FoodChain Issue 145 January 2019

FoodChain Issue 145

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JAN 2019

The business of food and drink

Exclusive access China Club Berlin is bringing a touch of Chinese class to Germany’s capital, offering members delicious food in elegant surroundings

Industry News New range of ChicP houmous rescues and reuses wonky veg

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Taste of tomorrow Returning to London in March 2019, IFE is an event not to be missed

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Dublin’s The Devlin offers guests a stylish stay in the city

l Premium whiskey Roe & Co launches brand awareness campaign

Future of food Identifying hot new consumer trends and the science behind menu creation

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FoodChain ISSUE 145 L JAN 2019

THE BUSINESS OF FOOD AND DRINK

Exclusive access China Club Berlin is bringing a touch of Chinese class to Germany’s capital, offering members delicious food in elegant surroundings

Editor’s Welcome

Industry News L New

Taste of tomorrow Returning to London in March 2019, IFE is an event not to be missed

range of ChicP houmous rescues and reuses wonky veg

L Dublin’s

The Devlin offers guests a stylish stay in the city

L Premium

whiskey Roe & Co launches brand awareness campaign

Future of food Identifying hot new consumer trends and the science behind menu creation

Chairman Andrew Schofield Managing Director Joe Woolsgrove Editor Libbie Hammond

¬A true feast

Assistant Editor Will Daynes Staff Writer Vladi Nikolov Art Editor Fleur Daniels Advertising Design Fiona Jolliffe Sales Joe Balfour Natalie Brett Mark Cawston Theresa McDonald Gary Silk Web Sales Tim Eakins Exclusive Features Darren Jolliffe Independent Sales Dave King Operations Director Philip Monument Operations Manager Natalie Griffiths Editorial Researchers Anna Davies Alasdair Gamble Wendy Russell Office Manager Advertising Administrator Tracy Chynoweth

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ith every editor’s page I write, I hope to be able to announce that we are a step closer to Brexit, we’re on the right path with firm direction from Government, and there are plans in place to guide

businesses through the transition. It won’t be in this issue though! Indeed, it’s hard to even write about Brexit at the moment with the situation evolving on a daily basis. Therefore, instead of adding to the conjecture and speculation, let’s turn our attention to the stories in the first FoodChain of 2019. With beautiful locations such as China Club Berlin, delicious products such as those produced by Magnolia Bakery, and fabulous interiors courtesy of New World Trading Company, we’ve produced a feast for the eyes as well as the mind. All our contributors are working hard to prepare for Brexit – hopefully they will be

Follow us at:

reassured by the fact that FSDF Chief Executive, Shane Brennan sees it as a ‘temporary problem’. “I am not picking up from our members any significant

@FoodChain_mag

Schofield Publishing Cringleford Business Centre, 10 Intwood Road, Cringleford, Norwich, NR4 6AU, U.K. T: +44 (0)1603 274130 www.foodchainmagazine.com

concern that they won’t be able to cope with whatever challenges the immediate future poses,” he says.

libbie@schofieldpublishing.co.uk

© 2019 Schofield Publishing Ltd

Please note: The opinions expressed by contributors and advertisers within this publication do not necessarily coincide with those of the editor and publisher. Every reasonable effort is made to ensure that the information published is accurate, and correct at time of writing, but no legal responsibility for loss occasioned by the use of such information can be accepted by the publisher. All rights reserved. The contents of the magazine are strictly copyright, the property of Schofield Publishing, and may not be copied, stored in a retrieval system, or reproduced without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Contents 4

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Features Trends The science behind the menu

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Ciran Madanes highlights some of the food trends we can expect in 2019, which include a focus on plant-based offerings

The need for improved technical grease capture solutions to address the environmental damage caused by fats, oils and grease

Packaging The potential to evolve

Exports Share the taste

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Design presents a big opportunity for food packaging testing – developers could put sustainability at the beginning of the process

Deli foods A taste of things to come

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How British cider makers can avoid the winter sales downturn by venturing into the southern hemisphere

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Exhibition preview IFE 2019

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Some predictions for the year ahead in deli food– look out for flavoured cheeses, heritage charcuterie and accompaniments

The 21st edition of The International Food & Drink Event (IFE) features talks, tastings and trends forecasting

Water usage Great things come in small packages

Exhibition preview Casual Dining Show 2019

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This case study illustrates how a compact heating device has significantly helped improve efficiency at Strathmore Foods

Catering Catering for the future

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How the use of single-use plastics can be reduced in schools – steps include educating students about the plastic problem

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Grease traps Grease is the word

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The industry is preparing for the biggest ever Casual Dining Event in February at London’s ExCel

News

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Taste Test

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Up-to-date products and announcements from the food and beverage sector

The FoodChain team sample a selection of new and innovative foods and drinks

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44 Profiles

Innovations & developments within some of the world’s finest companies

Adlon Holding: China Club Berlin

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EG Group

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Offering members a promise of exclusivity, China Club Berlin

Having started as a single petrol filling station, EG Group has

also provides delicious food in the most beautiful surroundings

expanded its offerings and grown into a world-leader

East of England Co-op

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Clonakilty Food Company

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East of England co-op’s approach to tackling food waste was

Having become famous for its blackpudding, Clonakilty Food

a massive success, culminating in award wins

Company is now also offering whitepudding, sausages and bacon

Max Burgers

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Kloosterboer

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Selling more low-impact burgers represents one of the major

Kloosterboer provides innovative and sustainable solutions to the

sustainability targets Max Burgers is pursuing

supply chain for temperature controlled food products

ARBOREA Hotels und Resorts

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Food Storage & Distribution Federation 72

The secret of ARBOREA Hotels und Resorts success is to create

FSDF sees Brexit as a temporary issue, with climate change

experiences that facilitate communication between guests

hailed as a much longer-term threat

Magnolia Bakery

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Rumenco

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Continuing on its path of expansion, Magnolia Bakery is bringing

Rumenco is leading the way in the development and manufacture

classic American baked goods to a wider audience

of feed supplements and feeding systems for ruminant livestock

New World Trading Company

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French & Jupps

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Multiple new openings are planned for 2019 from New World

Coloured malts producer French & Jupps is confident that it

Trading Company, building on its initial success

can maintain its current levels of success

Rowe’s Cornish Bakers

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Northcoast Seafoods

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The world’s largest producer of hand-crimped Cornish pasties,

With the vision to a one-stop-shop for frozen seafood,

Rowe’s Cornish Bakers is expanding its retail business

Northcoast Seafoods has created a detailed investment strategy

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The science behind the menu

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Trends

Ciran Madanes

If anyone can see into the future of food it’s Ciran Madanes

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s Sodexo’s Head of Insight it’s her job to identify tomorrow’s hottest trends in food and drink in order to stay ahead of the curve, and deliver menus that excite staff and customers. It’s tasty work – if you can find it – and Madanes loves the mix of crunching food and data. But, she confesses, it’s not as glamorous as many people think.

As the ‘eyes and ears’ of the company, a typical day involves ‘an awful lot of reading’. It’s her job to condense huge amounts of information into a clear story with clear outcomes for the wider business. Beyond the focus on food, her remit extends to broader consumer trends. “Food is only part of the journey.

Our analysis takes in everything from flexible working to the way consumers pay and the role automation plays in food delivery. Our goal is to come up with the optimal customer journey and to help people be at their best from a dietary point of view.”

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A ‘flexitarian approach’ - where the diet is predominantly vegetarian and occasionally vegan diet, without the restriction of ‘never’ eating meat or fish – is a rising phenomenon which has seen the number of adults actively looking to cut meat from their diet

Why is it so important to know what’s around the corner? “We always design today for future services, so you need to know just where the world’s headed.”

Sustainability, value consciousness and convenience are all huge trends, says Madanes. There is also a big focus on health and strong plant-based offerings. “Part of my job is to monitor these macro trends as they evolve and

work out where they are going and whether they have legs. With healthy eating, for example, we think there’s a strong generational shift in the way people are eating and so it’s here to stay.”

That said, stark intergenerational differences persist. “Certain trends will be amplified in certain age groups.

Millennials might be into superfoods, but older consumers have a much more balanced diet. Our corporate services are often serving four generations under one roof and there are big differences between them so we have to balance variety with regular innovation. It’s quite a challenge.”

Food trends for Madanes are not about working out how to add charcoal shavings to pasta dishes or teaching chefs how to make Thai rolled ice cream. Instead, the trends she’s really interested in are the ones that don’t go away but are continuing to evolve.

One such trend is the growing

Trends ‘flexitarianism’ movement. Jamie Oliver is one of the celebrity ambassadors behind this movement but the trend towards more-meat free diets is far greater than a celebrity vogue.

diets, this influence of this, coupled with the trend awareness for more ‘clean’ eating and healthier lifestyles, means that plant-based diets are also aspirational.

Plant-based diets

Plant-based culinary training

A ‘flexitarian approach’ - where the diet is predominantly vegetarian and occasionally vegan diet, without the restriction of ‘never’ eating meat or fish – is a rising phenomenon which has seen the number of adults actively looking to cut meat from their diet. The increase in those following a vegan diet is 500 per cent since 2016.

Among young people particularly, flexitarian and reduction in meat consumption is a huge food trend, with a fifth of British 16 to 24 year olds identifying as either veggie or vegan, which is driving demand for tasty and satisfying vegan options.

Trends such as flexitarianism are symptomatic of a wider societal trend towards increased reflection and consciousness about what we are eating, how we are living and the impact we are having upon the environment.

There is a growing awareness that what we eat has a massive impact on our planet, with many people having concerns about the environmental impact of global meat production and the sometimes questionable ethics of factory farming.

There is also a growing number of celebrities and social media stars who promote plant-based, natural

Charlie Huson, Forward Food Programme Manager for Humane Society International UK has joined with chef and author Jenny Chandler to deliver plant-based culinary training to companies such as Sodexo but also with top universities and other institutions. With plant-based eating firmly in the mainstream the workshops help empower chefs to embrace this and be creative in the kitchen.

A group of chefs from Sodexo’s universities business have undertaken the training; learning about the different flavours and how they can create ‘creamy’ textures normally associated with dairy through vegan alternatives such as avocado and non-dairy yogurts. The chefs were also tasked with making vegan dishes that could work in a commercial contract catering setting, such as vegan mac and cheese, roasted aubergine with soba noodles and bean chilli con quinoa.

With benefits to the environment and health plant-based food is something foodservice providers need to get behind in order to meet the needs of their consumers and to promote better quality of life. D

Sodexo’s Better Tomorrow 2025 sustainability roadmap includes a commitment to offer its consumers healthier lifestyle options as well as reducing its environmental impact on the planet, this is what the plant forward movement is all about and why Sodexo’s vision is to become the leading food services company in this movement.

Sodexo’s mission is to encourage consumers to eat more vegetables, beans, pulses and wholegrains, thereby lowering carbon emissions while delivering great tasting and healthier dishes. To do this it has set a veg pledge to procure ten per cent more veg by 2020 and 16 per cent more by 2025. It is doing this by designing more plant forward recipe options for its chefs to use, these not only mean it is serving dishes with more vegetables than meat or fish but by doing so is contributing to the health and wellbeing of its consumers. It has also developed ‘Planted’ a street food offer featuring Oumph!, a 100 per cent plant based meat alternative made from soybeans, salt, water. https://uk.sodexo.com/home.html

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The potential to evolve

Optimising food packaging; a tried and tested view.

By A.J. Gruber

A.J. Gruber

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rands and retailers are increasingly aiming to improve sustainability and use less material.

This matters to the public and will undoubtedly generate more headlines this year, as the Government presses ahead with its consultation on a plastic packaging tax.

But how do companies make packaging more sustainable? The substance behind the headlines is often missing. Making changes to food packaging is a complex task, with numerous factors to consider. How will changes affect labelling? Will changes impact the packaging’s role in driving sales? Will changes affect product shelf life?

Although all of these factors are important, they’re only just scratching the surface. Companies looking to improve sustainability need to consider the whole packaging and supply chain

life-cycle. There are many areas where packaging performance can deliver sustainability benefits. Testing is key to determining such benefits, and while the food packaging testing market is fast growing, it still has potential for evolution.

A growing market A recent report – The Global Food Packaging Testing Market – shows this market as growing 11.5 per cent CAGR until 2023. Increasing industrial output, growing imports and exports, heightened consumer consumption and capital investment over the last decade are all driving growth.

Testing is fundamental to successfully moving a higher volume of food and more varied food products in an increasingly international marketplace.

Effective packaging tests in certified laboratories enable companies to simulate the variables and hazards of

Packaging the food supply chain in a controlled environment. The dynamics of ‘real world’ distribution can be screened to determine the most appropriate packaging design and material. For example, internationalism means foods are increasingly exposed to varying climates during the supply chain and several different modes of transportation.

Therefore, packaging needs to offer optimal temperature control, while also mitigating against the impact of a range of vibrations during road, rail, shipping or air distribution. This performance helps protect against damage and maintain food safety, and also helps preserve freshness and quality.

It may also be the case that testing needs to challenge the integrity of the packaging’s ability to retain liquids or stop exposure to moisture and oxygen. Successfully determining such requirements in a controlled environment can avoid costly amounts of waste, risks to public health and lasting reputational damage as the packaging performs its role in the supply chain.

However, looking beyond supply chain dynamics, it is consumer trends that are now having the greatest impact on food packaging testing. And there are three trends in particular, which will see the testing market continue to grow as companies invest in packaging research and development.

Over-packaging The first trend is the volume of material used to package food products. This affects all three types of packaging including primary packaging – the element that actually contains the food, as well as secondary, which is the retail packaging, and finally, tertiary, the packaging used during distribution.

Consumers are more questioning of packaging. Rising commodity prices and supply chain costs have meant many manufacturers have had to reduce the size and weight of food products. This has prompted consumers to consider whether the dimensions of packaging have changed accordingly, with many becoming increasingly cynical of packaging that

hasn’t changed size, or which makes a food product appear larger than it is. As well as feeling misled, they’re antagonised by what they consider wasted resources and question just how efficient packaging is.

This focus on efficiency and effectiveness extends to tertiary packaging. Growing food ecommerce means more consumers are being exposed to distribution packaging, which they have to recycle or dispose of. Because of this, they’re thinking about the volume used and just how necessary it is. It’s not uncommon to find people voicing concerns on social media about over-packaging used during distribution, which can negatively affect brand reputations and sales.

Food packaging testing is adapting to meet the challenge of reducing packaging volumes, while maintaining protection and preservation qualities.

Faster food Previously, convenience has been more associated with primary and secondary packaging, with focus placed on aspects like easy-opening. It is now a trend influencing developments in tertiary packaging.

The emergence of retail behemoth Amazon in the UK food market in particular, is meeting and fueling demand for food being delivered quicker and within shorter time periods.

At the same time, the repertoire of foods being delivered is expanding, with consumers now comfortable to click for delivery of chilled and delicate foods. The challenge for manufacturers and retailers is intensified, as consumers expect immediacy along with low or no-cost delivery.

Companies need to be leaner, which can lead to different types of food being packaged together during distribution as more goods are moved at shorter notice. The products will be either packed together in their individual retail packaging or with some dunnage such as air cushions to block and brace to stop items moving about and being damaged during transit.

The distribution (tertiary) packaging not only needs to help protect the

food, it also needs to limit damage to the retail (secondary) packaging.

Consumers don’t want or trust food products where the packaging isn’t in perfect condition. In addition to replicating these challenges, food packaging testing is adapting to account for errors caused by fast processing such as packages being dropped or heightened vibrations from faster moving vehicles.

Sustainable supply chains Sustainability is already a hot topic.

Where we’re likely so see changes in this trend is growing emphasis placed on packaging design. There’s growing awareness that design can yield sustainability benefits throughout the packaging life-cycle. For example, optimisations in design can reduce the volume of the material used, minimise waste incurred by food damage and enable more efficient packaging of foods, meaning more product can be moved per square metre during transit and carbon emissions reduced.

Design presents one of the biggest opportunities for evolutions in food packaging testing. There’s currently no single global standard for responsible packaging design. If such a step was taken, sustainability would be better considered at the start of packaging development. This would mean testing more effectively analyses and optimises environmental impact in context of supply chain hazards, business objectives and consumer demands. D A.J. Gruber is president of the International Safe Transit Association. The not-for-profit association helps empower organisations and their people to minimise product damage throughout distribution and optimise resource usage through effective package design. Worldwide, ISTA is the most trusted, knowledgeable and respected authority in predictive package-performance testing helping its members develop more effective packaging. https://ista.org/

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Image © Amy Velleman

A taste of things to come

A few predictions about the upcoming deli food trends for 2019

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ffering a unique, informal and fun food and drink pairing concept, Pairings, based in York, is fast becoming one the finest and most popular wine bars in the North. The independent business which is run by sisters Kelly and Kate Latham has had huge acclaim since it opened its doors to guests in 2015.

These successes include securing award-winning status; becoming and remaining a top five York food and drink venue on TripAdvisor; and, more recently, developing its deli food offering to include even more vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options. It’s no surprise, then, that Pairings consistently receives five-star reviews from its guests!

Pairings sources only the highest quality deli food which is locally obtained wherever possible. Farah Wootten, Food Menu Development Manager at Pairings, has extensive experience and expertise in sourcing and unearthing deli food trends. Here, Farah discusses her

deli food trend predictions for the year ahead…

Cheese Flavoured cheeses, which established their popularity with old favourites such as smoked Cheddars and cranberryclad Wensleydales, will continue to grow in popularity as statement pieces on a cheeseboard, such as Feta or a soft goats’ cheese with jalapenos or peppercorns – for those whose palettes are evolving to accommodate and even desire more spice. Additionally, truffle-infused takes on a classic Brie to enhance an already indulgent platter staple will bring a flavour profile that more consumers are gaining access to: a creamy based cheese will mellow out the spice or truffle flavour, whilst simultaneously ensuring the aftertaste lasts longer.

As more people opt for plantbased foods, cheese substitutes and alternatives will develop into becoming

Deli foods

Image © Charlotte Gale

standalone products rather than just slightly hidden supplements in a vegan burger or mac and ‘cheese’. Coconutbased alternatives, while efficient in their mimicking of cheese’s consistency, might lose out to nut-based ‘cheeses’ that stand up to a regular Cheddar’s deep, lingering flavour or the savoury notes of a strong blue. 2019 could even see the emergence of vegan substitutes for harder favourites such as Comté and Manchego if the firmness of coconutbased products is combined with the flavour-carrying potential of cashew‘cheeses’ and aged appropriately.

Look out for our Za’atar vegan ‘cheese’, which is locally-made with a savoury hint of Middle-Eastern herbs.

Charcuterie British heritage flavours continue to experience a resurgence as more interest is shown in local, small-batch produce. Strong, gamey flavours will as always prove popular during the colder

months at the beginning of the year, especially when paired with deep, fullbodied, almost musky red wines. Spice profiles similar to those in horseradish, fennel and mustard will give already rich charcuterie options added value, not only through increased depth of flavour, but also through a sense of having been made start-to-finish on a farm within an hour’s drive of where your deli platter is being served.

However, a wider range of meats is being explored in order for sharing platters to offer more than just porkcentric hams, salamis and chorizos.

Venison, duck and pheasant add elegance and individuality to sharing boards, at once bringing a charcuterie selection back to English ground, whilst also showcasing its meats’ versatility in the potential forms of homemade patés and boutique-smoked options.

Our lamb merguez serves as a perfect first bite in the new year – soft and peppery, with a light and fragrant spiciness, this English pick goes wonderfully with our smooth, mediumbodied Morgenster Lourens River Valley blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc from the Western Cape.

Accompaniments We aren’t short of smaller-batch, local and homemade chutneys, pickles

and relishes nowadays. Flavour combinations which pair familiar home fruits with herb and spice influences from outside of Europe have meant cardamom, coriander seeds and bird’s eye chillies are just a few of many twists being included in the jars we serve with our cheeses.

Moving forward into a year where the balance between heritage produce and health-conscious choices will continue to be struck in daily diets, cheese and charcuterie platters could see their accompaniments develop into some more exciting and experimental options.

Partially fulfilling our daily intake of greens while continuing to move away from the ‘boring salad’ stigma, side dishes could emerge such as raw Asian bean salads, pickles that evolve from resembling traditional piccalilli to resembling very mild kim-chi, and lighter, seasonal homemade slaws that omit dated cream bases in favour of aioli or beet-juice.

Currently, our veggie board boasts homemade olive tapenade, homemade sundried tomato & basil hummus, and a cranberry, walnut, Wensleydale & apple salad. D For more information on Pairings Wine Bar, visit: www.pairings.co.uk

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IndustryNews Driving innovation A cutting-edge facility for food and drink businesses in the Greater London Area has officially opened at the University of West London (UWL).

The West London Food Innovation Lab, a £1.5 million project co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, offers London and Greater London start-ups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) advice and technical support crucial for new product development or product reformulation, providing a range of laboratory services ranging from nutritional and texture analysis to sensory evaluation.

Dr Andy Kemp, Group Sales and Marketing Director of Bidfood, who made the opening speech at the event, said: “This lab, and the expertise of the team who run it, will be crucial in reducing the risk for those start-ups and small businesses who push the boundaries with the sort of exciting innovation that really moves the market forwards in the UK.” www.uwl.ac.uk/for-business/accessour-expertise/west-london-foodinnovation-laboratory

Take a dip Houmous lovers can now indulge in a new range of deliciously healthy and colourful houmous made from rescued, wonky vegetables combined with modern flavours. Born out of a concern for the environment, ChicP is currently available in four irresistible flavours, including (new) Chilli Pumpkin, Herby Houmous; Beetroot Houmous; Carrot, Ginger, and Turmeric Houmous; and Banana and Cacao Houmous. In addition, for each Chilli Pumpkin Houmous sold, ChicP will donate ten per cent to Feedback, a London-based campaign group that works to regenerate nature by reducing the demands placed on it by the food system.

“Our Herby Houmous is one of our best sellers,” found Hannah McCollum, the chefturned-entrepreneur, comments. “It goes perfectly with anything from veggie crudités

and tortilla chips to smothered on freshly baked bread or as a topping for burgers.

“Or try dipping fresh apple slices into our Beetroot Houmous for a perfect balance of sweet acidity and earthy undertones or mix a dollop of our Carrot, Ginger and Turmeric Houmous into your homemade coleslaw for a Middle-Eastern twist on a classic,” she added.

Over the last eight years, Hannah has cooked for families across the UK and continental Europe, as a private chef. She often found herself converting leftover Middle-Eastern style veggie dishes into dips for the next meal. However, it wasn’t until Hannah began working in catering and events that she witnessed the colossal volumes of food wasted. Her love for healthy, fresh and locally sourced foods and her passion for creating new dishes from the food we already have in our homes inspired Hannah to start a company that could truly make a difference and in 2016, ChicP was born. www.chicp.co.uk

Glam for Glasgow Following on from designing Hutcheson’s City Grill, The 158 Club Lounge and The Spanish Butcher, Mosaic Architecture + Design has completed its fourth restaurant, bar and events space interior for RUSK & RUSK to date in So L.A., perhaps its most stylish and ambitious yet.

With a brief to design and deliver the interior for a new restaurant, bar and events concept inspired by Pacific Rim fusion and the Los Angeles dining scene, So L.A.’s layout takes inspiration from classic American mid-century diners with oversized curved booths and retro lines, while the muted material palate of concrete, aged woods, leathers and blackened steel – rivets and bolts included – owes much to America’s ‘steel made’ industrial heritage.

Stuart Black, Mosaic’s Head of Interior Design, said: “RUSK & RUSK are great

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clients to work with; very hands-on and collaborative. They have great design instinct and a vision that enabled us to create a unique interior we are proud of and which offers a unique addition to Glasgow’s thriving hospitality sector.”

Mosaic Director Stephen Mallon added: “It was terrific to work with RUSK & RUSK on another exciting project. The various challenges that this project presented were unique and managing the consultants, suppliers and contractors for this project proved key to its success following a great team effort.

“Once again, a terrific new venue has been created; and one which the team has already enjoyed frequenting and, I’m

sure, will continue to frequent on many occasions in the years ahead.”

So L.A. is a 220 cover outlet over two floors at 43 Mitchell Street in Glasgow city centre.

The design project value was £1 million. www.solaglasgow.com © Rusk & Rusk

IndustryNews Shake up the spirit market

Anyone for a cocktail?

At the end of November 2018 Bristolbased cocktail syrup brand Bristol Syrup Company clinched the deal for winter cocktail menu listings in Las Iguanas and Cosy Club. The listings feature its Raspberry Shrub and Cherry & Vanilla syrup in five cocktails, now available nationwide.

A collaboration between syrup experts Beyond the Bean and awardwinning Bristol bartenders, Dee Davies and Danny Walker, the team have been building the brand and accounts steadily since launching in September 2017.

Managing Director of Cosy Club Amber Wood explains why they chose the syrups: “We really like what the team at Bristol Syrup Company are doing. The syrups add loads of authentic flavour to our cocktail menu which we were excited to list on our new Autumn Winter menu. Their Raspberry Shrub has had great customer feedback in our ‘Blow a Raspberry at Collin’ cocktail which is in our top five best sellers.”

Luke Neale, Head of Bar Operations & Drinks Development at Las Iguanas added: “It’s great to reduce food miles where possible

so it makes sense for us to use another Bristol business. The Raspberry Shrub is hitting a key cocktail trend and we’re able to use it in two of our seasonal cocktails. Just having a shrub in the range shows how Dee and Danny at Bristol Syrup Company really know what they are doing when it comes to cocktail creation. It’s exciting to see what they will do next.” www.bristolsyrupcompany.com

Dublin’s hottest new hotel Dublin’s The Devlin has opened its doors as the coolest and newest community hub in Ranelagh. More than a hotel, The Devlin is a place for eye popping art, gorgeous food, stimulating entertainment and mixologists creating dreamy drinks.

With 40 modern and perfectly appointed bedrooms, a rooftop restaurant, terrace and cocktail bar and a 42-seater subterranean cinema, The Devlin is the place to see and stay in the city.

Pure Fitout, Northern Ireland’s fastest growing fit out company, are the craftsmen behind the installation and fit out of The Devlin. Bringing the hotel to life from scratch, Pure Fitout sourced and manufactured nearly every feature of hotel from the 40 ModPods, to the timber panelled rooftop restaurant and bar, art deco cinema, bronze-finished Americana Bar and Moroccan tiled bathrooms.

With spectacular views of Ranelagh, the

© Project Pictures

Diageo’s premium blended Irish whiskey brand, Roe & Co, is set to launch a dynamic digital and PR campaign to raise UK consumer awareness of the spirit. The campaign will champion art, design and the drinks industry through a reinvention of the old with a modern twist. With its activations comprising of a mix of workshops, sampling and immersive events, the campaign will offer people the chance to take part in craft sessions and teach them about onceredundant practices being brought back to life.

With Roe & Co’s new distillery opening in Dublin in Spring 2019, already recognised among the ten best new openings in the world by Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2019, the campaign’s goal is to get Roe & Co on consumers’ lips, giving them a chance to experience this versatile whiskey like never before.

Created by Master Blender Caroline Martin and her selected team of top bartenders, through more than 100 trials, this stunning premium whiskey radiates a golden hue rounded off with a velvety finish. Made from the finest hand-selected stocks of Irish malt and grain whiskies and aged in bourbon casks, Roe & Co has a refreshing body, with soft, sweet notes of vanilla, apple, pear and a warming spice, perfect for the upcoming colder months. www.roeandcowhiskey.com

Dublin Mountains and the sea, the 237 day project for Press Up Entertainment Group in collaboration with renowned designers, O’Donnell O’Neill Design Associates, and Lawrence & Long Architects, used innovative techniques and meticulous attention to detail to complete the first new build for the Group. www.purefitout.com/portfolio/ the-devlin-dublin-ireland

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Great things come in small packages Like most familyoperated firms, Strathmore Foods places sustainability at the heart of its business. When the company set out to improve its process efficiency, it hadn’t anticipated all the benefits that could be gained from the installation of a compact heating device

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cottish food manufacturer Strathmore Foods is one of the UK’s leading ready-meal manufacturers and produces a wide range of chilled and frozen products. Renowned for its Macaroni Pie, Strathmore Foods’ portfolio caters for the modern lifestyle, offering tasty meals in minutes at affordable prices.

In a world where efficiency is king, plant managers and operators are constantly looking to improve the energy efficiency of heat transfer and maximise savings – and Douglas Nisbet, Operations Director at Strathmore Foods, is no different.

“To remain competitive, we believe that we must invest in appropriate areas and this philosophy will sustain our growth for generations to come,” says Douglas.

As food manufacturers are notoriously large consumers of water and energy, fuel costs will

always represent a high proportion of their overheads. Strathmore Foods predominantly uses hot water for wash-down and clean-in-place (CIP) processes. Douglas explains: “Our site has expanded over the years but our existing hot water heating solution remained the same. It came to our attention that we were struggling to deliver a suitable flow-rate and temperature, which was causing inefficiencies in the amount of time spent to clean everything effectively.

“We knew we had a problem but we didn’t know how to solve it, so we decided to conduct a plant audit to better understand the efficiency of our equipment.”

Walking the plant Strathmore Foods worked with Spirax Sarco to identify opportunities for improving process efficiency and energy savings. “We completed a ‘walk the

Water usage plant’ to check the health of the steam and hot water system, including the associated equipment. We worked together to identify areas that would improve our plant’s performance in terms of health and safety, process productivity and sustainability.

The ultimate goal was to find ways to achieve savings in water, fuel, chemicals and CO2,” says Douglas.

Following the audit, Strathmore Foods made the decision to upgrade the plant’s current steam/water mixing unit with a more suitable alternative – one that would not only improve efficiency, but reliability too.

The decision was made to replace the seven mixing units with a single, more compact packaged plate heat exchanger. Douglas explains: “Following the survey, we were advised to upgrade our existing heating solution with the EasiHeat™ system as it was more appropriate for our hot water generation requirements. The new unit has the ability to deliver hot water instantaneously, enabling CIP and wash-down to be completed in a much more productive way.”

A packaged plate heat exchanger is a compact unit that captures and reuses heat, which may otherwise be wasted, to deliver a constant supply of instantaneous hot water at a stable temperature. This reduces the amount of steam required, which in turn cuts fuel demand and the associated CO2 emissions.

Quality over quantity “As you can imagine, a single unit is much easier to manage than it was before, therefore maintenance time and costs have been cut dramatically, as has downtime. While the packaged plate heat exchanger certainly doesn’t eliminate the need for annual servicing, its requirements are much simpler to manage.

“Our new system is part of an existing service agreement we have with Spirax, which has made our annual servicing procedure a fairly effortless one. All of this helps us to keep the system running at optimum efficiency all year round, which is our main objective,” Douglas adds.

Sweet success Since updating its steam/water mixing units, Strathmore Foods has even greater control of the amount of water it is using. “We’re already seeing improvements over our previous solution. What’s more, the new packaged plate heat exchanger unit supplied to Strathmore Foods generates increased volumes of hot water and provides the business with an opportunity for expansion when the time is right,” says Douglas.

“We now have the ability to cope with high and low capacity and we can tailor the output we require on demand.”

Douglas concludes: “At the early planning stages, we were quite simply looking at ways to improve our wash-

down process, but we have gained a lot more than we bargained for. Our primary aim was to improve process efficiency, and not only have we achieved that, but we’ve also secured a sustainable future for the business as this device will allow us room to grow.

“The fact we now have a reliable and consistent supply of hot water is a huge benefit to the business in terms of time and cost, while the flexibility of the system enables us to run more confidently. Spirax is a trusted partner of ours and we have the peace of mind that, with this solution, we can ensure everything is cleaned in an efficient and effective way. They say great things come in small packages. In this case, we can wholeheartedly agree!” D

Company name: Strathmore Foods Ltd. Location: Forfar, Scotland Objective: Accurate, reliable and consistent hot water supply to provide efficient cleaning for wash-down processes.

Solution: Following a plant audit, the business installed a new packaged plate heat exchanger unit.

Results: Fast and instantaneous supply of hot water through a single unit which has the ability to cope with greater demand, providing the opportunity for expansion in the future. www.strathmore-foods.com www.spiraxsarco.com/pages/home.aspx

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Catering for the future

As the issue of plastic waste takes centre stage, Andrew Hutchison and Colin Hutchison highlight how the use of single-use plastics in schools can be reduced

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I

nnovative, efficient and costeffective, plastic has become an integral part of life in the home, office and within industry. Yet on 24 October 2018, the European Parliament approved a new ban on single-use plastic items. From 2021, plastic cutlery, cotton buds, straws and stirrers will be banned. Plastic food containers are to be reduced by 25 per cent by 2025 and plastic bottles will have to be recycled at a rate of 90 per cent.

Over recent years, single-use plastics have become public enemy number one, destroying ecosystems, poisoning our oceans and the creatures that live in them. An estimated 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced since the 1950s, and of this, only nine per cent has been recycled. The rest is currently thrown into landfill and, according to a research study published in 2015,

eight million tonnes of this ends up in our oceans every year. Research has also shown that 72 per cent of the UK’s drinking water, and over 100 types of seafood that we eat, are contaminated with microplastics.

So, the forthcoming plastics ban is undoubtedly a step in the right direction – but in the meantime, much more needs to be done on the ground. Within the food and drink industry, plasticbased food and drink cutlery and packaging is a real problem, and this is no better exemplified than in the school catering market.

In 2008, an education report by WRAP found that plastic bottles, food wrappers, containers and straws were being used in particularly highvolumes across schools, colleges and universities. At that time, the average secondary school produced over 71,000 tonnes of waste each academic

Catering year, and 17 per cent of this (roughly 12,000 tonnes) was from plastic alone.

Since then, there has been a focus on trying to reduce these statistics, but as long as plastic still pervades in the canteen, the issue still remains.

Tackling the problem Our clients in education often ask us, “What are you going to do about the use of single-use plastics?”

As caterers, we are keen to do our part. Over 50 per cent of our food products are now served in fully recyclable packaging and a significant portion of our meal deals have been adapted to lessen the amount of plastic used. In some schools, we’ve now taken plastic bottles off the menu completely so that students drink only tap water. In other schools, we supply drinks in aluminium cans or tetra-pak cartons instead.

By removing items such as water bottles from our meal deal menus, or substituting with costlier cans and cartons, it can have a detrimental effect on the bottom line for both client and caterer. So, in order for us to stay profitable, we need to get the balance right but also consider the need to keep school meals affordable for families.

At secondary level in particular, there is a significant demand for fast, grab ‘n’ go food options which involve significantly more packaging than a

sit-down meal, so preparing all the food without packaging is not an option for many – which means that the packaging issue will always be with us.

Currently, while we try to source compostable cutlery and recyclable packaged foods wherever possible, much of the ‘recyclable’ packaging used by food manufacturers still contain elements of plastic, which makes recycling significantly harder.

For example, cardboard sandwich boxes often include a thin plastic film lining which can’t be recycled, while drinks cartons come wrapped in plastic, and each pack comes with a plastic straw, encased in a plastic cover, which is attached by way of a plastic-derived adhesive.

But even if the plastic elements can in theory be recycled, there are still some sites without effective recycling systems – so packaging inevitably ends up in landfill anyway.

What more needs to be done?

Better recycling provision in schools would certainly be an advantage, so that students can dispose of their waste responsibly. There are many positive examples, but we now need to see this consistently across the board. On the whole, student-driven change in schools seems to manifest itself in better results. However, their

enthusiasm can be dampened, for example when they are faced with very limited options from suppliers to substitute plastic bottled drinks.

There is also a danger that when one proactive student group moves on, their initiatives will be forgotten. So, any good schemes brought in by students need to be written permanently into the school policy for the future in order to make a real difference over time.

Going forward, educating students about the plastic problem as part of the curriculum would also help facilitate change. When a student steering group is passionate about tackling the plastic problem, it’s great to see. However, it is not as easy as simply telling caterers to avoid packaging – we are doing our bit, but we cannot change everything on our own. Much more needs to be done.

We need government and local authority support, pressure on manufacturers, more legislation, increased plastic-free packaging options and better recycling facilities, and other initiatives too. A government ban on students bringing plastic bottles to school, for example, could also help significantly in the education sector.

If the whole of society, from manufacturers right through to consumers, can work together to bring about lasting change, it will transform the world we live in for the better. It is important that public awareness of the plastic problem stays in the spotlight, to keep the momentum moving in the right direction. With the right initiatives and in working together, there is certainly hope that the plastic issue will lessen over time. D [For a list of sources used in the creation of this article, please contact the editor.]

Andrew Hutchison and Colin Hutchison are Directors of Hutchison Catering. Hutchison Catering delivers first-class freshfood catering and food management services within the business and education sectors. www.hutchisoncatering.co.uk

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18 www.foodchainmagazine.com

Grease traps

Grease is the word

Richard Leigh

Freeing the environment from the grease trap. By Richard Leigh

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here cannot be many people in the UK who do not know about fatbergs. The giant clumps of fats and oils, and other waste matter, that can clog the UK’s sewers have captured the public imagination.

As a drainage and utilities specialist, Lanes Group has played its part, working with Thames Water to remove the famous Whitechapel Fatberg. That particular ‘monster’ became the subject for a museum exhibition, and Channel 4’s ‘Fatberg Autopsy’ programme, which drew on the expertise of the Water Research Centre (WRc). It may even be turned into a musical.

Fatbergs are a symptom of our collective inability to control what is wrongly disposed of, accidently or deliberately, down sinks and drains.

Main constituents include fats, oils, and grease – known as FOG. In commercial premises, the main device used to try to stop FOG entering drains and sewers is the grease separator, commonly referred to as a grease trap. It is clear, then, that there is a problem with grease traps.

There are two main types of commercial kitchen grease traps – external grease traps, and internal ones. External grease traps, or interceptors, are larger and are usually installed underground. They are commonly installed as part of a considered control measure as part of a large commercial food operation and should comply with BSEN1825.

They need to be emptied and cleaned regularly. In most cases, they work well, if maintained appropriately.

Internal grease traps are much

smaller and can be retro-fitted in smaller commercial kitchens, often in urban centres, where space is limited, and do not need to meet any quality standards. In both cases, FOG separation may be passive, where FOG is allowed to float to the surface where it can be pumped out. Or it can be active, with a mechanical skimming device.

Grease management

‘

Grease traps may also include dosing systems, which regularly add bacteria to the grease trap to break down FOG and prevent it from reforming in drains. Dosing that involves enzymes should be avoided as this only temporarily breaks fatty acid bonds, allowing FOG to reform in sewer pipes.

That may sound comprehensive, but Lanes drainage teams find plenty of evidence of grease traps not working.

In many cases, the wrong grease traps are fitted, or they are fitted badly. The grease traps selected are often too small for the food service establishment (FSE) they are expected to serve.

A new industry body, the Grease Contractors’ Association (GCA), supported

by British Water, is a collaboration of leading grease trap installation and maintenance specialists. It says its aim is to create a new code of practice for the sizing, installation and maintenance of grease traps.

The WRc’s FOG and Wipes Technical Lead, Andy Drinkwater, agrees that there are serious issues and has been carrying out research into the problem for the last decade.

Grease traps are often poorly maintained, and not emptied frequently enough, because of cost or because the waste smells. Many FSE do not have effective housekeeping. Just because you have a grease trap, you should not pour oil down a sink. These issues make many grease traps highly ineffective, if not counter-productive.

There are regulations covering the control of FOG, but they are piecemeal, and not well enforced. Andy Drinkwater, puts it this way: “There are very few effective regulations.

Measures for ‘effective grease removal’ must be incorporated in any commercial kitchen design for it to get planning approval. That goes for newbuilds and change-of-use. However, it’s not clear what the word ‘effective’ means and there is no obligation to operate a grease trap once planning approval has been gained.”

Andy goes on to make the point that environmental health officers have the legal right to enter food premises to check kitchen practices, but due to funding constraints, they tend to focus on core hygiene issues, not waste disposal.

Water companies and the Environment Agency have powers to prosecute FSEs for FOG discharges that disrupt sewers and waterways, but these have not been consistently or rigorously enforced. Obtaining conclusive evidence to identify the discharger can be very difficult.

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Grease traps

Tackling FOG has been an uphill struggle. Most localised sewer flooding is associated with FOG and other materials, notably wipes, not with the physical inadequacy of sewer pipes.

Southern Water says it deals with around 23,000 FOG-related sewer blockages a year, costing £15m to clear.

A Thames Water survey in Oxford found 95 per cent of FSEs in the city had no effective grease management.

Things are changing, though, and there is a place for the design of grease traps and the approach to their installation to play an important part.

For a start, Andy Drinkwater at the WRc points out that some UK installers are offering grease traps that meet the more effective standards in force in Canada and the USA. Also, the awareness raised by publicity about fatbergs, environmental pollution and the cost of wastewater maintenance is focusing minds across the water, construction and building maintenance industries on more effective ways to control FOG. For a start, water companies are targeting FSEs with a two-pronged campaign, seeking to educate the worst offenders about FOG and if they do not get the message, prosecuting them. For example, in January 2018, a Severn Trent Water prosecution, under Section

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111 of the Water Industry Act, for blocking a sewer with FOG resulted in a Shropshire restaurant paying £9266 in fines and costs.

Driven by positive sustainability strategies, many restaurant and food production companies are working hard to control FOG. Among these is McDonald’s, which has been proactive in putting in effective grease interception, maintenance and housekeeping measures.

Fighting the fatberg A new industry body, the Grease Contractors’ Association (GCA), supported by British Water, is a collaboration of leading grease trap installation and maintenance specialists. It says its aim is to create a new code of practice for the sizing, installation and maintenance of grease traps. GCA members agree to be regularly audited by British Water, which is hosting a Fighting the Fatberg conference at Cranfield University on 27 February 2019.

New ways are being found to recycle oils and fats, as well as sewer FOG. Lanes is working with Argent Energy, which is turning FOG into bio-diesel fuel. Other ideas include turning waste food oils and fats into fertilisers and animal feed.

Over time, it is hoped this will encourage the installation of new and more effective grease traps that do a better job of capturing and making positive use of fats and oils before they get into sewers.

I would make a plea for grease trap installers and specifiers, including civil and construction engineers, to emphasis the importance of maintenance of grease traps, including having effective and timely cleaning and emptying regimes.

Andy Drinkwater, at the WRc, believes more effective regulation, including a review of building and planning regulations, is also essential.

He says: “Grease traps should be installed. Unfortunately, legislation is so weak, and UK standards are so lacking for smaller traps and grease removal units that often the outcome is very unsatisfactory.”

There is growing public support for action to stop disposable wipes from being flushed down toilets. Maybe, with similar support, we can find better technical grease capture solutions for reducing the environmental damage caused by FOG. D

Richard Leigh is Development Director, Lanes Group plc. Lanes Group plc is a national drainage and water utilities specialist. Its services include CCTV drainage surveys, drain and sewer cleaning and unblocking, sewer excavation and repair, sewer lining, wet well and tank emptying, industrial cleaning, tankering and professional services. Key markets are construction, rail, water utilities, energy, highways, insurance and commercial maintenance. www.lanesgroup.com www.lanesfordrains.so.uk

British Water FOG conference www.britishwater.co.uk/ events/fog-conference-2019422.aspx

Argent Energy www.argentenergy.com

Exports

Share the taste

Paul Shand explores how British cider makers can avoid the winter downturn in sales by giving the southern hemisphere and warm-climate countries a taste for their tipple

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t’s no surprise that spring and summer are key sales periods for cider brands as the drink has become synonymous with BBQ season. While summer might be a distant memory, it doesn’t mean thirst for cider has dried up, with global demand for the sweet drink and Britishstamped products continuing to grow.

The UK has an unrivalled reputation for cider making, with near perfect conditions for apple growing. Our nation is at the core of the industry, thanks to popular brands like Thatchers and Sheppy’s flying the flag for the country.

Paul Shand

Latest figures show that the UK now exports cider to 50 countries worldwide, with British-made craft cider cropping up in bars in cities ranging from New York to Tokyo.

As demand for cider continues to soar overseas, it’s important that local producers know which markets to target and how exporting can help them equalise seasonal spikes in demand.

As part of the Food is GREAT campaign, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department for International Trade (DIT) offer a wealth of support to help British producers who are keen to explore markets overseas.

Warm-climate countries and the Southern Hemisphere can provide lucrative opportunities for firms to keep up sales year-round. Cider is traditionally enjoyed in the sunshine, so with the Southern Hemisphere’s summer months falling between

October and February, cider producers are provided with ample opportunities to even out Northern Hemisphere seasonal demand.

And countries with year-round sunshine are also prime places for British cider makers to consider exporting. One local business that’s successfully tapping into this opportunity is Sheppy’s Cider. The brand currently exports to 15 countries including Singapore and India.

By targeting warmer climates during the British winter, it has been able to sustain popularity and demand for its range of refreshing ciders throughout the year. While exporting provides a myriad of opportunities and benefits for cider producers, it can also bring challenges such as logistics and language.

Alcohol is highly regulated and, when exporting, it’s important for businesses to familiarise themselves with local standards and regulations.

Requirements around labelling must also be considered.

For example, Sheppy’s Cider needs to show the volume of its product in fluid ounces as well as in millilitres when exporting to the US. Each country will have its own unique requirements and regulations, so it’s vital that brands research their chosen markets or get in touch with professional organisations for support.

Not only is there a dedicated team of trade advisers across the South West to support ambitious and innovative businesses looking to access new markets and increase exports, but there is also a team of experienced sector specialists and an overseas network in over 100 countries. We can offer a range of guidance and support, including international market research and exporting workshops, as well as enabling contact with buyers and distributors in new markets. D

Paul Shand is Head of Exports in the South West, Department for International Trade (DIT). The Department for International Trade helps businesses export, drives inward and outward investment, negotiates market access and trade deals, and champions free trade. Breweries and all other firms looking for exporting support should contact their local DIT office or visit: www.great.gov.uk

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Discover a taste of tomorrow T

Back for its milestone 21st edition, The International Food & Drink Event (IFE) will be returning to ExCeL London on 17-20 March with an insightful and vibrant schedule of talks, tastings and trends forecasting

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he biennial event is a mustattend for all those looking to explore a taste of tomorrow and will provide buyers with the chance to discover emerging trends; meet with thousands of international, future-focused brands; and hear inspiring and thought-provoking talks from key figures across the food & drink industry.

Taking place in London – the home of food & drink innovation – IFE 2019 offers a unique opportunity for both British and international suppliers to meet and connect with top retail, wholesale & distribution, import & export and foodservice & hospitality buyers all under one roof. With 1350 cutting-edge food & drink manufacturers attending from 111 countries, IFE 2019 is one of the only places to experience the best of what the food & drink industry has to offer across the globe.

2019 Food & Drink Insight With a jam-packed line up, IFE 2019 aims to help buyers navigate the changing landscape of the food & drink market by exploring the trends which will shape the industry in 2019 and beyond.

To help form the event agenda, IFE surveyed its network of members to find out which trends made the biggest impact on their businesses in 2018. Plantbased food & veganism, the free-from movement and booze-free beverages1 were listed as the top three trends that influenced the sector in 2018.

Looking at what’s on the horizon for 2019, IFE’s research also found that plant-based eating, sustainable packaging, gut-friendly foods and sugar-free are the most prominent trends businesses are looking to leverage in 20192 – demonstrating the affect consumers’ growing interest in health & wellbeing is having on the sector.

Exhibition Preview: IFE 2019

Talking & Tasting Trends To delve deeper into these trends, prominent experts from the food & drink industry, including leading plant-based influencers, will take to the IFE Talking Trends stage throughout the four-day event to share their experiences, opinions and predictions.

The impressive line-up includes Maria Antidormi, Insight Consultant at Anima Insight; Al Overton, Senior Buyer at Planet Organic; Derek Sarno, Director of Plant-Based Food Innovation at Tesco; and James Hacon, Managing Director of Think Hospitality. In addition, the Tasting Trends area – which is new to IFE 2019 – will provide a multi-sensory experience that will take visitors on a culinary journey as they see, smell and taste the food & drink of the future.

It comes as no surprise that plantbased foods remain the hottest topic, but the Tasting Trends feature will also highlight trends such as food that promotes good gut health (fermented foods), food with good fats (Omega 3) and foods that relieve stress (vitamised juices). It will also take a closer look at the new stronger spicy flavours coming through in snacks and confectionery, as well why the proportion of Brits drinking alcohol is at its lowest.

Trend Trails To ensure visitors don’t miss out on key insights, back by popular demand are the Trend Trails. Designed to help visitors navigate their way around the event one key insight at a time, the Trend Trails will visit some of the most progressive brands in the plant-based, food to go, private label, circular brands

and global innovations movements.

Speaking about this year’s event line up, Soraya Gadelrab, Event Director for IFE, said: “We have brought together a truly fantastic line-up of experts for this year’s event, to offer buyers the most up-to-date intel on the changing food & drink landscape and provide inspiration, ideas and tools to help businesses tap into upcoming trends. It’s a mustvisit for anyone looking to grow their business in 2019 and beyond.”

As the food & drink industry’s biggest event of the year, IFE 2019 has garnered interest from some of the sector’s leading brands. These include:

Brand Focus

which is a twist on Eton mess with a blend of vanilla ice cream, meringue pieces and a swirl of red fruit sauce.

What’s more, the product has been developed to support the Royal Hospital of Chelsea’s Scarlett campaign to raise money for Chelsea-based pensioners.

Land & Tide Land & Tide produce ready-to-drink iced coffees using a unique cold brew blend with no sugar and incorporating plantbased ingredients, such as oats and rice. The start-up launched in August 2018 and will be sampling its Oat Iced Coffee and Oat Iced Mocha – its bestselling vegan coffees – at IFE 2019.

Ape Snacks Ape Snacks is a young and fast-growing business which operates across the UK and Europe. Formed in 2014, Ape Snacks has a mission to help people eat better. At IFE 2019, Ape Snacks will be showcasing the world’s first coconut puff and vegan cheese puff. Made with a mix of coconut and rice flour, coconut oil and all-natural seasonings, the range is packed with tonnes of flavour but none of the guilt – making them the perfect healthy snack!

Yumello

Cream & Country Ice Cream Bringing a taste of indulgence to IFE 2019, Cream & Country is a quintessentially British brand which creates deliciously quirky ice cream in a range of unique flavours, such as new forest gateau, English cream tea, sparkling wine & elderflower and rhubarb & ginger. Visitors to IFE will have the chance to sample Cream & Country’s new Scarlett ripple flavour,

Inspired by the Berber peoples’ sheer inventiveness and adventurous soul, Yumello celebrates the fierce, disorderly and bold flavours of the Atlas Mountains. Launched to the market in October 2018, Yumello combines simple ingredients mountain ingredients, such as cold-pressed argan oil, juicy dates and roasted nuts, to make its delicious nut butters. At IFE 2019, visitors to the Yumello stand will be transported deep into the Atlas Mountains via vibrant colours, Berber textures and plenty of jars of Yumello to taste.

For more information on IFE 2019 and to register for free, please visit: www.ife.co.uk 1 & 2 - Survey of 216 members of the IFE network, December 2018

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CD19_a4_advert_PACKAGED.qxp_CD66 A4 13/12/2018 14:33 Page 1

THE ONLY DEDICATED SHOW FOR THE CASUAL DINING SECTOR

Book your FREE trade ticket at www.casualdiningshow.co.uk using priority code CD66

“Casual Dining unites our industry in a truly powerful way – I am sure it will continue to be unmissable as it moves to ExCeL.” ZOE BOWLEY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, UK & IRELAND, PIZZAEXPRESS

@CasDiningShow #CasDining19

Exhibition preview – Casual Dining Show 2019

Casual Dining Show 2019 The industry prepares for biggest ever Casual Dining event on the 27-28 February 2019 at London’s ExCel

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he UK’s biggest restaurant, pub and bar event of the year, Casual Dining takes place at the new venue of ExCeL London on 27-28 February.

Its compelling line-up will include a record 220 exhibitors, plus 50 speakers appearing in 25 free business seminars across two dedicated keynote theatres (both sponsored by Yumpingo).

Already known for being a magnet for top buyers from across the casual dining sector (it welcomed 4800 attendees in 2018) it’s aiming to raise the bar yet again. Its new, larger venue will accommodate even more exhibitors, an additional Keynote theatre, and more specialist show feature areas (including a new Scotland Food & Drink Pavilion, alongside the returning Craft Beer & Cider Zone and Artisan Spirits Lounge).

New venue, new trends An unprecedented 220 exhibiting companies – from the biggest to the newest names serving the UK’s restaurants, pubs and bars, are preparing to showcase 1000s of innovations at this year’s event.

The only dedicated event for the sector, Casual Dining’s 5,000+ attendees will be able to see and sample more on-trend products and services than ever before.

Event manager Eva Ellis explains: “Casual Dining has proved itself year

after year to be an essential visit to see what’s new and compare the latest products from leading and emerging suppliers.

“Now for 2019, at its new home of ExCeL London, it’ll showcase its biggest and most eclectic exhibitor line-up yet. Around one in three are new to the show, including big names like Scotland Food & Drink (who are hosting a new pavilion), Diageo, Honest Drinks by Coca-Cola European Partners, Hellman’s, Deloitte, Futura Foods UK, and Epson UK. “Everything that casual dining operators need to run their businesses successfully will be on show at Casual Dining. That’s why the biggest, most influential buyers and decision makers in the business annually attend, and that’s why they say: it’s unmissable.”

Some of the world’s best-selling beer and cider brands are also now confirmed, including Heineken UK – Blade, Carlsberg UK, and Molson Coors (whose portfolio includes Carling, Coors Light, Staropramen, Cobra, Grolsch, Doom Bar and more).

Free keynotes Thanks to the addition of a second Keynote Theatre for 2019, visitors will also be able to enjoy even more great content from some of the industry’s most inspiring business leaders.

Among the big names announced

so far are five CEOs, including Casual Dining Group’s Steve Richards (who oversees brands including Bella Italia, Café Rouge and Las Iguanas), Brewdog’s David MacDowall (CEO of Retail), and UKHospitality’s Kate Nicholls.

Jon Knight, head of Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group, whose opening day Keynote last year was widely covered in the national and trade press, will also be back at the show to discuss the brand’s refresh 12 months on.

Plus, Mark Jones, CEO of Carluccio’s, who will be making his much-anticipated Casual Dining speaking debut. Industry leaders and influencers from Dishoom, wagamama, Mowgli, Pizza Hut Restaurants UK, The Alchemist Bars & Restaurants, PizzaExpress, Mitchells & Butlers, Loungers, and Oakman Inns have also joined the show’s high-profile Keynote line-up.

Free advance trade registration Casual Dining will take place at the new venue of ExCeL London on 27-28 February 2019. Entry to the show’s two Keynote Theatres is free with advance visitor registration.

To find out more and to register for your free trade ticket, visit www. casualdiningshow.co.uk and use priority code CD66.

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TasteTest

A British take on a classic Premium blackcurrant liqueur, British Cassis - part of the White Heron Brands portfolio - has secured its first national listing with Waitrose, a year on from its successful rebranding.

British Cassis is a British take on a classic French crème de cassis, made with pressed juice from Herefordshire blackcurrants. British Cassis is made using a technique particular to White Heron, which draws on classic winemaking in order to capture the intensity of the freshly picked British

blackcurrants. Once the blackcurrant juice has fermented naturally with champagne yeast, it is blended with a little vodka to fortify and sweeten in order to accentuate the rich, fruity flavours. The liquid is then bottled, ready to be enjoyed.

Jo Hilditch, MD of White Heron Brands and creator of British Cassis comments: “Provenance, heritage and sustainability are crucial for us and these are values shared by Waitrose.

As a British brand, we’re obviously

thrilled to be available in its stores.” www.whiteherondrinks. co.uk

“We always enjoy a Kir Royale at Christmas and the family was very impressed with the British Cassis – it had a great blackcurrant hit and while sweet wasn’t sugary – the tartness of the currants shone through.”

Say cheese!

A fresh mozzarella-style cheese perfectly presented in a nutritious, calcium-rich peel-able cheese stick; Pik-Nik was recently recognised at the International Cheese and Dairy Awards where it won the 2018 Gold Award for Children’s cheese.

Sales of Pik-Nik have also received a valuable winter boost following a recently introduced product enhancement that has increased the Vitamin D content.

Deficiency in this vitamin can occur during winter months, a situation that can be addressed through diet. Each Pik-Nik now provides a valuable source

of Vitamin D alongside calcium and Vitamin A. All these nutrients play a role in enabling our body fight off ailments such as colds, the winter-blues and even dry skin. www.pik-nik.lv

“This was a great little addition to my lunch box every day!” said our tester. “I liked how they came in a pack of four, and the portion size was perfect. The cheese was fun to peel so I am sure kids would enjoy it too. It was very mild in flavour but made a satisfying snack and I would buy these again.”

A taste of history Langley’s England has officially launched its version of the classic 19th century gin, Old Tom. Langley’s Old Tom uses an original gin recipe that dates back to the 1891 with an added twist that ensures it sits well on modern day palates; with notes of orange peel candy, nutmeg and juniper.

Langley’s England brand ambassador, Jonathan Zammit-Tabona noted that the Old Tom remains very true to the original recipe but has also been refined for a more contemporary setting. “It is already celebrated by

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the bar community and we were keen to bring to life this unique style for drinkers who enjoy a gin with an intriguing back story and complex flavours,” he said. www.langleysgin.com

“I liked the back story of Old Tom and I found it had a sweeter, and slightly spicy side that made it particularly suitable for this time of year – it felt festive and warming. The flavours were very well balanced, and while it may have an original recipe, it still feels very modern.”

TasteTest

Superfood seaweed snacks Thanks to new SHØRE Seaweed Puffs, all the amazing health benefits of seaweed can be enjoyed in a tasty and bite sized puff. As moreish as crisps, but at less than 100 calories per 22.5 g bag and packed with nutrients, antioxidants, electrolytes, vitamins and minerals, SHØRE Seaweed Puffs contain the equivalent over 6g of fresh Scottish sustainable seaweed in one bag. The range consists of four delicious flavours to suit all taste buds: Sea Salt & Balsamic, Sweet & Smoky, Lime, Chilli & Coconut and Thai Chilli.

Seaweed is something of a nutritional powerhouse - it is much more nutrient dense than just about any land vegetable and is rich in vitamins, minerals and protein, as well as being low in calories, high in soluble fibre and a great source of antioxidants.

Seaweed is also a great source of iodine, a nutrient that is missing in almost every other food! Iodine

helps regulate hormone levels and thyroid function, as well as supporting a healthy metabolism and maintaining energy levels. www.shoreseaweed.com

The Lime, Chilli & Coconut variant was a big hit with the Taste Test team – not that they didn’t appreciate the other flavours, but the Lime, Chilli & Coconut really hit the spot. “I can’t tell these are seaweed (the Sweet & Smoky was a bit too ‘seaweedy’ for me) and I liked the chilli kick and the coconut sweetness. The puffs have a good texture, and totally fill the crisps gap in my lunch box with a much healthier alternative.”

Water with benefits Following on from the success of Skinny Water’s original three variants, Pomegranate, Raspberry and Orange, the experts at Bio-Synergy have added three new flavour variants to the mix: Skinny Bellini, Skinny Mojito and Gym Tonic.

These unique flavours aim to give consumers the feeling of being naughty without the actual nasties. In fact, each drink is made of the finest UK spring water and contains zero sugar, zero calories and have been fortified with a unique blend of vitamins and minerals, proven to curb sugar cravings and improve energy levels and wellbeing.

Made from still British spring water, lemon and lime flavour Gym Tonic has added

L-glutamine and L-leucine. These important amino acids contribute to the protein needed to repair and grow muscles after strenuous activity. www.bio-synergy.co.uk

“I am always the one to volunteer to test drinks for after a workout – I love something flavoured but don’t want any sugar and appreciate any additions that can boost the benefits of going to the gym! The taste of the Gym Tonic was subtle and not overpowering and the fact it was still rather than sparkling makes it easier to drink post-run. It was an easy and tasty way for me to up my daily water intake, too!”

Yo, ho ho and a bottle of rum A range of quality, authentic spirits made using only natural ingredients, CUT RUM delivers a portfolio that includes CUT SPICED (a premium Caribbean rum infused with real spices); CUT OVERPROOF (a 151 Proof rum that is typically used in cocktail making and cooking) and CUT SMOKED (a three-year-old Jamaican rum infused with Arabica coffee beans, oak chip smoke and tobacco and boasting a naturally smoked infusion.)

Each product combines premium blends of rum from Trinidad and Jamaica that are crafted in copper pot stills before being infused with only natural ingredients including; aniseed, nutmeg, ginger, pepper, cinnamon, coriander seed, lemon and vanilla to produce authentic, unique tasting liquids.

The CUT RUM brand has already created a buzz across the on trade. A number of smokehouses around the UK are food pairing CUT SMOKED on their menus and Living Ventures have been experimenting with CUT SMOKED, crafting and serving smoked cocktails including; Smoky Mary, Smoked Negroni and a Smoked Old Fashioned. www.cutrum.com

The team was very interested in these new rums – 2018 has been the year of the gin, and we’ve been hearing interesting things for 2019 and rum! The premium nature of the rum was immediately apparent, and both the Spiced and the Smoked had very distinctive and individual flavour profiles. “I found the spiced version had a vanilla and caramel note I wasn’t expecting, and the coffee note of the smoked version came through with quite a complicated mix of smokiness. These are sophisticated rums that I think are on a new level of quality – very impressed.”

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A touch of Chinese class

Dubbed the most exclusive club in Germany, the China Club Berlin was created to provide a global, glamourous and cosmopolitan environment for its members, and a place where they can feel at home 28 www.foodchainmagazine.com

Adlon Holding: China Club Berlin

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Anne Maria Jagdfeld

ituated on the Southside of the legendary Hotel Adlon in the heart of the German capital, and taking in views of the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag and Potsdamer Platz, is one of the country’s most exclusive destinations. Founded and designed by Anne Maria Jagdfeld, China Club Berlin is a traditional private Members Club that offers its guests a breath-taking restaurant and bar, library, private suites and what it describes as ‘the most beautiful roof terrace in Berlin’. Its operations are managed by ADLON Holding, which also operates the India Club Berlin, the Lorenz Adlon Wine shop, and the soon to open Lorenz Adlon Wine Bar and an Italian Restaurant in Heiligendamn.

Stepping inside the China Club Berlin, what first strikes you how it has incorporated a mix of precious Chinese antiquities, contemporary Chinese art and Chinese cuisine to create an elegant, yet unpretentious ambiance suitable for its guests.

“Since the opening of the China Club Berlin, it has been a private space hosting selected members, with politicians, entrepreneurs, lawyers, royals and captains of industry proudly calling it their ‘second home’,” explains Adlon Holding’s Chief Executive Officer, Georg Albrecht Heine. “In order to become a member one must be recommended by two existing members, take part in an interview with our General Manager and then by approved by the Member Committee. This thorough process, which our members expect, assists us in retaining our unique atmosphere.”

The bar inside the China Club Berlin, with its red satin walls, polished mahogany and post-Maoist Red Guards in oil, is a modern interpretation of the legendary Peace bar in Shanghai.

From here, one can also gain access to the aforementioned roof terrace, which is renowned for its cocktails and for hosting all manner of receptions during the summer months. From the foyer, oak-panelled corridors lead to individually designed private dining rooms, which are created with variable walls for events of all types and sizes. Each suite, which come with names such as ‘Concubine’, ‘Imperial’ or ‘Taipan’, has its own unique character and represents Chinese high culture, with hand-carved doors from old teahouses, Chinoiseries, objects d’art and hand-painted silk wallpapers.

Gastronomic experience Antiques and gilded panels also line the entrance to the restaurant, from which the highly-respected Chef Tam Kok Kong is responsible for creating quality Chinese haute cuisine. With great emphasis placed on first-class, fresh ingredients, many of the products used within the restaurant come from controlled organic cultivation and are obtained from carefully selected regional agricultural businesses.

“It is not only about the exceptional food that our kitchen team provides, but also about the way our members are treated and how the food is presented,” Georg reveals. “Members of our service team have all been trained by us, or honed their skills in five-star hotels around the world. They not only know the names of our members and their preferences by heart, but also fillet, carve and flambé at the table if the dish requires it. We rarely hand out menus to our members, rather the service staff will see what they feel like having and compose the menu for them. We believe that dining should always be much more than simply

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consuming food. It should be a whole experience that can only be achieved by having a perfect atmosphere and surrounding, complimented by professional service, the right lighting, music and an interior fitting of the product.”

As we move into 2019, plans are afoot for the reconstruction of the China Club Berlin’s rooftop in order to incorporate an Italian dining experience. “What we are planning to do is enclose our rooftop with a glass roof, one which can be opened at the sides via sliding doors so that we can still provide the experience we current do during the summer,” Georg details. “By having a solution in place that allows us to close the roof we will be able to use the space all year, allowing our members to enjoy the spectacular views around us whenever they choose. The addition of a high-quality Italian kitchen in the China Club Berlin will be a highlight for our members. We have also applied to enclose the terrace of our bar. By doing so, we will increase the indoor space of the Club bar by nearly double, which will be a great benefit to everyone.”

The China Club Berlin will be looking to replicate the success it has had since the opening of the India Club Berlin Indian restaurant on the ground floor of the building complex a little over a year ago. “The India Club Berlin is open to the public, and has been incredibly successful with the locals in a relatively short space of time,” Georg enthuses. “We were even mentioned with the 2018 Michelin Guide, which is a source of incredible pride.”

Joining the Italian kitchen will be the Lorenz Adlon Wine Bar, which will also serve small Italian dishes and fresh homemade pasta, accompanied by wine recommendations from the Lorenz

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Adlon Holding: China Club Berlin Adlon Wine shop which will supply the wine bar once it reopens in the opening weeks of 2019. “With the opening of the Lorenz Adlon Wine shop, an exclusive address for wine connoisseurs in the centre of Berlin will come back to life,” Georg adds. “When Lorenz Adlon, founder of the famous Hotel Adlon, opened the shop back in 1907 it housed over a million bottles of wine, making it the largest and most important wine shop in the world, and therefore the imperial and royal court purveyor. The Lorenz Adlon Wine shop is aiming to continue these traditions by offering an exceptional selection of wines.”

Special events Away from Berlin, ADLON Holding also eagerly awaits the opening of its Italian Restaurant in Heiligendamm on the coast of the Baltic Sea. The restaurant, which is expected to open at the end of April 2019, will provide excellent seafront views, a welcoming atmosphere and high-quality food options, making it a great addition to the business’ portfolio.

Of course, the success of a good food operation also stems from the relationships a company has with its suppliers, some of which have been with ADLON Holding and China Club Berlin for the long-run. “We have been working with Metro Deutschland, for instance, since the very beginning and are very happy with their fast service, the quality of the food service products they supply us with, and the fact that we can call on them to be a reliable partner,” Georg says.

“While we are very pleased with what we have achieved over the past 15 years, we always strive to achieve more, which is why we have begun to co-operate with exclusive brands that match our own,” Georg reveals.

“Together, we are currently working on events and special experiences for our members that you won’t simply just come by or be able to book anywhere else. While I am not ready to give away any spoilers just yet, I can say that the ideas we have already come up with are very exciting indeed and we look forward to revealing them in 2019.” D www.china-club-berlin.com

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East of England Co-op

It’s now or never Launched in December 2017, the East of England Co-op’s ‘Co-op Guide to Dating’ has been a revelation within an industry looking to tackle the issue of food waste, and embodies the community-based efforts made by the Society during its 150-year history

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he last 12 months has been a period of great significance for the East of England Co-op, one that

has in large part provided the Society with the opportunity to celebrate its 150th anniversary. During 2018, this milestone was marked throughout its stores, at various events and at its

annual dinner, where it recognises its local suppliers. “It was with some of these suppliers that we also worked very closely to create a special range of 150th anniversary products, including several that would have been around when our Society first came into being all those years ago,” explains East of England Co-op’s Joint Chief Executive

Officer, Roger Grosvenor.

“Other anniversary-themed initiatives that took place throughout the year have included a competition to win an eco-friendly car, which saw over four million scratch cards issued free to our members and customers with an opportunity for money saving coupons with a collector element to

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East of England Co-op AIR-serv AIR-serv, the market leader in the supply of air, vacuum and jetwash equipment to the petrol forecourt sector, has successfully helped site owners like East of England Co-Operative increase revenues for over 35 years.

To further strengthen its position as number one in the market place, and continue its commitment to UK clients, AIR-serv has partnered with Turtle Wax, a brand recognised for quality, to offer the Turtle Wax Pro car care range to the forecourt valeting sector in the UK. Demand for the AIR-serv ‘Buy Time’ Equipment range has continued to grow over the last ten years with AIR-serv boasting most of the major oil companies, hypermarkets, top 50 independents and independent dealers as customers.

AIR-serv is the UK’s number one partner of choice. Its unique ‘Revenue Share’ solution includes all call out charges, labour, parts and consumables for the period of the agreement.

win the car,” Roger continues. “We were delighted to be able to announce that the lucky winner was Felixstowe resident, Linda Houseley. We also held a number of small events throughout the year at various county shows, and food and drink festivals, while our colleagues were able to celebrate with an additional day of paid holiday!”

has been mainly tinned and dried goods, making them perfectly safe, however it is now starting to target other ranges.

“The ‘Co-op Guide to Dating’ has certainly taken the industry by storm,

culminating in it receiving the Grocer Gold award for ‘Waste Not Want Not’ and the IGD award for ‘Sustainable Futures’,” Roger declares. “Winning a single award is a fantastic honour, but to win both of the aforementioned categories is galactic for the Society, especially considering our aim was not to gain recognition, but to make a difference.”

Reduced waste The difference made to date comes in the form of the prevention of more than 250 tonnes of food going into biodigestion and remaining within the food

Quality recognition It would be fair to also characterise 2018 as a year of plenty for the Society, particularly in respect to the number of awards and accolades that were bestowed upon it. “Locally, the Society’s Funeral Division was presented with the prize for ‘Best Trade Stand’ at the Royal Norfolk Show this past summer, and we were also delighted to receive the ‘Outstanding Dementia Care Innovation Award’ at the National Dementia Care Awards,” Roger enthuses. “The latter award was for the bespoke dementia-friendly training we developed for our Funeral Services teams to ensure we could provide the best possible support for affected families.”

Also, on a national scale, the Society was also the recipient of two incredibly prestigious awards for the ‘Co-op Guide to Dating’ initiative. At the heart of this scheme is the desire to reduce waste and keep as much food in the food chain as possible.

To achieve this, the Society decided to start selling food past the ‘Best Before’ date. As consumers, we are becoming increasingly aware that these dates are simply quality dates given by manufacturers, which means that a great deal of products do not deteriorate after this point, unlike those characterised with ‘Use By’ dates. The food that the East of England Co-op has sold to date as part of this initiative The East of England Co-op won an Award at the Royal Norfolk Show

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East of England Co-op Liberty Flights Liberty Flights was founded in 2009 and is now seen as one of the most trusted and well respected vape manufacturers and suppliers in the UK, offering high quality products, excellent customer service, and a dedicated field support team for retailers. Liberty Flights have partnered with the East of England Co-Op to supply the retail estate with their premium range of “XO” E liquids; DOT kits (a replaceable pod vaping system), and solutions for displaying this bestselling range. Liberty Flights’ expert positioning in vape has helped to drive growth within the retail convenience sector.

chain for human consumption. “Since the launch of the initiative, which was originally focused on ambient products, we have included more fresh foods, such as green grocery, breads and cakes, and most recently frozen foods, meaning that all categories are covered,” Roger states. “A part of the initiative has also revolved around the speedier reduction of ‘Use By’ date products, which has also helped to reduce the impact of food waste.”

Key partners Following the phenomenal success of the ‘Co-op Guide to Dating’, January 2019 sees the Society, in collaboration with Ipswich Borough Council and

Copleston High School, launch a new programme targeting the recycling of packaging. “Taking inspiration from the iconic song ‘When Will I See You Again’

by The Three Degrees, this initiative will aim to better inform our members as to how they can recycle locally, and how those items that can’t be recycled locally can be brought to us to take care of,” Roger says.

When we last covered the East of England Co-op within this magazine at the turn of 2018, the Society was in the midst of a programme of refurbishment for its stores. “The Society has 255 locations that make up its family of businesses and I am pleased to say that, to-date, we have refurbished 80 per cent of the estate, with the remaining 20 per cent to be completed over the next 18 months,” Roger reveals. “During the course of the reshaping of our retail estate we have focused on our food offering, introducing key partners along the way such as Subway and M&Co. We have

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East of England Co-op also worked hard to improve things like the queueing systems in many of our convenience stores. Whereas, in the past, we used to have separate till spaces, we have now introduced a queueing point like those used in large retail stores or post offices, where people are called to a free till point.

We have found this system to be very helpful for our members, giving those who want or require it extra time at the till, while at the same time not holding up the queue.”

As Roger and his teams are acutely aware, retail trends are always in evidence, and the Society’s Food Division is keen to provide customers with the chance to add products that represent these trends to their baskets whenever possible. “A couple of the biggest on-going trends centre on ‘freefrom’ and ‘plant-based’ products,” he confirms. “In the last few years we have successfully introduced a large range of free-from products and we are excited to now be looking at how we can extend this into ranges such as bread and cakes, for example by incorporating gluten-free pea flour.

At the same time, we recognise that more people are moving away from consuming protein from animals to protein from plants, and we are looking at where we can add new products to satisfy this demand.”

one of the top independent retailers in East Anglia, continuing to develop its products and services, whilst always

remaining sustainable and, of course, community focused.” D www.eastofengland.coop

Future focus As we enter 2019, it will be obvious to anyone with even a passing interest in current affairs that the food industry, like many others, faces an unprecedented degree of uncertainty and change, something with which comes both opportunities and risk.

“The Society will always seek to embrace whatever comes its way in order to deliver the best outcome for all of its stakeholders,” Roger professes.

“We need to respect the fact that, here in the UK, we are working and operating in the most dynamic, eclectic and complex market in the world with one of the highest concentrations of competition, and in order to survive you have to be at the top of your game at all times. With this in mind, the East of England Co-op intends to remain

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Beneficial burgers Obsessed with being the most ‘green’ brand in the restaurant industry, Swedish burger chain Max Burgers reached the status of a climate positive company in 2018

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Max Burgers

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here were many reasons for Max Burgers to be cheerful in 2018. Not only did the largest burger chain in Sweden celebrate its 50th anniversary on June 14, but it also announced that it had become the first climate positive company in the food sector. In addition, over the past year and a half, Max Burgers opened new restaurants in some of the countries it had already been present, including Norway, Denmark, Egypt, and, most recently, Poland.

In a nutshell, being climate positive means that an activity goes beyond achieving net zero carbon emissions to actually create an environmental benefit by removing additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Chief Sustainability Officer and Chief Reputation Officer, Kaj Török elaborates: “Becoming climate neutral is no longer enough. It was the goal of yesterday. The new goal for every brand committed to climate action should be to become climate positive, and this notion is spreading all over the world.

People have begun to realise that we cannot reach the world’s climate goals just by reducing emissions, we have to capture carbon, as well. In Sweden, in particular, more and more big

Kaj Török

companies have pledged to become climate positive in the future. For example, H&M are set to achieve this target by 2040, while IKEA are looking to do it by 2030.”

Essentially, now every visit to a Max Burgers restaurant helps improve the climate and the company has taken action in three key areas to succeed in its initiative. “First of all, we performed the most detailed climate analysis in the restaurant industry in the world, including all greenhouse gas emissions in our calculations. In our case, this means measuring emissions from the farmers’ land to our guests’ hands. We also include their travel to and from our restaurants, as well as their waste,

among other elements,” Kaj points out.

“The second step for us was to implement various campaigns for the reduction of our emissions, such as using 100 per cent wind power and turning used fry oil into biodiesel. More important still, is the fact that we have introduced more ‘green’ burgers to our menu. About 40 per cent of our burgers are now not made of beef, but of chicken or fish, or are entirely vegetarian, and they are selling really well. Last but not least, we also plant trees in Africa that absorb and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow. This means that we capture carbon dioxide equivalent to another ten per cent of our emissions.”

Selling more low-impact burgers represents one of the major sustainability targets Max Burgers will be pursuing in the coming years. Kaj details: “Our goal by 2022 is for every second meal we serve to be made without beef. We are not far from the proposed deadline, but if we meet this objective, and I am confident we will, we will have reduced our emissions by 30 per cent in just seven years.

“When we were last featured in FoodChain about a year and a half ago, we had five different ‘green’ options on

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Y L H T O O M

S

T I S E DO

NOW SERVING AT

To start serving great coffee in your business

call: +44 (0)7587 668801 email: Brad.sandys@uk.nestle.com

Max Burgers the menu. Now there are seven, plus our recently-launched vegan shake.

We have also released a product called Crispy Nuggets – an organic, vegan, fully plant-based alternative that tastes as good as our regular Chicken Nuggets,” he says discussing the latest items added to Max Burgers’ offering.

Kaj also remarks that two of the giants in the fast food business – McDonald’s and Burger King, have followed Max Burgers’ practices in enriching their menus with more vegan options. “I think Sweden is the only country where McDonald’s have developed a McVegan. At the same time, Burger King has launched a halloumi burger.

It is flattering, but more importantly, it is good if we can work together in setting a new standard for the industry.

Latest research shows that it could be sufficient for people to eat as much as 100 grammes of beef per week, which will dramatically reduce the pressure we all feel to feed what will be ten billion people on the planet by 2050.”

Cosmopolitan consumers No profound change in society’s preferences, however, can happen without the bottom-up efforts of citizens themselves who need to first desire a transformation for it to happen. Such seems to be the case in Sweden, where the majority of the locals have taken a responsible approach towards their eating habits. “If you look just at hardcore vegans in the country, they constitute less than ten per cent of the population.

Flexitarians, on the other hand, who are people that consume meat, but are willing to reduce its consumption, number more than 60 per cent. It is important that consumers realise the benefits of reducing their climate impact and of eating a little bit healthier.

“On top of that, I feel that there is a connection between social status and food nowadays,” Kaj draws an interesting parallel. “If having the right car meant that you had a higher status 20 years ago, and having the right mobile phone was an indicator of a higher position in society

Seattle’s Best Coffee Max Burgers and Seattle’s Best Coffee have been in partnership since 2013, with coffee being available in over 120 Max restaurants in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. In 2019, Max Burgers’ guests will get the chance to try our Flat White beverage; two shots of Espresso with steamed milk and topped with foam along with the range of espresso favourites such as Latte, Cappuccino, Americano, Mocha and Iced Coffee’s.

Seattle’s Best Coffee beans are medium roasted for a smoother and easy-to-drink coffee. Quality is never compromised and only the highest quality 100 per cent Arabica, Fairtrade certified coffee beans are used. We’re proud to have been Max’s coffee partner for the past five years.

a decade ago, then today, at least in Sweden, a lot of that revolves around the food you consume. It seems that people who eat consciously are seen as somewhat more sophisticated and concerned with their wellbeing. I think similar processes are going on in distinct parts of London, in California, in Berlin, and in some other cosmopolitan cities around the world.”

Earlier in 2018, Max Burgers opened two new restaurants in Norway, followed by two more in Poland in quick succession.

Slowly but surely, the company is making a name for itself abroad, but Kaj admits that it will take some time before the brand is truly well-established in the foreign markets it is targeting. “We know that we have a strong proposition in Sweden, proof of which is the fact that last year, we won a customer satisfaction award for the 17th year running. We are still relatively unknown outside of our domestic market, though, so we are trying to find the right formula that will help us grow our presence in other geographical areas. There are plans in place to expand in multiple countries, and especially in Poland, where we have been very well-received.

Furthermore, we will keep growing in Sweden, selling more ‘green’ burgers, and constantly reinventing ourselves and the whole industry,” he concludes. D www.maxburgers.com

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Enhancing togetherness

Johann Kerkhofs

Founded on the idea that a resort experience should bring guests together and foster friendly relationships between them, ARBOREA Hotels und Resorts opened its first location in the summer of 2018, declaring the goal to spread the concept across Europe in the next ten years

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Arborea Hotels und Resorts

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‘

ohann Kerkhofs has worked in the hospitality industry long enough to learn a thing or two about what makes hotel guests enjoy themselves while on holiday. In fact, although the concept of ARBOREA Hotels und Resorts was officially set in motion in the autumn of 2014, its seeds were sown some 20 years earlier. In 1995, Johann was running a resort in Egypt, at the Red Sea, whose clientele consisted chiefly of couples. What was vexing him, however, was the fact that they would usually keep to themselves, instead of mingling with other people and engaging in group activities. “Every day, I would see those couples eating their breakfast quietly or lying by the pool reading a book without talking to others, which got me thinking that their holiday experience was not making them happier,” Johann remembers.

His solution seemed simple but brilliant. By joining many small tables into several bigger tables, he had people sharing a common space, which eventually encouraged them to start communicating with each other. “After four months, we saw an increase of revenue of about 34 per cent, because guests were getting together to take part in various activities such as playing water polo and this, in turn, led to an increased consumption on their part. This is how I came up with the concept that we have to create experiences that facilitate communication between guests,” Johann explains.

After years of sedulously testing and refining his ideas in other places, it was in September 2014 that his concept for ARBOREA finally saw the light of day. Packed with ‘communication platforms’ like an amphitheatre, a collaborative kitchen where guests can cook their own food and take cooking classes, as well as a little workshop that

When I look at demographic trends, I would say that we are targeting and attracting people aged 2850, including millennials, who work a lot and are successful in their jobs, and who need short breaks now and then to relax a little bit

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would allow them to try their hand in carpentry, the resort’s underlying notion was to create a pleasant atmosphere, enticing people to spend more time together.

“It also deserves to be mentioned that our resort has very strong environmental credentials, as we use a lot of recycled material throughout the hotel. For example, the carpets in the rooms are made entirely of recycled products, 20 per cent of which have come from old fishermen nets. It is a nice story to tell customers – one they will remember and that might inspire them to become more conscious of their own recycling habits. Furthermore, we have a rule to use as little paper as possible. We are now 95 per cent paper-free, we do not have any printings within the hotel, but have instead launched a digital app for guests that enables them to look at our menus, book a table, or even book a time for massage,” Johann shares some of the sustainability practices adopted

by ARBOREA.

Holiday planning After all the planning and construction was done, the 16th July 2018 was a remarkable date for him and his team,

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as the first ARBOREA hotel opened its doors in the town of Neustadt, part of the northernmost German state Schleswig-Holstein, in the Bay of Lübeck. Johann recaps the first six months of operation: “It has been an excellent start. A day after the official opening, we were fully booked and the rest of the summer also proved a very strong period. Once the colder months kicked in, we have seen that it gets particularly busy during the weekend. December was a good month, because people have begun planning their summer holidays and thinking about where they could go for Easter, so our expectations are that from March onwards, we will experience a considerable rise in guest numbers.

“When I look at demographic trends, I would say that we are targeting and attracting people aged 28-50, including millennials, who work a lot and are successful in their jobs, and who need short breaks now and then to relax a little bit. It is a generation of young and active people whose aspirations to lead a healthier lifestyle fits ideally with our offering that involves being in the nature and practicing outdoor sports, in combination with the tranquillity of

Arborea Hotels und Resorts doing yoga and pampering yourself with various spa procedures.”

Second hotel It comes as no surprise that ARBOREA has also carefully crafted its food and beverage proposition to create another vital touchpoint with its young guests who are becoming increasingly interested in consuming high-quality food. To this end, the hotel strives to shop predominantly locally, buying 80 per cent of the fruit, vegetables, and meat it serves from producers based within a range of 80100 kilometres of ARBOREA’s location.

The resort boasts two restaurants – Deli’Cara, which allows clients to do their own cooking, and The Grand Grand Grill, whose sumptuous steaks are certain to please even the pickiest consumer.

If you have been thinking that, now that ARBOREA Marina Resort Neustadt is up and running, the group will settle down, try again. The truth is, Johann and his

team are so confident in their concept’s appeal that they have set themselves the ambitious target of growing to 20 locations across Europe in the next ten years.

“We are looking to start construction of our second hotel in March and that is scheduled to open in 2021. It will be located in Sankt Gallenkirch in Austria and will feature 112 en-suite rooms and 46 luxury apartments. On top of that, we

hope to have another two or even three new sites in planning or in construction by the end of 2019. We will first concentrate on the German-speaking countries, but we are more than willing to expand all over Europe, including Italy, the Netherlands, the UK, Ireland, and Spain,” Johann concludes, projecting ARBOREA’s future growth. D www.arborea-resorts.com

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A star performer Famous for cakes, cupcakes and an epic banana pudding, Magnolia Bakery has continued on its path of growth since last appearing in FoodChain

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Magnolia Bakery

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early two decades have passed since the iconic Sex and the City cupcake scene was filmed outside Magnolia Bakery on Bleecker Street in New York, and not only have Carrie and Miranda grown up and moved on, but so too has Magnolia Bakery, expanding from its one shop into a multitude of locations; becoming a household name across the entire US, and developing a new wave of fans across the world from Jordan to Mexico, and from Korea to the UAE. FoodChain previously featured Magnolia Bakery in January 2018, where CEO Steve Abrams went over the history of the bakery and its development – when we spoke to him for this issue, he highlighted how the past 12 months have been an exciting time for the business: “We opened our first stores in Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Washington, D.C.’s Union Station,” he began, “and additionally, in the US, we’ve continued to focus on growing our online business, launching cake shipping and increasing sales for banana pudding and holiday basket shipping.”

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Magnolia Bakery “Internationally, we have opened new locations in Saudi Arabia and the Philippines, and we’ve found a franchise partner in Brazil. This is a continuous process, opening new locations and looking for new ways to increase business, including delivery sales, custom cake orders and events,” he added.

He went onto note that the UAE (where Magnolia Bakery works with the Al Tayer Group) is seeing positive growth, with another new opening on the agenda in 2019 and some interesting menu adaptations. “In particular, their delivery business has grown substantially in the past two years and their team is continuing to identify new delivery partners, new packaging options and new products to offer through those channels,” noted Steve.

“The UAE stores also offer a savoury menu and in 2018 they updated the menu to offer more shared plates. As

We now have more than 12 banana pudding flavours that are featured monthly.

As a result of increased promotion and flavour offerings, the category sales have increased more than five per cent year-on-year

a result of the new menu offerings, savoury sales have increased year-overyear. They continue to build out new revenue streams, including a special Tea Time offering, which features small bites of a selection of desserts.”

It is clear that the magic of Magnolia Bakery appeals to a wide variety of markets and regions, and Steve explained how the business manages to achieve the perfect diverse mix of products to keep fans coming back to

its stores: “We follow a general 80/20 rule. Our core brand elements – classic American baked goods made in small batches; warm, inviting décor; an icing theatre; and offering a diverse product mix – are consistent across all locations and cannot be changed. This makes up about 80 per cent of the brand.

“The remaining 20 per cent gives franchise partners an opportunity to localise the Magnolia Bakery experience to their market. This is done primarily through local flavour profiles, but can also include local partnerships and events.”

Customer response As a result of this 80/20 approach, international visitors to Magnolia Bakery not only enjoy the traditional American baked goods that have made it famous, such as banana pudding, cheesecakes, cupcakes and cakes, but also marketspecific products that are developed

I.Halper Paper & Supplies I.Halper Paper & Supplies, a family-owned business since 1910, distributes food-service disposables, janitorial supplies and customized packaging to bakeries, restaurants, hotels and caterers in the New York Metro area. Working diligently with Magnolia Bakery since 2007 helped create our expanded distribution network into the Chicago, Los Angeles, and international markets supported by relationships we developed with other similarly modeled affiliates. Our value added capabilities and product offerings for clients like Magnolia continue growing as we proactively provide logistical and warehousing solutions. As industry leaders in implementing new technologies and innovations, we consistently deliver efficiency and cost reductions to our clients.

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Magnolia Bakery with the local culture in mind. “We have found that customers respond very positively to our product variety, décor and the icing theatre, and we work hard to create exclusive products and/or product lines in our franchise markets that best resonate with their customers.

In the Philippines, for example, we created an ube cake and cupcake and in Saudi Arabia they offer a range of milk cakes (tres leches) which is the most popular dessert they sell,” Steve explained.

Plans for expansion A look at the Magnolia Bakery menu on its website not only tempts the taste buds, but also illustrates the wide range of products for which it has become renowned, with everything made fresh from scratch on the premises every day.

In addition to those mentioned by Steve, are muffins, loaves and scones, and also a range of recipe books, T-shirts and other accessories. “Trends come and go, so we focus primarily on developing classic desserts around different tastes and ingredients,” Steve noted.

“With that said, we are always open to integrating new and different options, including sea salt caramel, Lotus in the Middle East and the aforementioned ube in the Philippines.” For those unfamiliar with ube, it is a purple yam, which gives the products not just an amazing hue but also a distinctive sweet and earthy flavour.

Looking to the rest of 2019 and unsurprisingly, Steve and his team have further plans for expansion for new locations across both the US and

brownies, bars and icebox desserts,” said Steve. “But banana pudding, in particular, has been a product category that’s grown over the past year with the addition of new flavours. We now have more than 12 banana pudding flavours that are featured monthly. As a result of increased promotion and flavour offerings, the category sales have increased more than five per cent year-on-year.”

Since Magnolia Bakery’s original owner passed her oven mitts to Steve and his wife in 2007 the company has gone from strength to strength, with its expansions always thoughtfully considered and planned and its menu always carefully adapted to maintain traditions but reflect local tastes. It may have only had a cameo in a trendy TV series a few years ago, but today Magnolia Bakery is certainly the star of the show. D www.magnoliabakery.com

the globe, still within the franchising model: “The target markets include India and Malaysia, among others.

Additionally, we’re shifting our focus to franchise domestically in addition to the international growth,” he revealed.

All of the stores, both old and new, will continue to create the most amazingly delicious baked products, with Magnolia Bakery’s best-selling categories continuing to be cupcakes, cakes and banana pudding. “We’re proud of the diverse product mix we offer which includes more than 250 individual products - in addition to those listed previously are pies, cookies,

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A whole new world Operating 24 sites around the UK, multi-award winning hospitality business New World Trading Company (NWTC) has further expansion plans for 2019

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New World Trading Company

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aunched in 2011, today NWTC splits its stable of bars and restaurants into seven brands: The Botanist, The Florist, The Oast House, The Club House, The Canal House, The Smugglers Cove and The Trading House.

United by the common themes of live music, world-famous cocktails, ales and ciders alongside local cask, and food inspired by the deli, rotisserie and grill; the sites are also distinctly individual in décor and theme.

The story began with The Botanist brand. Now with 17 locations across the UK and further openings planned, visitors to The Botanist can expect antiquities and trinkets hanging from the walls, and resident ‘botanists’ crafting unusual concoctions such as the Velvet Green cocktail, which is boosted with a botanical elixir found in plants. A wide food menu covers all occasions and each location offers a different range of masterclasses in cocktails, private hire rooms and other interesting offerings.

Alongside The Botanist, NWTC’s newest brand concept is The Florist. Already established in Bristol and Liverpool and with an opening in Watford planned for 2019, The Florist draws on The Botanist’s approach of creating interiors that engage all the senses, but this time using the fundamental principles of floristry. The menu even features a floral touch with its signature lavender honey and sunflower loaf.

To further help future proof the business and address the needs of a wider variety of customers, NWTC launched a selection of standalone ‘House’ venues: The Trading House in London, The Oast House in Manchester, The Canal House in Birmingham and The Club House in Liverpool. Each offers its own unique venue, and draws inspiration from

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Hallgarten & Novum Wines is one of the UK’s leading specialist wine merchants, with over 85 years experience importing award-winning wines from producers around the world, for partners in the UK on- and off-trade. Its industry-leading training team is led by Master of Wine, Beverly Tabbron, providing WSET qualifications to front of house teams across the country, as well as bespoke courses through its Wine Sure program.

In 2018, the Hallgarten team achieved ISO 14001 accreditation, as well as meeting all criteria to attain Investors in People accreditation.

Hallgarten was named European Merchant of the Year in 2018 and New World Merchant of the Year 2017 by the Sommelier Wine Awards, and its award-winning portfolio has won the prestigious International Wine Challenge Merchant Wine List of the Year Award in 2015, 2016 and 2018 and IWSC Wine Importer of the Year 2018, showcasing the breadth and quality on offer.

@hnwines Tel: +44 (0)1582 722 538 Email: sales@hnwines.co.uk www.hnwines.co.uk

New World Trading Company a variety of sources – for example, The Canal House, located on the site of the former James Brindley pub, was influenced by the life of James Brindley, one of the most notable engineers of the 18th century. With The Engine Room on the ground floor and The Residency upstairs, it is also a 135-cover restaurant with three private dining rooms.

Customer rewards Showing the degree of flexibility in NWTC’s approach is The Club House situated in Chavasse Park within Liverpool One. Described as ‘a slice of the Hamptons in the heart of the city’ The Club House resembles a New England mansion, with a menu that offers everything from bar nibbles to deli favourites; meats cooked on the rotisserie and grill, as well as a selection of pies.

Also located in Liverpool is The Smugglers Cove in Albert Dock. As one might expect from a nautical leitmotif, The Smugglers Cove focuses on rum, with over 150 different varieties on offer and even a Rum Room offering visitors a unique dining and drinking experience, as well as theatrical masterclasses with resident experts.

What’s more, for those who love NWTC’s aesthetic and want a taste of it at their own event, they can call on the services of The Wanderer. Based on the body of an iconic Citroen HY van discovered in the South of France, NWTC have lovingly created a vintage mobile pop-up bar, which can travel to almost any location in the UK. The Wanderer is available for weddings, parties and corporate soirées, and hire of The Wanderer can include engaging and knowledgeable bar experts, curious cocktails, world ales, and even live music if required.

It is clear that NWTC doesn’t take an orthodox approach to its business, and this extends to its strategy for customer loyalty. Recognising the value of creating a foundation of guests who return time and again to its venues, NTWC created the My New World App, which, upon becoming a member, turns five per cent of future spend into My New World credit. As a result members build up a loyalty balance, which can be spent

at any of the NWTC locations in the UK. Members can also book a table, get directions, purchase gift cards and have access to a world full of other benefits, too.

The value of loyalty and rewards also extends into the human resources side of the company, where NWTC believes in the value of building out the business with staff who share the company’s values, are experts in their area and can deliver unrivalled customer experiences.

Additionally, each staff member is welcomed into one of its six ‘Tribes’. Tribes celebrate the attributes that make each team a success and reward people for their team spirit, personal development, and achievements. Fellow Tribe members compete against other Tribes throughout the year in challenges, events and daily competitions to earn points, win prizes and be crowned champions, all communicated through a unique ‘Tribes app’. Staff are also presented with a book of benefits, and receive comprehensive training in a range of transferrable skills. This entire philosophy aims to unite everyone who works for NWTC, make them feel connected and part of something amazing.

The results that NWTC’s management team has garnered from the creation of Tribes speak for themselves – it was declared one of the Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For in both 2017 and 2018. Other accolades for the wider business include a place on the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 companies and The Times 100 Best Companies in 2017; winner of the Best Use of Technology at the Retailers’ Retailer of the Year 2017 and Best Brand/Concept at The Publican Awards, too.

In the eight short years since NWTC was founded, the business has concentrated on finding and developing the right brands in the right locations offering consumers the right menus and service. Further pursuing its aim for the NWTC brands to become a leading player in the UK casual dining industry, multiple new openings are planned for 2019, with funding in place to assist this growth. This programme will lead to an increase in staff numbers to over 1500, and 30 sites in the portfolio - NWTC is already actively looking for the right individuals needed to propel its success to even further heights. D www.nwtc.uk.com

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From Cornwall with love Rowe’s Cornish Bakers is enjoying a period of ongoing investment and stable growth, as it continues to develop exciting new flavours to complement its classic Cornish pasties, in order to meet evolving consumer demands

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Rowe’s Cornish Bakers

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f you have ever wondered about the technology by which your favourite Cornish pasties are made, Maurice Matthews – Technical Director at Rowe’s Cornish Bakers – is here to reveal what makes the delightful treats of the world’s largest producer of hand crimped Cornish pasties unique.

“First of all, we make all our Cornish pasties to an authentic recipe in a traditional way. Cornish pasties have benefitted from ‘Protected Geographical Indication’ (PGI) status since 2011. To be counted as a real Cornish pasty, it has to be made in the Duchy of Cornwall to a recipe defined in law. The permitted ingredients are beef, potato, turnip, onion, salt and pepper, and the filling has to be raw and not cooked before baking the product. No gravy is added – instead it is the combination of all the meat juices with the steaming vegetables that gives true Cornish pasties their unique flavour.

“Rowe’s are unusual insofar as we bake almost nothing on-site at our pasty and savoury bakery in Falmouth. Instead, everything we make is frozen before it is dispatched, so that it can be freshly baked at the point of sale, giving consumers the freshest tasting pasty possible.

“We are very proud to support so many local farming and food processing businesses, both within Cornwall, and across the southwest of England. Our supply chain is seamless: it is not unusual for us to receive the vegetables at

six in the morning, process them in the bakery by nine, have the pasties made by midday, and then put them on the lorry by mid-afternoon.

This sequence helps us to ensure we are using the freshest ingredients possible,” Maurice explains.

The story of Rowe’s Cornish Bakers began in 1949 when former RAF officer, Bill Rowe and his wife Phyllis set up a bakery shop on a slip road leading down to the sea, just off the high street in Falmouth. Over the next 30 years, Bill and Phyllis grew the business, expanding into other towns of Cornwall. In the mid-1970s, they opened a new bakery in nearby Penryn and took on an apprentice called Alan Pearce. Even at a young age, his baking excellence brought him to the fore, and when Bill and Phyllis passed away in the 1990s Alan assumed the position of managing director. Under his ownership, Rowe’s Cornish Bakers continued its retail expansion within Cornwall but also made its first strides into wholesale markets.

New ‘Bakehouse’ In 2003, Rowe’s opened a brand-new bakery on the outskirts of Falmouth. The new ‘Bickland’ bakery was dedicated to the production of Cornish pasties, sausage rolls, and other savouries. The Bickland bakery suffered a serious fire in Summer 2014, just as the crucial holiday season was starting.

Thankfully Rowe’s had excellent contingency plans in place, and within seven days, pasty production had re-started at the original bakery

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Rowe’s Cornish Bakers in Penryn, before moving back to the main production hall when the fire damage had been fully repaired.

A change of ownership in 2017 allowed the existing team of directors to accelerate their plans for careful growth but with the same detailed attention to tradition. The business is still expanding and always on the look-out for new talent.

Maurice comments: “We installed new depositing machines in 2017 to improve the consistency of our pasties.

This investment was led by independent market research, and had a side benefit of making our process more efficient.”

More recently, in October 2018 the company moved out of its bakery in Penryn, from where it had operated for over 40 years. The older site was becoming increasingly hard to maintain to the requirements of a modern food producer. The new ‘Bakehouse’ in Penryn is just a quarter a mile away from the former site, and continues to produce Rowe’s classic bakery goods including famous Cornish saffron buns, cakes, scones and best-selling Easter biscuits.

Maurice continues: “We are just about to commence a new project that will see us equip our bakery with a second spiral freezer by the summer of 2019.

We already have one spiral freezer that has the capacity to handle two-thirds of our pasty production needs, taking the products from chilled to deep frozen in under 60 minutes. When we get the

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second spiral freezer, we will be able to process 100 per cent of our output through a rapid freezing process, improving their quality considerably.”

It has become a tradition for Rowe’s Cornish Bakers to launch a range of Christmas specials every year around the festive period. In 2018, it enthralled its customers with turkey & chardonnay pasties, with port & stilton pasties for vegetarian customers, demonstrating the creative ability of Rowe’s product development chefs. “While we expect that Cornish pasties and sausage rolls will long remain our core products, we are also responding to consumer trends, including the shift towards vegetarian and vegan options, a segment in which we already trade strongly.”

He adds: “in the past, vegetarians and vegans were motivated primarily by worries over animal treatment, but now many more are also led by environmental concerns and issues around sustainability. Our product offer in this segment is probably larger than it is for other pasty makers who have not fully embraced the trend yet. We have noticed that others tend to follow where we have led!”

Even though the business climate can be unpredictable, Maurice expresses his confidence in the future prosperity of Rowe’s Cornish Bakers. “We have come through some challenging years and we are in a much healthier place now.

We have every reason to believe that we

are doing a good job, providing great customer service and tasty products which will always be in demand. After all, what could be more comforting in uncertain times than a freshly baked Cornish pasty?

“We were very sorry to see a former competitor in the Cornish pasty market go in administration last Summer. We were pleased to be able to help one of their key customers find a reliable, quality supplier at no notice, and – along with many other pasty businesses in Cornwall – even more pleased to have recruited, talented new colleagues from that company,” he discusses.

“Right now it is still not clear what will happen with Brexit, so we have taken steps to secure more storage space, ambient, chilled and frozen. We are making all the necessary preparations to store more raw materials, packaging and finished products. This is one of the big challenges everyone is facing at the moment, as every food business is fighting for frozen storage space in particular. Nevertheless, we expect to remain stable in these tough times.”

Rowe’s Cornish Bakers has set its sights on expanding the retail side of the business in 2019. The company intends on opening its next shop next to a busy intersection on the A30, the main route acting as the spine of Cormwall in the Spring. The specific location has been chosen to reflect the business’ strategic vision of targeting town centre locations with high pedestrian footfall, or transport hub locations where it is easy to pull in and park.

“Looking at our local heartland, Falmouth also has its university, including a growing campus in Penryn.

There is a substantial student population in this area, so we are looking at innovative ideas to attract students.

Social media presence is a priority and we have done some great work in refining our digital strategy in the past 12 months, and plan to develop this further in 2019.”

Maurice concludes: “We look forward to an exciting 2019 and beyond, regardless of the uncertain world about us, knowing that it is our people that set us apart from the crowd.” D www.rowesbakers.co.uk

EG Group

At your convenience Boasting a global asset portfolio of over 5000 petrol forecourt convenience sites and partnerships with some of the world’s leading retail brands, EG Group is a world leader in creating one-stop fuel, retail and food-to-go convenience destinations

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hen it was first founded in 2001 by brothers Zuber and Mohsin Issa, Euro Garages consisted of a single petrol filling station located in Bury, Greater Manchester.

Today, EG Group, as the business is now known following the recent international growth, is the world’s leading independent fuel station and convenience retailer, with a diverse network portfolio spanning across nine countries; UK, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, USA and Australia.

Committed to delivering a modern consumer retail offer that creates a one-stop destination where multiple

consumer missions can be satisfied, by the end of 2018, EG Group was the proud operator of some 5000 sites globally and an employer of more than 30,000 people.

“Zuber and Mohsin are what can best be described as ‘serial entrepreneurs’, and it was their shared vision which has transformed the traditional petrol station model into today’s modern retail convenience destination back in 2001,” begins Ilyas Munshi, Group Commercial Director, EG Group. “Their investment approach was simple but effective and has laid-out the industry blueprint that many other operators are now trying to replicate. The underlying desire was to improve the customer’s

retail experience on the traditional petrol forecourt and its accompanying infrastructure, and they did so by making the old-style kiosk shop into a larger convenience store, improving the welfare for motorists by making different grades of fuel readily accessible at all pumps, improving site cleanliness, greater parking, increasing security and providing amenities that were previously not afforded to customers such as internal seating areas. On the back of this, shop sales trebled and ironically fuel sales also increased.”

New approach Over the years, EG Group’s strategy for delivering profitable growth has seen it

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partnering with a host of premium retail brands across fuel, retail convenience and food-to-go. On the fuel side, it partners with the likes of Esso, BP, Shell and Texaco, in convenience retail it has successfully cultivated relationships with well-known retail names such as SPAR, Carrefour, Louis Delhaize and in the food-to-go space its partners with globally recognised brands such as Starbucks, Burger King, KFC and Subway along with a raft of popular, local brands. However, as Ilyas goes on to explain, the group’s move into foodto-go was somewhat unplanned but has proved to be the right strategic decision.

“In the early days, it was common sector practice that brands would build their restaurants on land leased from petrol station operators and exist as tenants, however this practice led to a number of operational challenges, and perhaps more importantly meant for a poorer, less seamless customer experience,” Ilyas continues. “In response to these issues, the brothers

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decided to look at the possibility of running the concessions on behalf of major food and drink brands themselves, and also at how they could develop forecourt stations to accommodate more instore offerings from the likes of Subway. This approach quickly alleviated and proactively addressed many of the issues that had occurred in the landlord and tenant arrangement.”

Three revenue streams It was also found that this new approach allowed for different food propositions that supported different parts of the day to be better catered for, and that by expanding its forecourts to include several different brands was helping to create ideal destinations for travelling customers. It also did not hurt that it soon became evident that in adding space for a food-to-go brand to operate, fuel sales again increased. “What we have established is a business model that effectively drives revenue from three main streams – fuel, convenience store

EG Group and food-to-go – and this has helped make the business incredibly resilient and versatile,” Ilyas enthuses.

Another trait that has underpinned EG Group’s approach is its desire to make its offering constantly relevant to its customers, and it does so by closely watching market trends and commissioning consumer surveys and other forms of customer research.

An example of this approach coming to bear can be seen in the group’s relationship with Greggs, which came about as a result of a clear desire from customers to have a bakery offer on-site.

The group began working in earnest with the brand in 2015, and today operates around 175 Greggs bakery concessions across its portfolio, and is even helping to facilitate the trial of the brand’s first ever drive-through outlets.

“When it comes to our food-togo capabilities we recognise the importance of continued investment,” Ilyas goes on to state. “To that end, we target three core areas, the first being our physical infrastructure itself, the second of which is our people, whom we rely upon to deliver the high standards both we and our partner brands expect, and the third area of investment is our ‘point of sale’ solutions, which we look to align with our brand partner own technology systems.”

The success of the above approach in its home market is there for all to see, what with EG Group expanding its presence throughout mainland UK to over 370 locations and counting. It was perhaps inevitable therefore the question of international growth would ultimately come to the fore, with many of its partners supporting the view that its business model could be easily transferred to regions such as Europe or the United States.

“Having identified an equity partner in the form of TDR Capital LLP, which itself had acquired Delek Europe (subsequently called European Forecourt Retail, EFR), a business servicing some 1350 fuel stations and convenience stores in France and the Benelux countries, we formally joined forces in October 2016 to become an European leader in our field,” Ilyas

adds. “In November 2017, we secured a further 1200 forecourt assets from Esso in Italy, followed by approximately 1100 German assets in February 2018, and in April 2018, we completed the acquisition of a small portfolio of 97 sites in the Netherlands to supplement our existing network in the country.”

Acquisition trail As its European activities prospered, opportunities also arose in the United States, where the group would go on to purchase circa 750 convenience stores from Kroger in February 2018. “What this particular investment gave us was a portfolio of assets spread right across the US, which provided EG Group with a North American platform to build upon, which we have since built on with the acquisition of another 250 Minit Mart convenience stores from TravelCentres of America in September 2018,” Ilyas says. “In the time since, we have also

taken a major step forward in Australia by agreeing to purchase the petrol convenience business of Woolworths, which is made up of 540 sites.”

With particular focus on food-to-go, EG Group is all too aware that a one-sizefits-all approach does not work when it comes to meeting consumer tastes in different international markets. That is why it continues to take great care in making its brand offerings relevant to local customers, something that it honed to near perfection first in the UK and now across Europe. “In the coming months, we will be ramping up this approach in the US and in Australia as well, working with local and global brands to create the best possible retail experiences for our customers,” Ilyas concludes. “At the same time, we will continue to look out for further acquisition opportunities in those markets where we feel EG Group is best equipped to spread its wings.” D www.eurogarages.com

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Pride of Ireland From small beginnings, Clonakilty Food Company is responsible for making Ireland’s favourite blackpudding and other meat products that are today enjoyed in international markets across Europe and as far away as Australia

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Clonakilty Food Company

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t was roughly one year ago that FoodChain had the pleasure of detailing the storied history of the Irish market town of Clonakilty and arguably its most recognisable resident – Clonakilty Food Company (Clonakilty). Using a blackpudding recipe that originated in the town in the 1880’s, the Twomey family took responsibility for the business in the late 1970s and it has since gone from strength to strength. As the popularity of its blackpudding has grown, both in Ireland and internationally, the company has also added whitepudding, sausages, rashers and bacon to its collection of foods.

Catching up with Clonakilty Managing Director and owner Colette Twomey just prior to Christmas, she and her team were understandably busy, but more than happy to talk about how 2018 had been an extremely positive year for Clonakilty. “We have enjoyed a very successful 12 months here, with strong trading levels across the business,” she reveals. “Our staple products of blackpudding and whitepudding continue to increase in sales across various markets, while in the UK we have doubled our distribution levels with Sainsbury’s, we have secured new listings with Booker, and our much-loved Ispíní Irish pork sausages are now available online with Ocado. So, as you can see, we have definitely not taken our foot off of the pedal when it comes to sales in the UK and elsewhere, which has helped us greatly, and gives us

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a really good foundation to build upon in 2019.”

When it comes to tastes and trends, purchasers of Clonakilty’s blackpudding continue to be driven by a desire to discover new applications for the product and how it can transform even the simplest of recipes. “People are increasing coming up with new ways to cook with Clonakilty and we have had wonderful engagement with our customers who are more than happy to photograph and share their creations, which we then get permission to share on our social channels,” Colette continues. “These don’t even have to be complex recipes. For example, one lady showed us how she crumbles up the blackpudding into an omelette and she was thrilled with the results. It can be as simple as that, but the difference in taste can be outstanding.”

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It is these same customers, and many more like them, that are also showing an ever-greater degree of awareness of what goes into the food they eat. “People are

definitely more conscious today about the provenance of food and what goes into the products they buy, and rightly so,” Colette states. “Clonakilty puddings tick the boxes that consumers are looking for, in that they are made with no artificial elements whatsoever, just four or five pure quality ingredients that go together to create great tasting food.”

As Colette herself admits, while Clonakilty products are today found in a number of international markets, until now the company has really only dipped its toes in the water of what it can potentially achieve when it comes to export sales. This is likely to change in 2019, with the company having appointed a new International salesperson, whose job it will be to proactively canvass sales opportunities. “Up to now, our European sales have been somewhat reactive to demand that we receive from others,”

Clonakilty Food Company Colette adds. “This has resulted in the company gaining some good business in countries such as France, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany. Customers in these countries have already displayed great love for our blackpudding, blood sausages, frankfurters and the like, and we look forward to gaining a greater foothold on the continent in the coming months.”

New product launches The love of Clonakilty does in fact extend even further afield, as demonstrated in August 2018, when its blackpudding product secured the both a Gold Medal and a Best in Class – Smallgoods 2018 award from the judges at the Australian Food Awards, who praised it for its ‘excellent flavour, texture and appearance’. “This award is special to us,” Colette enthuses. “Our foothold in Australia is relatively small, but we benefit hugely from our relationship with

our local producer Peter G. Bouchier and his team in Melbourne, who make our blackpudding to the same recipe we use in Ireland, with premium Australian beef and our secret spice blend, mixed by myself and sent all the way from Ireland. Like ourselves, Peter’s biggest motivator is quality and he shares many of the same traits as we do, and it is down to relationships like those we have with him and his team that we are able to celebrate accolades like those achieved at the Australian Food Awards.”

Back on home soil, the company also finds itself rapidly approaching the first anniversary of its production moving into its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility,

which will be in March 2019. It is then in the weeks following that Colette hopes to see the site’s Visitors Centre open its doors for the first time, allowing visitors to the town to witness first-hand how the company’s famous products are made.

“These are exciting times for us,” Colette concludes, before discussing some of the initiatives that the company is looking to bring to fruition in 2019. “One of the things we will be focusing on is bringing new products and meat solutions to market, all related to our standout lines such as blackpudding and whitepudding, with many being designed for ease of use in the kitchen. We will also be introducing more convenient packaging and more products in sliced form. So, while we are not going to diversify too far away from our main lines, we will be focused on providing our customers with more options and solutions so as to enjoy Clonakilty as often as possible.” D www.clonakiltyblackpudding.ie

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Kloosterboer

Fully in control With over 90 years of experience at its disposal, Kloosterboer provides a sustainable and innovative logistics service package to the supply chain for temperature controlled food products

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o say that Kloosterboer, a Netherlands-based provider of innovative and sustainable solutions to the supply chain for temperature controlled food products, is a company with a rich history is something of an understatement.

Founded in Sint Pancras in 1925 by Klaas Kloosterboer Senior, it began life as a commercial enterprise dealing in seed potatoes and potatoes, as well as exporting fruit and vegetables. It was not until 1960, based on strong market demand, that the company first decided to store food products in cold stores,

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but in the time since its operations have grown exponentially. “A financially strong and independent family business, with more than 4.7 million cubic metres of refrigerated capacity, Kloosterboer is today a frontrunner in logistics services in Western Europe for temperature controlled products, such as, fish, meat, fruit, fruit juices and concentrates, dairy and potato products,� begins Chief Executive Officer, Alex Kloosterboer. “With more than 600 employees, nine locations in the Netherlands and six others abroad, we are able to address

Westfalia Logistics Solutions Europe GmbH & Co. KG

every logistic demand by specialising in storage, stevedoring, handling customs formalities and devising logistical IT solutions.”

Kloosterboer’s core specialism, as you would have by now gathered, is temperature controlled storage, with its storage capacity consisting of conventional cold stores and fully automated high-rise cold stores where it is able to hold more than 700,000 pallets of products at a temperature range from -25°C to +15°C. The annual throughput for the business presently stands at four million pallets.

Westfalia is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of automated storage systems. As a full range service provider we implement projects in intralogistics and along the supply chain.

We also use our technologies as well as our IT and control expertise in automated parking systems. Our machinery and equipment accommodate a wide range of temperature requirements.

Intralogistics and transport logistics can be combined using our automated trailer loading and unloading systems. Our customer service, maintenance and modernisation ensure high availability and durability of the respective systems.

As a manufacturer of logistics systems, Westfalia implemented a wide range of automated high-bay warehouses and conveyor systems including the warehouse management and material flow control software.

Our core competencies are: • Mechanical and plant engineering • Software & IT • Services Savanna.NET® is the modular logistics software from Westfalia which controls automated processes along the supply chain. Thanks to the modular design, Savanna.NET® optimally adapts to individual logistics tasks and integrates with existing and new processes.

The option of step-by-step extension enables Savanna.NET® to grow with the company. Savanna.NET® is compatible with all current ERP PLC systems. Existing technology/hardware and hardware/software interfaces can be deployed flexibly. The open Microsoft C#.NET architecture enables the connection of logistic data processing.

The individual Savanna.NET® modules work reliably in their operational environment. Together, they complement each other.

This ensures highly functional logistic process control and analysis and enables companies to centrally organise and monitor data.

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© Paul Martens/Kloosterboer

“The fact that we are a family business sets us apart from other players in our core markets, with most being large private equity firms,” Alex continues. “At Kloosterboer, we are committed to the customer and to granting them the right solution for whatever the request. It is because of this that our customer portfolio consists of a large number of Triple A/Businessto-Business companies.”

Driven, in part, by a strong economic climate in Western Europe, 2018 was a good year for the company. It was also one where it saw a continued trend from large producers wishing to outsource their storage and transport activities to players like Kloosterboer that can offer something of a ‘hub position’ for customers’ goods and produce. The company responded accordingly to this demand by starting up two newly-built cold stores.

“Our network of cold stores is not only built to offer the highest quality and efficiency to our clients, but also the most sustainable solutions,” Alex

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In the next three-to-five years we intend to bring forth a minimum of two new developments or projects per year, which we believe will help Kloosterboer to double in size in that time frame

states. “We believe it to be incredibly important that we remain proactive in delivering these qualities, and on a daily basis we strive to find ways of further reducing the impact of our activities on the environment. There are many examples of our efforts in this field, including the development of our highbay cold stores that use between 37 per cent and 45 per cent less energy compared to conventional units. These fully automated facilities also don’t just allow us to handle large volumes of goods at the same time, but also allow for 100 per cent tracking and tracing

capabilities, and a complete/real-time overview of all shipments and stock.”

As a cold storage company, Kloosterboer is well aware that its operations require the use of a lot of energy, so one of its primary goals in this regard is to use and reuse this energy in the smartest way possible.

This philosophy has seen the company become closely affiliated with the Lean & Green network, and be the first cold store company to be awarded the Lean & Green Award in recognition of its ambition to reduce its carbon emissions by 20 per cent within five years.

Greener approach Sustainability initiatives can be seen across the company’s various sites. For example, at its site in Vlissingen you will find four wind turbines in operation, each with the capacity to produce 4000MwH per year – which is equal to the consumption of approximately 1250 homes. The company has calculated that each turbine helps Kloosterboer to save 7320 tonnes of

Kloosterboer carbon dioxide per year, with a total lifetime saving of an estimated 34,900 tonnes. Accompanying these turbines Kloosterboer has - divided over multiple sites - a total of 15,300 solar panels, which together help to save an additional 2072 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

“We have made it so that our sustainability efforts are in accordance with the Dutch Green Building Council (DGRC) standards,” Alex says. “For instance, we have made it a priority to obtain the highest possible BREEAMNL certification when the DGRC came to assessing, rating and certifying the sustainability of our buildings. In order

to achieve this, we have implemented a series of measures, including the installation of energy efficient LED lighting both inside and outside,

B-Built At B-Built, we are involved in the design and build realisation of two new facilities for the Kloosterboer Group of companies.

We will shortly be finishing the new high bay automated storage facility in Lelystad, NL. Another Kloosterboer project we are proud to be working on is in Maasvlakte Rotterdam, NL. This will be finished within the next few months.

Besides these projects being in the middle of our expertise focus, we are proud to work with Kloosterboer, a top-end customer in the frozen storage business. More at www.b-built.com

introducing charging points for electric vehicles at every site, putting in extra windows and skylights, building internal ventilation systems, and collecting and storing rainwater in underground tanks for toilet usage.”

With its two newest cold stores, in Lelystad and at the Kloosterboer Delta Terminal on the Maasvlakte respectively, now operational and with new projects due to be announced in the coming weeks, 2019 promises to be an exciting year for the company and one that could usher in a more sustained period of growth. “In the next three-to-five years we intend to bring forth a minimum of two new developments or projects per year, which we believe will help Kloosterboer to double in size in that time frame,” Alex concludes. “At the same time, we will continue to contemplate expansion outside of Europe, should the concept and type of customer we encounter in the future fit our own strategy.” D www.kloosterboer.com

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Through Brexit and beyond

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Food Storage & Distribution Federation Shane Brennan

Under the leadership of a new Chief Executive, the Food Storage & Distribution Federation is not only assisting its members to harness the opportunities created by Brexit, but also laying the foundations for the industry’s future

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or the Food Storage & Distribution Federation (FSDF), 2018 was a year of significant importance, not least with it being the most successful 12 months in terms of incoming membership growth. It was also last July that the Federation welcomed its new Chief Executive, Shane Brennan. An experienced trade association leader, Shane joined from the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), bringing with him a proven track record for successfully defending members interests and securing concrete policy outcomes.

Commenting at the time of his appointment, Shane observed: “I am delighted to be joining the FSDF at this crucial time. Our industry is entering a period of significant change, and FSDF members will be at the forefront of navigating the food industry through the challenges and opportunities of Brexit. FSDF will be here to help our members to do this job successfully. I am inheriting a strong organisation with a growing membership and exciting, relevant, products that our industry values.”

Catching up with Shane some six months into his new role, he details the efforts he had to make in his first few weeks on the job. “The biggest challenge on my agenda initially was to get out on the road and meet our members face-to-face,” he begins. “Over the course of ten weeks, we covered 6000 miles and visited 34 facilities, meeting businesses of all sizes and discussing with them the challenges they face, the pressures they are under, and what they need from the Federation, in order to form a strategy for the future of FSDF. This was a hugely rewarding experience and a real privilege to be able to be given that kind of insight into all parts of the industry and to get a good feel for the direction that it is heading.”

As fate would have it, July 2018 also marked a turning point when it came to the level of attention suddenly shone upon the food storage and distribution industry and its preparations for the UK leaving the European Union on March 29th, 2019,

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Food Storage & Distribution Federation from the media world. “The same week that I started with the Federation, we received our first telephone call from a journalist asking us to vouch for the fact that businesses were starting to stockpile food to prepare for Brexit,” Shane explains. “Since then, interest has increased substantially and FSDF has been at the centre of talking to the media about what our industry does, how it is planning for Brexit, how our members are looking to harness the opportunities that will be coming their way, and most importantly making sure that more and more people appreciate the vital role that our members play every day in making sure that foods arrives on the shelves in a safe and plentiful way.”

Changing demands The big question perhaps is then, how are FSDF’s members responding to the immediate concerns surrounding Brexit? “The thing about our members is that they are used to rolling up their sleeves and dealing with problems,” Shane states. “Logistics is, effectively, a problem-solving business and Brexit is a problem to be solved, albeit one that is on a scale that is unprecedented, through sensible planning and practical solutions. The key thing, however, is that I am not picking up from our

members any significant concern that they won’t be able to cope with whatever challenges the immediate future poses.”

While Brexit understandably remains the immediate focus, Shane is at pains to stress that he sees it as a temporary issue that the industry needs to cope with. Rather, the long-term threat that its members face, and that FSDF is geared towards tackling is the issue of climate change and changing environmental demands. It is doing so through the implementation of its Climate Change Agreement, which is a scheme that allows its members to demonstrate their own energy efficiency improvements, which they can secure tax benefits on the back of.

“The cold chain, which is effectively what we represent, unfortunately, too often viewed as a villain. Refrigerated warehouses consume a lot of energy and distribution fleets use fossil fuels.

That is why identifying a sustainable future policy in this area is the biggest challenge the Federation and its members face,” Shane says. “The first thing we need to do is educate people about the bigger picture, specifically that the cold chain is actually the single biggest defence against the single biggest climate change contributor food waste. What we also need to be doing is looking at practical solutions

that reduce the climate impact of cold chain processes, be it by means of technological innovations or by ensuring best practice across storage and distribution facilities. Finally, we must look at how we can provide the right incentives to businesses to change the way they operate in the short, medium and long term so as to reduce our collective carbon footprint.

“We know that over the last eight years, our industry as a whole has reduced its energy consumption levels by 13 per cent, at a time when the demand for their services is almost at an all-time high. However, while we are clearly on the right track, if you project forward five years the reductions in energy usage that the country will need to deliver means that there will be a strong need to accelerate the pace of our work, and we are working very closely with our members to achieve these goals in what is ultimately an energy intensive industry.”

Continuous improvement The Federation’s future approach to making energy savings and emissions reductions forms a key part of Shane’s own work in devising a new strategy for FSDF that will see it through the next five years. “The Federation is here to do three things; to act as a strong voice for the temperature controlled logistics sector, to provide an essential network of support for people who work in said sector, and to offer advice to help our members do their jobs more effectively,” he says, “and this new strategy is based around doing a continually improving job in these areas.

“In the interim, it will of course be hard to look past the challenges created

by Brexit, but we will be doing all that we can to help our members to harness the opportunities that this event could and will create. If there is one legacy of Brexit that I do want to see continue into the future, however, it is the new-found appreciation that the public has for the complexity of running the cold supply chain and the dedication it takes to do so.

That is something that we need to build upon long after Brexit has run its course, and the Federation will do all it can to ensure that this is achieved.” D www.fsdf.org.uk

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Maximising animal performance

Privately-owned business Rumenco has led the way in the development and manufacture of feed supplements and feeding systems for ruminant livestock for almost 60 years

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he modern Rumenco was founded in 1965 to launch the Rumevite feed block.

Still a recognised brand today, the Rumevite name is now present on eight products, including Sheep Super Energy Plus Fish Oil, Rumevite Mag Booster and Rumevite High Energy and Protein.

Changes in market needs, however, propelled the business to obtain a more specialist focus and the 1980s saw both company acquisitions and a change of ownership – by the late 1990s Rumenco had become the market leader in the UK cereal blocks market.

The 2000s witnessed further developments and innovations, as Rumenco went back into private hands in 2001. This was followed by the purchase of Uniblock to grow the business in Ireland, the Bonanza brand launch, which represented Rumenco’s entrance to the livestock milk replacer market, the purchase of Net-Tex Trading, and the acquisition of the Provimi molasses mineral bucket business in Ireland.

In 2013, the Progiene dairy hygiene business was launched, and the same

year an investment was made on innovative new plant to manufacture low moisture molasses feed buckets under the MAXX brand. Still going strong, the latest product to be added to the MAXX family, MAXX Calf Health, was introduced in December 2018.

A controlled intake lick bucket aimed specifically at the calf and youngstock market, this product is designed to support young animals as their immunity develops. MAXX Calf Health is aimed at animals from two weeks of age right through to breeding or moving to a finishing ration in fattening animals. It contains Diamond V XPC and Zinpro Availa® zinc both of which are backed by science to support animal health, immunity and performance – a welcome development as the industry faces up to ongoing challenges around the use of antibiotics. Diamond V XPC is also proven to help the development of the digestive system to support target growth rates in youngstock.

Numerous intake studies undertaken in the development of the MAXX range, have shown real benefits in cost control when supplementing with controlled

Rumenco intake licks, whilst achieving the target intakes to support nutritional health.

What we can draw from just this one product alone is the amount of innovation and research-based initiatives undertaken at Rumenco, which have helped it to maintain its position at the forefront of the ruminant supplement market and allow the company to develop a product offering in line with the needs of modern farming techniques and stock requirements.

In addition to the brands already mentioned, the comprehensive product line up available from Rumenco also includes a variety of other options under the Licks and Buckets, Feed Blocks, Specialist Products, Home Mix, Liquid Feeds, Minerals and Feeding Equipment segments.

Each product is aimed at either sheep, beef or dairy farmers, and is targeted towards animal age, feeding requirements, health and nutritional

needs, and to advise on the best product for individual circumstances. Rumenco’s field-based team is able to support and advise from merchants through to end users via a combination of practical and technical experience. The team members are all on the Feed Advisers Register (FAR) ensuring the solutions and advice they offer are not only practical and complementary to farming practices but also sustainable.

The Technical Team also includes the same amount of passion for agriculture and animal welfare – Rumenco employs experienced nutritionists to offer the best advice to farmers, with a focus on maximising animal performance and health.

Furthermore, as a participating member of the Forage Analytical Assurance (FAA) group, the Rumenco on-site laboratory offers accurate, efficient and reliable forage testing using the latest Near Infra-Red Reflectance

Spectroscopy (NIRS) technology. Its forage analysis service offers the basis to which a complete ration can be formulated.

Thanks to its knowledge and experience in ruminant nutrition, Rumenco now offers products and solutions to help farmers maximise animal performance from home grown feeds. Going forward, the company can be optimistic about the future, because it has a solid platform to step on whilst pursuing its expansion goals. Not only does Rumenco export its products to a total of 25 countries on six continents, which makes it a veritable global player, but it can also rely on the support of its sister companies from the Rumenco Group – namely, Net-tex and Progiene.

From these strong foundations, Rumenco seems ready to take on the challenges and opportunities that the current market has to offer. D www.rumenco.co.uk

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Malt of many colours M

With a history stretching back over three centuries, expert maltsters French & Jupps blends modern technology with experience and tradition in the creation of its coloured malts

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alted grains have been used as an ingredient of beer for hundreds of years, but while the process has ancient roots, the successful businesses that manufacture malt today have honed and finessed the process down to a fine art.

One such expert is French & Jupps – not only one of England’s oldest manufacturing companies, but also the only maltsters in the UK specialising solely in the manufacture of coloured malts. The same family has run the business for over 300 years, and it was current Managing Director David Jupp’s great-grandfather, also named David, who moved the company to its current Hertfordshire location in 1885, and constructed two malting buildings.

Such is their heritage, that the buildings have an important significance not only in the local history, but in English history in general.

Now listed buildings, the French & Jupps facilities nevertheless represent the most modern malting practices, thanks to the company’s continuous investment programme. Part of this strategy not only restored a kiln that

had been in use for 100 years, but also adopted a sympathetic approach to preserving the history of the buildings.

The kiln refurbishment project enabled the company to increase the capacity of the kiln as well as installing modern handling equipment and a new indirect heating system. The control system for the kiln is now fully automated such that it can be loaded, dried, and discharged without an operator being present.

The kiln at French & Jupps is used to produce white malt, which is roasted to yield coloured malts such as Black, Chocolate and Amber. Alongside those mentioned above it also produces Cara Gold, Cara Malt, Brown Malt, Crystal Malt and Roasted Barley.

Diversity of flavour In recent years, high quality coloured malts have greatly increased in popularity as many more brewers experiment with speciality brews (especially now with the increased popularity of real ales). The production of seasonal ales, winter warmers, stouts, porters and head brewer’s choice beers have grown as a result of the guest beer market and the increasing search for variety from the consumer.

Speciality malts provide key ingredients needed to create these new recipes, from low colour Cara Malt to highly coloured Roasted Barley, they can offer the brewer a convenient means of creating a diversity of flavour profiles in new recipe beers. Roasted and coloured malts need not only be used in darker beers, they can also be incorporated in lighter beers to impart new flavours and characteristics.

As the popularity and demand for specialised coloured malts rises, so too does French & Jupps’ determination to install the latest technology in its modern roast house. The control systems for the germination drum fans and humidification systems have been computerised and automated control for the steeping vessels has been introduced.

Thanks to the improvements made by the company, its coloured malts are now produced in a roasting cylinder or drum.

The size of these machines can vary from those handling a batch of 500kg to the modern high capacity machines

French & Jupps Ltd capable of handling a batch of 3.5t.

These machines, which are modified coffee roasters, rotate at approximately 30rpm. They are fitted with vanes which impart a dual mixing system on the grain. This ensures an even roast and minimises damage to the corn.

The drum is heated by burners, which provide uniform heat throughout.

These burners are accurately controlled to enable the operator to maintain the correct temperature profile throughout the roast. With direct heating, hot dry air passes through the drum; for indirect heating the grain is heated at a constant moisture level giving a ‘stewing’ effect.

Coloured malts provide an extensive range of brewing materials capable of imparting flavour characteristics as well as controlling the colour of beer.

Proud history It is clear that coloured malt manufacture is a sensitive process that requires intensive energy usage, capital investment, supervision, technology and quality control. Most importantly it requires highly skilled and experienced operators. This combination of factors is what makes French & Jupps so successful, and means that its range of products is used to supply food and brewing companies across the UK, and

French & Jupps’ ability to adapt and evolve continues, with a significant investment in the overhaul of its use of gas oil to more sustainable LPG. The company also developed space within the maltings for its own Business Centre, which now provides office space and services to small and medium-sized companies.

Looking to the future the current managing director David Jupp is confident that remaining a family-run business with family values will continue to be the key to its success. He concludes: “Our family has a long and proud history of producing coloured malts and, by having the confidence to invest substantially in our plant in recent years, we are well positioned to take advantage of opportunities that will arise in the future. We will remain focused on the organic growth of our niche market, and perfecting our range of coloured malt products.” D www.frenchandjupps.com

indeed, all over the world, including countries as diverse and far afield as the US, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Entering 2019 as a strong, independent family malting company,

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Sourced from the sea

A specialist in processing frozen seafood products, Northcoast Seafoods is expanding at a rapid pace and looking to move to its new home in May 2019

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here is a saying that when the facts speak, even the gods remain silent. One undisputable fact is that since 2000, the year when Northcoast Seafoods was established, the specialist in sourcing and processing frozen seafood products has grown from a one-man band with a turnover of £1.5 million to a 100-strong staff business, whose revenue now approaches £150 million annually. Founded by Fridrik Thorsteinsson – a man who ‘came from the land of ice and snow, from the midnight sun, where the hot springs flow’ (as Led Zeppelin would have it), Northcoast Seafoods was set up shortly after Fridrik had arrived to the UK from Iceland. He partnered with one of the strongest seafood companies in Denmark – Kangamiut Group, operating as a sales and marketing company first for cold water prawns only, and since 2006, for whitefish and other seafood products, too. It was at the same time that the business opened an office in Denmark where it merged all of its European sales. Shortly after, it became a leading importer in both

the UK and Europe, gaining access to raw material from places like Canada, Newfoundland, Iceland, and Asia.

“Another turning point for us came in 2012 when we started emphasising on doing business directly with retailers.

Today, 80 per cent of our UK business comes from retail,” Fridrik points out.

“We have created the Fishmonger’s Favourite brand to present a new offering in retail frozen seafood. Critical to our success is that we work closely with our customers to provide them with products that accurately reflect market needs. Launched in 2016, a year later the brand picked up the Gold Award for Best New Fish-based Retail Product, as well as Retail Product of the Year for its Two Salmon and King Prawn Stacks, at the BFFF Annual Awards.”

In a key move to optimise its operation, Northcoast Seafoods acquired its long-standing packaging partner Ambassador in September 2018, aiming to take more control of production. This was followed by an eight-figure cash injection from HSBC for the renovation of a 40,000 square feet processing plant in Grimsby that

Northcoast Seafoods will accommodate all of Northcoast Seafoods’ UK activities under one roof, including the work done by Ambassador.

“We are planning to move into the new facility in May 2019,” reports Fridrik. “It will involve a wide range of equipment, such as pillow bag machines and tray packing machines.

These will improve our capability of making value-added products, where, for example, we can add sauces to the seafood.”

A unique provider The acquisition of Ambassador and the subsequent renovation of Northcoast Seafoods’ new facility was yet another step taken by the firm towards establishing a fully vertically-integrated business model. “We regard ourselves as a unique provider, because we are so close to the source of the raw material, meaning that we can always guarantee the highest quality of our products,” Fridrik discusses. “Our vision is to be a one-stop shop for frozen seafood and the latest investments we have made are strengthening our position considerably.

The excellent relationship we have with our supply base helps us immensely in our quest. We are already importing a vast majority of the different types of

Left to right: Steve Berry, Mike Atkinson, MD Fredrik Mar Thorsteinsson, Dan Wilson HSBC Manager.

Pictures copyright ©Darren Casey

investments Northcoast Seafoods has placed. The intention to relocate to a new facility also indicates that the company is seeking to future-proof itself. In addition, it can rely heavily on the support of the Kangamuit group of which it is part. “The organisation is a major player in sourcing cod and haddock, in particular, which

gives us access to whitefish of the highest quality, sourced from the Barents Sea. We are very proud to operate under such a reputable group like Kangamuit and we are confident that we’ll enjoy continued success in the years to come,” Fridrik concludes. D northcoastseafoods.co.uk

frozen seafood products that enter the UK and we are the provider that stays closest to its supply chain, which gives us a clear advantage over our competitors.”

Commenting on the prevalent consumer trends of the day, Fridrik singles out people’s growing interest in trying more exotic and innovative seafood dishes. “It is evident from our observations that there is a growing demand for value-added products that allow consumers to sample more exciting recipes, such as the aforementioned meals that include various sauces. For instance, we offer Coquille Thermidor in a creamy white wine sauce that is proving especially sought-after by customers. Of course, seafood as a whole is also very rich in protein and therefore remains a popular choice for many a consumer due to its health benefits.”

Growth ambitions manifest themselves clearly through the sizable

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