Food & Drink News May/June 2021

EXCLUSIVE FEATURES IPS INTEGRATED PACKING SERVICES – LOOKING TO THE FUTURE RED BOAT GELATO ICE CREAM IS THE DREAM

BY THE HORNS HORNS OF PLENTY FOR CRAFT BEER PIONEERS MAY/JUNE 2021

W W W. F O O D A N D D R I N K N E W S . C O . U K

Editor’s Foreword

PUBLISHER Planet Media & Design Ltd Brooke’s Mill, Huddersfield HD4 7NR

MANAGING DIRECTOR Jillian Evans

NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Sarah Hoyer

CHIEF EDITOR David Barnett

SUB-EDITOR Rachael Whiteley

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As I write this, the UK government has just announced that the planned full emergence from the lockdown that has affected all our lives over the past 15 months is to be delayed for another four weeks.

This, of course, will be a bitter blow to those sectors of the food and drink economy that were relying on the removal of restrictions to allow their businesses to try to get back to full normality.

Naturally, we all want to emerge in the safest way with the minimal chance of another spike in infections that could lead to further lockdowns. But let us hope that this does indeed do the trick, and that our harried and battered industry can begin to recover for good.

EDITORIAL editorial@planet-media.co.uk MAG SUBSCRIPTIONS subscriptions@planet-media.co.uk

David Barnett CHIEF EDITOR

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Contents ONLINE E MAGAZINABLE! AIL NOW AV

05 INDUSTRY NEWS 14 EIT 16 MASÍA EL ALTET 18 NEWTON PRINT LTD 20 RED BOAT GELATO 22 IPS 25 TIM HORTONS 28 BY THE HORNS 30 CREATE BETTER GROUP

TO VIEW THE 2021 FEATURES LIST PLEASE VISIT WWW.FOODANDDRINKNEWS.CO.UK OR CONTACT US AT +44 (0)1484 321000 TO EMAIL A COPY TO YOU

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MANUAL FEED ALLOWS FOR EDDIE TO PRINT ON LARGER FOOD ITEMS EU- and FDA-approved edible ink printer Eddie prints full-colour logos, photographs and text directly on to the surface of cookies, macaroons, white chocolate toppers, marshmallows, chocolate lentils and other confectionery with a maximum diameter of 89mm and 20-25mm height.

The machine prints up to six print objects per minute. Due to direct printing there is no strange film or aftertaste, which would decrease the quality of the food. Holding up to 12 print items on a circulating tray, each item is automatically drawn into the printer one at a time. The printer then prints on to the food item, rotates, and then feeds and

on the feeding arm. Alternatively, DTM Print offers custom food trays designed especially for Eddie that allow the production of multiple items in one run. The manual mode extends printing parameters to a maximum of 120 x 120mm and allows thicker items with a maximum height of 27mm. DTM Print also offers the service to produce trays according to customer specifications.

prints the next one. As of now, candies and such can also be transported to the printer manually by placing the print object directly

For more information call DTM Print at 0049 611 92777-0, email sales@dtm-print.eu or visit dtm-print.eu

NEW FEATURE MAXES TRAY SEALER PERFORMANCE Tray-sealing specialist Proseal has launched a new feature to enable customers to achieve increased sealing capacity within their existing equipment.

The new GT-Max system, which can be retrofitted to all Proseal GT0, GT1 and GT2 s and e models, has been seen to increase production speed by up to 25%. The enhancement is incorporated within the machine’s existing footprint, retaining each tray-sealing machine’s already compact dimensions, while allowing companies to further boost speeds and throughput without altering or extending the existing line layout.

The Max system is compatible with all seal cycle types, including Skin Deep. Customers are able to utilise all their existing tool formats as well as a range of new Max formats developed for the system.

“Increasingly competitive markets are putting even greater pressure on production time and targets,” commented Tony Burgess, Sales Director, Proseal. “Maximising capacity is therefore all the more essential, but for many companies the challenge is to deliver this within their existing factory footprint.

“Our latest GT-Max feature provides the perfect solution, enabling both new and existing customers to obtain enhanced performance and even greater value out of

their tray-sealing machines. Along with a variety of additional upgrades that are also available, this demonstrates our commitment to the future proofing of all our machines, and underlines Proseal’s position as the front runner in its class.”

Founded in 1998, Proseal designs and manufactures high-quality tray-sealing machines, conveyor systems and sealing

tools for food industry markets worldwide.

Proseal is part of the JBT family, and together they remain committed to continually supporting customers’ needs.

For further information about Proseal’s GT-Max system please visit: www.proseal.com

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MISSION MAKES IT POSSIBLE Speciality breads and bread alternatives have never been more popular in the UK, as consumers continue to make adventurous choices with their food. Today’s consumer has a more sophisticated and global palate, so offering the right foods that reflect market demands is critical for foodservice operators.

Mission Foods provides the best quality tortillas and flatbreads to its customers to help them tap into these consumer demands.

Mission Foods supplies the best-selling 10’/25cm Plain Tortilla, as a flexible and versatile addition to the Tim Hortons’ menu.

All Mission tortillas can be packed full of tasty fillings, rolled and wrapped without breaking, making them the perfect option for a strong meal foundation.

Mission Foods is the biggest tortilla manufacturer in the world and the number one branded manufacturer in the UK. With a vast library of recipes and in-depth channel knowledge, Mission Foods supports operators in getting the most from their menus and helps them to create standout meals, suitable for any lifestyle.

Tim Hortons has a reliable supplier in Mission Foods. They can trust that by offering Mission Foods tortillas, their customers will be satisfied and return time and time again.

Explore the full Mission Foods range and discover inspiring recipes at http://www.missionfoodservice. co.uk/, and visit Mission Foods on Instagram and LinkedIn.

GREECE’S NUMBER ONE FETA BRAND DODONI LAUNCHES NEW BAKED CHEESE SNACKS IN THE UK Dodoni, the leading dairy brand in Greece, has announced their new baked cheese snacks will be launching exclusively in the UK following the huge popularity of their authentic Feta PDO Cheese & Cypriot Halloumi.

Dodoni Cheese Thins are baked with the finest all-natural ingredients and 60% of every snack is made from real Greek feta PDO or Cypriot halloumi cheese. The premium savoury snacks have been launched as Britain comes out of lockdown to be a talking point as friends and families get together once more to share their stories. They come in four heavenly flavours: • Feta, Tomato & Oregano - A twist on a classic Greek flavour fusion with a sunny pop of tomato, a herby hit of oregano and delicious creamy feta PDO cheese with the taste of the Mediterranean.

• Feta, Jalapeno and Chilli - Time to bring out the fiesta in feta with a dose of jalapeno heat and a zap of chilli giving a bright kick to the smooth feta.

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• Halloumi Multi Seed – The finest halloumi from Cyprus, baked together with linseed, poppy and chia seeds to create a fusion of deep, delicious flavour thanks to the tangy halloumi and nutty, crunchy seeds.

• Halloumi and Caramelised Onion Savoury with a sweet edge, the perfect mix of caramelised onion sweetness and strong

halloumi.

The crunchy baked snacks come in 22g packs at £1.00 RRP for the convenience, single-serve markets; set to boom with outdoor picnics and garden gettogethers on the cards this summer, as well as larger 80g sharing bags at £2.75 RRP to accompany drinks with friends and family.

Each snack is gluten free and non-GMO with no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives, and is made from 100% natural ingredients, suitable for vegetarians.

Tom Seepers, CEO of Dodoni, commented: “Our vision is for a snack-happy world where we savour and share together. That’s why the delicious details matter.

From that first crunch to the companionable flavours and that got-to-have-another aftertaste, every bite is baked to heavenly perfection”.

Available now at https://dodonisnacks.com/

{ Industry News }

ECOLEAN AND HELLOFRESH COLLABORATE TO INCREASE SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENT Ecolean’s lightweight packaging solutions have become part of HelloFresh’s meal kits, offering customers a more sustainable and convenient packaging option. HelloFresh is the world’s leading provider for meal kits.

Hereby the companies strengthen their commitment to sustainability. The Ecolean packages have so far been included in meal kits distributed in the United Kingdom, as well as Germany, Austria, Denmark and Sweden.

“We are very happy with the progress we have made in terms of sustainability in recent years. We want to offer people a fundamentally more sustainable way to buy and consume food,” says Tilman Eichstaedt, Senior Vice President International Product, Procurement and Sustainability at HelloFresh. “By switching to Ecolean’s lightweight packages, we are increasingly reducing the amount of plastic used in our

consumers,” says Hanna Jeppsson, Communications Director at Ecolean.

“Lightweight, flexible packages mean reduced environmental impact as well as lower packaging waste. At the same time, being flexible and easy to use ensures the highest level of consumer satisfaction and reduced food waste. It is the most ideal liquid food package for meal kits”.

The Ecolean® Air packages used in the HelloFresh meal kits include crème fraiche and sour cream. meal kits.”

Ecolean’s lightweight packages combine environmental responsibility with food safety and consumer convenience. “The match of our unique packaging format with meal kits from a progressive brand like HelloFresh is perfect, especially in the UK where sustainability is a focus for many

For further information, please contact: * Hanna Jeppsson, Communications Director 0046 72 724 35 92, hanna.jeppsson@ecolean.se

TETRA PAK’S OPTIMAL INTEGRATED SOLUTION HELPS CUT WATER USAGE AND CARBON EMISSIONS FOR THE DAIRY SECTOR Tetra Pak showcased its new UHT 2.0 portfolio with OneStep technology and Tetra Pak® E3/Speed Hyper on World Milk Day in support of the theme of sustainability in the dairy sector.

The recommended integrated solution reduces water and steam consumption, creating less wastewater and therefore also lowering the cost of its removal for dairy manufacturers. Plus, by adding a Tetra Pak® Water Filtering Station to Tetra Pak® E3/Speed Hyper helps recover 5,500 litres of water per filling machine running hour (up

to 95% of usage), while contributing to lower water consumption. With water scarcity on the rise, wastewater is increasingly becoming a pressing industry concern. Up to a fifth of Tetra Pak’s customers are based in high or extremely high-risk water areas and the company is prioritising action to address this.

Specifically, the combination of UHT 2.0 with OneStep technology and Tetra Pak® E3/Speed Hyper scores highly across industry benchmarks for sustainability, with a 0.8 GHG Index score, a 0.3 Water Index score and a Product Losses Index score of 0.72. When compared to a conventional line solution this optimal integrated processing and packaging line reduces GHG emissions by 20%, water usage by 70% and product losses by 30%.

Frederik Wellendorph, Vice President Liquid Food, Tetra Pak, said: “We continuously innovate in both food processing and packaging to offer solutions which enable reduction in water

consumption, carbon footprint and product losses. In addition to this, we offer environmental benchmarking and improvement services, helping customers achieve their own sustainability targets.

Through this holistic approach to sustainability, we aim to help our customers benefit both from low-carbon equipment and packaging, a reduction in operational costs as well as an enhanced brand image – that is increasingly proving attractive to sustainability-savvy consumers”.

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PRINCES ANNOUNCED AS HEADLINE SPONSOR OF BLASCYMRU/TASTEWALES 2021 Princes Limited, one of the largest names in the UK food and drink industry, has been unveiled as the key sponsor for the upcoming international trade event BlasCymru/TasteWales 2021. Held at the International Convention Centre (ICC Wales), The Celtic Manor Resort, Newport (27-28 October 2021), the event will welcome food buyers and industry professionals under one roof to meet with leading Welsh food and drink businesses. New figures have highlighted further the crucial role the event plays in bringing buyers and businesses together, with the 2019 event generating almost £20m in confirmed sales for Welsh food and drink producers.

Andy Hargraves Group, Director for Soft Drinks Princes, said: “Princes is delighted to be lending its support to BlasCymru/TasteWales 2021 following its past successes. In many ways, the timing fits in perfectly with our ongoing commitment to manufacturing in Wales, as we reach the completion of the Group’s largest ever capital investment into soft drinks at our site in Cardiff”.

Welsh Government Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd, Lesley Griffiths, said, “With the coronavirus situation continuing to improve here in Wales, we are very hopeful and looking forward to welcoming suppliers, buyers

and food industry professionals to the International Convention Centre at the Celtic Manor Resort later this year for BlasCymru/TasteWales 2021.

“The event presents an excellent opportunity to showcase the very best of Wales and it is fantastic that more than 200 new products will be launched over the two days, which is great news as the industry continues its recovery from the impact of Covid-19.

“Sustainability will, of course, be central at the event as we build on our strategic vision to become a world leader in the area.”

With over 200 new products to be launched at BlasCymru/TasteWales, the event has been designed to maximise value for buyers, by helping them through providing a large=scale product showcase; sourcing Welsh food and drink – from branded to private label; meeting a wide range of suppliers; time efficient introductory meeting format.

To register your interest in BlasCymru/TasteWales 2021 visit www.tastewales.com/

COVID-19 SPARKS REVOLUTION IN ‘KITCHEN TABLE TAKEAWAY’ OPTIONS It is no secret that food and hospitality businesses have been among the worst hit

by Covid-19. Many took it upon themselves to rebrand, regroup and relaunch as takeaway services to encourage continuing trade.

Leading packaging provider Rocaba Packaging has seen a growing trend for diversification in food and takeaway services, and has been working with a wide variety of providers to supply packaging options. CEO Sujan Shah comments: “Trends like ‘Cook at Home’ and the rise of smaller, more niche food suppliers, often run out of people’s home kitchens, have created a new market of providers who have recognised an opportunity, and benefited from trading on exclusivity and scarcity”.

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According to Rocaba, this new way of cooking and eating has also opened how food and takeaway services can be marketed

to customers. “Packaging, which must now consider temperature-controlled environments, sustainable materials and Covid-free packing, also provides the chance to showcase bespoke branding to encourage social media shares, word-of-mouth and online reviews,” Sujan continues.

Furthermore, smaller, independent restaurants have finally been able to compete on a major level with the larger chains. Although many have not necessarily been able to afford the rates of delivery services offered by Deliveroo and Just Eat, they are still able to manage local deliveries and open for takeaway for their most dedicated customer base.

www.rocabapackaging.co.uk

Globally unique: EFAFLEX presents the world’s fastest security door

The German global market leader, renowned for their extensive high-speed door portfolio, has extended the range to include a security solution that meets the requirements of Burglar Resistance Class 4 (RC4). The EFA-SST®-Secure model is part of the EFAPROTECT series, which specialises in burglar-resistant door systems, and tested to withstand an attack by experienced perpetrators using heavy tools including electric drilling equipment.

Whether you want to protect valuable art objects in museums, monetary values or safeguard people, the new EFAFLEX high-speed door secures everything that is worth protecting from a potential risk or threat. It is a completely new development engineered by the innovation driven company. New components have been used to increase the security levels including a new door lath, rollers and a hinge chain. When the door

EFAFLEX

reaches the closing position, it automatically locks, and cannot be opened from the outside even when subjected to extreme force. The EFA-SST®-Secure is capable of withstanding a maximum lever force of 10,000 Newton and is designed for an attack being carried out from outside conducted by experienced perpetrators using extreme brutality.

A door for sophisticated security concepts

The door has a maximum opening speed of 1.0m/s, and closing at 0.6m/s. ‘In security relevant areas, the operating speed of the door plays a vital role, where every second counts,’ says Project Manager Klaus Manlig. ‘With these high speeds combined with the trademark EFAFLEX quality engineering that the new door achieves, it is ideal for use in these sensitive zones.’

EFA-SST®-Secure is designed for approximately 250,000 operating cycles per year. The security door is manufactured to within a millimetre to match customer’s specifications and is extremely quiet, reliable and operates almost wear-free. Klaus Manlig emphasizes another advantage of the door: ‘The EFASST®-Secure can be used to meet the strictest requirements of security concepts such as the resistance class WK4: a unique benefit that is only available from EFAFLEX. We are delighted to be able to offer an exclusive high-speed door with this level of certification which has taken a period of almost three years to research, refine and develop’. www.efaflex.com

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INGREDIENTSDIRECT.COM LAUNCHES YOUTUBE CHANNEL IN SUPPORT OF ENTREPRENEURS IN FOOD, BEVERAGE AND NUTRITION CATEGORIES B2B nutritional ingredients provider, IngredientsDirect.com, has launched a YouTube channel with the goal to give entrepreneurs in food, beverage and nutrition categories free access to educational content focused on launching and scaling their business.

IngredientsDirect.com will publish onetwo videos a week, covering deep dives into individual ingredients, technical and regulatory guidance, investigation of trends within the industry and interviews with experts to talk about all things formulation, supply chain, sourcing and manufacturing, as well as looking at the operational, commercial and financial aspects of planning, launching and scaling a successful

nutrition brand.

Content will also explore the various marketing aspects involved in scaling a nutrition business – covering everything from developing a brand and creating products, launching a website and growing

awareness and engagement through social media, content marketing, PR, influencer marketing and paid media channels.

Director, Richard Tidman, says: “We wanted to give wider access to the technical ingredients knowledge from within our business, and complement that with a wider range of marketing, operational, product and financial insight that can benefit our customers. Launching a YouTube channel seemed the obvious way to do this – with no cost to customers. We’re looking forward to seeing the channel develop over coming months”.

ingredientsdirect.com

DOOR-TO-DOOR EUROPEAN TRANSPORT SOLUTIONS, INCLUSIVE OF ALL DOCUMENTATION & BROKERAGE Import & export brokerage at Dover Brunel Shipping provide a comprehensive post-brexit customs clearance and brokerage service for import and export shipments throughout the EU, alongside our own inhouse transport solutions both import and export EU/UK. As an independent freight solutions provider, we are not tied to specific networks or carriers – we can find solutions for any client’s supply chain requirements.

We will provide door-to-door transport solutions inclusive of any import or export documentation.

The transit declaration (T1) is needed when importing goods into the EU or for transit of goods within this territory (for example, from one customs warehouse to another warehouse within the EU).

T1 export documents Are you exporting from the UK to EU? Brunel are now able to issue T1 transit documents in Dover as well as fully inclusive door-to-door transport solutions.

If you are moving goods from the UK to EU countries, we can provide T1 transit documents that allow movement of freight into the EU without import charges when crossing borders, up to final delivery point where the T form will be discharged.

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• Competitive tariff • EU – UK brokerage inbound and outbound • Fully inclusive UK - EU transport solutions available, inclusive of T form documentation

Service details: • T1 guarantee – for shipments from the UK to EU • T forms made available for collection in Dover or any designated HMRC border port in the UK • EAD export entries and full import brokerage at all UK ports, inventory and non-inventory linked • No third-party fees involved

Contact us Let Brunel take away your exporting issues. Feel free to contact our commercial team on info@brunelshipping.co.uk to discuss your requirements. There is no delay with the Brunel way!

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PROJECT HELIX HAS OVER £161M IMPACT ON WELSH FOOD AND DRINK INDUSTRY The latest outputs from Project HELIX, a pan-Wales strategic initiative which provides food and drink companies with technical and commercial support, show it has had an impact of over £161m since it launched in 2016.

The Welsh government and EU-funded project is delivered by Food Innovation Wales, a partnership of three food centres based in north, mid/west and south Wales.

Eligible companies have access to a range of expertise to help them grow and succeed through developing innovative new products, increasing their efficiency and adopting a strategic approach to business.

To date, Project HELIX has had a hugely positive effect on the Welsh food and drink industry, including: • £161m impact • 428 jobs created and a further 1,749 safeguarded • 257 business start-ups supported • 474 businesses assisted • 660 new markets accessed, and • 1,010 new products developed Over the last 12 months, Project HELIX has helped the Welsh food and drink industry navigate the challenges of the

Covid-19 pandemic by providing a range of support including mentoring companies through remote food safety audits and helping them capitalise on new consumer trends such as the growth of online retail.

Furthermore, Food Innovation Wales launched support hotlines and a Covid-19 toolkit featuring a range of resources to help manufacturers protect their workforce and business during the pandemic.

Professor David Lloyd, on behalf of Food Innovation Wales, expressed his pleasure at the latest figures:

“Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, our team of industry experts have provided comprehensive pan-Wales support for food and drink businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Food and drink is a priority sector for the Welsh economy and we will continue to be at the forefront of efforts to help build a growing, innovative and sustainable industry over the coming years”.

For further information about Project HELIX-funded support, visit foodinnovation.wales

FROM SOURCE TO FORK, EFAFLEX HAVE A SOLUTION FOR EVERY STEP OF YOUR JOURNEY The challenges facing today’s food and beverage industry are more complex and diverse than ever. Thankfully, with nearly 50 years’ experience, EFAFLEX have designed an array of high-speed industrial doors that combine versatility, functionality and durability.

Why not upgrade and replace your old roller shutters or sectional doors in place of energy-saving, insulated options with a multitude of activation methods, such as remote control or laser scanners. The combination of safeguarding users, speeding up logistics and reducing energy costs are the key design factors built into every

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we use only the highest quality components to ensure durability, trip off the tongue, but there’s nothing quite like seeing an EFAFLEX door in motion. The speed, the quality and the durability. Returning to Foodex gives us the opportunity to demonstrate the product and discuss how our bespoke doors options can help each customer”.

See them at Foodex stand FF21 to discuss your project or visit their website: www.efaflex.co.uk EFAFLEX model.

EFAFLEX UK Managing Director, Darren Turrell, explains: “Hearing statistics such as the door opens at 4 metres per second, or

From source to fork, EFAFLEX have an industrial door solution for every step of this journey.

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Keeping Britain moving after Brexit and Covid The twin issues of Brexit and Covid have meant the start to this year has been a challenging one for many companies, especially those involved in, or who rely on, the country’s logistics network.

Although Brexit kicked in on 1 January, it’s only now, in June, that major ramifications are setting in.

Following the end of the Brexit transition period, the UK government introduced Delayed Declarations, giving businesses importing into the UK up to 175 days to complete their customs declarations. For anyone who took advantage of this measure on 1 January 2021, their first deadline was 25 June 2021.

The Government has extended the scheme to defer declarations to 31 December 2021 on a rolling basis, however, it is important that importers remain vigilant and ensure that their supplementary declarations are processed as each 175-day deadline approaches. Missing the deadline may lead to an HMRC fine and removal of the right to delay future declarations.

Gary Dodsworth, Managing Director Road, at logistics specialist Rhenus UK, commented: “The Delayed Declarations scheme has been hugely welcome for importers following the end of the Brexit transition period and, for many, a real lifeline to keep business moving. It’s vital that now we’re reaching the first deadline for completing customs declarations that this, and all subsequent deadlines, are met. For businesses that import regularly, there will now be rolling deadlines as the 175day period for each import they’ve made from the start of the year ends.

“Brexit has brought with it a lot of challenges for importers and I urge them not to get caught out this far down the line. We’ve been working hard to support customers each step of the way on the Brexit journey and Delayed Declarations is no exception. We have a dedicated customs team that is providing an end-to-end service for customers to help ease the administration burden.”

To support customers with the implications of Brexit, Rhenus UK has invested in an extensive and dedicated customs division and support team, who are working closely with customers to support all their customs needs. Earlier this year there was a call for the government to continue to support the UK’s logistics industry, especially after the hit of the Covid pandemic.

Logistics UK’s Chief Executive wrote to the Chancellor Rishi Sunak ahead of this year’s spring budget to urge him to facilitate access to employment within the sector through interest-free loans or grants to aid training.

According to Mr Wells, this would enable those seeking

work to take advantage of opportunities in logistics, which is facing a shortage of skilled workers in operational roles such as HGV drivers.

“Our sector supports every area of the UK’s economy, but has been struggling for some time to fill vacancies,” he says. “The loss of EU workers after Brexit has had a significant impact and our member organisations cannot find staff with the right skills, qualifications and experience. The apprenticeships system is useful but cannot deliver at the scale or speed required and needs reform: the government has already pledged to test new working patterns for apprenticeships in the last Spending Review and now needs to accelerate this work. And with HGV driver training typically costing around £7,000 per person, grants or interest-free loans should be provided to train and reskill new employees, increasing the pool of available workers to fill the skills gaps in our sector.

Logistics UK (formerly FTA) is one of the UK’s leading business groups, representing logistics businesses which are vital to keeping the UK trading, and more than seven million people directly employed in the making, selling and moving of goods. With Covid-19, Brexit, new technology and other disruptive forces driving change in the way goods move across borders and through the supply chain, logistics has never been more important to UK plc.

And as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic subsides, more businesses will be seeking to make up lost ground by fixing their disrupted supply chains and securing a high-quality logistics facility in a prime location of the type that has been put on the market by commercial property specialist Onward Holdings Ltd. Family-run company Onward put up for sale a unit on the sought-after Normanton Industrial Estate in Wakefield that offers approximately 24,585 sq ft of warehouse space, with significant office accommodation, on the doorstep of the M62 motorway and with a generous private yard area for truck manoeuvrability to facilitate a steady flow of goods.

With demand for prime logistics facilities intensifying, driven by the shift from bricks-and-mortar to e-commerce operations as more people switch to online shopping, Onward Holdings Director Neil Storey sees the company’s expanding portfolio of quality warehouse units providing a much-needed boost for the region.

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Bactiscan – The bacteria detection game-changer for food & beverage production The food industry has always been highly concerned with hygiene, health and safety but the past year has unequivocally re-enforced the need.

This has meant that Winchester-based EIT International, one of the industry’s leading suppliers of preventative controls and detections systems has been at the forefront of the battle, especially with its Bactiscan bacteria detection scanners.

Why? The Bactiscan and BactiscanPro can instantly identify clusters of bacteria and/or biofilms on a variety of surfaces across large areas, making it ideal for identifying contaminants. Additionally, the Bactiscan has been independently validated by CampdenBRI (Assessment of Bactiscan instrument for detection of food industry biofilms – November 2020) and proven to be effective through continuous use by some of the world’s largest food production, dairy and brewing companies.

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How? The high-ntensity, wave-alternating UV light emitted

by Bactiscan enables the operator to view large areas in an immediate and non-invasive way; bacteria-based contaminants are often undetectable using other methods such as white light and standard UV lamps.

The Bactiscan merges four separate wavelengths (UV-A spectrum for user safety) which bounce off the protein shells, also known as the S-layer, of the bacteria or biofilm to create a green glow, thus enabling fast, easy identification of any potential bacteria plumes and contamination sites. Within seconds you can achieve results from Bactiscan, that could take hours using any other method.

Victor Donnelly, Sales Director at EIT International, cites Bactiscan as a game-changing technology that is being adopted all over the world. He says: “We launched in June 2020 and now have distributors all

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over the world, including Japan, Australia, the United States, Canada, throughout Europe, the Nordics and even the UAE, which is phenomenal. We have received an amazing response to EIT and Bactiscan technology from not only the food and beverage industries, but pharmaceutical and healthcare too, so the benefits of using this type of tool as part of preventative control protocols, are being recognised across a growing range of industries that are subject to high levels of legislation”.

The Bactiscan bacteria detection scanner was initially developed for the regulated food production and processing industries. This was in response to the need for fast, reliable bacteria detection to increase preventative maintenance efficiencies and to reduce the number of contamination issues suffered by manufacturers even after conducting ATP swab testing, which is limited by the sample size area.

Another, obvious benefit from receiving rapid results, is that it limits production downtime. For example, without using Bactiscan to highlight where ATP swab tests should be carried out, it could take up to 48 hours for companies to receive results of their swab tests back, which could potentially provide false negatives if the sample test wasn’t taken in the correct location, in addition to the production time lost whilst waiting. By the fast identification of contamination sites, Bactiscan helps to eliminate the risk exposure to employees and customers, and saves expensive production shutdowns and product recalls.

Victor says, “It’s infection control at its best. You can literally walk a production line and if there’s any bacteria, you’ll find it”.

He adds that: “As an example, EIT International was recently called in to a food manufacturer who needed to urgently find the source of a bacterial outbreak or risk destroying around £70,000 worth of product.

Bactiscan was deployed and found the source within 30 seconds!

“Bactiscan is essentially a lamp-based scanner that illuminates a surface area and bounces a merged lightsource off the protein shell that surrounds the bacteria and/or biofilm. There are no chemicals involved, no dyes, no gases, it is literally the combination of the wave alternating UV beams that shows up the bacteria. It’s non-invasive, fast, safe and easy to use.”

All S-layers are part of the bacteria cell envelope and are made up of a two-dimensional array of proteins that have a crystalline appearance (protein shell). It is this protein shell that is detected by Bactiscan through four alternating high calibration wavelengths that work on the fringes of the UV spectrum. Once merged, they will bounce off the protein crystal and emit an unmistakable green hue.

As a bacteria detection system, Bactiscan has proved hugely successful in the food production industry and has quickly gained popularity in the brewing, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, laboratory, public transport and hospitality arenas too. It is now also being used as part of cleaning efficacy programmes, particularly in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Environmental cleaning is a fundamental principle of infection prevention and control (IPC). It is known that environment settings can serve as a reservoir for microorganisms, potentially contributing to the transmission of bacterial and epidemiologically significant pathogens. Containment measures are necessary to break the contamination chain of these microorganisms. Therefore, it is essential to monitor surface cleaning and efficacy.

Several methods can be used to perform these evaluations, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP) bioluminescence assay and microbiological screening.

Both have previously been investigated and recommended as scientific methods for the assessment of the cleanliness of surfaces using ATP reference values. Although this process is sound for identifying what an actual bacteria or contaminant is, it is not foolproof in identifying source locations due to the small size of physical swab sample point compared to overall volume of surface. Using Bactiscan to identify the actual location of bacterial contamination point for ATP swab tests to then be taken, increases the effectiveness of cleaning and hygiene protocols whilst removing the risk of potentially costly recalls due to testing the wrong areas of a production site.

As you can tell from the way Bactiscan is being received throughout the world and the variety of industries and organisations benefiting from using it as a part of their preventative control, maintenance and cleaning programmes, Victor certainly seems right in saying that it is a game-changing technology to have in your arsenal to keep your production facilities running safely and as efficiently as possible.

To discover more about EIT International and Bactiscan, visit: https://www.eitinternational.com/products/#scan, watch this short video: https://youtu.be/_TVLATkrLAM or find your Regional Bactiscan Distributor on the ‘Contact Us’ page: https://www.eitinternational.com/contact/ www.eit-international.com

May / June Food & Drink News

15

{ Masía El Altet }

Masía El Altet – Welcome to the UK!

The Masía El Altet brand is a Spanish extra virgin olive oil, making a global impression. With 600 international awards, there can be no doubting its reputation as one of the best olive oils in the world – and it is now available in the UK. This is a family-run business, with Jorge Petit the heartbeat. He endeavours, year after year, to create the best olive oils – selecting only the finest olives from his 15,000 trees. Collected when still green, it is the olive picked before ripening that yields the perfect oil. When you add technical craftsmanship to knowledge of the best techniques of production – and the most sophisticated machinery – the result is a product which continues to delight and pleasantly surprise lovers of extra virgin olive oil.

Key elements to producing exceptional olive oil are passion, a love of the land, understanding how it is worked and, of course, water. So, the Petit family are involved in maintaining the wellbeing of the trees on a daily basis, ensuring abundant harvests of excellent quality.

Cyrikk Oil Ltd is delighted to introduce into the UK

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the four varieties of extra virgin olive oil: ‘High End’, ‘Special Selection’, ‘Premium’ and ‘High Quality’.

We also import a very limited amount of stock of White Truffle Extra Virgin Olive Oil, for the more discerning customer.

Cyrikk Oil Ltd has the sole distribution rights to this extra virgin olive oil. It can be purchased directly from our website: masiaelaltet.co.uk. For more information or to contact us, please use the details below.

Contact details: Google ‘Cyrikk Oil Ltd’ Website: www.masiaelaltet.co.uk Instagram: @masia.el.altet.uk Facebook: masiaelaltetuk Email: roland@cyrikk.com Tel: 01327 702874 Mobile: 07595 358 878

{ Masía El Altet }

May / June Food & Drink News

17

{ Newton Print Ltd }

Food and drink producers can now carbon balance their printed packaging Artisan start-up and SME food and drink businesses can now have their products packaged in sustainable Carbon Balanced printed packaging thanks to the forward-thinking team at Newton Print Ltd. The specialist print firm is offering certified sustainable and planet-positive print solutions by having its emissions offset by World Land Trust (WLT) and becoming Certified Carbon Balanced Printers.

Newton Print Ltd’s Sales & Marketing Director, Simon Besley, says: “When businesses choose us for their printed packaging, they can now be completely confident in knowing they are using one of the most sustainable and planet-positive print solutions available.”

The Newton Abbot-based, award-winning, familyrun printed packaging company specialising in assisting artisan, start-up and SME food and drink businesses, is one of just 30 companies in the country to be given this title.

The certification, which is part of a scheme operated

by WLT, was attained by offsetting Newton Print’s entire annual operational carbon footprint through the purchase of endangered tropical habitat.

By doing this, Newton Print will each year balance more than 254 tonnes of carbon, resulting in the preservation of more than 44 acres of endangered forest, equivalent to 25 football pitches.

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Sir David Attenborough, a long-time patron and supporter of WLT, says of the charity: “The money that is given to WLT has, in my opinion, more effect on the wild world than almost anything I can think of”.

Using the funding from the Carbon Balanced Programme, WLT is working with a partner organisation in Vietnam, Viet Nature, to conserve the forests of Khe Nuoc Trong (KNT).

Vietnam is home to around 10% of the world’s species. It is also one of the world’s fastest growing economies, which is putting pressure on its biodiversity.

Simon adds: “We are proud to support the fantastic work WLT is doing to protect threatened habitats and endangered wildlife.

“Everyone has had a challenging 14 months, but despite this, sustainability continues to be vital to us all and we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to galvanise our ongoing commitment to the environment. We know this commitment is something shared by our clients and is essential for the future of our planet.

“We take great care to use environmentally-sound

{ Newton Print Ltd }

processes and are delighted to now be able to add WLT certification to our list of achievements, and to offer our clients truly Carbon Balanced printed packaging.”

The KNT project protects biodiversity by reducing illegal wildlife hunting and allowing natural regeneration of degraded areas within the 52,210-acre forest. This reduces pressure on the forest, allowing damaged parts to return to high-quality forest, producing a climate benefit annually of 41,686 tCO2e.

KNT is also an essential habitat for 40 globally threatened species, including Southern White-Cheeked Gibbon, Crested Argus and the Red Shanked Douc, one of the world’s most endangered monkeys.

Greg Selfe, Sales & Marketing Director at CarbonCO, the company responsible for delivering Carbon Balanced Print and Programme on behalf of WLT, explains: “It’s fantastic Newton Print has joined the Carbon Balanced Programme.

“Businesses are now expected to prioritise their environmental commitments to meet growing demand from brands and consumers. Carbon Balanced Print offers a simple, effective solution to differentiate companies while creating huge benefits for tropical forests and endangered species.

“All certified printers and users of Carbon Balanced Print can proudly demonstrate their positive action by using the highly visible WLT logo on their printed material.

“Carbon Balanced printers can also offer their customers certificates to highlight the amount of CO2 balanced and the area of land protected.”

Founded in the 1980s, Newton Print Ltd is an approachable, friendly, forward-thinking and carbonbalanced printed packaging firm that provides a collaborative approach to client partnerships based on traditional customer relationships, married with pioneering, innovative ideas, to create successful and sustainable results.

Simon adds: “Our family has been here since 1983 and we’ve built up a solid reputation for luxury creative print. We print in-house and craft some of the most beautiful packaging, using our skills to make the experience simple and refreshing for you. We love to take challenging briefs from our clients and turn them into reality”.

Benefitting from its own on-site production and inhouse creative expertise, Newton Print is a packaging mentor for SMEs. It aims to help demystify printed packaging to allow often artisan brands to develop, succeed and grow.

It specialises in print runs of anything from 2,000100,000, with a focus on beautiful, luxury, sustainable printed food packaging, including food sleeves. It is also able to offer short-term special edition print runs –

perfect for product testing, tailoring products to specific retailers or for bespoke promotions.

“Being environmentally conscious has always been very important to us. Our environmental printing process includes the use of vegetable oil-based inks, low-chemistry plate processing, recycling of our waste and certification from global environment protection schemes such as Carbon Balanced Print and FSC®. This way, you can be assured that not only is your job in safe hands, but the environment is too.”

The hard-working, skilled team ensures its clients receive top-quality workmanship and ultra-fast delivery too.

“Our promise to you is that we will never shy away from putting in the hard graft to get you the best results. Whether that’s tireless hard work from our production team to achieve the magic formula of topquality workmanship and ultra-fast delivery, or the determination from our consulting team to deeply understand the passion behind your brand.”

Ninety-seven per cent of its customers rate Newton Print with five stars on the independent review site Feefo for speed and exceeding expectations, while 98% have rated the team’s friendliness as five-star too. Feefo has also awarded the company with a prestigious Platinum Trusted Service accreditation.

“We constantly fine-tune our production process to achieve the quickest delivery turnaround times and even provide a one-hour delivery window for every order.

“Our clients love our friendliness and our high standard of professionalism. Get in touch today and find out for yourself how helpful and easy to work with we are.”

To find out more about Newton Print Ltd, please visit https://www.newtonprint.co.uk or call 01626 368986.

May / June Food & Drink News

19

{ Red Boat Gelato }

Ice cream is the dream Tony and Lyn Wright are passionate about ice cream — so much so that Tony went to study it in Italy so they could make their growing series of North Wales Red Boat parlours the absolute real deal.

Made from their hub in Llangefni in the heart of Anglesey and sold in five parlours around the area, from Beaumaris to Prestatyn, the gelato they serve up is the product of Tony’s time at the world-famous Carpigiani University.

And it’s really paid off. Tony says: “I spent some time there working with the most amazing, inspiring people from all around the world and I came back here fully inspired to be creative, and because of that I quite frequently hear my favourite three-letter word, and that’s ‘wow’, when our customers see the ice creams we’ve got lined up”.

To say ice cream is a passion for Tony and Lyn is an understatement. The business was set up in 2000 and Tony came from a background that was diverse but

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didn’t give any clues to his future career — he worked in the Merchant Navy in the catering division, then in a few restaurants, but then moved to sales for a truck company. But the dream was always the ice cream — and not the stuff you get served up from your local van, but the rich, textured Italian gelato.

Tony believes that gelato should always be hand made and have a secret ingredient: imagination. He and his team are constantly trying out new flavours at Llangefni and then sending out the successful ones to their other shops in Menai Bridge, Prestatyn and Beaumaris, with a fifth one near to completion.

“Everything has to be perfect,” says Tony. “So we make a strawberry ice cream but we don’t buy in strawberry ripples, we make our own strawberry ripple

{ Red Boat Gelato }

using real strawberries. And it’s the most delicious ice cream you can imagine. It’s this attention to detail that makes it so special.”

The Llangefni hub has viewing windows so people can watch the ice cream being made, making something of a visitor attraction for the area. The Beaumaris parlour is situated in a 15th century listed building, while the Menai Bridge outlet is in an old ticket office, and could be the smallest ice cream parlour in the world.

It’s all about the uniqueness of the Red Boat brand, from the approach to the locations to the product itself — and if it was a gamble for Tony, it paid off, because they opened 20 years ago to queues around the block for their gelato.

Red Boat also caters for events and weddings and produces one-off celebration flavours at customers’ requests — and they’re proud of the fact that they can tackle anything, no matter how odd. Bakewell tart ice cream, anyone?

And while lockdown could have been a disaster, it

pushed the company to investigating online sales and that is something that has proved so successful it will continue beyond the pandemic crisis.

All in all, Red Boat has set sail for success, and is flying the standard for Italian gelato in the heart of North Wales.

redboatgelato.co.uk

May / June Food & Drink News

21

{ IPS }

Integrated Packing Services – looking to the future Integrated Packing Services (IPS) is the largest co-packer in the UK, with a record second to none and working with some of the best-known food brands.

From their recently expanded co-packing headquarters in Featherstone, West Yorkshire, they bring their 30 years of experience to bear on a network of manufacturing partners across the country to create a focused and streamlined supply chain. IPS is part of the Culina Group of businesses and benefits from a large network as they continue to forge ahead, consolidating their own corner of the business whilst currently experiencing a period of unprecedented growth.

Gary Conway, Sales Director, says: “At IPS we are continuously moving forward. In 2019 we acquired the world class co-manufacturing business Foodpack Ltd, based in St Helens, which has enabled us to grow by bringing new products and innovations to the market.

“At Foodpack we are currently working with key retailers and brand owners on exciting new projects

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with our specialisms being in the mixing, blending and packing, particularly in the porridge, oats, granola, pancakes and protein powder food categories.

“Within the rest of the IPS business our client base is strong and we have several household brands working with us. Being the market leader in co-packing we are happy to work with all brand owners and retailers who require our services”.

Whilst being part of the Culina Group has its obvious advantages, IPS had already clocked up 20 years of growing its business before becoming part of the wider organisation. In the beginning, the company operated two co-packing sites based in Yorkshire. Today, their facilities are UK-wide with 19 sites. They operate with a much broader portfolio of products with semi and automated market-leading technology along with industry-trained professionals.

{ IPS }

IPS Ltd is a people-focused business. The company wants to build partnerships with all of the companies it works with as well as the people that are employed at IPS. In order to do that, all employees are committed to the company values, mission and vision which facilitates their engagement across all levels of the business.

At IPS they are constantly refining and expanding their operations to provide the best service. Gary says: “We are currently working on having a modern, compliant, intelligent, agile and flexible shipper and copack facility within 13 miles of the East Midlands Gateway to service more customers on the increasing shipper demands and compliance from the key retailers.”

“This includes continuously looking at sustainability and how we can work with our customers to reduce the reliance on plastic and other areas of sustainable packaging,” says Gary. “On one recent project we saved the customer over £1m per year and we have also been awarded ‘Outstanding’ in SMETA and BRC accreditations. We have also won ‘Best Co-Packer’ with several of our major clients.”

This has paid off with an increased turnover and continuous growth in the co-packing sector whilst at the same time saving their customers money and capital expenditure investment.

Recently, IPS Ltd has increased the strength of their Senior Management Team which included the appointment of Gary Conway as Sales Director who has worked previously for Diageo, AB Inbev and Carlsberg.

Building on his past experience, he adds, “I am excited to be working for a company who are true to their values and passionate about their customers and their brands’. ‘In five years-time we would like to see our business with more sites, more categories, more brands and retailers working with us as we work together to offer them solutions for their businesses.”

They are coming out of the pandemic with their eyes on the future — and some important and positive lessons learned. Gary says, “The pandemic has proved to us that as a business we are adaptable, agile, customer focused and creative. Business increased and we pushed our operations to be even leaner and smarter. Our business is in better shape than ever before as we push the boundaries increasing automation and become more creative and sustainable with our customers whilst creating partnership focused solutions with them. ‘We are forever moving forward as we adapt and change with our customers and consumer demands to bring bespoke solutions to their co-packing and co-manufacturing requirements”.

WWW.CULINA.CO.UK WWW.IPSCONTRACTPACKING.CO.UK

Proud to support IPS

May / June Food & Drink News

23

{ Tim Hortons }

Canadian coffee to go is here to stay The Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons is an iconic North American brand, with thousands of restaurants and drive-thru outlets across the continent.

But it’s fast establishing a foothold in the UK since setting up here in 2017 and embarking on an expansion programme that is seeing new outlets spring up across the country, with plans to create thousands of jobs.

The Chief Commerical Officer of the UK operation, Kevin Hydes, says that the company is in the middle of hugely exciting times, with their ambition to open an outlet in every town and city in the UK by the end of 2022 well on track.

“We’ve been working for the last couple of years building a pipeline of restaurants ready to meet that ambition,” says Kevin. “Today we have 28 restaurants open and trading across the United Kingdom and we we have announced officially announced eight restaurants that are that are currently under construction and coming soon, and there are many more that are presently in different stages of development so should be a very busy next 18 months

May / June Food & Drink News

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{ Tim Hortons }

in terms of our restaurant opening programme.”

The Tim Hortons brand was founded in 1964 by its namesake, a top professional ice hockey player, who wanted to create a space where everyone would feel at home.

After the first store opened in Hamilton, Ontario, the brand began to firmly establish itself, and by 1976 had introduced its Timbit donut, which immediately became an iconic Canadian brand.

Tim Hortons comes to the UK with the express intention of becoming a market leader, and expects that within the next couple of years everyone will know about their local branch.

Kevin says: “We presently have a pretty strong position in Scotland, we’re in Manchester, Birmingham, Leicester. We we’ve opened recently in Milton Keynes and our latest restaurant opened in Harlow in Essex. ‘“And that’s really exceeded all of our expectations, we’ve had huge positivity from the local community.

We have people queuing for weeks to try our products.

The next restaurant that will be opening is going to be in Sheffield and that would be the first restaurant that will be open in Yorkshire. And again we’ve got many more to come in that territory so yes, it’s pretty exciting times.”

For the past four years since opening their first restaurant in Scotland, the company has been carefully and deliberately establishing its position in the UK market and ensuring that their drinks and food offers are tailored perfectly for the UK market.

Kevin adds, “We’re very confident we’ve got a very strong business model. We’ve got a very high level of demand for the brand across the UK and that seems to be growing every time we open more restaurants. More people are becoming exposed to the business and many people are travelling a very long way to come

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and try our beverages and food. So that gives us great confidence moving forward that we can really grow our estate at a very high pace.”

There are two types of consumer on Tim Hortons radar in the UK: those who already have familiarity with the brand, who might have sampled their goods in Canada and North America or the Middle East, including Dubai, and are pleased to see it on the British high street, and those to whom the brand is a new one.

“The first people have very warm memories of the product experience and the overall dining and takeaway experience they encountered and typically those people have a very high affection level for the brand because the product quality is so high,” says Kevin. “We’re operating in a kind of almost a hybrid coffee marketplace where we have fresh food to go, we have the very best and very fresh coffee offer. People tell us they just love it and can’t wait for us to open in their town.”

Tim Hortons has more than 4,700 system wide

{ Tim Hortons }

restaurants located in Canada, the United States and around the world. It is owned by fast food giant Restaurant Brands International, which is also behind Burger King and the Popeyes fried chicken chain.

Tim Hortons was built on coffee and donuts but has evolved considerably to offer hot food and cold beverages as well.

“We have a very extensive breakfast menu with many hot food to go options that I would say would rival

people like McDonald’s in terms of product quality and speed of service,” says Kevin. “And we have a very extensive lunch menu which extends into the evening as well so we trade all day. While we are famous for our beverages, our coffee and donuts, we definitely have extended the categories and the quality of those products over the last couple of years to have a real sort of all-round all-day quality offer.”

All their donuts are prepared fresh on site every day, which Tim Hortons says gives it the edge over the competition, and they are continually developing new products, such as filled ring donuts, to keep the offer fresh and exciting. Some products, such as chicken, have been tailored especially to the UK consumer market.

Their expansion programme is set to create around 2,000 jobs as well, showing Tim Hortons commitment to boosting the UK economy. They have also been making their products available through their Amazon store for those who have not yet got a Tim Hortons up and running in their town or city.

Kevin says, “Honestly I think it’s probably the most exciting brand to come across from North America into the UK In many, many years, I think probably since Subway came over. We’re here to grow, we’re here to be part of many communities. We have a strong spirit as a company, it’s very Canadian, very open and inclusive, and we’re just looking forward to getting to as many places as we can as quickly as we can”.

www.timhortons.co.uk

May / June Food & Drink News

27

{ By The Horns }

Horns of plenty for craft beer pioneers The phrase ‘to take the bull by the horns’ means to tackle a problem head on, which is exactly what Alex Bull and Chris Mills did when they spotted an opening in the market for their favourite tipple.

Back in 2010, the craft beer movement was only in its infancy, but Alex and Chris both had a passion for it… both drinking and brewing.

So they gave notice at their corporate jobs and set up By The Horns, a brewery dedicated to bringing the craft brewing scene (which was big in America) to the UK and combining it with the British ‘real ale’ tradition.

A year later the company was up and running, and is now celebrating its tenth year. The British beer scene has caught up with them and craft beers are a common sight in bars and supermarkets. But By The Horns was there on the ground floor… and continues to innovate.

Alex says: “I suppose when we started out it was more of a hobby business. I was into home brewing, and both Chris and myself spent a bit of time in America where the craft beer world was a lot bigger than here. The term ‘craft beer’ didn’t really exist over here then and there weren’t many breweries in London so we just thought, let’s set up and see what happens.

We didn’t really have a blueprint so we just kind of

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decided to give it a go and see where it took us”.

It’s taken them to a, 10-strong workforce, a headquarters and taproom in Wandsworth, a production brewery in Redhill, and a raft of quality beers available in both pubs and off-sales outlets… all run with the same enthusiasm and drive for quality that started the company off.

Alex says: “We’re small and independent enough to keep being innovative and to be able to set our own path but our production facility is big enough for us to be able to commit to higher volume contracts and work with larger customers. And that’s the balance we feel we have been working towards, where we sit as a brewery. We’re not the crazy, left-field niche sort of brewery and we’re not the big multinational, we sit somewhere in the middle and that makes us approachable and fast-reacting”.

With a big rebranding exercise started early last year and continuing, post pandemic, this year, the company is constantly trying to get its name out there with recognisable packaging as well as top-quality

{ By The Horns }

ingredients. They teamed up with an illustrator at Fried Cactus Studio to create their fresh new contemporary look; with their new core range of beers being offered in cans, keg and cask formats.

Their best-selling beers include: WEST END PILS (Pilsner Lager 4.0%) – The awardwinning Pilsner Lager is a true great, clean and crisp yet with enough malt and subtle hop notes to keep it forever interesting. The Champion Independent Lager in London and South East England in 2019 and 2020 in can and keg (and 3rd best in the UK in 2019). Most recently winning a silver medal at the London Beer competition 2021 COSMIC WARRIOR (Pale Ale 4.8%) — A Transatlantic Pale Ale influenced by the late great Marc Bolan who once lived on the brewery site long before they started the brewery. A blend of British and American hops set this pale ale alight with flowing tropical flamboyant glam-hop, backed up with a smooth malt base brewed with oats.

HOPADELIC (Session IPA 4.3%) — The beer that offers everything. Bitterness, tropical hops, a rounded malty mouthfeel & at only 4.3% abv.

SQUEEZER (Juicy Pale Ale 4.5%) — A juicy, hazy and full-on tropical hopped pale ale.

Alex adds, “I guess it was an organic start for us, and it’s kind of continued in that vibe. We’ve always said it’s

been about the whole process of us growing this business. Okay, now it’s quite a well-oiled machine and much larger but you know it was all about us just wanting to continually learn and evolve.

“So for us it was that kind of personal achievement in being able to do this business in something — and we hold our hands up — we had little experience in. Now we respect the industry and we have a lot of qualified and experienced brewers and won a lot of great awards and worked with some fantastic customers along the way.”

The company made a conscious decision three years ago to diversify its offer and sell more canned beer, and they now have six major online outlets that serve customers their fare. That was already well in place before the pandemic hit but it put them in an excellent position to pivot to online sales when lockdown closed the pubs and bars.

They’ve been on their current site since January and turnover is increasing every year-even with the trials of the last year. By The Horns is looking to the future with confidence and having tapped into the craft beer market early is now riding the waves of their steady evolution to success.

www.bythehorns.co.uk

May / June Food & Drink News

29

{ Create Better Group }

The icing on the cake Create Better Group, headquartered in Nottingham, is going from strength to strength with a series of brands under their umbrella that are capitalising on the cake decorating market at all levels.

Their most recent acquisition, Cake Stuff Ltd, is a case in point, which means that the group is catering to the whole market, from hobbyists who make cakes for family events to those who have set up businesses in the decorated cake market, and all points between.

CEO Gary Quinn says: ”We’re really excited about where we are at the moment because we can now make sure that the brands we stock and the brands we develop are really getting to every part of the cake decorating market and all the different sort of disparate and differently-motivated consumers that exist.

“What we’re trying to do here at Create Better Group is work across multiple platforms and have a deliberate and well-crafted market proposition for each different consumer type. We really want to talk to any baking and decorating brands and send the message that in terms of our organisation we are the perfect partner to get your product in front of the consumers you want to go to”.

Create Better Group’s 87-strong team deals with more than 40,000 orders a month and they have created a vibrant social media presence with more than 250,000 followers.

Distributing from the UK, and from Belgium later this summer, they run more than 8,300 product lines over 11 own brands and 17 exclusive brands.

Cakes have seen a massive spike in popularity over the past few years, says Gary, with more people getting into the professional market and more cake-led celebrations in the UK than ever before — Halloween, for example. He says: “More people are celebrating more often and choosing a cake to be a centre of that, and what that’s done is fuel baking as a hobby and as a profession.”

The group has just acquired a facility in Belgium which will help their business in Europe, post-Brexit.

Gary says: “The UK is very much a leader in terms of trends and innovations in the cake market and Europe takes its lead from us, so now we’ve navigated a lot of the issues that Brexit threw up we’re excited about having a facility there for our European customers”.

Lockdown has also driven a home baking surge, from people doing it as a hobby while stuck at home, to professionals who are now gearing up for the return of

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major events such as weddings over the summer.

Create Better Group has had some strong financials over the past couple of years but Gary is keen to focus on their investment in the market and being ‘a force for good’ after what has been a difficult time for many businesses.

“We’re inviting in our customers, we’re investing in our suppliers and that’s what’s important to us right now,” he says.

www.createbettergroup.co.uk