The Bay Tree Food Company

AWARD-WINNING

HUMBLE BEGINNING FROM A AWARD-WINNING TO

AWARD-WINNING

The Bay Tree Food Company is a highly successful manufacturer of jams, chutneys and condiments. With an annual turnover of just under £5 million (£1 million of which is generated solely from the food service industry), the company is a hit within the UK market. Founder and Managing Director Emma Macdonald discussed the company’s award-winning ranges and its plans for the future, in a report by Imogen Ward.

The Bay Tree Food Company has developed a business strategy that works, branching out into new and diverse areas; it has created recipe books, become a distributor for small companies and even helped independent businesses thrive.

“We produce 40,000 jars a week and supply about 1,000 independent farm

shops, delis and garden centres across the UK,” Founder and Managing Director Emma Macdonald said. “We make products that suit the modern lifestyle and are extremely versatile and easy to incorporate into any recipe. Our products put excitement back into customers’ dishes.”

The Bay Tree began in the kitchen of Ms Macdonald’s mother. From there, the company moved into a small factory outlet in Bristol in 1999, and has since relocated to Plymouth, where it operates from a production site and warehousing facility. The latest move was prompted by a desire to expand and gain BRC accreditation. The company now produces exceptional goods for the food service industry and retail trade, with 20% of its annual turnover coming from food service alone (a market The Bay Tree hopes to develop further going forward).

Great taste

The Bay Tree creates taste sensations that are renowned for quality and flavour. The Glorious Garlic Pickle, a condiment packed full of garlic and nigella seeds, was recently awarded two Great Taste 2022 gold stars. The company’s Hot Stuff Horseradish was also given an impressive three-star Great Taste accreditation. These award-winning foods are fantastic examples of what makes The Bay Tree so successful. “We did exceptionally well in 2022, winning 12 awards – including four gold Taste of said West awards,” Ms Macdonald. “Amazingly, we won a Gold with every product we entered.”

Other awards the company has won include The Food and Drink Devon Gold Award for its Spicy Tomato and Caramelised Onion Chutney and its So Strawberry Jam. The company’s Hot Chilli Chutney also won a Gold Award at the 2022 International Cheese Awards in the ‘Hot Chutney, Relish or Pickle’ in the Branded Packaging category. The company’s Red Onion Marmalade

also received this accolade in the Savoury Marmalade category.

The Spicy Tomato and Caramelised Onion Chutney is not just favoured by competitions, this product is one of the most popular choices in the food service industry too. “The chutney is very versatile; that’s one of the reasons it has been so popular,” said Ms Macdonald. “It’s a bit like a ketchup for grown-ups; you can put it on anything, in anything and it just adds flavour. Whether you’re making a Bolognese or having a burger; whatever you’re eating, this chutney will liven up the dish. We sell a lot of it to pubs as an accompaniment to pies, sausage rolls and baked potatoes.”

Nurturing opportunities

With a desire to help small-scale entrepreneurs, The Bay Tree turned its hand to distributing ranges from other companies. A recent partnership with Game On resulted in the company’s savoury jellies being sold exclusively by The Bay Tree.

“It’s important to have a unique selling point as a business,” Ms Macdonald explained. “Obviously, as a manufacturer and a distributor, we appreciate that our customers want new and exciting products.

“We really liked the Game On range; we make very traditional jellies for roasts and felt the company’s product line was really in-keeping with what we do. We marketed, promoted and distributed the product for the company, working in cooperation with the Founder of Game On Michelle Record, to reproduce what she was making: we were able to launch that in September 2022. It’s a very adaptable range that goes well with game, cold meats and cheeses.”

Game On is not the only new offering from The Bay Tree. After years of development and refinement, the company has released a coronation sauce. A perfect addition to The Bay Tree’s existing offerings, this sauce works exceptionally well in any coronation chicken recipe. With plans to enter the sauce into upcoming awards, it is bound to be a hit.

To improve efficiency and keep things running smoothly, The Bay tree recently invested in a new warehouse barcoding system. “We automated our ordering, picking and packing process – which

was challenging, but we achieved it,” Ms Macdonald said. “We are always trying to improve our IT systems to make the production process more efficient. This is incredibly beneficial from an administration perspective too. Manufacturing businesses can be quite admin heavy, so the more we can automate, the more time we free up for further system improvements.”

Reducing waste with each jar

Waste is a big focus at The Bay Tree; the company constantly looks for ways to reduce its own waste and help its customers reduce waste too. The company’s

latest development included the implementation of a 200g chutney range in January. “We know that smaller households may not want to buy a larger jar,” Ms Macdonald explained, “so by reducing the size to 200g, this offers our customers a smaller alternative which hopefully reduces the likelihood of excess produce being thrown out. We also have a 100g and 40g size in our core lines for tea rooms and hamper companies looking for smaller offerings or occasions.”

In addition, the company has removed plastic from its packaging (now offering a paper alternative to protect fragile product

packaging). “We recycle as many of our boxes and as much supplier waste as we can; any liquid waste from production is sent to a biodigester,” Ms Macdonald said. “All our unused samples are donated to two homeless charities that we work closely with – giving them great ingredients to provide hot meals to those in need.

“Although we don’t shout about it, we make every effort to improve our sustainability as a business as this is incredibly important to us all and the planet. We have achieved a lot over the last few years and will continue this focus in 2023 and beyond.”