelkel's organic Pina Colada, Caipirinha and Red Orange mocktails and its GuaranaCola organic energy drink. www.birchmere-enterprise.co.uk

• New start-up Samuelsons Of Witney says that using only freshpressed lemon juice in its Proper Strong Lemonade has enabled it to produce the most powerful lemonade in the UK. The Cotswold company’s drink is made using only three ingredients: 25% lemon juice, water and sugar. It comes in 330ml and 750ml glass bottles, which retail at £2.50-£2.75, and £3.50£4.00 respectively. www. samuelsonsofwitney.co.uk Vol.12 Issue 2 · March 2011

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March 2011 路 Vol.12 Issue 2

training update

Live and learn

Need to sharpen your food safety training? Fancy a try at charcuterie-making?

Here’s our round-up of the latest courses for professional food-lovers • Deli owners looking to set up an instore bakery or small producers seeking new skills could benefit from the five-day bread course run by Richard Bertinet (right), named Food Champion of the Year in the 2010 BBC Food & Farming Awards.

Originally from Britanny, Bertinet worked as a chef, restaurateur and food consultant before setting up The Bertinet Kitchen, his cookery school in Bath, which runs courses for amateurs and professionals of all abilities. “The next start-date for our fiveday bread course with Richard is August 22,” said Bertinet’s wife and business manager Jo Harrod Bertinet. “We have lots of professionals on that one, as well as those who are thinking of a career change or setting up a bakery. “We also have an amazing five-part patisserie masterclass course with Yolande Stanley, who teaches UK skills entrants at the highest level. The first one is in March, but the course is repeating in November over the course of a single week.” There’s also a three-day bread course starting on April 18. Bertinet Sourdough was named Best Baked Product in the Soil Association Product of the Year awards in 2010. www.thebertinetkitchen.com

• If you’re looking to develop staff to run a serious deli-café or food hall restaurant, the awardwinning Ashburton Cookery School’s latest venture could be of interest. The Devon school has launched the Ashburton Chefs Academy, and says its flagship course is an accredited six-month Professional Culinary Diploma, designed to equip students with toplevel chef’s knowledge and skills as well as providing management and business training. Chef-director Darrin Hosegrove, says: “We will, of course, be teaching students to cook to the highest levels, but we’ll also develop skills such as building relationships with food producers, inspiring your team, business skills, wine tasting and food ethics as well as the life skills essential to a long and successful career.” www. ashburtoncookeryschool. co.uk

• Verner Wheelock Associates is launching an online version of An Introduction to Nutrition, its popular Level 2 nutrition course. Marketing director Alison Wheelock says it’s suitable for anyone involved in preparing, serving, retailing and producing food, from farm shops and cafés to food manufacturers.

It’s designed to provide a good basic understanding of nutrition and healthy eating and, because it’s online, modules can be completed in stages at the learner’s own pace. “Anyone interested in promoting healthy eating, designing labelling, packaging or menus, or developing ‘healthy options’ would also benefit from completing the course,” says Wheelock. “The modular format means it’s ideal for those in a busy working environment to fit into their schedule.” www.vwa.co.uk

• As well as supplying delis and farm shops with a wide range of gift and hamper packaging , WBC provides training to help retailers and producers maximise gifting opportunities and increase sales throughout the year.

Working alongside regional food groups, WBC subsidises hands-on masterclasses with retail experts such as gift wrapping guru Arona Khan, with themes such as ‘Making hampers & gift baskets work for you’, ‘Retail merchandising for maximum impact’ and ‘Increasing impulse purchases to maximise profit’.

WBC says several regional training programs are already in the pipeline this year, but some dates are still to be confirmed, so email the company for more information. training@wbc.co.uk

• Three one-day bread workshops, taking delegates from the basics of bread-making to a final ‘master tutorial’, form part of the current programme of courses at the Artisan Food Centre at Hurn, near Bournemouth. Other one-day courses this year will cover pasta, pastisserie/confectionery and sugar craft, as well as the centre’s other specialism: charcuterie. Its Master Charcuterie course (pictured here) gives a good overview of meat curing, air-drying, smoking, sausage, salami and paté-making. The Artisan Food Centre, led by Todd Sadler, is also home to his Dorset Smokery & Charcuterie and Rustique Paté Co food businesses. Its one-day courses, which are popular for teambuilding events, range in price from £75 to £140. Sadler says: “We cater for up to 16 people on a workshop, and the fee includes breakfast and a gourmet lunch with fine wines.” www.artisan-centre.com

• From three-hour ‘awareness courses’ for inexperienced staff to full-day food safety courses, Lindum Food & Drink Training says it provides friendly, supportive training throughout the retail and catering sectors.

Its Level 1 awareness course covers food poisoning, personal hygiene, cleaning, safe handling of food, and the demands of the Safer Food Better Business documentation system. Lindum’s one-day Level 2 food safety course covers food safety hazards, temperature control, refrigeration, chilling, cooking, hot and cold holding and reheating, food handling and principles of safe food storage, as well as cleaning of premises and equipment. www.foodanddrinktraining.com

• AB Cheesemaking will hold a cheese grading course at Nantwich’s Reaseheath College this month as part of its training programme for the dairy sector. Threeday courses for first-time makers of soft cheese will be held on June 7-9 and August 2-4, with basic cheese-making courses on May 4-6 and September 13-15. Yoghurt and other fermented products will be covered on July 5-7. chrisashby@abcheesemaking.co.uk Vol.12 Issue 2 · March 2011

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trainingupdate

Short courses with a long shelflife The Guild of Fine Food’s cheese and charcuterie courses don’t just improve product knowledge – they help you sell more too

Y

ou don’t need to serve a long apprenticeship in Parma or Roquefort-sur-Soulzon to sell charcuterie and cheese. But if you want to persuade shoppers to choose your premium foods over standard supermarket pre-packs you need to understand how yours are made, what makes them special and how to present a compelling sales story.

That’s the philosophy that draws around 500 shop owners, managers and counter staff to the Guild of Fine Food’s cheese and charcuterie days each year.

“We don’t tell people how to make cheese or cure ham,” says Guild director and FFD publisher Bob Farrand, who has led the courses with partner and co-director Linda for more than a decade. “But we do teach them the basics and, more importantly, help them understand the difference between artisan and mass-produced products.”

Each day-long course includes plenty of advice on selecting, buying and selling, but Farrand says: “For about four hours it’s full-on, inyour-face product knowledge and comparative tastings, getting people to try artisan products against massmarket versions and explaining why they are so different.”

There’s also time to pass on a few of those quirky back-stories that can really appeal to shoppers. “If we’re talking about Manchego, for example, we’ll tell them it’s a hard sheep’s milk product from the plain of La Mancha – but we’ll also tell them how Don Quixote used these cheeses for cannonballs.”

He continues: “The aim always is to highlight those products that you know are unique to the independent

sector, like San Danielle or Iberico ham. We’ll do tastings with Cibosano’s Pecorino with truffle, for example, or his wild boar salami, which is a real artisan product. Coppa is another.

They may not be ideal for every deli and farm shop but they are products the supermarkets haven’t latched on to.

“And I also like us to use products with a real ‘wow’ factor – like gorgonzola dolce, which many delegates have never tasted before. Those are great for me because you get that immediate feedback when it hits their palates and you see their eyes widen. And that’s what you want them to recreate in-store.”

The best result, Farrand says, is at the end of the day when younger delegates say, ‘That was really great – I’m going to look at food in a different light’. “You realise you’ve awakened something in them that will hopefully be with them for life,” he says.

Courses are run throughout the UK each year, with cheese and charcuterie usually covered on consecutive days. This means retailers and their staff can attend both training sessions with the minimum of travel expenses.

The price of each day is kept low – £65 plus VAT for Guild members or £90 plus VAT for non-members – thanks to generous sponsorship from cheese and charcuterie makers and wholesalers, most of them longterm supporters.

While some start-up retailers or store managers may already be committed foodies, the same may not

Rome wasn’t built in a day… …and you can’t turn someone into a fine food expert over night. Bob Farrand likens completing the Guild’s cheese and charcuterie courses to getting your driver’s licence.

“The day you pass your test you’re a menace to society but every time you drive you get a little bit better.

“You can apply the same rule to selling fine food.

There’s too much to learn in a couple of days. But if, for example, you decide to talk to your customers about a different cheese every couple of hours, by the end of a day’s trading you’ll have talked about four cheeses, and by the end of the week you’ll have talked about 20.

And gradually it becomes instinctive.”

“For about four hours it’s full-on, in-your-face product knowledge and comparative tastings”

be true of their employees.

Two or three generations have now been raised in a world of standardised, lowest-cost food and of a shopping experience where communication with the retailer is limited to a brief word at the checkout.

For many counter staff the stories behind some core deli products can be a revelation, but it’s equally important for them to learn about communicating this knowledge to the customer and ultimately, encouraging, them to make a purchase.

“Once our delegates are full to bursting with cheese and meat, that’s when we bring in the communication skills,” Farrand says. “We go into the fundamentals of sales: greeting customers, asking open questions and being proactive about starting a conversation.

“It can quite intimidating for shoppers to walk into a deli, where there maybe a whole bunch of cheeses whose names they can’t even pronounce. If you can be proactive, give the customer a tasting and taste it with them, talk about how it’s made and what makes it different, you have a much better chance of engaging with them.

“You’ve started a conversation where they’re telling you what they like, so you’re in a much better place to make a sale.”

• Cheese and charcuterie training days will be held in London on March 7-8, followed by a cheese day in Somerset on March 22 and backto-back cheese and charcuterie days in Cheshire on April 5-6. Full details are on the Guild website. linda.farrand@finefoodworld.co.uk www.finefoodworld.co.uk Vol.12 Issue 2 · March 2011

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March 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 2

focus on

brand design

Competition winner unveils hot new look Three months after winning a free brand revamp, curry sauce specialist Bibijis is preparing to take a fresh new look to market

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t’s the start of a new chapter for Baljit Kullar-Bell and husband Ian Bell as they prepare to unveil a new look for their fresh, lowfat curry sauce brand Bibijis. In December, FFD announced that the Warwickshire-based duo had won a free brand overhaul in a competition staged with Gloucestershire consultancy WowMe! Design.

Bibijis was chosen from a shortlist of entrants ranging from cottageindustry cake-makers to national speciality brands as the business with most potential to grow sales given stronger branding and packaging.

The judges were Guild of Fine Food director John Farrand, FFD editor Mick Whitworth, WowMe!’s Andy White and James Maycock, and Aylie Cooke, now associate grocery co-ordinator at Whole Foods Market.

By Ian Bell’s own admission the four-year-old business’s existing branding was less than ideal. “We realised its shortcomings,” he says.

“The labels were done really quickly,

The new design (main picture) incorporates key messages around freshness, low-fat and the use of whole fresh chillies. Inset: the original design was too ‘busy’

“Rather than relying on instinct, they took the design to a farmers’ market and tested it on customers there” Vol.12 Issue 2 March 2011

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focus on on a shoestring. Our web designer did the basics and I finished them off. I’m not from a marketing background and the labels were too ‘busy’, with no clear message.”

The first step in revamping the brand was for the Bells to meet WowMe!’s White and Maycock.

White says: “We had a long, in-depth discussion, in which we asked them lots of questions about their product and what their aspirations were for the brand. It became clear we were not only designing a brand for right now, but one that has longevity.

“At the moment the range consists of eight Indian sauces but the Bells have ambitions to expand into other world sauces and categories and want a brand that has the flexibility to grow with their range.”

It also emerged there were a number of key messages the Bells wanted to convey. “We wanted to get across the fact our sauces are different to normal curry sauces,” says Ian Bell. “They contain less than 2% fat and there’s no layer of oil on top. They are made from fresh

brand design ingredients with no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives and they are gently pasteurised and pouch-packed to give a long-life in the chiller, as opposed to being ambient.”

For WowMe!, balancing all these messages on a pack that didn’t look cluttered presented a major challenge. White says they tackled it by creating a message ‘hierarchy’, which ranked key messages in order of importance.

He says it also helped that the Bells were open-minded and not ‘precious’ about any aspect of their existing packaging.

With virtually free rein to redesign the Bibijis brand, White’s design team started brainstorming ideas, sketching designs and looking at other brands on the market.

“Often we’ll end up with one wall of our meeting room completely papered with ideas and scamps [rough designs],” he says. “We then narrow these down to just a handful of designs to present to the client.

There is a fairly methodical filtering down process we undertake which

“We liked the use of colour and leaves to give a handcrafted feel”

The five that got away Besides the new look that Bibijis has chosen, WowMe! initially presented five other designs, which for one reason or another didn’t quite strike a chord with the client.

Design 1 What the agency said: “This was designed to be a small move on from where they were – the colours reflect the existing pack; it was a valid route as we did not want to alienate the existing, loyal consumer base.”

What the client said: “On an emotional level this was beautifully designed, but we thought it would get lost on shelf.

Especially in low-light conditions we thought it might look grey, so pretty as it was, we had to dismiss it.”

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March 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 2

Designs 2, 3 and 4 What the agency said: “These routes are about using large areas of colour to get across the curry variant. The gold logo and the black background give a premium look. Number 4 was a way of incorporating more food values into the packaging. Ian and Baljit weren’t at all taken by these and they told us so. We didn’t mind that – it’s all part of the design process.”

What the client said: “These reminded us too much of a competitor’s pack and we didn’t feel a connection with any of them.

We weren’t keen on the use of full colour photography on Number 4 as it’s a bit ‘old hat’, plus it’s difficult to photograph food and make it look attractive.

Design 5 What the agency said: “We wanted something simple that would give the product good shelf presence. The pouches would be generically printed with the curry variant communicated via a simple sticker on the front of pack.

What the client said: “This reminded us too much of a premium chocolate brand. We thought this was a lot cleaner and fresher looking than 2, 3 and 4 but after some discussion decided that the brown was a bit heavy and the freshness and lightness of the sauces didn’t come across.”

involves creating a hit list of the client’s criteria and checking all the designs meet our client’s brief.”

Ian says they knew straight away which concept they liked – a design that gave prominence to the sauce’s ‘fresh’ and ‘2% fat’ credentials, and made use of leaf shaped tags to explain the company’s chilli heat system and distinguish between the different varieties.

“It had impact and was modern, clean and crisp; we liked the use of colour and leaves to give a handcrafted feel,” he says.

But rather than just relying on their own instinct, they decided to take the design to a farmers’ market and test it out on customers there.

The design was well received and the Bells are now working with WowMe! to implement the design in the form of a laminated paper label for the 60,000 plain pouches Bibijis has in stock. Once these are used up, the design will be printed directly onto the pouches. www.bibijis.com www.wowmedesign.com

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Kingscroft Logistics

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CREATIVE, PRACTICAL PACKAGING

HAMPER BOXES Add value to your range with ‘creative, practical packaging’ Bespoke vacuum bags, stand up Gift packaging helping you turn your products into gifts- also Easily personalised Contact us for full details

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Learn more, understand more and sell more The Guild of Fine Food has trained retailers for over 20 years. Our courses have enthused, enlightened and motivated thousands of counter staff, managers and owners. The only complaint is that our delegates want more. Which is why we have launched the School of Fine Food – a comprehensive series of food & drink modules that will expand your product knowledge and your foodie credentials.

Throughout the next 12 months we will be delivering eight modules, covering many of the categories in your deli, farm shop or food hall. Our industry experts will improve your knowledge of each and every counter in your shop, including meat, fruit and veg, fish, preserves and beer & cider.

You should know where the food and drink you sell comes from, how it’s made and who makes it. The School of Fine Food will give you the know-how to sell more. Call it counter intelligence. For more information and to read about the modules in more detail visit www.schooloffinefood.co.uk

Register your interest for any of the courses below by calling 01963 824464 or email charlie.westcar@finefoodworld.co.uk The School of Fine Food m0dules: • Cheese and Dairy • Charcuterie • Fresh Fish • Fresh Meat, including game • The Pantry (Jams, marmalades, olives and olive oil, honey) • Take a Break (Tea & coffee, biscuits and chocolate ) • The Drinks Cupboard (Beer, cider and perry & country wines) • The Kitchen Garden (Vegetables, fruits, salads & herbs)

www.schooloffinefood.co.uk The School of Fine Food has been developed with funding and support from South West Food & Drink

Product knowledge training for fine food retail Vol.12 Issue 2 · March 2011

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March 2011 路 Vol.12 Issue 2

shelftalk

products, packaging & promotions

Independents offered a taste of Jamie Oliver’s brand power The TV chef’s latest offering is for ‘independents only’. But will they buy into a range from the supermarket celeb?

By MICK WHITWORTH

Distributor Pride of Place insists a new range of speciality foods from Jamie Oliver could help smaller stores fight back against supermarkets – despite the TV chef’s strong association with Sainsbury’s and the sale of his branded foods across the multiples.

The new 55-strong line-up, packaged under the premium Jme brand, stretches from British artisan biscuits to Puglian infused oils. Wellknown specialist suppliers including Olives Et Al, Essfoods (maker of Stokes tomato ketchup and Staverton Ewe jams) and artisan biscuit-maker Popina are manufacturing the products.

Zoe Jackson of Jme Group said the products were a mix of existing recipes and some that have been “tweaked”.

While producers will not be namechecked on-pack they will be featured on Oliver’s website. Jackson added: “Wherever Jamie thinks the product is the best he can find, he has no shame about naming them.”

Unlike the mainstream Jamie Oliver brand sold in multiples, the Jme lines do not carry the TV chef’s face and are being presented in quirky and sophisticated packs in an assortment of styles created by top design agency Pearlfisher. They could be merchandised together without being obviously from the same stable, although merchandising stands are also

being produced for outlets with space to take the full selection.

The range has been shown to around 200 key deli, farm shop and garden centre buyers since the start of the year and was due to be formally launched at the Farm Shop & Deli Show in Birmingham as FFD went to press.

Pride of Place managing director Simon Hurley, previously sales chief with Olives Et Al, said stores including Windsor Farm Shop, Blacker Hall Farm Shop near Wakefield, Longacres garden centre in Surrey and Thyme & Tides deli in Stockbridge, Hants, had already taken all or part of the range.

The product will only be available to independents. Initially Pride of Place also planned to sell to Budgens stores – which, as franchise operations, are technically independent – and through other buying groups, as well as in Booth’s supermarkets in the North West. However, after feedback from retailers including Broadway Deli in the Cotswolds the distributor has said it will exclude these larger operators from its target list.

The Jme brand, which includes non-food items such as cookware and candles, has so far only been marketed online or through Oliver’s Recipease cookery and food shops in London. “Originally the range was exclusive to Recipease but we realised

there’s potential for it grow outside those stores,” said Zoe Jackson.

Hurley said more than 90% of shops approached so far had taken the full food range. However, not all retailers are as enthusiastic about Oliver’s move into the speciality sector. Comments on Twitter soon after the launch suggested some in the trade see the chef as too closely associated with Sainsbury’s in particular.

Broadway Deli co-owner Louise Hunt dismissed the launch as “a cynical commercial cash-in by a very successful organisation on the only sector of the market which they do not already dominate”.

On his regular website blog, Paul Hargreaves, managing director of rival distributor Cotswold Fayre, doubted whether the Jamie Oliver organisation would be able to resist the lure of the multiples if asked to supply the Jme range. “Do we really believe that if this range is a success and Sainsbury’s and Tesco come knocking on the door, they are going to say ‘no’? Tyrrell’s, Bay Tree and Fudges’ Bakery all started off by saying that they were only going to supply the independents, but eventually caved in.

I’m not sure Jamie Oliver has half the resolve of that lot.”

According to Hurley, relatively high price points will ensure the Jme lines – which also include oils and

dressings, antipasti and chocolate – remain relatively exclusive. But he also stressed the power of the Jamie Oliver brand, pointing out the chef’s website achieves 3 million hits every week. “I can’t think of another range that has launched into independents that has so much potential to drive footfall,” he told FFD. “It has to be a great opportunity for the independent sector, who have had a great deal of pressure over the last 10 years because of the multiples getting more involved in speciality foods.”

Broadway Deli’s Louise Hunt said that while she and partner Alan Frimley admired Oliver’s work on food and nutritional education, they feared a loss of diversity in British high streets as supermarkets tighten their grip – helped by celebrities.

“Independent food retailers need to play to their strengths and offer top quality products that don't appear in every food outlet in the land.”

Hurley told FFD: “We explain [to independents] that these products are not in the multiples. Once people know this it doesn’t seem to be an issue. There are obvious examples where products that are in multiples – like Tracklements, Bay Tree and Fudges – still work in the independent sector, but the JME range is not in any supermarkets”.

Join the discussion: @FFDonline www.aprideofplace.co.uk

What’s in the JME range?

There are 55 products, nearly all of which provide a margin of around 35% on the RRP. They include: • Dark chocolate, ginger & chilli biscuits (125g), RRP £3.00 • Beef & BBQ rub (50g), RRP £4.00 • ‘Hello Sailor’ rich & creamy chocolate with seasalt bar (60g), RRP £2.00 • Chocolate covered orange pieces (100g), RRP £4.50 • Wholegrain mustard (230g), RRP £3.00 • Real tomato ketchup (300g) , RRP £3.00 • Lemon curd (250g), RRP £3.00 • Tuscan Extra Virgin Olive Oil (500ml), RRP £12.50 • Pink Grapefruit & Honey Dressing (250ml), RRP £4.00 • Olives in Lemon & Garlic (260g), £4.00

Vol.12 Issue 2 · March 2011

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......and then there was BARO light

Promote Sales & Protect Produce with Energy Efficient Lighting

www.baro.co.uk | info@baro.co.uk | Tel: 0161 777 9292

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0117 977 3474

www.bartspices.com

• Over 25 of the best selling cakes from Heavenly Cakes are now available in gluten- and wheat-free versions. Available in flow-wrapped bars, the range of flapjacks, shortbreads, brownies and signature chocolate cakes are also free from additives. The gluten-free range is available in batches of 12 bars per flavour for £1.25 per bar with a minimum order of 72 bars.

01438 721880

www.heavenlycakes.co.uk

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• Black & Beyond espresso is a premium addition to the Percol portfolio and is an investment from brand owner Food Brands Group to meet the emerging trends in darker coffees and the use of beans at home. At strength 6, it is the strongest offering in the portfolio and is presented in a premium glossy pack with a transparent ‘coffee window’ on the front.

0207 978 5300

www.percol.co.uk

• Kumars Curries & Bumbu’s has launched a range of south Asian curry sauces in both 350g retail pots and 2.5kg pails for use in fresh counters and foodservice. Thirteen ready-to-use sauces, bumbu’s (Indonesian for spice or seasoning) and pastes have been created by Malaysian chef Suresh Kumar to provide the authentic flavours of south Asian curry.

Samples will be on stand N1961 at IFE in London this month.

0800 011 3246 www.kumarscurries.com

LAST-MINUTE IDEAS FOR EASTER Easter’s late this year, so there’s still time to boost your range EDITE CR

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Dorset-based artisan chocolate maker Chococo has created a range of Easter eggs made from Carenero superior bean S U P LI E P chocolate, hand decorated in natural colours. The range includes a Union Jack egg, a dark chocolate egg studded inside with dried berry fruits, a milk chocolate egg studded with awardwinning honeycomb, a decorated milk chocolate egg with popping candy, and a dinosaur egg complete with mini chocolate dinosaurs and fossils inside. The 175g eggs are presented in multi-coloured boxes for maximum shelf impact. 01929 421777 www.chococo.co.uk • A new egg from James Chocolates has been described by one online chocolate reviewer as “something different and something that really knocks me sideways”. The Firecracker egg is made from Ecuadorian dark chocolate with ancho chilli, popping candy and pink peppercorns and is just part of a full range available from the Somersetbased producer. 01749 831330 www.jameschocolates.co.uk EDITE CR

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Auberge du Chocolat believes the way for speciality retailers to lift Easter chocolate sales is to display high quality, fun, artisan chocolate figures rather S U P LI E P than trying to price-match supermarkets on mass-produced items. The company is producing Easter chocolate gifts to order, including a hand-made frog egg made from Belgian chocolate. It is packed in Auberge-branded clear boxes for maximum impact and is available in white, milk or dark chocolate. The frog is approximately 145mm tall and retails in the £12.50-£15 range.

0787 299 2995

www.aubergechocolat.co.uk

Image on Food has created an alternative range that includes Mr and Mrs Bunny faces, Easter chicks and bite-size bags of mini ducks and rabbits.

S U P LI E P Available through to the end of April, these designs are hand-iced on to a gingerbread biscuit base using only natural colours. Prices start at 97p with a RRP of £1.30-£2.50 (depending on design). 0845 095 1270 www.imageonfood.co.uk R

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fresh thinking

product news from Guild accredited suppliers

• Bart Spices has been committed to Fairtrade since the launch of its vanilla pods six years ago and there are now 19 products in the Fairtrade range, 13 of which are also certified organic by the Soil Association. Now the company is supporting the new Why I Love Organic campaign, launched by the Organic Trade Board, which hopes to inspire consumers to love organic produce.

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shelftalk

Looking for suppliers accredited by the Guild of Fine Food?

Follow the logo

NICK HEMPLEMAN During the cold winter months local veg is thin on the ground but this is just when people really want a 5-a-day boost. So consider stocking citrus fruit: it has a long shelf life and makes impressive displays for very little money.

Try to source Sicilian citrus, which is the best in the world. All wholesale markets should be able to get it, or speak to your produce supplier. Much Sicilian fruit is unwaxed and organic and tastes sweet, gentle and perfumed – a million miles from the rather acidic offerings from those huge plantations in South America and North Africa. It’s possible to get hold of citrus with the leaves on, which can look amazing.

Blonde oranges are the staple fare for most of the year but during the winter blood oranges (Moro, Tarocco and Sanguinello) make a sharp, refreshing

“How many products do you sell with a 400% mark-up and no wastage?’’ change. Always have some cut in half to show the colours and release their fragrance. Blood oranges are fashionable now but they are fondly remembered by the older generation. Like most produce the mark-up is 100%. It’s is up to you whether you sell by weight or per fruit, although customers tend to feel more comfortable with the latter.

March 8 is Shrove Tuesday so a pile of leafy lemons with good bags of flour (try Doves) and maple syrup in pretty glass bottles make a good display, especially if you have a café to offer the finished product.

You should never have to throw any citrus fruits away. Whether you have a shop, café or both, consider offering freshly squeezed orange juice. NFC (Not From Concentrate) fruit juice is driving the market right now and last year it’s share of market increased to 53%, yet most is mass-produced and pasteurised. Imagine what you could do with freshly squeezed orange juice served in cups or bottles.

A commercial juicer can cost £2,000 and upwards but most suppliers offer attractive leasing terms. Cruz the Juice (www.cruzsmoothies.co.uk) will lease from £15 per week – a cost that can be covered by the sale of two glasses of orange juice a day.

A 15kg box of oranges (choose small ones) should give you 20 cups of juice at £1.95 each. That’s £39.00, while a box of oranges costs £7.00. How many products do you sell with a 400% mark-up and no risk of wastage? Admittedly we sell organic but we’re happy making less money as it helps us shift our wonderful Sicilian fruit – a healthy profit in more ways than one! www.thesussexproducecompany.co.uk Vol.12 Issue 2 March 2011

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shelftalk

products, packaging & promotions

Wild Swan is a crafty brew

Ginger adds spice to flax-based cereal

Derbyshire craft brewery Thornbridge is launching Wild Swan 3.5% beer in a 500ml size. White-gold in colour, it’s described as a refreshing beer offering aromas of light bitter lemon, a hint of herb and a subtle spiciness and is “a complex combination of all that makes beer great”. Thornbridge says it produces flavoursome beer by using traditional craft brewing methods with no pasteurisation or filtration. Cases of 12 x 500ml bottles of Wild Swan are available for £15.65. RRP is £1.95. 01629 641000

Pieminister marks the royal nuptials

www.thornbridgebrewery.co.uk

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Last month saw the launch by Meridian Sea of the new Amand Traiteur range of fresh chilled S U P LI E P terrines. Supplied in 1.5kg sizes, they are said to be ideal for slicing on the deli counter or for café and restaurant use. The range includes various meat, poultry and seafood options, plus a goats’ cheese & dried tomato version. The three seafood recipes are sardine & tomato, scallop with Sancerre wine and an organic trout terrine that includes whole pieces of organic trout. All the terrines are being promoted throughout the spring and summer with a 20% discount. They can be purchased as individual items or in cases of three.

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Gourmet pie manufacturer pieminister is launching a Kate & Wills S U P LI E P commemorative pie ahead of April’s royal wedding. It has been released to coincide with British Pie Week (March 7-13) and is available now for wholesale orders. The limited edition pie is made with British beef, wine, bacon, pearl onions, mushrooms and a dash of brandy. Each pie weighs 270g and wholesales at £2.60. There’s a minimum order of 24, but pie orders can be mixed in batches of six retail packs or four loose pies. The newcomer will be available from early March until the end of April and can be seen at IFE in London this month on stand N1346.

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0117 950 4563

Ginger & Cashew Commotion is the latest flax-based flake cereal variant from Nature’s Path. The horn root, as ginger is sometimes called, is described by the company as a “truly sociable spice” that can bring out the best in other ingredients and one that is also reputed to have medicinal benefits. The flax-themed cereals range from Nature’s Path consists of Pumpkin & Raisin Huddle, Red Cherry & Coconut Harvest and Maple Syrup & Hazelnut Harmony.

All four flavours retail at about £2.99 for a 325g pack.

0800 072 3658 www.naturespath. co.uk

www.pieminister.co.uk

Red meat royalty in a ready meal Look What We Found says its new venison stew with apricots & juniper offers consumers a dish that is “as good as anything the most talented home cook would serve”, ready to heat and serve in minutes. “This isn’t just a ready-meal, it’s a provenance-proven restaurant quality ready-meal that can be stored in a cupboard and brought out when luxury food is needed in a hurry,” says marketing and sales director Keith Gill. Sustainably-sourced Scottish venison from game specialist Richard Townsend is cooked with beef stock, red wine, honey, apricots and juniper berries, and then packed and slow cooked in microwavable pouches that give the product a long shelf life.

Look What We Found meals feature photographs and other details on-pack of the farmers who supply the 0800 074 6735 www.lookwhatwefound.co.uk key ingredients.

Lamb rubs will add interest to meats Ingredients supplier Jardox has created a new range of lamb rubs enabling delirestaurants, butchers and farm shops to add contemporary flavours to springtime lamb recipes. Although designed for lamb, Jardox says the rubs can add flavour to any meat and bring added eye-appeal to retail displays. The range includes modern flavours such as Moroccan, sun-dried tomato & red onion, Italian, porcini mushroom & chive and three chilli. Darren Smith, development director at Jardox, says: “These new lamb rubs offer original ways to prepare lamb for customers and a great way to encourage lamb sales.”

01732 456254

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www.jardox.com

Premium crisps with strong Kentish heritage Oysters & vinegar is one of four flavours in a new brand of premium crisps reflecting the food heritage and landscape of the ‘Garden of England’. The Kent Crisps range has been developed by Quex Foods, part of the 250-acre Quex Park Estate, which also produces premium rapeseed and sunflower oils pressed on its local farm. The other three all-natural Kent Crisps flavours are sea salt, sea salt & Biddenden cider vinegar, and Ashmore cheese & onion. They are all made with Kentish potatoes grown nearby, including Lady Rosetta, Lady Claire, Lady Jo and Hermes varieties. The 40g packets will initially be sold at around 60 farm shops, delis, and independent fine food stores across Kent.

01843 841119

www.quexpark.co.uk

Jersey Black Butter “A unique Jersey conserve.

A rich mix of apples, Jersey cider & spices”

made at the La Mare Estate, Jersey

Tel 01534 481178 www.jerseyblackbutter.com

Available from Cotswold Fayre www.cotswold-fayre.co.uk

I’ve now got ❝ boundless enthusiasm, real confidence and I really want to talk to my customers about my deli counter

What will you learn?

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• The five golden rules for increasing deli sales • How to select the best cheese and charcuterie • How to create the best counter display • How to avoid bad quality cheese and charcuterie • How to sell proactively rather than reactively • The difference between artisan and mass-produced cheeses and meats through comparative tastings

Jo Davies, Stokely Barton Farm Shop

Training dates for the Charcuterie & UK Cheese Guild Charcuterie dates for 2011 Date Mon March 7 Tues April 5 Mon June 13 Weds July 6

Cheese dates for 2011 Date Tues March 8 Tues March 22 Weds April 6 Tues June 14 Thurs July 7

Venue London* Cheshire Glasgow York

Course costs Members of The Guild of Fine Food just £65, plus VAT (@ 20%). Non-members £90, plus VAT (@ 20%).

Venue London* GFF, Wincanton, Somerset Cheshire Glasgow York

For more information: E-mail: linda.farrand@finefoodworld.co.uk Tel: 01963 824464 www.finefoodworld.co.uk *NB. Unfortunately we have had to introduce a £10 plus VAT (@ 20%) surcharge for London training dates due to higher venue costs.

Avilton foods

Vol.12 Issue 2 · March 2011

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classified

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

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In a pickle about where to buy your food jars?

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

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

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VISIT www.johnhuntbolton.co.uk

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

BAKING EQUIPMENT BOILERS BOTTLES & JARS BUSINESSES FOR SALE CL Freshness & Flavour sealed in ice EXHIBITION EQUIPMENT FOOD PROCESSING EQUIPMENT HYGIENE PRO + 44 (0) 1204 521831 / 532798 Pure, Chilled or Frozen Lemon, + 44 (0) 1204 527306 PACKAGING PHOTOGRAPHY RECRUITMENT REFRIGERATION SECURITY SH Lime & Orange Zest & Juices spencer@johnhuntbolton.co.uk WANTED WEB DESIGN BAKING EQUIPMENT BOILERS Order online: www.dovesfarm.co.uk or BOTTLES & JARS BUS JOHN HUNT (Bolton) Ltd call our sales team on 01488 684 880 EPOS TECHNOLOGY EXHIBITION EQUIPMENT FOOD PROCESSING EQUIPMEN Rasbottom St, Bolton, England BL3 5BZ TO SEE OUR RANGE OF MACHINES, PLUS VIDEO CLIPS OF THE MACHINES IN OPERATION

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103 London Road, Leicester LE2 0PF bottles equipment & jars • baking

youFrench make PIES? HSDoHS Flint Ltd F F We make PIE MACHINES

Tel no: 01404 892100 Tel: 01404 892100 Fax no: 01404 890263 Fax: 01404 890263 Unit 4G, Theinfo@vigoltd.com Leathermarket, Weston Street, London SE1 3ER Email: Email: info@vigoltd.com Tel: 020 7407 3200 Fax: 020 7407 5877 www.vigoltd.com www.vigoltd.com

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In a pickle about where to buy your food jars?

Speciality Glassware Visit the www.johnhuntbolton.co.uk for more discerning TO SEEproducer.

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JOHN HUNT (Bolton) Ltd

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

Tel: 020 7407 3200 Fax: 020 7407 5877

Rasbottom St, Bolton, England BL3 5BZ www.FrenchFlint.com

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March 2011 · Vol.12 Issue 2

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

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HS HS French Flint Ltd FF Speciality Glassware Suppliers for artisan for the moreofofequipment Suppliers equipment producers of fruit juices, discerning producer. for artisan producers wines, ciders and oils. Our wide range extends of fruit juices, wines, from extraction ciders and oils. Our processes to wide range extends filtration, bottling, from extraction sealing and processes to filtration, labelling. bottling and sealing.

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Confectionery and Gift Packaging � Chocolate � Ingredients �

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• ingredients

Crestchem

Crestchem Ltd., Crest Station Rd, Amersham, Bucks HP6 5DW Crestchem Ltd., 10Hse, Hill152 Avenue, Amersham, Bucks, HP6 5BW

Food Division - suppliers of

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

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

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PECTIN XANTHAN GUM CITRIC ACID POTASSIUM SORBATE GLYCERINE & more Contact: HEATHER AHMED heather@crestchem.co.uk T: 01494 434660 - F: 01494 434990 www.crestchem.co.uk • ingredients

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Don’t leave advertisers in the dark – tell them you saw them in digest Ring us on: 01628 668836 or visit us at: QuickLabel.co.uk

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Visit www.innavisions.com or call us for a brochure TEL: 01886 832283 EMAIL: nick.wild@innavisions.com Vol.12 Issue 2 · March 2011

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