Foodchain Issue 119 November 2016

FoodChain Issue 119

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NOV 2016

The business of food and drink

Grains

of truth

Crisp Malting Group is keen to spread the word to food and beverage companies about the incredible potential of malt

Industry News A matter of taste Bringing fine dining to doorsteps and desks

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Create authentic curries at home with new kits

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Fizzy drink that doesn’t damage health

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Fresh chocolate company wins Seed Fund prize

Asking questions Making sure you find the right suppliers

FoodChain ISSUE 119 L NOV 2016

THE BUSINESS OF FOOD AND DRINK

Grains

of truth

Crisp Malting Group is keen to spread the word to food and beverage companies about the incredible potential of malt

Editor’s Welcome

Industry News L Create

A matter of taste Bringing fine dining to doorsteps and desks

authentic curries at home with new kits

L Fizzy

drink that doesn’t damage health

L Fresh

chocolate company wins Seed Fund prize

Asking questions Making sure you find the right suppliers

Chairman Andrew Schofield Editor Libbie Hammond

Looking at the New Year

Art Editor Advertising Design Fleur Daniels Staff Writers Jo Cooper Andrew Dann Joshua Younespour Profiles Manager Emma Crane Sales Director Joe Woolsgrove Sales Mauro Berini Mark Cawston Tim Eakins Darren Jolliffe Jonas Junca Dave King Theresa McDonald William Ramanauskas Rob Wagner Operations Director Philip Monument Editorial Researchers Alasdair Gamble Natalie Griffiths Mark Kafourous Kya Johnson Wendy Russell Office Manager Advertising Administrator Tracy Chynoweth

W

hen I commissioned the article in this issue that is looking towards 2017 it felt like I was getting ahead of myself. And yet here we are, only two months away from a New Year – 2016 has been

extraordinary so far so I am fully expecting November and December to throw in a few curve balls before it’s finally over.

This time of year is when FoodChain looks at what we should be featuring and discussing over the next 12 months. It’s never easy to anticipate what the Next Big Thing will be, but we will do our best to address the issues that we feel will be important to our readers going forward.

Of course, if there is anything you want us to look at – please get in touch!

Follow us at:

@FoodChain_mag

Schofield Publishing Cringleford Business Centre, 10 Intwood Road, Cringleford, Norwich, NR4 6AU, U.K. T: +44 (0)1603 274130F: +44 (0)1603 274131 www.foodchainmagazine.com

libbie@schofieldpublishing.co.uk

© 2016 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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10 Features Product research The creative process

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Software Strong foundation

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Is enterprise resource planning really the optimal framework for holding, accessing and using traceability information

Finding the right suppliers isn’t easy, and asking the right questions requires time and effort

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Sarah-Louise Walker could see a gap in the market for a fine dining catering service and so launched the Leeds Club Kitchen

Isabelle Maillot explains how the team at Sidel keeps on top of new innovations and developments in the beverage packaging sector

Finding suppliers Asking the right questions

Premium catering A matter of taste

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Preparing for 2017 Get ready for the New Year

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Are you already looking at preparing business-critical content for January 2017?

News

7/15

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

Taste Test

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

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22 47 69 50 Konspol Group

Profiles

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A leading chicken producer, Konspol Group focuses on keeping ahead of market trends

The Restaurant Show

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Arla Foods – Castello

Bistrot Pierre

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Schokinag

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ACMI Spa

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Glacio Group

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Belvoir Fruit Farms

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Conwy Brewery

Crisp Malting Group

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Bokomo Foods (UK) Ltd

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Adnams

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Harvey & Son (Lewes) Ltd

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Rossi Ice Cream

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Aston Manor Cider

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Innovative Bites

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Cotteswold Dairy

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With big ideas, new events and a continued celebration of innovation, The Restaurant Show 2016 was a huge success

Having delivered record revenues in 2015, Bistrot Pierre has developed solid foundations for further growth

ACMI is a specialist in the production of high technology bottling and packaging lines, serving key food and beverage sectors

With a product range that continues to grow, Belvoir Fruit Farms still uses one of the recipes from co-founder Lady Mary Manners

The finest breweries and distilleries around the world are using malted grains from Crisp Malting Group

Adnams combines a sense of tradition with a modern business approach in the production of beers, wines and spirits

Purity Soft Drinks

Offering a clean, healthy and modern approach to the soft drink industry Purity Soft Drinks is listening to customers’ demands

Chopstix Group

The success of Chopstix is not restricted to the UK market, as it is taking its fusion food into Europe

Welsh Hills Bakery

Welsh Hills Bakery, founder of Lovemore Free From Foods, is an innovator within the free-foods industry

Spendrups Bryggeri

Family-owned and independent brewery Spendrups Bryggeri is today Sweden’s leading distributor of alcoholic beverages

From its origins in 1893 Castello has expanded its product portfolio with a wide range of creatively crafted cheeses

German chocolate manufacturer Schokinag is approaching 2017 with a revitalised attitude and a new owner

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Glacio brings the best European culinary dessert tradition to the world, in the form of its ice cream, sorbets and ice desserts

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Conwy Brewery is a Welsh brewing company with a proud heritage and full range of high quality cask and bottled ales

Bokomo Foods (UK) Ltd makes products ranging from muesli and granola to wheat biscuits and snacking products

Alongside its award-winning range of beers, Sussex brewer Harvey’s also manufactures and sells different lines including wines

The quality and appeal of Rossi Ice Cream simply cannot be under question, as the customer base continues to grow

Aston Manor Cider, a family-owned business, is also the country’s second largest cider manufacturer overall

Founded in 2008, American food wholesaler Innovative Bites has witnessed significant growth and success

Cotteswold Dairy is a thriving, independent family orientated and owned dairy

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The

creative process FoodChain talks to Isabelle Maillot, to find out how her team ensures Sidel continues to help beverage producers remain at the forefront of market developments 4

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Q

: Where does your team get ideas for new innovations and developments?

A: They come from everywhere! But mainly from what we hear from the front-line talks with our customers.

When our people talk to customers on site they can see what their needs are and find out more about how our solutions can help. We also have regular innovation days with our customers and suppliers. All of this input goes into our work and the brainstorming sessions we use to get new ideas. My team closely follows new market, packaging

and technology trends. We attend exhibitions and trade shows, such as pharmaceutical, automation and even military technology shows. This lets us see how innovation and ideas are used in other industries.

Q: But how similar are these industries to the beverage industry?

A: If we, for example, look at the aerospace and military industries, they are driven by research and are not as cost-focused as the beverage industry. They
are often first with new materials and coatings. We keep track of the evolution of these trends and at a

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Product research As part of reducing TCO, we’re working a great deal with machine intelligence. This kind of artificial intelligence is a big theme right now

and tomorrow. Therefore, we work both with ideas that we can realise in the short-term, and we also have a pipeline of more long-term ideas with the potential to be game-changers. The product and account managers are important in this process as they have direct contact with our customers.

They know whether an innovation development answers a real customer need. If it doesn’t it will just be a great technological idea with no real customer value – and not a project, we want to work on. Each month, we have a team meeting to discuss all the ideas we’ve received and we assess them using defined criteria and processes.

However, there is still an element of instinct involved.

certain point when it is well integrated and proven, we can use it in our solutions. It’s a balance between finding the right time to be first to market and at the same time with a technology that has been proven, that is also cost-effective and reliable to offer to beverage producers.

Q: It sounds like you get lots of proposals for innovation projects. How do you select which to work with?

A: We have a process in place to help us decide which ideas to work with.

We need to be sure that the project benefits our customers both today

Q: What role does instinct play?

A: Innovation is something that disturbs the standard process. If you use too many processes and criteria, you tend to end up with the safest ideas. And the safest ideas are generally the ones that everyone else is also considering. This can result in a ‘me-too’ solution. That’s where instinct comes in. And because we have people on the team who know the market, the customers and industry, their instinct is highly valuable.

Q: So when you decide to invest in an innovation project, are you sure that it will be a success?

A: No, we can never be sure. We usually start with a business case and then we have targets that we need to meet on the way. We use risk analysis techniques and work using the Six Sigma process methodology that is widely used in the automotive industry.

But if we have a lot of customers who are demanding and validating the project, then we can be more confident.

Q: How involved are beverage producers in Sidel’s innovation process?

A: It varies greatly. Some are very involved in our work and want to influence the development process, which allows us to take more of a long-term view in developing solutions for their needs. This collaboration is not always about the big breakthroughs but often about incremental innovation. For example, they might have the equipment and want to improve its performance.

However, all of our customers are different and others prefer proven technology.

Q: From the customer point-ofview, what are the big drivers for innovation?

A: The packaging itself is the main driver. Any technology or innovation that helps manufacturers produce the packaging they want, in terms of performance, bottle weight, product safety, at the lowest cost is what they are looking for. Reducing total cost of ownership, or TCO, is without doubt a big part of this. This is a broad theme and covers the equipment, costs, maintenance, energy and resource consumption, and need for labour. By focusing on TCO, we can also impact sustainability, which is high on the agenda for most of our customers. As part of reducing TCO, we’re working a great deal with machine intelligence.

This kind of artificial intelligence is a big theme right now. This is how the machine learns by itself from the data it receives. Over time this will lead to the machine making better choices than we humans can make – from adjustments to production processes to predictive maintenance when the machine itself knows it needs a spare part.

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Product research Q: Which of Sidel’s innovations are you most proud of?

A: Predis™ has been a real breakthrough and is a project we’re all proud of. It has improved sustainability, ease of use and product integrity for beverage producers. This dry preform decontamination solution works using no water and very few chemicals, which has challenged traditional assumptions that complex blowers with a high chemical consumption are the only way to produce aseptically.

Our Intelliblower™ solution is another solution that I’m very proud to have been involved in. This solution takes a first step towards machine intelligence.

It can analyse various parameters and auto-adjust its processes to ensure production quality. For customers, this means that their production lines can run within specifications without operator intervention in the blowing process. Even if the temperature varies during the day, the Intelliblower produces bottles that meet specifications. It can also identify a

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blowing station that is not performing optimally, which is a clear boost to improving production quality.

Q: Which industry innovations do you expect to see in the next five years?

A: I see packaging technology playing a larger role in consumer health. For example, your fridge could analyse the turnover of fruit and vegetables, if you drink more soda than water and so on, and transmit this information to products you buy. Then the product packaging could remind you about the shelf life of the product or encourage you to balance your diet, for example with the message ‘drink me now with an apple’.

Q: Is there a certain type of person who is good at working with innovation?

A: The short answer is no. For a good innovation team, you need different profiles. In my team, everyone is very different but we are all hugely passionate about what we do. That’s actually quite typical for Sidel. We are

all driven by this passion for creating the best equipment and services for our customers. I believe that everyone at Sidel works with innovation at some level. We’re just the catalysts for getting it to market. D Isabelle Maillot is Vice President Technology and Open Innovation, Sidel. Sidel’s purpose is to help brands protect the product inside, preserve the planet outside and touch the lives of millions of people every day. It does so by offering complete and modular PET, can and glass packaging solutions, including people, services and equipment.

Sidel has over 165 years of industrial experience. With 30,000 machines installed in more than 190 countries, it has been helping producers fill beverage bottles for over 85 years, blow them for more than 50 and label them for more than 40. www.sidel.com

IndustryNews

Waste not, want not

Guilt-free fizz Healthy drinks brand VITHIT, available from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Boots and WHSmith has unveiled VITHIT Bubbly, a new sparkling juice drink which is the perfect pick-me-up. It is available in a super stylish can and three lipsmacking flavours – ZESTEA (Lime & Ginger), ESSENTIAL (Strawberry, Elderflower and Mint) and VITAL (Coconut, Mandho & Lime). Each little Bubbly can boasts less than 35 calories and contains no added sugar and is, instead, gently sweetened with the stevia plant.

They can also boast a good selection of vitamins and minerals; each and every can is packed with RDA 100 per cent of Folic Acid, Biotin, Niacin, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B5, and Vitamin B12 and a strong helping of healthy tea.

VITHIT Founder, Gary Lavin, noted: “We wanted to create a fizzy drink that doesn’t damage your health, rot your teeth or compromise on taste. We feel we’ve achieved this with VITHIT bubbly and UK consumers are already absolutely loving it.” www.vithit.com

Fresh winners Searching for the future stars of the food industry each year, The Seed Fund, a philanthropic fund founded by branding and marketing consultancy, The Collaborators, has selected Bristol-based Adam’s Fresh Chocolate as its 2016 Winner.

The judges were blown away by the unique nature of this raw chocolate, which is made from organic, single origin, unroasted cacao and other superfoods, including combinations such as goji and pistachio. The chocolate is packed full of micronutrients and has an enticing fudge like texture, making it a step into the unknown for those tasting the product for the first time.

Free from refined sugars, dairy, gluten and soy, the chocolate gives a burst of energy without the usual sugar crash to follow.

Having come through this year’s Seed Academy along with 12 other fledgling food businesses, Adam’s Fresh Chocolate owners, Adam Farag and Mark Claydon, will now begin a journey of business development as the company benefits from a year-long programme of mentoring, branding and business support from The Seed Fund, a prize estimated to be worth over £100,000.

Adam and Mark collected their award at the Great Taste Golden Forks Dinner, as Guild of Fine Food managing director, John Farrand, also announced a new collaboration between Great Taste and The Seed Fund for 2017, with the Academy extending its reach nationwide for the first time. Aligned by a shared commitment to nurturing up-and-coming food businesses, Great Taste has partnered with The Seed Fund to give its award-winning artisan producers an opportunity to apply to The Seed Academy and benefit from a summer of learning, mentoring and networking with the Academy’s inspirational and experienced experts.

Jayne Lilly, owner of The Collaborators and founder of The Seed Fund, highlighted that they were looking forward to helping Adam’s Fresh Chocolate to reach the next level. “We can’t wait to get stuck in and help them make the transition from market stalls to food halls and beyond.” www.adamsfreshchocolate.com

The developers of the EatBy App have incorporated artificial intelligence into their kitchen management and grocery list app to reduce domestic food waste.

The latest release of App includes a new feature - it automatically suggests how long fruit, veg and frozen items will stay fresh for and then reminds you to use them up before they go off. But the clever bit, according to the developers, is that the app learns the storage habits of individual users.

“Not everyone’s kitchen is the same, and different food storage environments effect shelf life. EatBy App addresses this problem by learning as it’s used over time,” they said.

Designers at EatBy say they are now developing the app to make the best use of the freezer in an effort to make users more aware of the benefits of freezing food to further reduce food waste. But the latest big news is that EatBy is developing Smart Kitchen hardware. “The products we’re working on will make kitchen management simple - with a big focus on beautiful design and developing A.I. driven ‘invisible technology’ that works in the background with minimal user effort required,” said Steffan Lewis, co-founder of EatBy App. “Artificial Intelligence does not need to be scary - in EatBy’s case it’ll simply help make life better. Our technology is aimed at families, foodies and people who love to cook. We’re not interested in creating futuristic, sterile kitchens. We are interested in encouraging everyone to eat delicious fresh food, reduce food waste and save money.” www.eatbyapp.com

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Strong

foundation F

Chris Littley asks: could enterprise resource planning save your bacon?

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ew retail scandals capture the public’s attention faster than a high-profile product recall – the ‘exploding’ Samsung Note 7 battery immediately springs to mind. This type of public outrage is often amplified even more so when it comes to products we put in our mouths. Recent years alone have unearthed such headline-grabbing stories as the infamous horsemeat scandal and McDonald’s expired-meat

Chris Littley

crisis, to name a few. This summer proved no different, with supermarkets and manufacturers recalling numerous yoghurt brands, guacamole, sesame seeds, ice cream, potatoes and more.

But drama and scandals aside, recalls continue to represent a major challenge across each and every sector in the process manufacturing market - from the food and beverage industry, to pharmaceutical, chemical, and aerospace manufacturing. Food recall

numbers rose by an astonishing 78 per cent in 2015, at a total of 159 recalls compared to 89 in 2014.

Recalls are big, bad news and the costs can be high - or even ‘catastrophic’, according to 81 per cent of manufacturers surveyed by Grocery Manufacturers Association.

Recalled products typically need to be repaired, replaced, or destroyed. Then there’s the cost of identifying, tracking and executing the recall, as well as the damage to brand reputation and regular operations.

Thankfully, there is a growing industry trend towards taking action and complying with regulations. Many manufacturers obtain insurance against possible recall losses, but it’s paramount they put in place more effective systems for product traceability to limit the size and scope of recalls.

In truth, many of the high-profile scandals we read about could have been prevented with a proper solution in place for data capture and quality management. Recall readiness has today become a test of a manufacturer’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and their ability to implement an effective traceability chain.

Natural foundation While there are a lot of ERP solutions supposedly geared toward the process manufacturing space, many do not take into consideration the real complexities faced by the industry. It’s vital, therefore, to use an ERP system specifically tailored for this space, offering integrated traceability - from the raw material supply chain, through to the finished product.

Being prepared for a recall is about having a traceability chain that allows a manufacturer to visualise and access data on everything from batch, serial number and expiry dates, to quality assurance of incoming materials and finished goods. This way, with sufficient data, it’s possible to isolate which products, ingredients, intermediates, or batches are involved in a recall.

ERP systems should be a natural foundation for storing and accessing

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Software

The Internet of Things heralds a new age for increased traceability, one from which small and large companies alike will benefit

this breadth of data because their functionality spans the entire value chain, across its multiple processes for procurement, manufacturing, quality, and supply chain management. In other words, the ideal ERP system governs the entire journey of your materials - where they came from and what has been done with them.

Data collection But building an effective traceability chain is also a matter of effective data capture. That’s why it’s important to utilise partners for more advanced data capture and analysis. Without the support of robust barcode or RFID scanning tools, capturing this volume of data at each level of transaction can be a costly and complex affair.

Equally complicated and costly is the task of accessing or consolidating data from fragmented applications or isolated spreadsheets. That’s why, as one consolidated solution, the ERP system should offer integrated quality management, quality assurance, and formula/recipe management - three of the key domains involved in assessing the root cause of a recall. And, as the industry moves towards more proactive tracking and quality measures, the ERP system should provide the data needed for compliance with key process manufacturing regulations including HAACP, FDA, USDA, and REACH. The collection of data via sensors and scales is not new to the process industry - in fact, companies that run asset-intensive processes at really large-scale have been doing it for decades. The Internet of Things heralds a new age for increased traceability, one from which small and large companies alike will benefit. Now everything has some sort of sensor and can be traced, from forklift trucks

to food and drink storage locations, pallets to trucks. Roughly 25 per cent of our customers are collecting transactional data, a number that will increase to around 80 per cent in the next five years, as the technology becomes cheaper and more available.

There are many compelling arguments for implementing an effective traceability chain - not least the ability to isolate problems before they snowball, protecting your operations and ultimately your brand integrity. Rapid, efficient traceability makes a supplier more desirable to OEMs and provides insight into even the smallest changes in product quality and yield, enabling manufacturers to monitor and fine-tune operations.

But implementing traceability needs to be done in an efficient way that feeds data into an integrated suite of applications that consolidates access to information. A broad and deep ERP suite is the optimal framework for holding, accessing and using traceability information.

Coupled with efficient data collection, it’s the strongest foundation for operation improvement and making sure that today’s issue does not make tomorrow’s headlines. D Chris Littley is senior advisor for process industries at IFS. IFS is a globally recognised leader in developing and delivering enterprise software for enterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise asset management (EAM) and enterprise service management (ESM).

Founded in 1983, IFS brings customers in targeted sectors closer to their business, helps them be more agile and prepare for what’s next in their industry. www.ifsworld.com

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Asking the right questions

E Robert Simpson takes a look at how to ensure you have the right players on the team 10 www.foodchainmagazine.com

nsuring supermarkets shelves are kept fully stocked is a team business. Of course, furniture stores and sportswear outlets would say the same.

However, they don’t face the shelf-life issues of the food supply chain, or the breadth and complexity of the product range. Food, in the supply chain management world, is exceptional.

Consequently, all members of the food supply chain need to be exceptional as well. Especially if you’re looking to add a new member to the team. No one wants to be the manager who brought in the wrong team player.

What makes a good team player?

Robert Simpson

It’s important that new suppliers gel with your organisation and its values – which first means ensuring your procurement department has a strong grasp of your own company’s mission and culture, and can communicate this to potential partners.

And this means a marriage of equals: modern businesses know that price and location, although important, aren’t the best guide to supplier choice. Truly successful companies are passionate about their business and about serving their customers, and you have a right

Finding suppliers TrueCommerce we recommend that potential customers consider several key points before deciding which company they choose to partner with.

These include: Flexibility, scalability and reliability Is the supplier ready to form a real meaningful partnership where both the customer and supplier care about each other’s problems and understand the issues that occur can have knock on effects throughout the supply chain?

Once the supplier has understood the value their flexibility can add to the relationship, you can then explore how equipped it will be to respond to changes in your own business.

Ask yourself how much capacity the supplier has to scale up or down, and how quickly.

Also, ask if your new supplier can then provide the consistency of service that’s required, sometimes an SLA can be guaranteed at the outset to avoid any issues in the future.

Connectivity

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Don’t be afraid to dig deep – both in your search for a potential supplier, and in questioning a prospective supplier’s capabilities

to expect the same passion from your suppliers.

In addition, you need to have a firm grasp on how those partners will work with you. Taking the choice of an EDI provider as an example, at

Over the past decade, electronic connectivity between customers and suppliers has become a key requirement. With the largest and most valued trading relationships now becoming electronic, this technology has now become prevalent throughout the supply chain and companies who don’t adopt it very quickly become redundant.

Once the technological capabilities have been established, will your new partner be available 24/7 if needed?

How will you contact them? And at what level will that interaction be and at what cost?

If your supplier is providing business critical services, do they offer a full support package; recently, we’ve provided an EDI solution for Yeo Valley, whose decision was made predominantly on the basis that they needed a support package that could cope with the company’s round-theclock order schedule from retailers, including Tesco, Asda and Morrisons.

Prior to moving to TrueCommerce issues occurring outside core office hours would lead to delays, which is unacceptable for a brand dealing with perishable items.

Pricing structure Although pricing shouldn’t be the reason for choosing a supplier, a good understanding of the pricing structure should be gained before engaging with a company. In many circumstances, lower upfront costs can be coupled with costly add-ons, which can add a sting to a trading relationship once it has started to flourish. If possible, it’s always worth requesting a fixed pricing structure with no hidden or variable costs.

Adding value A true partnership means your supplier needs to know about your business as much as you need to know about theirs.

They should be seeking to add value, by suggesting ways to improve your trading processes. Whether it’s helping to streamline the supply chain or improve the performance of key processes, there are usually some benefits that can be gained from creating a close and co-operative relationship with suppliers.

Choosing a supplier that’s more open to this type of proactive relationship can pay dividends in the future.

If in doubt, dig deep Finding the right supplier isn’t easy, and asking the right questions requires investment of time and effort on your part. However, a good supplier, if they want to be on your team, will have the right answers, and the evidence ready to prove them. Don’t be afraid to dig deep – both in your search for a potential supplier, and in questioning a prospective supplier’s capabilities – to ensure you find the right partner for your business needs. D Robert Simpson is Marketing Director at European EDI specialists, TrueCommerce.

TrueCommerce brings together three market leading EDI vendors in Europe: Wesupply, Atlas Products and HighJump B2Bi. It delivers the next generation of EDI and e-Invoicing managed service to companies looking to improve efficiency and reduce cost. www.truecommerce.com/ uk-en

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A matter of taste Recognising a gap in the market for a catering service that would offer more than a list of soggy sandwiches and ‘posh’ crisps, Sarah-Louise Walker, Managing Director of The Leeds Club Kitchen launched a bespoke service that would bring fine dining to doorsteps and desktops

H

The Leeds Club

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aving worked in the hospitality industry for more than a decade, Sarah was only too accustomed to the difficulty that clients would have when looking for a catering service that would meet with their growing needs, including foods that were free-from and suitable for people with a growing list of intolerances.

Sarah comments: “I had come across the same frustrations time and time again with clients asking how it could possibly be so difficult for a chef to create a menu that would meet with their specific needs. I wasn’t absolutely

Sarah-Louise Walker

sure of the answer if I’m honest. Surely people couldn’t be so blinkered as to think that companies would be happy with the same thing every month?

However after looking more closely at the market, that is exactly what was happening.

“I’d considered launching a fine dining service for years but now seemed like the perfect time. The market was ready for a new approach to catering that would capitalise upon the awareness of good, quality food, the growing appreciation of dishes with a difference and locally sourced ingredients. It was just up to me to pull it together.”

Premium catering

Clients in control Not even a year later and The Leeds Club Kitchen has proven Sarah’s theory correct. Companies including ASDA, HARIBO and PWC have all called upon the fine dining service to cater for their events, some of which have welcomed global entrepreneurs and international guests.

Sarah continues: “We had to turn the usual approach on its head and rather than telling the customer what they could have, we asked them what they would like. This meant that before we even started they were in control and could add some personality to the

occasion through the dishes that we served.

“All of our food is freshly prepared and presented so that it looks as good as it tastes. There is no point in preparing delicious dishes if you then serve it on paper plates. It defeats the whole object. That is why we provide our clients with a total service, giving customers everything they need to make a lasting impression.

“It doesn’t have to be about business, we cater for private events too and some of our largest engagements have been on location at a customer’s home. These are the events where feedback is often more forthcoming and there is nothing better than hearing people comment on how tasty the food is and more so that they weren’t expecting such an impressive spread.”

From the outset The Leeds Club Kitchen has made sure that the food has been at the forefront of its offering.

With a dedicated executive chef, the business relies on new ideas, current trends and recommendations that will give a twist to classics that people still enjoy but want to see presented differently.

Some of the most popular dishes have included lettuce wraps, seasonal

salads, mini fish and chips, bite-sized Yorkshire puddings and afternoon tea with homemade scones, jam and clotted cream.

Sarah continues: “Our customers want something different, they want a twist.

They don’t want sandwiches or sausage rolls; they want us to take a brief and to come up with some ideas that will impress their guests. Often it’s the little changes that make all the difference like the lettuce wrap. Not only is a healthier option, which is often important to our clients, but it is gluten free, providing those with wheat intolerance with a finger food they can enjoy.”

Bespoke service Despite recognising a gap in the market, The Leeds Club Kitchen is still one of very few catering businesses that provide a bespoke service, giving customers the chance to dictate or manipulate their menu.

Sarah continues: “Fine dining isn’t a trend, it’s increasingly becoming an expectation. People are asking why they should settle for a list of fillings when what they actually want is something that will meet with the requirements of the guests.

“The events that we work on often have themes, and this should be

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Premium catering

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It is important that we are aware of any particular trends within the industry, although we prefer to lead as opposed to follow we cannot afford to become complacent

reflected in the food but we hear all too often that our clients are told that this simply isn’t possible. Good quality catering shouldn’t be about compromise, it should be about delicious dishes that look and taste amazing.”

Full package With many catering companies claiming to be fine dining but actually providing a relatively standard package, customers have become disillusioned and often expect that they will simply pay more for a menu that they could get elsewhere.

Sarah concludes: “It is frustrating that companies position themselves as offering fine dining when actually what they may have is a few unusual ingredients. If you are going to claim to be fine dining then it has to be the full package.

“We welcome competition, not least because we know that we have an excellent product, great service and a

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proven track record. We know that we have raised the bar and we do hope that others will do the same and that we can lead by example.

“When we launched the business we made sure that we had everything in place to allow us to deliver fresh food to the doorstep or desktop. It had to be fresh and we had to have the space and the equipment to allow us to serve hot and cold foods. Our purpose-designed mobile catering van means that we have everything in place to meet with the expectations of our customers wherever they are based.”

There are always trends within the food industry and this means that the requirements of customers are often influenced by things that they have read, seen or tasted.

Sarah concludes: “It is important that we are aware of any particular trends within the industry, although we prefer to lead as opposed to follow we cannot afford to become complacent.

An ongoing trend is seasonal ingredients and those that mean something or have a particular heritage, such as rhubarb or liquorice in West Yorkshire.

“With fine dining people want to know that they are getting the best and we will do all we can to reassure our customers that they will not get a better service from any other catering company in the West Yorkshire region or beyond.” D The Leeds Club is a Grade II listed building in Leeds with 12 function rooms and benefits from its in-house catering team which brings over 40-years’ experience to the venue.

The Leeds Club Kitchen extends this offering by taking fine dining to desktops and doorsteps throughout Yorkshire, encouraging people to opt for handmade produce that is sourced locally. www.leedsclubkitchen.com

IndustryNews Spice up your life

Hot stuff

Hari Ghotra’s Curry Kits, on sale at www.harighotra. co.uk for a £3.50, are designed to make it easier to cook authentic Indian food at home. They provide exact quantities of the handpicked spices from the expert herself, and each kit includes individually numbered bags for every stage of cooking and easy to follow instructions. In addition, the kits include a video link to cook along with Hari.

Consumers can experience exciting spices; unique ingredients and different cooking styles by selecting from curry classics such as Korma, Tikka Masala and Biryani. The range also includes lesserknown dishes ranging from the creamy yet spicy Makhani and the South Indian Xacuti, which incorporates coconut and Kashmiri chillies, and in Hari’s words is ‘great served slightly hotter than normal!’ www.harighotra.co.uk

The change in seasons and the expected colder weather have triggered an increase in projected sales figures for Barry Callebaut Beverages. Hot chocolate is a recognised favourite in the winter months and Barry Callebaut Beverages has enjoyed an annual steady increase in sales of these products, which it now hopes to be bolstered by the recent launch of its Bensdorp’s Barista Single Origin Cocoa and Chocolate drinks.

The supplier is also expecting to see a more uniform increase across all of its brands, thanks to the introduction of its smooth soup selection and the success of its award winning, flavoured beverages, including the popular Caprimo Crème Brûleé and the Caprimo Tiramisu. www.barrycallebautvending.co.uk

Posh pork pies Leading food manufacturer, Addo Food Group, has released its new pork pie range under the brand, Tottle. The deliciously inspired pork pie comes from an innovative new take on the traditional snack with slow cooked British meat and premium ingredients.

The range of ‘posh pork pies’ secured Tottle its listing into Sainsbury’s with the launch of Pork & Long Clawson Stilton and The Real McCoy. Tottle has also revealed the Three Pork sausage roll and a Pork, Black Pudding and Stilton sausage roll as part of its pastry line expansion.

The new ranges launch as a luxury offering to the chilled savoury pastry market, sourcing quality premium ingredients such as outdoor-bred succulent British pork, Lancashire black pudding and maple cured bacon. These are diced and marinated in Tottle’s specially selected seasonings and

encased in hot water crust pastry, using Italian lard, and bring extravagance to the traditional pork pie.

Sam Benjamin, brand manager at Tottle said: “We are very excited to launch our sumptuous range of pork pies that really are unlike any other.

We take great pride in our premium ingredients and this gives a chunkier texture and much larger flavour which shows through our luxury combinations.

We really have taken the traditional pork pie and gone ten steps further.” www.tottlebakery.com

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Get ready for the

New Year O

Gavin Drake takes a look at some content resolutions for 2017 16 www.foodchainmagazine.com

rganisations around the globe are already preparing business-critical content for January 2017. This content could be new product documentation, updated policies and procedures, refined disclosures and legal statements, or even updated branding and marketing material. The New Year always brings opportunities to refresh these types of assets for driving revenue and ensuring operations continue to run effectively.

The challenge is that for many, business-critical content must be prepared now – almost a quarter in advance – in order to traverse the

switch seamlessly from end-of-year product offers and updates to new compliance mandates and beyond.

Content for many organisations at peak times of year has to address a variety of audiences, geographies and purposes. The planning, creation and maintenance can be costly, leading some businesses to neglect it or leave things as is and hope for the best. This can be a grave mistake, costing more in the future than it would do address the challenge now.

So what early resolutions can we set for overcoming content challenges that hold us back from being our most competitive?

Preparing for 2017 Resolution 1: Understand which content exists and why The first thing any business looking to improve the creation and management of business-critical content should do is conduct a content audit. By taking an in-depth inventory of what exists a business can define objectives for the content that is produced and identify areas where new content needs to be developed. In an audit, it’s best to review content types and formats as well as the tools your team uses to create and manage the content.

A detailed content inventory can also uncover areas where automation can be used to remove timeconsuming manual tasks. By removing unnecessary rework and allowing easier access to updated information, teams are more effective, businesses are more competitive, and customer satisfaction increases.

Resolution 2: Set content rules Once a content audit or inventory is complete, design rules need to be set for different content types. Many times these rules come in the form of templates that help guide content creators when they are developing print, Web, and mobile content so that branding is consistent across every channel. The templates, created by designers, are accessed by authors so they can focus on writing compelling content and not worry about what the end product will look like.

Content rules also come in the form of taxonomies and metadata that an author can apply during the creation of the content. Once applied, the content can be stored, accessed, tracked and updated as content rules change.

Resolution 3: Streamline content review and approval Another valuable outcome from our resolution #1 (conducting a content audit) is a deeper understanding of the roles and systems involved in completing, approving, publishing and delivering content. When you know who is involved in the content lifecycle,

it’s easier to establish processes for review and approval. But even more importantly, you will uncover how these teams are managing the process.

In many cases, reviewers and approvers will admit that content is shared in the form of static documents (such as Word or PDF) through email! Imagine the version control issues and errors accumulated as teams pass redlined documents back and forth between each other and then off to a designer for more back and forth over email.

When you consider the volume of content global businesses are under pressure to produce, the lack of modern content management solutions is costing valuable time and affecting content quality.

Again, automation can come into play to ensure review processes across departments are streamlined, with the right people controlling the right documents through a centralised system.

Resolution 4: Make content reusable As mentioned in resolution #3, many organisations rely on static document types for capturing content. Once created in a Word or PDF file, for example, the content is stuck there and is very hard to access, track and update. If you need to update one paragraph from a product datasheet, for example, you will have to guess which version has the content you need, open the entire document, copy and paste the portion you need into your new document and hope the team knows where to find the new version.

This is a workflow that plagues most content teams. There is a solution however, and that is to move from creating static documents to creating reusable content components, which is a key aspect of content automation.

Instead of creating one-off documents where content is locked into a specific document and format, authors create content components that can be assembled and delivered to multiple channels.

By eliminating copying, pasting and rekeying of product information, organisations can be sure there are no conflicts between documentation, datasheets and other collateral that is delivered to multiple channels.

Resolution 5: Let’s not go through this again!

Realistically, there isn’t a quick fix to solving the magnitude of challenges that organisations face on an annual (or quarterly) basis in regards to maintaining and updating content. Changing the way people have traditionally created, managed and published content takes time, vision, commitment and leadership.

So perhaps the best resolution you could make is to start looking now at how you can modernise your content lifecycle for today’s omni-channel world. The big payoff will come next year when you can look back and see that you moved the bar, improved your business, and engaged your customers with content that’s deliver with agility.

One resolution at a time The challenge of creating multichannel content for varied audiences applies to every organisation. When automation is appropriate, the results and the return on investment are extremely valuable. Productivity goes up, time to market is reduced, and a company can support more information products without adding resources, and subsequently improve the quality of published content for better customer and employee engagement. D Gavin Drake is VP of Marketing at Quark. Quark Software Inc. develops a content automation platform that helps large organisations streamline the creation, management, publishing and delivery of businesscritical content. Its solutions automate the process with reusable Smart Content components that can be dynamically assembled and delivered with precision in any format and to any channel. www.quark.com

www.foodchainmagazine.com 17

TasteTest

I sea the future For anyone looking for an alterative to traditional wheat pasta the new I Sea Pasta from Seamore offers a healthier, richer alternative grown in the pure waters of the Irish coastline. It is gluten free, vegan and vegetarian friendly, and is high in iodine, sodium, antioxidants, protein, vitamins and minerals. It packs in twice as much iron as spinach and has 85 per cent less calories per plate then regular wheat pasta - no carbs no calories. It really is what it says on the packet – 100 per cent seaweed! www.seamorefood.com

“I would say that this product is for what I consider a proper ‘foodie’,” said our tester.

“It’s not for the faint hearted as the smell when cooking (which is super easy, just soak in hot water) is literally fresh seaweed from the shore, and the appearance of the greeny black ‘pasta’ complete with seaweed texture is a bit of a shock. However, when combined with sauce I found it a very agreeable alternative to pasta – it had no discernable ‘seaweed’ taste so didn’t distract from sauce, and I loved the low calorie/carb benefits. You’ve just got to jump in and try it!”

Hey baby Inspired by the Med approach to health and wellbeing, and packed with 100 per cent organic, natural and tasty goodness, the Piccolo range has added muchneeded variety to the baby food aisle.

The brand has already built up an enviable reputation with parents countrywide and become a firm favourite with more than 50 of the country’s social media influencers and celebrities including Giovanna Fletcher. In just six months, Piccolo can already be found on the shelves of leading retailers including Waitrose and ASDA, as well as Ocado, Booths, Abel & Cole, Wholefoods, Planet Organic and many more.

The delicious and well balanced baby foods created by Piccolo feature sophisticated flavours, with Stage 1 (from around six months) including Cherry and Yoghurt with Wholegrain

Oats and Sweet Potato, Beetroot, Apple & Pear.

Piccolo also recently unveiled its Stage 2 (from seven months) flavours, including Three Grain Vegetable Risotto with a pinch of Basil and Sweet Potato & Beef Ragu with a hint of Thyme. www.mylittlepiccolo.com

FoodChain had to recruit a new member of the Taste Test team for the Piccolo products, and so we welcomed Jessie Batram to the fold. At eight months old she was the ideal candidate to try Piccolo’s range of tasty baby food. “Jessie loved all the Piccolo products and I did appreciate the fact that so much research had gone into their creation, so I could be confident that I was giving Jessie 100 per cent natural ingredients.

“While I would definitely buy these again, when looking at the savoury options I did find I had to check the ingredients listing on the back carefully as many of the products contain apple, which wasn’t always included in the main description.

Jessie loved the fact that they all had a sweet apple flavour though!”

Drops of taste Two new citrus varieties have been added to the Spice Drops collection Orange Spice and Lemon Spice. Both are made from fresh fruits grown and pressed in India. Just four drops of the Orange Spice Drops is the equivalent of the zest of half an orange while only two drops of Lemon Spice Drops equates to the zest of one whole lemon. www.holylamaspicedrops.com

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“These drops are so easy to use, just a few drops really intensifies the orange or lemon taste of cakes and biscuits and I also use it in savoury dishes as well,” said our tester. “I like how they have a long shelf life despite having no artificial preservatives, and can be added at any time during cooking.”

TasteTest

Where’s the rum?

Mainstream maple UK’s leading brand of maple water, DRINKmaple, has launched in its first national chain launch, in Holland & Barrett.

With sales of the water, which is simply ‘tapped’ from maple trees and has a subtle taste of maple syrup yet only half the sugar of coconut water, to date having been primarily through health stores, such as Planet Organic and Wholefoods, the brand’s UK’s marketing manager, Alicia Cooper, predicts the Holland & Barrett launch will be the drink’s first step into mainstream retail.

“Based on what is happening with the brand in The States, where DRINKmaple is now available in mainstream grocery chains such as Stop & Shop and looks set to replicate the success of coconut water there, we very much see the drink as a supermarket brand. As consumer’s demand for healthier more unusual drink alternatives continues to grow alongside increased awareness of the high sugar content in

more traditional beverages we have no doubt that it won’t be long before DRINKmaple is a household name in the UK.” www.drinkmaple.com

“It’s amazing that such a simple and clean tasting drink can be packed with so many nutrients and minerals including more manganese than a cup of kale,” said our tester. “The drink is quite unusual tasting, with just a hint of maple but not overpoweringly sweet, and I found it a great thirst quencher. I think it would be something I would reach for on a hot day, or after a workout, when I don’t want fizzy sweetness, I want something refreshing and healthy.”

Getting mello MELLO is harnessing the natural goodness of the humble melon with its range of shelled and roasted seeds and MELLO Melon juices. The seeds are described as a ‘nutritional powerhouse’, packed full of protein, and containing essential vitamins and healthy unsaturated fats. Nutritionally outperforming Pumpkin Seeds, Watermelon seeds make a low-calorie, protein-packed snack pot at your desk or on the go.

The MELLO juices capture the raw and natural goodness of melon in a bottle, with absolutely no additives or preservatives. Available in three flavours, they are all designed to offer different benefits, with the Watermelon offering support to the body when working out, the Cantaloupe Melon offering a sweet, tasty and a natural source of super antioxidants and nutrients for healthy glowing skin & a natural energy boost; while the Honeydew Melon variant is targeting the Immune System and Nervous System. www.mellodrinks.co.uk

“I would say that the melon seeds are similar to sunflower seeds in flavour, and the roasting and seasoning that MELLO adds really lifts them up and enhances their natural taste,” said one tester. The team were divided on their favourite, as both the chilli and roasted options were nice to snack on from the pot and also offered a great topping for salad or even soup. “I found that I was happy to snack on these throughout the day, and the carpet round my desk did suffer – I used a spoon in the end,” confessed one tester.

The melon juices also got a thumbs-up from the team – they were clean and fresh tasting, and the additional health benefits were an added bonus. “I always love melon on a hot day, so to find the juice available in a bottle is a great bonus!”

Koko Kanu, which long been a favourite with bartenders, is now available on the UK high street for the first time ever, after hitting the shelves of Sainbury’s and Ocado. The white rum with coconut flavour has been given a striking new bottle and branding, encapsulating imagery of tropical island life with a standout ‘K’ motif and 1950s travel iconography.

To accentuate the coconut flavours, rums with coconut notes produced at the Wray & Nephew distillery are chosen by Master Blender, Joy Spence. The rum has been aged for one year before being charcoal filtered and blended with the coconut. www.kokokanu.com

Give the FoodChain test team a bottle of coconut rum and our eyes light up like Mary Berry hearing there is Bailey’s in a cupcake! “I would describe this as a ‘grownup’ version of coconut rum – it’s not sweet and even sickly like the brand I am thinking of,” said one tester. “I tried this mixed this with cola, but I actually preferred it neat over a lot of ice, I found it sophisticated and interesting enough to drink on its own,” added another.

“I also love the bottle, it’s really got a wow factor, and I can see the attention to detail that has gone into the packaging, which always reassures me that I am buying a premium product, that its creators really care about.”

www.foodchainmagazine.com 19

Recognising

innovation

The Restaurant Show has firmly cemented its reputation as the ultimate destination for the hospitality industry. Andrew Dann talks to The Restaurant Show’s Commercial Director, Elizabeth Duncan, about the success of the event’s 28th outing

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ith an established history and reputation for promoting innovation with the restaurant industry and associated markets, the 28th Restaurant Show was held at London’s venerable Olympia exhibition venue during the 3-5 October 2016.

The Restaurant Show is a unique trade event that caters to both individuals and larger operations that own and work in restaurants, hotels, catering companies, cafes and leisure establishments across the UK. The 2016 Restaurant Show ran alongside three other events comprised of the Conscious Hospitality Show, which was first launched in 2015, and two brand new events, The Bar & Pub Show and Catering Equipment Expo. These events further extended the audience of The Restaurant Show, with more than 450 suppliers in attendance providing a fantastic opportunity for visitors to enrich their commercial opportunities.

“Conscious Hospitality Show was established to focus on specific conscious areas within the restaurant business, including sustainability, health and

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nutrition, responsible sourcing and business ethics. These were all areas where we had customers and exhibitors that wanted to be present at the show and who also felt that they could better showcase themselves and their products in a single location. The event enables restaurateurs or hoteliers to easily identify all of the solutions they need to run a more sustainable business,” Elizabeth elaborates. “Conscious Hospitality Show was extremely well received during 2015 receiving a rating of nine out of ten from last year’s visitors and the event has continued to run and attract new businesses in 2016. During the same year we have also introduced The Bar & Pub Show and the Catering Equipment Expo.”

The Bar & Pub Show was held in the Olympia West Hall that joins through to the venue’s National Hall and the Central: Level One where all the other shows are held. This allowed the organisers of The Restaurant Show, William Reed, to expand on the natural synergy of the exhibition and its pub-focused Morning Advertiser magazine to cater to a broader cross-section of clients. “There was a lot

The Restaurant Show of appetite within the industry from both visitors and exhibitors to have an event that looked specifically at the bar and pub market,” Elizabeth says. “There is naturally some crossover between bars and restaurants, but there are also clients including publicans and pub chains that want to perhaps visit The Bar & Pub Show first and the possibly go on to pick out elements within The Restaurant Show to further enhance their business. The Catering Equipment Expo is organised

by Bunzl Lockhart, one of the catering industry’s largest distributors. When all of this came together we had a huge jump in the number of exhibitors from 300 in 2015 to 450 in a single year, which is massive for a show that already has an established history of growth.” She added: “Our visitor number also increased by 11 per cent in one year, so the show is showing really good growth overall.”

Emerging trends Organising and managing the 2016 Restaurant Show has proven to be an impressive undertaking. The event was held across three halls and on two levels, meaning that organisers had to successfully manage the flow of people around the event, while ensuring that attendees could fully appreciate the goals for the show’s combined events.

With a long history of success and growth within the restaurant sector, one of the challenges in continuing to develop the show has been to build on what has gone on before. “Many of the people like the fact that The Restaurant Show is very clear on what it delivers and that it is a leading show that is renowned for all of the food and drink, preparation equipment, technology, tableware and services on top of the speakers and competitions that are featured. Visitors who come to the event know what to expect and our challenge is to continue to try to add something new without losing what we have achieved in the past 28 years. This will always primarily be The Restaurant Show and the new events are additional resources will benefit most of the companies that already visit the show, but new businesses that have more of a primary focus on bars and pubs for example, the opportunity to meet other

industry representatives in hotels and other sectors,” Elizabeth reveals.

“Another challenge with a new show is that it is obviously unproven and I think that the reason we did so well in adding a new show in 2015 was that we already had a shared location and a supporting magazine. William Reed is a very trusted business that both exhibitors and attendees know will run the event properly, with more than 10,000 people coming through the door for the restaurant show,” she adds. “The Bar & Pub Show aims to add a further 3000-5000 guests to the overall event and we also communicate with over 50,000 bars and pubs weekly through our magazine and digitally. The advantage of this when developing the new show was that we already had a good understanding of our audience and it was just a case of investing time to ensure that they were aware of what we were doing to convince them to come and join us at Olympia.”

Across The Restaurant Show the event highlights emerging and established industry trends, while continuing to promote innovation through its Great New Idea awards.

Within The Bar & Pub Show for example, the exhibition had a dedicated craft beer section, which featured 13 craft beer brewers that each offered up to four different beers in tap and bottled options. This allowed relatively small businesses to reach out to meet representatives from the wider bar and pub sector while promoting their unique individual brands. Furthermore, across

the show’s Great New Idea Awards the company Green’s, which manufactures gluten-free beer won in The Bar & Pub Show category, while the Danish furniture manufacturer Thors-Design was recognised in the Conscious Hospitality category. The overall winner of the ‘Best New Idea’ award in The Restaurant Show was Sous Vide Tools for its Control Freak Induction Hob. With big ideas, new events and a continued celebration of innovation, The Restaurant Show 2016 has proven to be a huge success. While the future of face-to-face events may be less certain in other industry sectors, The Restaurant Show has again proven that it is as relevant today as it was 28 years ago. “Within the restaurant sector and throughout the event itself, innovation is what the industry is really interested in.

Part of what makes the Restaurant Show so successful is that visitors can come and see, taste and touch the products on offer, which is extremely important to a customer that is potentially looking to invest thousands of pounds on product to take back to their business,” Elizabeth concludes. “Somebody asked me at the show what I thought is the future of face-to-face meetings and I replied that I believe that they are on the up-andup. Chefs and business owners want to touch, taste and communicate with their potential suppliers and we offer them a unique platform to do this. I think for our industry face-to-face events will not be hit in the way that other sectors already have been.” D www.therestaurantshow.co.uk

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Expansion on the menu Based throughout the UK Bistrot Pierre is an ever-growing chain of boutique restaurants that serves high quality, authentic anglo-French cuisine to customers

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Bistrot Pierre

French restaurant group Bistrot Pierre joint managing directors John Whitehead and Robert Beacham

E

stablished as a single franchise restaurant in Nottingham in 1994 by school friends Robert Beacham and John Whitehead, Bistrot Pierre, originally branded Pierre Victoire, began providing customers with authentic French cooking in a relaxing, lively atmosphere. Throughout the early years Robert and John first operated two successful Pierre Victoire franchises in Nottingham and Derby, however, when the Pierre Victoire franchise model folded in 1999, the restaurants were rebranded as Bistrot Pierre. “At the time the franchisor

went into administration in 1999 we had two franchises and had just opened a boutique 43 bed hotel with fine dining restaurant, cocktail bar and real ale pub: the Lace Market Hotel, Nottingham.

We sold that business in 2005 for £4.25 million, which enabled us to expand our Bistrot Pierre business. The franchise going bust and us going it alone was the best thing that could have happened, although it didn’t feel that way at the time!” begins John Whitehead, Joint Managing Director and Co-Owner of Bistrot Pierre.

Offering freshly prepared Anglo-French dishes that are made from carefully sourced ingredients from both local

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producers and artisan French producers and suppliers, Bistrot Pierre has gained a strong reputation for innovative, high quality dishes. In fact, the company’s chefs regularly take trips across the channel to gain inspiration on how to experiment and hone new recipes and create new dishes while also maintaining exceptional value. In October, chef specialities includes the lunch starter Moules: rope-grown mussels that are steamed in a light, creamy Normandy cider sauce that is served with crispy Alsace bacon lardons; and for dinner, the Noix de St. Jacques: pan-fried scallops with Alsace bacon and hazelnut butter.

The main on offer is Canard aux cerises: pan-fried duck breast with dark cherries, port and French beans, served with the day’s potatoes and seasonal vegetables.

Focusing on its ‘raison d’être’ of delivering great value French cooking and seasonal menus, the company has grown significantly over the last

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decade and today has 16 sites open for business across the UK. The 16th site, in Weston-Super-Mare, opened in September 2016, while the 17th site, in Mere Green, Sutton Coldfield, is currently under construction and is due to open in the first quarter of 2017. “We can’t really comment on Mere Green yet, however Weston-Super-Mare has gone off like a rocket; this restaurant also has a separate bar space and is out-stripping targets at the moment by 60 per cent. Although things are positive, we will see how we fare in the winter months before we get too ahead of ourselves,” says John.

Discussing the reasons behind Bistrot Pierre’s soaring growth in a competitive market, John continues: “We aim to offer outstanding value with no stealth price add-ons and do it consistently; we also make nearly everything ourselves. We are having a big push at the moment on innovating some of our dishes and

menus; in the 22 years since we first opened, the UK casual dining sector has changed immeasurably – if not actually really emerged as an entity. For the customer this is great as competition improves the product and experience while also keeping prices in check; for the competing restaurants a plethora of quality neighbours makes winning the share of the cake tougher. Fortunately, customer demand has generally kept pace with supply.”

Looking at the style and branding of each restaurant, John says all sites have a similar branded design, however each has its own unique touches of character: “There is some common

Wiljon Wiljon is a Principal Contractor to Bistrot Pierre and wishes them every success with their Weston Super Mare restaurant. The company looks forward to working together on all future projects and continuing this successful relationship.

Bistrot Pierre iconography in the Bistrots, but we flex to the individual building where we can; thematically they are similar, but colour schemes and materials do change – we may try a different finish on some of the tables. When it comes to the pewter bar tops, lighting schemes and interior decoration, these touches are nailed down.”

Complementing the brand’s style and solid reputation for great value fresh food are its team members who animate the restaurants and have a major impact on each restaurant’s success. Viewed as equal in importance to the food served, the hospitality and customer service of team members is an integral part of Bistrot Pierre’s continued success story.

With superior customer service at the heart of its operations, Bistrot Pierre has been awarded the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence year-on-year since 2012.

“We monitor customer feedback closely and hve developed fairly robust training methodologies over the years – to a large degree looking at how the stand-out performers in our sector operate. We audit internally and externally on our customer service KPIs

and are moving to a superb interactive HR platform, which I think will really help team engagement and thus enhance customer experience,” says John. “When it comes to repeatedly being awarded the TripAdvisor (TA) Certificate of Excellence, we work hard at TA and view it generally as a force for good; we get the occasional errant/ spurious review but overall if the teams

are delivering against our mystery diner KPI’s then it should all fall into place.”

Having delivered record revenues of £18 million and profits in excess of £2 million in 2015, Bistrot Pierre has developed solid foundations for further growth over the coming years as the company focuses on significant expansion and appeals to a national market. D www.bistrotpierre.co.uk

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Wrap stars

A specialist in the production of high technology bottling and packaging lines, ACMI SpA serves key food and beverage sectors such as mineral water, soft drinks, beer, wine and spirits, dairy and food

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ounded in 1984 in Riccò, situated in the province of Parma, ACMI SpA began operations as a manufacturer of palletisers and depalletisers for the food and beverage industry. Over the years the company enjoyed rapid expansion of demand thanks to its focus on innovation and technological developments and its growing reputation as a specialist in all packaging processes. As a result of these developments, the company grew significantly expanding its production site and was able to build new premises in Fornovo Taro and Felegara.

“ACMI has a production facility of more than 20,000 square metres, which is divided into three facilities that are all situated in Italy, in the province of Parma. The main headquarters are dedicated to the production of palletisers, depalletisers and end-of-line equipment, while the other two facilities are specialised in the production of shrink wrappers, handle applicators, multipack systems, conveyors and stretch wrappers,” explains Mr Giacomo

Magri, President of ACMI SpA. “We are in the process of building a new production facility a few kilometres from the main head office, which will enable us to further amplify our production capacity; the new facility has an overall surface of 5000 square metres.”

Today, using the experience it has gained over the last 30 years, ACMI develops, installs and commissions complete packaging lines in a turnkey manner for customers in all sectors of the food and beverage industry.

Aside from producing single packaging machines that comprise of the dry end of the line, ACMI also handles the engineering and automation of the entire line as the main contractor.

Thanks to dedicated project managers, ACMI is able to provide engineering and automation for any food and beverage packaging equipment; furthermore, its energy saving packaging lines have been designed to reduce the use of conveyors by focusing on efficiency and productivity.

Committed to enhancing its products and developing new solutions that

ACMI SpA can improve the packaging process for customers, ACMI has developed an impressive portfolio that includes Fenix shrinkwrappers, the revolutionary Twisterbox layer formation systems, Vortex fixed pallet systems and an innovative multipack system.

Continuous flow Able to handle any types of containers or packs, the highly flexible Twisterbox can be used in all sectors of the food and beverage industry; this includes PET bottles, ten litre bottles, glass bottles, clusters of bottles, cans, packs of cans, hi-cone cans, jars, glass containers and so on. This system is usually placed before the palletiser or robot so the two can work together; the Twisterbox systems that are currently functioning handle more than 200 different formats.

“The Twisterbox is a continuous layer formation system, which consists of a series of robotic arms equipped with special grippers than move according to a specific programme that positions the packs and forms a complete layer,” says Giacomo. “The latest Twisterbox generation can handle 3x2 multipacks of cans at a speed of 140,000 pieces per hour palletised, even with over packaging. Other characteristics of the system include perfect rotation and positioning, multiliner function, the possibility of handling products with special shapes and fragile contents and wide flexibility.”

Another product that Giacomo is keen to highlight is the Compact Line: “This is a concept that leads us to consider the entire line as a single machine, a single system. In this system the various components work and move in a synchronous manner, generating a continuous flow that originates from the filler and ends with the finished pallet. The traditional accumulating tables that have the task of harmonising the different efficiencies of the single machines, disappear, which offers advantages such as reduction in space, reduction in purchasing costs, elimination of the stress on the bottle due to squashing and pressure of the accumulating table and great operating autonomy.”

Mr Giacomo Magri - President of ACMI SpA

ACMI SpA headquarters

The ideal supplier for large multinational groups as well as national bottlers and food companies thanks to its innovative solutions, Giacomo says ACMI has been involved in a number of notable projects: “In 2015 ACMI installed the fastest PET line for CSD in the world at the Coca-Cola Femsa Canlubang factory, in the Philippines.

The line has a nominal filler speed of 81,000 bottles per hour and represents a showpiece in the world wide bottling sector. The line is highly automated and the system is handled in a completely automatic manner.”

Alongside this major project within the soft drinks field of activity, the company has also delivered two superior installations of Easypack systems for the production of bi-pack packaging of PET lines to 36,000 bottles per hour at Coca Cola HBC and a complete line for cans from 60,000 cans per hour high efficiency at the Sibeg plant.

Proud of its leading reputation, ACMI will continue to invest in R&D manufacturing machines with high levels of production performance to stay at the forefront of product packaging. Another way the company will remain competitive is through continuing its commitment to delivering guaranteed efficiency through periodic inspections that are to be carried out by specialised ACMI technicians in order to prevent stops that could slow down or reduce the overall production levels of the line.

“The bottling market is not an easy market sector; continuous investments are required both in terms of technology and human resources in order to maintain and cater for the high level of customer requests. During the current year our company has maintained a high position in the market and we foresee to close the year with a turnover increase of almost 30 per cent. Opportunity and challenges travel hand-in-hand, therefore we believe that each opportunity is also a challenge, however in virtue of ACMI being on the list of accredited suppliers for the most important national and international bottlers, we have a number of goals in place for the future that we believe we can achieve,” concludes Giacomo. D www.acmispa.it

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The taste of nature Belvoir Fruit Farms makes cordials, pressĂŠs, and botanicals, with a wide selection of flavours, all of which are made through a traditional and authentic process, using the finest ingredients

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Belvoir Fruit Farms

B

elvoir Fruit Farms earns its name from the vale of Belvoir, where the company has been making fruit cordials and presses since 1984, pressing fresh fruit and infusing flowers to mix with spring water.

Renowned for its elderflower drinks, the company still uses the same elderflower recipe developed by co-founder Lady Mary Manners all those years ago.

Today, demand is so high that Belvoir calls on the local community to help with the harvest, picking flowers from its own 90 acres of orchards and from hedgerows in the surrounding countryside. Over the years, the company has expanded

its beverage range to include flavours such as Elderflower and Rose, Lime and Lemongrass, Raspberry and Rose, Blueberry and Blackcurrant, and Ginger to name just a few. The brand now produces more than 40 products, many of which have won multiple awards. Belvoir is still owned and run by the Manners family.

Some of the most recent additions to the Belvoir range have proven to be popular, as production director Frank Fitzgibbons explained: “We have had great success with Raspberry Lemonade, to compliment our Elderflower and Ginger Beer range so while the traditional range continues to prove very successful the new ranges offer something different. There have also been other niche ranges that we

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have developed at the company, these have been the Mango and Peach Pressé, which has gone down very well with our customers, as have the Cucumber and Mint Pressé, these have been a real bonus to us and they are picking up a lot of interest.”

Another relatively new product range that the company has worked on and is tailored to the increasing sugar conscious market trends is its lower sugar range of pressés – called ‘light’.

There are several of Belvoir drinks that have this option, these currently include Elderflower Pressé, Raspberry Lemonade, as well as Elderflower and Rose. This diversification of its drinks demonstrates that the company is actively working to appeal to a wide range of customers and adapt to market trends – all the while retaining its commitment to producing authentic drinks made with real ingredients.

Belvoir Botanicals

‘

Belvoir Fruit Farms

Belvoir has recently taken the decision to expand its facilities, and this decision was fundamentally influenced by the increasing demand for its drinks

come in re-sealable 330ml plastic BPA-free wide-necked bottles for easy on-the-go drinking.

Belvoir has recently taken the decision to expand its facilities, and this decision was fundamentally influenced by the increasing demand for its drinks. The development was something that Frank discussed: “The investment was an idea that both myself and the managing director Pev Manners discussed in 2012, and the decision was agreed by the board with the ambition to expand the business, and to help ensure that the facilities allow the increase in production that

will meet the growing demand levels.

The site occupies land that we already owned, and I was able to work on the concept design. The result has been a purpose built factory that will support our increased domestic and international presence.”

The drinks company supplies a range of industries, which includes major retailers, fine foods, wholesale markets, and many more. Its products can also be found in a number of foreign markets, as Frank stated: “We have always had an export side to the business, and this was centred around Scandinavia and Japan, and we still

There has also been an exciting development with a completely new Belvoir Botanicals line that the company has unveiled and it will extend its use of natural ingredients to the health side of the drinks market.

The product range includes Elderflower and Echinacea offering immune support, Lemon and Green Tea to help natural energy, Mandarin and Hibiscus for skin support, as well as Cucumber and Mint to help refresh.

Like all Belvoir drinks, the Botanicals range uses natural ingredients with no artificial colourings, preservatives, additives or sweeteners. They contain no added sugar and each of the four flavours offers a specific benefit obtained from flowers, roots, herbs or fruits that have long been known and used for aiding a particular function.

All are blended with still water and

Enterprise Tondelli Enterprise have been working with Belvoir Fruit Farms for 15 years and have helped grow their premium brand products. Over the years Enterprise have supplied various bottling and packaging machines for the production of their cordial and pressè drinks, as well as offering technical services and engineering support during their recent relocation project. This expansion required a complete new factory to accommodate increased output and Enterprise Tondelli were happy to help with the design and engineering.

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see positive results in both of these countries. However, in recent years, we have also been expanding into mainland Europe, Asia and North America, and developing our footprint in these massive markets.”

Award winners It is no wonder that it has an increasing reputation and presence in markets around the world, as Belvoir has won a number of awards for its products one of its very first was a Great Taste Award in 2001 for its Elderflower Cordial. Since 2001, Belvoir has won Great Taste awards for many more of its cordials, Pressés and Fruit Crushes, including the Organic Blueberry Cordial, Raspberry and Rose Cordial, Elderflower, Gooseberry and Muscat Grape Cordial and Lime and Lemongrass Pressé. In 2010, the judges for the Awards sampled over 5800 products, and awarded gold stars for

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Belvoir’s Blackcurrant and Cox Apple Cordial, and its Blackcurrant and Apple Fruit Crush.

Belvoir’s Elderflower Cordial has not only been awarded a Great Taste Award but it also received a Gold Award from the Taste of Britain 2005, run by Sainsbury’s and The Daily Telegraph and has also been Highly Commended in the Best British Fruit Drink category in the Farm Produce Awards 2015. Elderflower and Rose Pressé, also won two gold stars in 2013. A single gold star award was given to Cox Apple Pressé, and Belvoir’s Elderflower and Rose Cordial won two gold stars.

The company has achieved a great deal of success in a relatively short period, and this is down to some important factors, such as its family values, as well as some others that Frank mentioned: “The brand is pivotal – we believe a key factor

Belvoir Fruit Farms behind the company’s achievements is the strength of the brand, as well as the quality of the products that we produce. It really comes down to a combination of those two reasons, the brand and the quality, and we are pretty confident of that. We are so sure of this in part due to the market

research that we have conducted, which has all indicated that the power of the Belvoir brand and the quality of the drinks themselves have enabled the company to be where it is today.”

With a product range that continues to grow, expanding presence in more markets, and a brand with a reputation

for quality, Belvoir looks set to build on its previous success and facility expansion with increasing sales – delivering the taste of Lady Manners’ cordial recipe, and all the Belvoir drinks, to an even wider range of discerning customers. D www.belvoirfruitfarms.co.uk

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Crisp Malting Group

Grains of truth Already well regarded in the brewing and distilling industries, malt can also offer food and beverage companies the opportunity to create amazing flavours, textures and colours.

Crisp Malting Group is unravelling the mysteries of malt so that more people can benefit from this one ingredient’s incredible potential T H WHITE Projects With generations of experience, T H WHITE Projects have built a solid reputation as market leaders in designing, engineering and the resulting construction of grain storage and cereal processing facilities throughout the UK. As an independent company T H WHITE Projects offer a personal service that puts your needs first, founded on performance and reliability and backed by expert service and support in all aspects of the business.

T H WHITE Projects’ versatility and experience has enabled them to work closely with the Crisp Malting Group over many years. They have worked on the successful design and construction of numerous integrated solutions at various UK Malting locations & associated grain storage facilities, and supported the growth; expansion and upgrading programme being implemented by one of the leading UK based maltsters.

I

f you ask people the main ingredient of wine, the national drink of France, most people will know it is grapes - and also be able to name different varieties. Yet if you ask them to name the main ingredient of beer and whisky, the national drinks of Britain, few would know.

The answer is malt. Delve a little further to ask what malt is, and even fewer folk will offer a plausible definition.

Malt is not, as commonly supposed, a variety of grain. Simply put, it’s cereal grain, usually barley, but sometimes wheat, oats or rye, that is turned to malt through an ancient, traditional and natural process. It involves three-steps: steeping, germinating and kilning.

The grain is steeped in water, encouraged to germinate and grow rootlets, then dried by warm air in a kiln. The temperature of the kiln and length of time spent there determines the colour and taste of the malt. It can

vary from pale – almost indiscernible from barley grain – to black, and the whole spectrum in between.

Great British Maltsters in the food chain “Despite the relatively small size of Britain,” says Adrian Dyter, managing director, Crisp Malting Group, “we are the third largest malt producing nation in the world. The two million tonnes of malting barley produced here by excellent cereal-farmers is great quality. It allows the country’s maltsters to turn the raw grain into 1.6 million tonnes of premium malt. This in turn holds the key to the nation’s fabulous brewing and distilling industries. Crisp’s own malt also contributes tasty, nutritious ingredients to the food industry - the bakery sector in particular.”

Malt as major contributor to economy The country’s 1700 breweries buy around 550,000 tonnes of malt a year from British

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Crisp Malting Group maltsters using it to make a fantastic range of beers, from milds to stouts and pale ales to lagers.

Malt is also the central ingredient in malt whisky distilling. Exports of Scotch whisky contribute £125 per second – yes that is per second! - to the UK economy – so the importance of malt production would be hard to overstate.

Wholegrain malted flour, flakes and kibbles add hugely to bread, cakes, biscuits and other foods in terms of flavour, colour, texture and nutrition. The proportion of malt that goes to the food industry is relatively small compared with that which is used for brewing, distilling and exporting. However, it still makes a great impact, helping to premiumise an important part of our staple diet – bread – as well as savoury and sweet treats.

Crisp Maltings Crisp Maltings was founded in 1870 in North Norfolk in the heart of what is probably the best malting barley-growing

countryside in the world. Over the years it has grown through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions. It now has three maltings in East Anglia, one each in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, and two in Scotland: one each in Clackmannanshire and Banffshire. It is no coincidence that they are all in regions famed for the excellence of their barley.

Also under Crisp’s wing is Micronized Food Products in North Yorkshire, which produces brewing adjuncts such as torrified wheat and flaked cereals and pulses.

Until recently Crisp was exporting around 25 per cent of its malt production to craft brewers and distillers across the world. The acquisition earlier this year of GlobalMalt gives the company a base in Germany and in Poland: “This enables us to offer our customers a wider portfolio of products and most importantly to broaden the origin of barley and malts that we can supply to our international clients,” says Adrian Dyter.

Relationships with barley growers The company is known for the strong relationships it builds with farmers - who are, of course, a crucial part of the supply chain. Adrian Dyter continues: “We have a very high commitment to quality, which starts with how we source our raw materials.”

The grower-groups set up by Crisp provide the maltsters with a secured supply of best quality, locally grown barley - and provide the farmers with an assured market for the crops they produce. Crisp is able to communicate directly to growers the requirements in terms of quantities, varieties and specifications and facilitate a dialogue on husbandry, marketing and other relevant issues.

“This is a long-term business,” says Adrian Dyter. “The fact is, it takes time to grow crops, and even longer to develop new varieties, both of which are vital. We need trusted, long-term relationships with our suppliers. They

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Supporting successful arable farmers with invaluable expert advice on all aspects of crop production.

Talk to the people that work for the company that makes a difference.

T: 0800 227 445 W: www.frontierag.co.uk

Crisp Malting Group Adding value every step of the way “Today, whether in food, brewing or distilling, customers require a more value-added product,” says Adrian Dyter. “We have a lot of very well trained and experienced people who can provide the relevant technical expertise to customers. If a brewer, distiller or food manufacturer is seeking individual specifications to suit their plant or recipe, we have scientific knowledge to tailor the malt exactly to their requirements.

Equally we can advise them on impact of the different ingredients on flavour, colour and body.”

From micro to global

are crucial partners in our enterprise.

We offer seminars to keep growers up to speed with agronomic and varietal developments, and have frequent exchanges of information and insights.”

The raw ingredients Crisp buys more than 300,000 tonnes of barley a year from local farmers in Britain. In most seasons Crisp is able to procure the vast majority of its raw ingredients from farms close to each plant. Barley varieties are carefully selected to provide the necessary levels of soluble nitrogen, extractable sugars and enzyme activity for the perfect mash.

Frontier Agriculture Frontier Agriculture is the UK’s leading crop production and grain marketing business, recognised for its close customer relationships with farmers and grain consumers and its successful management of the arable supply chain.

Operating across all aspects of arable crop production and grain marketing, Frontier supplies seed, crop protection products and fertiliser to farmers, as well as providing specialist agronomy advice through its team of 140 agronomists. Frontier’s grain marketing business has well-established contracts with the UK’s key grain consumers, giving its farmer customers unrivalled access to end markets.

Frontier is proud to work with Crisp Malting to better serve and support barley farmers.

Tradition and technology Crisp Maltings combines nearly 150 years of experience and knowledge of malting with the latest technology and technical expertise to produce around 430,000 tonnes per year of premium quality malt for food and drink. This includes the tonnage produced by the plants in Hamburg and Bydgoszcz.

The traditional floor malting at Great Ryburgh produces malt in the way it’s been done for centuries – if not millennia - while continued investment in state-of-the-art facilities and quality controls puts Crisp at the forefront of modern malt production.

Outstanding customer service “We aim to provide truly excellent customer service; fantastic product range and quality; and first class technical backing,” says Adrian Dyter. “Our team combine impressive technical expertise; an in-depth understanding of the raw materials and extensive knowledge of, and experience in, brewing and distilling.

Our flexible approach, passion for quality – and above all, the desire to get it right for customers means we can offer outstanding levels of service.”

Crisp is well positioned to accommodate growing demand from the burgeoning craft beer and whisky sectors in the UK and across the world. It has developed a wide range of speciality malts to provide everything that the craft brewer or distiller needs and will supply whole or ready-crushed malt delivered in 25kg bags or in bulk.

“It helps that we have one of the country’s four remaining traditional floor maltings where sprouting grain is turned by hand. Craft brewers and distillers from as far away as Japan are fascinated to come and visit the floor malting and try their hand at raking and turning the malt themselves.”

Equally, Crisp supplies global businesses, and has worked closely with brewers AB InBev to develop a supply chain of barley that can be used for the brewing of the Budweiser in the UK.

The malting process Once the barley comes in from the farms, it needs to be dried to roughly 12 per cent moisture to provide consistency throughout the grain. It is also cleaned so small kernels that don’t meet specifications are removed. The barley is stored in silos until ready to process.

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Edwards Engineering Portgordon challenge: Edwards Engineering has long term relationships with Crisp Maltings. Its multi-skilled, experienced staff know Crisp and its challenges well.

Crisp’s challenge: The quality of Crisp’s products are of paramount

‘

importance. Malting creates conditions that are hard on the steel structures.

Crisp needed a way to replace the Portgordon Malthouse housing, without impacting production or malt quality.

Crisp Malting Group

Malt is also the central ingredient in malt whisky distilling. Exports of Scotch whisky contribute £125 per second – yes that is per second! - to the UK economy – so the importance of malt production would be hard to overstate

Edwards’ solution: Edwards constructed an innovative approach that allowed the complete replacement of the malthouse structure whilst eliminating the risk of malt contamination.

Result: Crisp’s malt production continued uninterrupted for eight months as the project was delivered on time and budget.

Steeping A batch of clean barley is loaded into large steep tanks and is immersed in water two or three times to increase its moisture content. The grains then start to sprout.

Germination The sprouting barley is moved to a malting floor or vessel. The moisture content and temperature is carefully controlled and the grain is allowed to grow for four to five days. This process naturally modifies the barley releasing starch and breaking down protein into amino acids.

Kilning The germination process is stopped by gently drying the malt on a kiln for one or two days. Varying the final temperature results in different coloured malts with different flavours.

The rootlets are removed and the final malt now has all the extract, enzymes and nutrients that are needed for brewing, distilling and food production.

The maltsters adjust the temperatures of the kiln and the time the grain spends being heated according to the flavour and colour of the malt required. Results vary from malt so pale that it’s barely discernible from raw barley to so dark that it’s black.

Craft brewing For brewing Crisp produces a range of base malts for lighter coloured beers to darker ales. Clear Choice Malt is a unique product developed by Crisp, which helps craft brewers eliminate haze and can help extend shelf life.

The company’s range of speciality malts includes crystal and Cara malts, which are roasted straight after germination. This stews the starchy endosperm of the grain and creates a layer of caramelisation and browning.

Sweet, toffee and caramel flavours can be developed, as well as red hues of colour.

Crisp has also developed speciality malts from new and heritage varieties of barley including Maris Otter and Chevallier Heritage Malt.

Distilling The majority of Crisp distilling malts are produced in Scotland. The finest two-row spring barley is malted by delicately adjusting temperatures, air supply and water levels to balance protein and cell wall modification. It is then skilfully kilned retaining the high levels of enzyme activity desired by distillers.

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Crisp Malting Group Food For food production, malt from barley, wheat, oat and rye delivers a great range of flavours, colours and textures. Crisp’s sister company EDME processes malt supplied by Crisp to produce nutritious wholegrain flour, flakes and kibbles for the food industry – bakery in particular.

fillings, pasty fillings, crisps and snacks, and ready meals – can also benefit from malt.

Liquid malt extract has been used in confectionery products for many years to add enhanced flavour to confectionery, chocolate and ice cream and to give a smoother mouth feel in toffees.

Organic malt is also available, as Crisp registered under the Soil Association organic standards.

The food industry’s best kept secret

Malt is used widely in drinks, especially hot drinks. It also lends itself to use in more contemporary products, such as smoothies and health drinks.

A wide range of savoury products – including gravies, sauces, soups, pie

Malt may be respected in brewing and distilling sectors, but is probably still the food industry’s best kept secret and offers huge opportunities to food manufacturers.

Adrian Dyter concludes: “At Crisp, we remain committed to adapting to the changing world of business and flying the flag for British malt in years to come.” D www.crispmalt.co

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Always something brewing Adnams is an award-winning producer of beers, wines, and spirits. It has an expanding network of shops, a constant stream of new products, and more recently started producing spirits

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Adnams

E

stablished in 1872, Adnams is proud of its long history of brewing, and is constantly experimenting with new, innovative techniques. Adnams brews a range of beers that reflect its heritage but also challenge conventions. Each one has its own unique and vibrant character that will appeal to drinkers who cherish individuality and seek out beers, wines, and spirits with personality and style.

Adnams began in the 19th century as a brewer of fine ales in Suffolk, and while it has kept its roots in Southwold and authentic ales, it has also expanded into more areas. These range from new award winning drinks, such as its gins and vodkas, to operating a number of pubs and hotels, and much more. What unites all of Adnams’ activities is that they are distinctively unique, and yet also undeniably Adnams, and this is at the heart of the company - a reliable and constant quality product or service that is always individual.

many more. The sheer number of these denotes a level of consistency in what the company produces, it also demonstrates that there is a great deal of care, passion, and knowledge that goes into making every beer, wine, or spirit. The company is always working on new products for its customers, and these take many forms – such as seasonal products tailored to the time of year, or the Adnams Diamond Ale – made to commemorate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012. Adnams also has the unique option of providing bespoke products, an example of which is Bill’s IPA, created for Bill’s Restaurants. Two new Adnams spirits were also released in August 2016 – Rising Sun Gin and Rye Hill Vodka.

With modern distilling techniques, traditional values, and high quality staff, it is no wonder Adnams received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Sustainable Development. Adnams

is grounded in everything it does with a commitment to being environmentally aware and finding innovative ways to be a responsible brewer, such as its partnership working to develop the UK’s lightest branded 500ml glass premium ale bottle, which results in packaging and carbon reductions. The company has also undertaken extensive work to make its facilities and processes more environmentally friendly.

Community work Adnams also applies this ethical business approach to the local community in the form of the Adnams Charity, which was founded in 1990 to celebrate the company’s centenary, and which has recently been renamed the Adnams Community Trust. Adnams Community Trust supports worthwhile causes within a 25-mile radius of Southwold, the home of Adnams, through a grant system. The grants range from £100 to £2,500 and

Expand and improve In order to achieve some of the diversification that Adnams has seen through its many years in business, the company has invested in expanding and improving its facilities. Investments began in the 1970s, continuing through subsequent decades, with the overall aim to significantly improve its drinks production. As a result of this approach, over the years the brewery has substantially enlarged and modernised, and this process continues to this day with state-of-the-art brewing equipment regularly being installed. It is currently investing a total of £7 million on boosting capacity, including a brand new kegging line, and a new beer filtration and conditioning facility. The company also invested in 2013 in a distillery to enable Adnams to produce gins and vodkas – which have since both won best in the world awards.

Indeed, many Adnams products have won global awards, including various bronze, silver, and gold medals, such as Ghost Ship pale ale, Sloe Gin, East Coast Vodka, Longshore Premium Vodka, Copper House Dry Gin, and

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Adnams can be used for educational, health or social welfare, arts, recreation, community facilities or environmental and conservations purposes and projects. The Community Trust is funded by a percentage of Adnams annual profits, donations, legacies and mandated dividends. Since its formation, more than 1200 grants have been awarded totalling over £1.2 million. These have taken many forms but one recent milestone has been the company celebrating achieving half a million charitable donations by its customers that were made via Pennies the electronic charity box. Over 500,000 donations have been made since Adnams began working with Pennies in 2012, raising over £120,000 through purchases of wine, beer, spirits and kitchenware across its Adnams stores.

This once again demonstrates the combined sense of tradition at Adnams in a modern business. Its products

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often receive rave reviews from customers and awards bodies, and it is a business that is always moving forward with new and interesting products. Adnams’ positive approach, leading facilities, and talented staff, make its products popular across the UK and the world. There is no reason to think that its product range, customer base, or popularity will do anything other than continue to expand. D www.adnams.co.uk

Openfield Openfield is a UK leader in supplying cereals, oilseeds and pulses to the food, brewing and animal feed industries. It has developed a reputation as a trusted supply chain partner, supplying grain with provenance and of a consistent quality to the largest brands in food retail.

With its network of stores across England and Scotland it is well-placed to meet the needs of end-user consumers requiring quality grain from local growers on a just-in-time basis.

It is also the UK’s largest grain exporter supplying customers across continental Europe, the Middle and Far East and North America.

Purity Soft Drinks

In a

healthy position Purity Soft Drinks produces Juice Burst, Juice Burst Skinny, and Firefly drinks, all of which are healthier, no or low added sugar alternatives to the traditional soft drink options

P

urity Soft Drinks is a small drinks company with a big presence in the industry.

It has taken a modern approach to a sector that is changing rapidly in the face of new regulations and new consumer demands. These have been centered on sugar and health, and there has been a growing

social awareness of the impact sugary drinks has – particularly in regards to young people. Purity has carved out a niche in the growing drinks market for its healthy refreshments.

The company has developed at a rapid pace, increasing its staff numbers by approximately 25 per cent over the last two years, and recording a growth

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of more than 20 per cent per year on its own brands. The company has recorded revenue of £20 million net sales across 25,000 outlets in the UK and internationally and expects to double the number of stockists in the next three years. This goal has been supported by significant investments that Purity has made in factory improvements, which have seen the company invest £4 million in the past three years. The funding went into securing a new production line, which enabled its drinks to be produced at a greater pace, and these developments were elaborated upon by CEO David Bell: “We are looking to continue to invest in our production lines and increase capacity, plus we are adding to the size of our sales and marketing team to support the new customers and channels we are going into.”

David then went onto discuss another investment into Purity’s facilities: “Previously, we have shipped in the bottles we use for our drinks. But now we have the kit to blow those bottles in our factory - small plastic preforms come into the factory and we blow the bottle. This makes it much more

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environmentally friendly, due to the massive reduction in the number of lorries moving around carrying empty bottles. It also means that we are able to speed up the whole production line and run things increasingly efficiently, and that means we keep costs low and consequently prices low too.”

Low in sugar All of these factors help to support the manufacturing of the most important strength of Purity – the drinks. The key selling point of Purity’s drinks is that they offer customers the enjoyment and taste that is traditionally associated with sugar intensive options, but is a fruit based healthy drink. Seventy five per cent of the range is no added sugar and the whole range will be no added sugar before the sugar levy comes in 2018.

Purity and its various drinks brands offer a new form of soft drink, using fruit and increasingly vegetables as well, to make drinks that offer real competition to fizzy drinks. This is a massively significant factor, as with the introduction of a sugar tax, and increasing social awareness of the issues surrounding high sugar intake, consumers want alternatives to

the classic soft drinks. That is what Purity does, within all of its drinks, whether it is Juice Burst or Firefly. It provides people with drinks that are just as enjoyable, but without the same levels of added sugar and at everyday prices.

The key product that aims to succeed in this area is the company’s Juice Burst and its Juice Burst Skinny range.

These are predominantly aimed at 16-24 year olds, and offer one of the recommended five a day, in a range of 13 flavours – some of which include fruit and vegetable combinations. Also, due to the drinks being low in added sugar or

Purity Soft Drinks

D having none at all, there is also a range that is school compliant and one of the approved drinks for children at school.

The results of this have been impressive, and now Purity products are in about 50 per cent of colleges and universities, as well as in one in three secondary schools, and Purity has 20 new schools ordering its drinks every week. All of which demonstrates the significant niche that Purity has filled, offering healthy drinks that parents and schools approve of, but that children and young adults still enjoy.

Juice Burst is an increasingly popular choice, not just those within the UK and Europe, but also for those in Hong Kong and the Middle East.

it launched a personalised bottle campaign, where they could get their pictures on the front of its drinks.

Much like its creative marketing, its drinks also display an innovative flair, with distinctive flavours and focus on reducing added sugar they appeal to the health conscious consumer. Purity offers a clean, healthy, and modern approach to the soft drink industry that is needed

in the 21st century. Whether through its Juice Burst for the younger consumer and young adults, or Firefly for the more premium adult market, Purity is listening to what people want and what people need, and creating tailored refreshments suited to a wide range of different tastes and preferences. D www.juiceburst.com www.fireflydrinks.com

Versatile and flexible While Juice Burst is the largest selling drink that Purity sells, the company also produces FireFly, which is targeted at the premium adult market. Firely offers all the taste of popular cocktails without any of the alcohol, and one that David highlighted was the kiwi, lime and mint flavour – effectively a non-alcoholic Mojito. This is still a growing part of the business, and these drinks are popular sellers in bars and restaurants, both domestically and within international markets. However, while it offers an enjoyable option for those that are not drinking or those that are driving, it can also be used by those that want a ready made cocktail that only needs the appropriate spirit added. It is a versatile and flexible option, offering a great taste for its customers, however they want to prepare and drink it.

This flexibility is a characteristic of Purity that runs throughout the company, whether in its production, product range, or marketing, and it is an area which it excels. There are a number of examples of Purity demonstrating its adaptability, whether it is the fact that in just 12 weeks it was able to create its new range of drinks that would be schools compliant, or its modern marketing strategy that aims to engage with its customers in an innovative and authentic manner. It has taken this approach in several ways, within its Juice Burst range it created a downloadable game that its audience can play, and for its Firefly customers

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www

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Chopstix Group

Fast fusion food Chopstix Group is a take away restaurant brand with over 58 sites across the UK and Ireland, which provides fast and fresh Oriental food

F

or a long time the fast food industry has been dominated by those offering burgers, sandwiches, pizzas and fried chicken, however Chopstix’s success demonstrates the desire within the market for an alternative. The start of

Chopstix and its journey was discussed by chief operating officer Max Hilton Jenvey: “Although the concept of Chopstix was conceived over a decade ago, it has picked up pace and rapidly expanded in the last six years, and it focuses on fresh, nutritious, tasty, accessible Oriental cuisine from the finest ingredients and most innovative and

authentic fusion recipes. Since the first major shopping centre branch opened at Bluewater in 2010, Chopstix has become a staple in shopping centre food courts.”

There are two key demands that continue to increase within the food market, and that is for faster food to keep up with busy lifestyles, and healthy food to keep people well. Both of which are central to the company’s values and ambitions, and have been a key factor behind its level of growth. One way that the company engages the customer with the food is by

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having a public cooking process, which Max highlighted: “Chopstix delivers accessible Oriental fusion diversity, delivered through live chef theatre at the front counter, and customers can see exactly how their meal is prepared; in the wok, right in front of their eyes. We

believe that it is a combination of values that set Chopstix apart, quality products cooked live in front of the guests so that they receive the freshest food possible – there are no microwaves in our business – all at a great value price. We really offer something different but in a fast casual dining setting.”

Faster and healthier The company is also always looking for ways to improve and expand, and one constant way it does this is through developing accessible Oriental fusion recipes for its guest’s tastes, an example of which is its new Duck in Orange Sauce. Another development process that has also been underway is by the company’s NPD team, and this has been initiated with the objective of creating even healthier options for younger customers - the outcome will be unveiled by mid 2017. However, what underpins everything that Chopstix does

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Keystone Law The food and beverage sector is fast-paced and highly competitive. Offering comprehensive expertise from experienced lawyers, Keystone Law is an industry leader with an exciting client portfolio. Notably, the firm has advised Oriental, restaurant chain Chopstix on a range of legal issues led by Commercial Property Solicitor, Lisa Raymond who has worked with the brand for 20 years. With a deep understanding of the space, its team can guide you through the myriad of legal complexities you may face. By incorporating the skillset of lawyers with proven experience, Keystone Law can advise on acquisitions, commercial contracts, disputes, employment and intellectual property.

Chopstix Group is its commitment to making customers happy, and this was a point that Max presented: “Our guests depend on our fast casual dining and service times that take under a minute. Also, 43 per cent of our guests want to see their food prepared for them and increasingly want to know what ingredients are used. Once again we can appeal to these customers with our use of fresh well sourced ingredients that are used to

prepare every dish right in front of their eyes.”

It is no wonder then that Chopstix’ offer of faster and healthier Oriental cuisine has taken off, and has been the ideal option for those that want a

quick snack, lunch, or dinner option.

The distance that Chopstix has already gone in the market is impressive, and as a result was recently named 25th in the 50 best and most profitable franchise opportunities in the UK.

CP-PACKAGING Cp-Packaging is an industry pioneer, manufacturing a variety of paper-based products for the fast food, restaurant and catering industries. With over 25 years experience in manufacturing and product development, specialising in branded packaging, Cp-Packaging is able to provide key customers such as ‘CHOPSTIX’ with a multitude of packaging solutions, with the focus of offering a complete one-stop-shop to its ever growing customer portfolio. With a range of services available, customer satisfaction is the foundation to Cp-Packaging’s continued success.

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Chopstix Group SPA sp. z o.o.

SPA sp. z o.o. is a leading Polish company producing a range of convenience meat products. The company was set up 14 years ago and has been growing since then. At the beginning SPA was a leading producer of skewers in Europe.

Later on the company diversified into production of cooked and raw high value added meat products saving consumer time and offering the best quality of home food. SPA is focused on innovations in food processing and is very much tailoring its products to consumer needs. Products are specifically targeted at the HoReCa segment. The co-operation with Chopstix group is a recent example of the newest development of SPA on the UK market. These two companies are working together to deliver the best quality to food consumers.

chef will cook to order. Both brands are designed for lower footfall locations targeting specific parts of the day, and will maximise revenue generation from smaller footprint and lower staffing costs; ideal for smaller petrol stations, multiple retailers, contract caterers and convenience stores.”

The success of Chopstix is not restricted to just the UK market either, and the company is also looking to

take its fusion food to more areas within Europe. This will mean developing a presence in Poland, France, Spain, Italy, as well as the Benelux and the Scandinavian countries. Therefore, whether it is in Europe, or the UK and Ireland, Chopstix will continue to bring its faster, healthier, and tastier Oriental fusion cuisine to an ever-greater number of hungry customers. D www.chopstixgroup.com

The company has already doubled in size, bought a new office, adding a new restaurant every month, and it looks set to continue this trend: “There are currently 58 Chopstix Noodle Bars that operate across the UK and Ireland which includes ten franchised sites.

Also, four corporate sites will open before the end of the year, including a flagship restaurant on Oxford Street in London. And another two corporate sites are planned for Q1 of 2017. Another five franchise sites will open by Q1 of 2017, which includes two sites in Germany and two in Northern Ireland. The Oriental QSR market is set to increase by 19 per cent by 2019 and Chopstix is very well positioned to maximise the popularity of this trend,” Max said.

Expanding abroad The company is also aiming to appeal to the market with a new version of its stores that will offer an express option, which Max elaborated upon: “The focus is on expansion within the UK and Ireland, and entry into the European market. We have also developed two formats of Chopstix - Chopstix Express Noodle Bar and Chopstix Metro Noodle Bar. The Express brand offers operators the same great Chopstix experience focusing on our bestselling toppings while Metro takes guest interaction and chef theatre to the limits, where guests can select their ingredients and our

Ashtons Legal Ashtons Legal has been working alongside Chopstix and other outstanding brands in the food and beverage sector for many years. Understanding the commercial challenges and legal issues they face, and being able to provide practical solutions, is at the heart of Ashtons’ services. One of its niche areas of expertise is helping businesses to expand successfully through franchising.

Helping food and drink sector clients to succeed is seen as a key to Ashtons’ own current and future success.

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Rising

demand

The free-from market is rapidly growing, and Welsh Hills Bakery has been leading the way in the sector with its range of baked goods

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W

elsh Hills Bakery, an established bakery for nearly 60 years, started making gluten free cakes and short crust pastry pies in 2001 and was the first to supply two of the UK’s major supermarket chains with an own brand of gluten free products.

Thirteen years later the company is still supplying those same products to these retailers, as well as adding further supermarkets to its customer portfolio.

2008 saw the birth of its own brand of gluten free products named Lovemore Free From Foods. Lovemore has grown steadily to include a range of shortbreads and cookies, along with the traditional apple pies and Cherry Bakewells and fruit slab cakes along with mince pies for Christmas.

Lovemore products can be found across the globe in countries including the USA, Australia, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Republic of Ireland,

Hungary Malta, Finland, and the Middle East as well as the UK. They will also soon be available in Bulgaria, France and Germany, demonstrating the international reach of the brand.

Central to the appeal of its goods is their taste, but also the fact that all Lovemore products are approved by the Coeliac Society and carry the coveted Crossed Grain symbol for verification and to give peace of mind to the consumer.

Welsh Hills Bakery has something for everyone; from those with an allergy or food intolerance to those who have chosen to avoid gluten or wheat as part of a healthier lifestyle, and with Christmas fast approaching, it means everyone can find something special over the festive period.

Managing Director Peter Douglass discussed the exciting ranges of Lovemore products: “At this time of year, our mince pies, gingerbread men and rich fruit slab cakes prove very

Welsh Hills Bakery popular, although they are available all year round. We also have marzipan and icing for these lines. At the moment, we are flat out producing everything in time for the holiday. Our other big sellers include our chocolate chip cookies, chocolate brownies, jammy wheels, lemon cakes, and the chocolate celebration cakes which customers can decorate themselves and indulge in a bit of creativity at home.�

The free-from market is expanding, and shows no sign of slowing down.

While around two per cent of the population can only eat free-from foods due to allergies, there is also a much larger proportion that are choosing to go gluten or wheat free.

This number varies, but around 16 per cent of the UK is doing it out of choice. Some research even suggests that over the past six months around 33 per cent of shoppers in the UK have bought or eaten free-from foods. This

growing demand for free-from foods is something that Welsh Hills Bakery foresaw all those year ago when in 2001 it made the shift to this market. It is now well placed to become the baked food provider of choice for this growing number of free-from customers.

The company’s success has no doubt come from the company’s commitment

THE BAKERITE COMPANY The BakeRite Company is an international supplier of quality ingredients to the bakery industry and has been a significant supplier to Welsh Hills Bakery for many years. Specialising in free from ingredients, The BakeRite Company was one of the first suppliers to be awarded BRC Accreditation for Agents and Brokers. The company is at the leading edge of innovation in this specialist area, and has recently strengthened its team to provide an enhanced level of technical support to a fast-growing, blue-chip customer base that includes household names as well as own label suppliers to the major supermarkets.

Current projects include the evaluation and introduction of clean label and functional ingredients that are both healthy and impart improved texture and mouth feel to gluten free and other free from bakery products, to satisfy a growing demand from increasingly health conscious consumers.

to making its free-from baked goods just as tasty as its conventional rivals.

It does not want its consumers, which due to allergies cannot eat many of the standard products, to have to settle with foods that do not taste great. That is why the company goes to immense effort to utilise various ingredients, research, and testing, so that the range of free-from baked goods will meet the same levels of taste that its mainstream counterpart reaches, and often exceed it. Through working hard to achieve this, the company has made itself stand out in the free-from market, and a favourite of many that buy free-from foods. It clearly has a well-respected reputation as it has a long list of major companies that it supplies, including names such as Tesco, Asda, Waitrose, Ocado, Morrisons, and many others.

In addition to the quality of the goods that the company makes, there has also been a recent rebranding of its

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Welsh Hills Bakery Lovemore products. This decision was taken to appeal to the changing tastes and trends of its consumers across the world, from Canada to China, once again demonstrating the company’s willingness to adapt and improve. Peter discussed this new direction: “We are spending heavily on marketing a completely new brand image to appeal to our growing international consumer base, and we

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will have recently launched this new look at the SIAL food exhibition in Paris.

Our previous packaging looked good years ago, but we have now gone for a bright look to bring a bit of sunshine to the packaging.� Welsh Hills Bakery is always looking to improve and invest, to help maintain the prominent position the company has in a fast expanding niche market.

An example of the distance that Welsh Hills Bakery has come within the free-from food industry is the amount of recognition, nominations, and awards that it has received including being shortlisted in the recent Made in Wales Awards and the Food Awards Wales awards and winning Exporter of the Year in the Welsh Business Awards where it was considered one of the best food manufacturers in the country. The award wanted to recognise the hard work and efforts of the company in the free-from foods sector. Welsh Hills Bakery won another award in 2016 for the business as a whole, taking note of the large investments it has made into the factory and the detailed research that goes into new markets and products.

Awards are always a useful indicator at how a company compares with its competitors and within its market in general, and it is clear that Welsh Hills Bakery stands today as a leader and innovator within the free-foods industry.

Lovemore looks set to become the product of choice for all those that want to enjoy all the taste of baked goods without any of the gluten or wheat, and with the addition of new equipment, a revitalised branding currently being rolled out, plus a Christmas and everyday selection, the company looks set for a positive year to come. D www.lovemorefoods.com

Spendrups Bryggeri AB

Thinking As Sweden’s largest independent brewery, Spendrups Bryggeri AB manufactures, imports, distributes and sells alcoholic beverages across the country

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pendrups Bryggeri AB is a Swedish family-owned and independent brewery. The business was founded as Grängesbergs Bryggeri AB in 1897 and during more than a century in operation, the company has grown into one of the country’s largest distributers of alcoholic beverages. Spendrups today sells to Swedish restaurants, the country’s government-owned Systembolaget alcohol monopoly retail chain and the grocery trade. The company is Sweden’s leading distributor of beer, while through its Spring Wine & Spirits subsidiary Spendrups represents the second largest supplier to the Systembolaget.

The resources of the Spendrups Group include three breweries situated within Sweden, while its beverage portfolio consists of beer, wine, spirits,

big bottled water, cider and soft drinks.

The company is presently in its fourth generation of private ownership and during its history has build up several successful beer brands such as its Heineken, Norrlands Guld and Mariestads lines, as well as the company’s Loka sparkling water. Spendrups currently employs approximately 900 people throughout the group, with a production capacity of some four million hectolitres of beverages annually. This allowed the business to generate a turnover of around €350 million throughout 2014. “Spendrups has a very long-term perspective on our operations, which is focused on ‘planning for generations, not for quarters.’ We have just finished a grand plan, with which we have made huge investments in production capacity with a clear environmental perspective,” explains Spendrups CEO, Fredrik Spendrup.

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“Our overarching strategic ambition centres around ‘being big but acting small.’ Although Spendrups is a fairly small brewing company compared to the global giants, we are a major player in our home market Sweden,” he continues. “In order for us to balance between the giants and the country’s many microbreweries we need to be both small and big at the same time.

This is demonstrated by the fact that we are that we are the producer of Sweden’s most popular beer, Mariestads and two of the country’s most successful craft breweries Gotlands Bryggeri and Brutal Brewing. This offers our clients a strong and robust delivery system as well as a refined portfolio of cutting edge beer brands, which is to the benefit of both customers and consumers.”

Proactive approach With its annual production capacity of four million hectolitres, Spendrups is able to deliver a comprehensive portfolio of brewed products. The company’s manufacturing strength has also benefitted from a continued programme of investment to promote greater

efficiency throughout the business.

“We currently manage four production sites, with one located in Grängesberg which is our major production site for beer, cider and soda. We also operate a ‘water site’ about one hour drive from Grängesberg in Hällefors, which is located in the vicinity of our Loka springs where we source our Loka water.

In Visby on the island of Gotland we have a microbrewery named ‘Gotlands Bryggeri’ that specialises in creative craft brewing. We are now planning to expand the production capacity of this part of the business, with a new production site in coming years. Lastly we have an experimental brewing site in our HQ in Vårby outside of Stockholm, where basically all Spendrups brews are developed and tested,” Fredrik elaborates. “During the last five years we have made major investments valued at around €170 million at the company’s Grängesberg plant. This was the outcome of our production strategy to build one major site with a capacity to handle about 70 different brews in one place. As a result the Grängesberg site is today one of the most advanced and sustainable breweries in Europe.”

Further to investing in the brewing strength of the company, Spendrups has also made great strides in enhancing the sustainability of the business. This represents the company’s ambition to define itself as a market leader in all aspects of the Spendrups Group.

“Spendrups aims to be the best beverage company in the market and this also means that we must strive to be the most responsible company.

We are convinced that a proactive approach to sustainability is crucial to give us the best possible conditions for success both today and tomorrow.

This also includes responsibility for the world and people around us, meaning our owners, customers, suppliers and co-workers. We must always act in a way that shows we deserve their confidence and appreciation.

How we work should contribute to a sustainable world,” Fredrik says.

“Spendrups and its subsidiaries follow the United Nation Global Compacts and the OECD principals. This refers to how companies should act towards consumers and the public, regarding labor law, anti-corruption, human rights and environmental sustainability. We are certified according to ISO 14001 and during the past five years we have invested heavily in building one of Europe’s most advanced and climate savvy brewing sites.”

Strong market During the coming years, Spendrups will seek to continue to build on its investment across the business to increase its presence within Sweden.

This will involve the development of

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Spendrups Bryggeri AB its own products, as well as cooperation with other leader beverage manufacturers to further solidify the company’s reputation as Sweden’s leading alcoholic drinks manufacturer and distributor. “Sweden has had a very strong economy for nearly a decade and an enormous growth in craft beer and microbreweries. The market has hence been really strong and Spendrups has managed to grow even faster than the market for the last three years. There has also been a premiumfication of beer and beverages in general which has benefited Spendrups and the whole Swedish brewing scene,” Fredrik concludes.

“We are interested in many sorts of co-operations and collaborations with clients and the brewing community.

Being a fairly small brewery on an international scale we always seek long-term relationships with big and professional companies where we can benefit and contribute. We are very happy and proud to have these existing relationships with internationally renowned companies and brands. Our

vision is to be a world-class brewery and that guides us in all pure strategic efforts now and in coming years. Being a major player in a fairly small however trend sensitive market like Sweden calls for a certain focus on how to expand and broaden our product portfolio and always dare to be willing to try out new areas and products. We are currently in the process of launching a new

three-year strategic plan. But our focus in the coming 12 months is to further expand and reinvest in our production site in Grängesberg and build a new water pipeline from our springs in Loka to our Hällefors site which will benefit the environment and the local community as well as further strengthening sparkling water production for the long-term.” D www.spendrups.se

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Passion for food Konspol Group was founded in 1982 and today it is a leading chicken producer, operating the most technologically advanced chicken processing plant in Poland

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T

he group is comprised of four vertically integrated companies that follow the food chain – feed plant and chicken farms, slaughterhouse, production plant and distribution operation. Pasz Konspol begins the process with a fully computerised feed production plant that has the potential to produce 16 tons of feed per hour. It also has 88 poultry houses with an area of 130,000 m2, where the chickens are produced on a diet of unmodified soya beans and maize, without bonemeat meal, animal fat, antibiotics or growth promoters. These are free-range chickens.

The next division is Konspol Bis, located in Wielkopolska, and this is the slaughter and cutting plant with a production capacity of 12,000 pieces per hour of chickens up to a weight of 3.5 kg. Konspol Bis is also a processing plant – there are four modern lines where ready-to-eat convenience products are manufactured. This plant features state-of-the-art air-cooling technology to give it a competitive advantage in the market, and furthermore, Konspol Bis is about to commence several significant investments including the

construction of another slaughterhouse and two additional production lines for convenience products.

Next in the chain is Konspol Holding.

This is a chicken-processing plant, and was the first plant in Poland to introduce unique technology to produce 100 per cent chicken meat products. Today it has the potential to manufacture 6000 tons of products per month, and it produces traditional hams and sausages, pates, ready meals, barbecue products and thin sausages as well as convenience products, among them innovative items such as gyoza. Konspol has recently implemented a pasteurisation technology, which allows it to lengthen the shelf life of its products without adding any chemicals.

All of Konspol’s plants are certified GMO free, and are highly integrated, meaning the company is able to control the whole production process at each stage from raw material up to the final product. The total production potential of Konspol Group is 15,000 tons per month and this is still growing.

Finally, the fourth part of the company is Trans Konspol, a fleet of temperaturecontrolled trucks, which assure logistics and delivery support to all of the Group’s operations.

Konspol Group While Poland may be its core home market, such is the status of Konspol that it also ranks as a leader in Europe, and as Magdalena Pazgan-Wacławek, Chairwoman explained, the company bases its success on 35 years of experience of developing and improving its products, services and unique technologies. “We only use carefully chosen Polish raw materials, seasonings and breadcrumbs in our manufacturing process, thus offering products of world-leading quality,” she noted.

Always adhering to this quality driven philosophy, in total Konspol offers over 200 diversified products, including gluten-free products, light products, NATURA products free from preservatives, and an assortment of convenience foods. “We use original, delicious recipes, which make it possible for us to manufacture high quality products that meet our customers’ expectations. We are also able to respond to ever-changing consumers’ behaviour and new market trends such as meat snacks, which are the new ‘it’ food,” continued Magdalena. “We have products for modern women, for children, for people seeking novelties and innovative products. Good taste and heath are our passion and this is also our motto.

We have always paid a lot of attention to what kind of ingredients and raw material we use in the production process and what food we offer to our clients: we were the first company to introduce gluten-free products onto the Polish market as well as NATURA products with no ‘E’ added – products that we call ‘clean label’.”

The NATURA range is free from preservatives, gluten and lactose, and boasts a high meat content – recently Konspol launched a new innovative line of products for children under the brand Zarłaki’ – NATURA, which included frankfurters made from 100 per cent chicken, and a first in the market with NATURA Chicken Nuggets. These featured specially designed packaging driven by consumers’ demand, which makes the products attractive and highly visible on the shelves.

Given the extremely wide range of products on offer from Konspol, the

Group is able to target many different customers and distributes products through a variety of channels. Among these are wholesalers, retailers, super and hypermarket chains, discount chains and the HoReCa sector. In order to deliver a superlative service to such a wide variety of client requirements, the organisation places a high regard on its staff, given that they are the human face of its operation. “We are constantly making investments in our employees – through continuous on-the-job training as well as attendance at external training courses and conferences,” Magdalena confirmed. “These investments are also always underway in the machine park, in order to keep up with customers’ demands and address their upcoming requirements.

The constant improvement of current products and the launch of new ones is what distinguishes us as innovation leaders in Poland.”

Magdalena and the Group as a whole believe that these sorts of continuous improvement programmes are essential in order to compete in what is a very difficult, competitive and challenging market. “Trends in the FMCG market are fast moving, and we have to keep up,” she said. “Considering our 35 years of market experience we can see many opportunities for us, we are working on a number of them and hope that customers will soon have an opportunity to experience them on the market first hand.

“Our aim is to maintain a high quality of products and develop new products with exceptional taste that consider our customers’ demands and follow the trend that ‘food is the new fashion’. We would also like to intensify our activity in foreign markets as the demand for high quality and healthy products is a global trend,” she concluded. D www.konspol.com.pl

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Creatively crafted cheese Castello cheeses have a history that goes back to 1893 and Arla Foods is proud of the genuine craftsmanship that still goes into the product today, more than 100 years later

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Arla Foods – Castello

C

astello’s history dates back to 1893, when the Denmarkbased company Tholstrup Cheese began its trend of bringing a balance of innovation and tradition to the art of cheese making, as well as an ongoing commitment to using natural ingredients and attention to detail. The first cheese to take on the Castello name was Castello White; produced by the company’s first master cheese maker, Rasmus Tholstrup, the cheese was developed to have a thin, delicate rind and perfectly mild and creamy flavor and texture. Since this major milestone, Castello has expanded its product portfolio with a wide range of creatively crafted cheeses.

Following Arla’s acquisition of Tholstrup Cheese in 2006, Castello

became the driver in the mould cheese segment in line with Arla’s strategy of securing its position as an international market leader in the field of speciality cheese. With a sizeable portion of Tholstrup’s sales derived from exports during this period, this proved to be a fruitful decision for Arla as Castello has continued to develop its portfolio and grow within its core markets over the last decade.

“The biggest market for Castello is Germany, then

it is the UK, the Nordic markets, the US, Canada and Australia that are also particularly big. In the UK our cheddar cheeses are the most popular product, however in Germany it is other cheese types such as Castello Höhlenkäse, which is a cave-aged cheese,” says Jens Egelund, Senior Director and Global Head of Speciality Cheese.

He continues: “What makes Castello unique when compared to other brands is that we have such a broad range of cheeses; we aren’t just about white mould cheese, cheddar or parmesan,

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Arla Foods – Castello

which is what you see with a lot of our competitors. We cover the full range of cheese, from hard and soft yellow cheeses all the way up to bold and sharp blue moulds; we even do cream cheeses. This broad range means customers can start from one end and eat their way through every cheese; we can take customers through a journey that many of our competitors can’t.

“Furthermore, a number of cheeses have truly captured the spirit of our founding fathers, such as Castello Blue, which was made on the basis of Henrik Tholstrup (son of Rasmus Tholstrup), who truly loved a strong blue cheese while also enjoying the creamy softness of Creamy White. He then put these two cheeses on top of each other on a piece of bread and asked ‘Why hasn’t anyone made this cheese before?’ He spent a lot of time developing creamy blue cheese with a bold sharpness while merging the mild creaminess of white; this is how Castello Blue was developed. Today it is the best selling cheese in Castello’s range; it is simply a great cheese.”

Try, taste and enjoy With the expertise of artisan cheese makers and traditional production methods that ensure the high quality development of cheeses, Castello continues the heritage and tradition of its founders. Never content to make standard cheeses, Castello creates unique flavours and textures through the utilisation of ingredients and techniques from all over the world; each cheese is then made at a single dairy that specialises in the production of that particular cheese. “One example of Castello enhancing and tweaking cheese is Castello Creamy White, which is also the first cheese that was ever developed. This double cream white cheese uses a culture that ensures the cheese ripens from the inside, so unlike a Brie, the cheese has a consistently soft creamy centre.

Additionally, we mature this cheese so it has a very fine and delicate rind. By tweaking and improving our cheeses we offer an even better taste sensation,” explains Jens.

Another example of the company’s innovative nature is its development of a cheese that has been popped to create an indulgent snack. “This is an exciting innovation for us that is coming up over the next 12 months; it is a great way to get more people exposed to specialist cheese and is one of the first real innovations I have seen in the cheese market for a long time,” says Jens.

“For us cheese is the best thing in the world, which is why we create this fusion between creativity and craftsmanship.

It is not enough to merely focus on the craftsmanship; it is only when you merge this with creativity you something unique and amazing. Take some of the best painters in the world, they progress and create something different to everything else; I think this is what Castello tries to do with speciality cheeses. What makes speciality cheese so exciting is that it is one of the most enriching and complex things to work with in food; it’s a bit like developing a fine wine. Speciality cheese is also one of those products that everyone has a polarising opinion on; you tend to either love it or hate it and trying to get more people to love our products makes our job exciting and I love that Castello does exactly that. We try to make speciality cheeses more accessible to more people across the world,” highlights Jens.

Moving forward, Jens has a clear goal for Castello: “Our aspiration is not to be the biggest cheese brand in every category, but to be highly accessible in providing different types of specialist cheese that invite people in to try, taste and enjoy. It is much more about the taste and sensations than it is about specific products in specific countries.

Castello is spearheading this journey for speciality cheeses, and inviting customers on board for the ride.

“Alongside the launch of our popped cheese, we will also be focusing on the marketing of our cheeses; this is something we are looking into building on our success from previous years. We will take marketing to the next level and invest in the brand so we can continue to grow; this is the first step on a longer journey that will begin in 2017,” Jens concludes. D www.castellocheese.com

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Schokinag

A world of chocolate With a new owner arriving in April 2016, German chocolate manufacturer Schokinag is looking to the future with new ambitions

E

stablished in 1923 by the Hermann family, Schokinag was founded with a spirit of entrepreneurship that enabled flexibility, direct communications and fast decision-making. As Rolf Eiermann, Managing Director explained, while this approach was somewhat lost over the years under different company ownerships, today as part of Nimbus and Varova, once again an entrepreneurial ideology is flourishing, with policies such as transparent targets replacing rigid structures and procedures. “Our new Dutch investors have a hands-on mentality and they enjoy taking prompt action,” he added. “They also share our vision for long-term success - in our business we count on enduring relationships with our customers and suppliers and we build a culture of trust. Nimbus and Varova understand this very well and they have the same vision, which is why they have no plans to sell us for at least for the next

seven to ten years. Historically the other companies in which they have invested have adhered to that sort of time line, so they have proven that this is their preferred approach in the past.”

Now that the new owners have taken over, Rolf believes Schokinag has the best of both worlds to draw on: “Being part of ADM gave us the advantages of a corporate identity and structure, and now that is combined with entrepreneurial flexibility. So we combine the greatest parts of the two business models in order to deliver the best service to the customer. This means that when the customer asks a question we can react quickly and do not need days to respond - internally we can rapidly push the right buttons.

It is more a ‘target-orientated’ approach rather than a ‘way-orientated approach’.

These methods are applied to all our departments, including supply chain, research and development and so on.

Overall our focus remains on our clients, with customer intimacy and flexibility as our main goals.”

Thanks to the revitalising effects of the new owners, Schokinag is able to fully focus on re-establishing its reputation for responsiveness and reliability, and turn its attentions to creating the best chocolate products for its customers. Rolf explained how the company’s operations are organised: “When we were founded, we originally processed cocoa beans to cocoa butter and cocoa powder and produced chocolate as a next step of the supply chain.

“Recently the company was divided into a semi-finish branch and a chocolate production division under the wings of Schokinag, and as the company was already based in two separate buildings it was physically divided as well. As a result, the cocoa factory is on the other side of the street, but we still use the original pipeline between the two sites to transport the cocoa butter and liquor and still work closely with Olam, the current owner of the cocoa processing site. We still process our own cocoa beans, especially when it comes to special bean types, sustainable certified like Fairtrade, Utz and Rainforest Alliance or single origin beans.”

Chocolate range Overall, on the liquid side Schokinag manufactures an extended range of dark, milk and white chocolates and offers the opportunity to develop tailor-made recipes according to customers’ specifications and requirements. The liquid product range is complemented by ice cream compounds made with coconut oil and by chocolates in which part of the cocoa butter is replaced by CBE. On the solid chocolate side, Schokinag produces chips and chunks as dark, milk and white chocolates for bakery inclusions and for re-melting in various shapes, as well as speciality chocolates for decoration and inclusions.

“We have a capacity right now of 80,000-90,000 tonnes, which should increase in the coming years,” Rolf highlighted. “We are currently looking at finding all the easy processing optimisation improvements we can make, so your so called ‘low-hanging fruit’, so that we can increase our flexibility and efficiency.”

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Schokinag Uelzena Ingredients Uelzena Ingredients, a business unit of the Uelzena group, offers a broad range of high quality milk-based food ingredients and extraordinary expertise in the milk fat processing sector. All products are produced in several group-owned production plants in Northern Germany. Its customer base comprises the largest industrial confectionery, chocolate, ice cream, baking and food companies as well as craft businesses. The product portfolio includes low heat and high heat skimmed milk powder, sweet buttermilk powder, butter, anhydrous and/ or fractionated milk fats and sweetened condensed milk as well as yoghurt and cream products or customised fat compounds.

“We have closely co-operated with many of our customers for decades.

That makes us very proud. Their high standards and a trustful exchange of information support our constant improvement,” describes Peter H. Langner, sales manager milkfat, describing Uelzena’s relation to its customers.

“Schokinag is one of our customers from the chocolate industry, we provide them with anhydrous milk fat for their chocolate production.”

Besides standard butter and butterfat qualities, Uelzena can provide very special milk fat products, like fractionated milk fat products with defined melting points and behaviour or white butterfat for light crèmes, white filled cream candies and chocolates.

Product development The core market where Schokinag focuses its attention is central Europe, but Rolf does see opportunities to expand further afield in the future: “Our location in Mannheim is basically in the centre of Europe and so we do consider ourselves in a rather advantageous position geographically. Certainly we do also see prospects in markets in central and Eastern Europe, the UK and US, the Middle East and may other regions of the world.”

In order to ensure that it is meeting the needs of this broad and growing customer base, Schokinag is constantly supporting its customers in developing new products: “We have a very strong research and development (R&D) department, which in the business-tobusiness sector is crucial for success,” Rolf noted. “We develop and

optimise recipes together with our clients, and when there is a customer thinking about adding a new application or product to their own portfolio then we work together with them on a lab-scale, using our own R&D lab to help them. We do need to follow market trends, which are opened up by customer applications, recipes and products, and we help the client develop these further. So for example, we are now producing a lot more single origin cocoa beans, from Ecuador or Ghana for example, according to the requirements of our customers.”

It is clear that Schokinag is approaching 2017 with a revitalised attitude and a new owner that is keen to invest in order to help the company achieve its ambitions. Concluding with some ideas on where the business is focusing next, Rolf summed up: “We are going to increase our flexibility further, and we are looking at reducing bottlenecks in production. We will also

be making some investments that will enable us to offer a broader product range, including very low fat to very high cocoa content chocolate.

“We are focusing on efficiency measures as well as reducing costs, and finally, we want to continue to perfect our quality levels on our products as well as increase the quantities we manufacture, and all at the right price. We certainly have some major investment plans in our pipeline but we will keep them under our hat for now – it is a very exciting time for Schokinag.” D www.schokinag.com

Olam Cocoa Building on a long working history, existing business relationship, and geographical proximity, every day Olam Cocoa provides unique logistics services and cocoa solutions for Schokinag by delivering just-in-time, superior cocoa ingredients that help meet growing market demands and continually evolving customer requirements. Olam Cocoa is pleased to assist Schokinag as they craft innovative chocolate products of the highest quality and to exacting standards for some of the most discerning chocolate consumers in Europe and beyond.

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Flavours for all

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Innovation and creativity are central to Glacio Group’s aims, and help it in creating new and interesting ice cream desserts for its global customer base 72 www.foodchainmagazine.com

lacio Group was last featured in FoodChain Magazine in July 2015, and since that time the company has continued to retain quality, flexibility, and curiosity at the heart of what it does and implement these into every ice cream product that it creates.

This has resulted in the continued development of new flavours, styles, and recipes for its products, all of which bring something unique to the market. There have been a number of investments made by the company, and one of particular highlight is the new production line that it has introduced produces a new range of ice cream desserts. These will take the form of layered ice cream with chocolate added within each layer, creating an elegant ice cream cake. This investment in a new production line once again demonstrates the dynamic trend that runs throughout the company, within every product, and there is a commitment to always creating something new and engaging to satisfy its customers.

In addition to this new release, there are more products that Glacio has diligently created under the IJSBOERKE-brand. The first of these is the new cone, created in collaboration with the Belgian company ‘CHOCOLATERIE JACQUES’, that includes Belgian chocolate sprinkles – an incredibly popular addition by many across Europe. It will take something that is enjoyed by its consumers and incorporate it into the cone itself, which is something that seems such a simple way to add to the consumers’ experience, and yet is one that is new to the market. This project was successfully launched at the beginning of 2016 for the Belgian retail and outof-home market, and Glacio aims for it to spread into even wider markets in the following year.

The on-going collaboration with the world famous Belgian Chocolate Praline-brand ‘LEONIDAS’ has resulted in the launch of the new Manon Glacée Icecream Pralines, made by IJSBOERKE, which have proven to be a great commercial success.

Perfect indulgence Furthermore, Glacio has also unveiled three new flavours in scooping for the out of home market, one of which is its Belgian Praliné. The second is its Walnut Caramel ice cream that like the Belgian Praliné contains real nut pieces. Both of these products will no doubt prove a popular choice over the Christmas period, as they are the perfect indulgence for the time of the year. The Blackcurrant Cassis Sorbet is the third, and contains vitamin C, which will help to make it a favourite for many during the winter months. Therefore, with Christmas fast approaching Glacio once again displayed its flexible nature, and has organized a range of well thought-out ice cream based treats for the festive season.

The Christmas range is not the only way in which Glacio shows its expertise in producing an ice cream selection that is varied and tailored to the range of tastes of its customers. Another that demonstrates this is its development of low calorie ice cream options, and this was something that Eric De Man,

Glacio Group Sales Manager Retail Benelux & UK, highlighted: “This is an innovation that is currently being developed at full speed and is one to watch for in 2017, we are creating new recipes that involve lower calorie products, which even diabetic people will be able to eat.”

elaborated upon by Eric: “All Glacio scooping ice recipes are all natural, all ingredients are certified to be from natural sources, nothing synthetic, nothing artificial, and we believe this is a very important element in our

Love for ice cream One of the overwhelming points that comes across from Glacio and the desserts it produces is the care and passion it has for what it makes and for who it makes it for. It wants to come up with new and interesting flavours that will help its customers find a new aspect to ice cream that they will love. Glacio’s diligence extends beyond just the range of options that it produces, but also the quality of ingredients and the sustainability of the process, taking care from start to finish, which was

Sensient Sensient have been a partner to Glacio for over ten years. During this time we have built an excellent relationship with various parts of their business. They produce excellent ice cream products, and at Sensient we pride ourselves on delivering quality flavour, inclusions and sauces.

At Sensient, we bring life to products.

products.” Eric continued: “We also have the desire to limit our ecological footprint, and most of our raw materials and packaging we buy from suppliers, that are in the vicinity of the factory, which helps to reduce air miles.”

The Glacio Group is constantly working on something new, and is often working on several innovations at once. It still provides its customers with all the original ice creams that they might be accustomed to, however it is also creating the next generation of ice cream desserts, whether this be in the form of new flavours, new styles, or new low calorie options. Glacio brings creativity and a customer focused approach to ice cream production, and is taking its ice cream products to an even greater audience year-on-year within a growing number of regions, the expansion of the customer-base in China being the most recent project. D www.glacio.com

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Pride of Wales Founded in 2003 by husband and wife team, Gwynne and Adele Thomas, Conwy Brewery is a Welsh brewing company with a proud heritage and full range of high quality cask and bottled ales

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W

hen the Conwy Brewery was officially incorporated on 17th February 2003, it became the first brewery in Conwy for over 100 years and was proud to celebrate its tenth anniversary milestone in 2013. The brewery specialises in both cask and bottle conditioned ales of the highest quality, offering perhaps the best range of ales in North Wales. The company is presently based at its modern premises in Llysfaen, where it has installed a new 25BBl brewery designed by Brendan Dobbin, the brewing engineer behind the Firkin brewpubs. “The Conwy Brewery started in a small industrial unit within Conwy, where it supplied the immediate town and local markets with around 2000 to 3000 pints a week,” explains Head Brewer, Gwynne Thomas.

“We are now based in our third brewery site, which is a much larger 25-barrel brewery with the ability to produce on average of 30,000 pints per week. The company has grown tenfold during the past 12 years and we are now supplying the whole of Wales, including many of the major supermarkets, pubs and freehouses.”

During June 2015, Conwy Brewery celebrated the award of a contract to supply Co-operative food store in Wales

with over 40,000 pints of ale. Research undertaken by The Co-operative Food shows that the UK has become a nation of ‘real ale converts’, with consumers now four times more likely to choose real ale products over mass-produced beer and 71 per cent of drinkers indicating that it is important to find and enjoy locally brewed varieties. Commenting on the award of the contract Gwynne said: “The award of this project is fantastic news, this is our first listing of this scale with a convenience retailer and it opens up new markets for us. We are delighted that The Co-operative shares our passion for local real ales and is now stocking three of our ales including our best selling Welsh Pride. We pride ourselves on taste and quality and we know this approach is shared by The Co-operative.”

Suits all tastes Clogwyn Gold, Rampart and Welsh Pride are all currently playing a role in The Co-operative’s move to alter the way the company sells real ale by offering specially selected beers from breweries based near to its local stores.

Throughout its range, Conwy Brewery produces a comprehensive range of 16 cask and bottle conditioned ales across four distinctive brands. Quality is at the heart of the company’s ethos and Conwy uses soft water from the mountains of Snowdonia, malts from Bairds of Lincolnshire and hops from around the world. No artificial ingredients are used and all Conwy beers are naturally carbonated with no filtering or pasteurisation and the company’s beers are all suitable for vegetarians. “We offer an extensive range of beers with which we try to satisfy a wide variety of tastes. We have lighter, more easy-going beers like Clogwyn Gold at ABV 4 per cent, which is a nice golden, while we also offer Welsh Pride ABV 4.3 per cent beer that is brewed as a bitter variety of ale,” Gwynne elaborates. “We also offer options like our darker, full-bodied Rampart ale, which is ABV 4.8 per cent.

We brew a good selection of beers that offer something to suit all tastes, for example, we also brew a beer called Honey Fayre ale at ABV 4.8 per cent, which is something of a hybrid ale that

Conwy Brewery appeals to lager drinkers with its light, easy-going flavour.”

The range of Conwy Brewery brands is comprised of its Conwy ales, which represent its popular flagship beers that are designed to have broad appeal and are available all year; Seasonal ales including speciality beers that are available at different times of year; the West Coast range, which showcases the brewery’s modern beers; and Small batch brew that includes new beer styles, new hops or even classic archived brews. This extensive selection of beers has allowed Conwy Brewery to work with many of the major supermarkets and local businesses throughout Wales. “We work with most of the major supermarkets within Wales including the Co-operative as well as Tesco, ASDA, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, M&S and Morrisons. All of these businesses have a reasonably strong presence within Wales and are keen

to stock local beers as a response to consumer expectations and this is reflected in local pubs as well,” Gwynne exclaims. “Pubs have increasingly moved to stock more locally brewed beers in line with this wider trend.”

To accommodate the growing interest in its range of beers, Conwy has moved between three brewing sites throughout its history. The company has also recently invested in new equipment at its current Llysfaen location to both increase production and ensure that the facility will be able to continue to

ADS2 Brands We at ADS2 Brands are pleased to be associated with Conwy Brewery with their glassware requirements. As a business we pride ourselves on supporting all major global and developing brewers, retailers and operators with all of their individual generic or bespoke dispense and POS requirements. No matter the size of your brand or budget, we will deliver products that clearly communicate your brand’s USPs and to help you stand out from the crowd – on time, on budget and on brief.

support the business for years to come.

“We have recently invested in a stateof-the-art labeller, which has enabled us to increase our output by around 50 per cent when compared to our older bottling equipment. Prior to that we moved to our current site around three years ago, which effectively enabled us to double the size of the brewery and to quadruple our warehousing space. We don’t intend to be a brewery that is ‘here today and gone tomorrow’ and will still be brewing here in ten to 20 years as a result of this investment,” Gwynne concludes.

“During the next 12 months we will work to consolidate ourselves as a strong and leading brewer in Wales. We are a quality brewery and one of only three or four breweries in Wales to hold SALSA accreditation and we are keen to increase our association through companies like Red Letter Days and to look at the export market in the future.” D www.conwybrewery.co.uk

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Striving for excellence

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Bokomo Foods (UK) Ltd Producing over 615,000,000 bowls of cereal per year, Bokomo Foods (UK) Ltd. manufactures many different types of cereals and packaging, which it sells to clients that include some of the UK’s leading supermarkets

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okomo Foods (UK) Ltd. is owned by the South African based enterprise Pioneer Foods and first entered into the UK cereal market during September 2000, through a joint venture with the Australian company Sanitarium.

The joint venture was known as Grain Health Foods (UK) Ltd. until 2004, when Pioneer Foods acquired the remaining shares in the organisation and renamed the business to Bokomo Foods. At this time the company only produced wheat biscuits, however during 2005 Belso Cereal was added to the business and Bokomo entered into the wider cereal market. “Strategically we knew that it was important for the company to widen its product portfolio beginning with the acquisition of Belso

Cereal,” explains Bokomo Foods CEO, John Hiles. “More recently we acquired Streamfoods Holdings and its Fruit Bowl brand during August 2016, including the company’s production facility in Wisbech and have started selling ‘Harvest Cheweee’ cereal bars as of 1 August 2016. While research and product development are key to our future plans, so too are the staff and manufacturing needs. As a result, the plan will be to invest in training, development and manufacturing capabilities, all set to position Fruit Bowl as the UK’s leader in the fruit snacking industry.”

The deal to acquire Streamfoods Holdings was valued at around £7.5 million and was in line with Pioneer’s strategy of bolstering the company’s product range in the UK with

further branded options. Stream Foods employs around 98 people at its factory in Wisbech, with its products reaching clients throughout Europe and China.

The company’s Fruit Bowl range includes products such as dried fruit bars, fruit bars and yogurt covered fruit snacks.

“This acquisition is in keeping with the stated strategic intent of acquiring and bolstering Pioneer Foods’ product portfolio in the UK with a branded proposition, namely Fruit Bowl,” comments Pioneer Foods CEO, Phil Roux. “The transaction will augment and leverage our UK private label portfolio and our recently upgraded manufacturing capabilities.”

Bokomo currently operates three manufacturing sites across the UK located in Peterborough, Wellingborough and Wisbech, which allow the company to make products ranging from muesli, granolas, crunch clustered cereal and different formats of oat porridges to flaked cereal products, wheat biscuits and snacking products. During July 2016 Bokomo officially opened its brand new state-of-the-art production facility in the commercial area of Orton Southgate,

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Bokomo Foods (UK) Ltd

Throughout its history Bokomo Foods has continued to invest into its facilities and product portfolio with a focus of ensuring the highest levels of quality across all of its cereal products

Peterborough. The new facility is intended to boost the manufacturer’s positive growth trajectory by supplying healthy, tasty and cost effective breakfast cereals to clients within the UK and around the world. “We are hugely excited to have opened our new, large scale site, which we have designed specifically to meet the requirements of a world class breakfast cereal business. The relocation from our old factory has involved careful planning to ensure there is no disruption for our existing customers,” John says.

“We operate in such a competitive environment that critical to our future growth was the issue of efficiency and cost. The new factory will allow us to expand and we will improve efficiencies across all areas to enhance the overall offering for our customers.”

the amount of available space while housing the entire facility under one roof, meaning that operations have been streamlined and energy efficiency across the entire production cycle has been dramatically improved. The construction of the factory was completed in May 2016 following an investment of over £2 million by Pioneer Foods. Transition planning was undertaken over the course of six months and the site became fully operation in June 2016.

As a result of the development of the facility, Bokomo has also invested in the acquisition of new machinery with a

view to maintain its record for constantly meeting customer lead times. The company currently produces more than ten million bowls of cereal per week for all of the major supermarket chains and the new factory will enable Bokomo to more than double the production capacity of its previous facility. “The installation of a new oven means we’ve been able to increase our baking capacity and a high-speed machine has allowed for increases in packaging capacity, as well as more than 7000 pallet spaces, the business has plenty of room for expansion,” John says.

Room for expansion The previous Bokomo plant offered 6000 square metres of space, comprised of a conglomeration of six separate industrial units. The development of the new site has tripled

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Throughout its history Bokomo Foods has continued to invest into its facilities and product portfolio with a focus of ensuring the highest levels of quality across all of its cereal products.

This has resulted in the company receiving several accolades over the years, such as winning two awards at the Good Choice! Quality Food Awards and the Quality Food Awards at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel during November 2015. The company was recognised as the winner of the winner of the ‘Cereals’ category in the Good Choice! Quality Food Awards for its production of Asda’s Good & Balanced Pumpkin & Mango Granola product line. Bokomo Foods was also highly commended in the ‘Cereals’ category in the Quality Food Awards for its production of Tesco Finest Red Berry Granola. The awards are some of the most respected awards within the food and beverage industry and represent

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the best grocery products on the market throughout the UK. Each of these awards are highly competitive and are known for their rigorous judging and strict criteria. “This is a fantastic achievement for Bokomo and I am delighted that yet again we have demonstrated our expertise as the UK’s leading cereal manufacturer,” John exclaimed at the time. “Our team is the strength behind our success and we have great relationships with all the big supermarket chains and will continue to work together on producing high quality cereal for the UK market.”

Award wins During 2016 Bokomo Foods has continued to build on its previous success by winning the Food & Drink Manufacturer of the year category at the Central & East of England Manufacturing Awards. “This really represents us striving for excellence. We

Bokomo Foods (UK) Ltd all work hard and are proud in what we do,” John says. “The work environment is such that everybody can work to the full potential and through that we strive to delight the consumers that enjoys eating the products we make. This award is a recognition for all the effort and hard work.”

good at that. If you look at market data then the cereal market is flat both in value and volume, when combining Mintel data and our supply data to the trade discount,” John concludes. “The coming months will be challenging, especially with the additional pressure

of the devaluation of the pound and its impact on commodity prices. However I am a firm believer in that if we stand together as a company and do what we do better, we will be able to maintain our strategic growth plan.” D www.bokomo.co.uk

Quality reputation Although the market in the cereals sector is relatively challenging, Bokomo Foods has a proven reputation for quality and a significant market presence that will help the business to achieve a strategic growth trajectory over the coming years. “The recent market has been fairly difficult because of the price pressures that have been brought on commodities as well as the selling price of cereals. As a result it is a very competitive market where the product quality, service and price differentiate you from your competitors and we are

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Local flavour

Harvey & Son (Lewes) Ltd. has a heritage dating back to 1790 with a rich history of excellence within the brewery and pub industry

H

arvey’s is an historic brewer, wine and spirit merchant and pub operator with a reputation for brewing several award winning beers. Today, the company produces a range of over 20 beers and also owns 48 pubs across South East of England. “Harvey & Son established itself in Lewes during the early nineteenth century, extending its original business as wine and spirit merchants to include brewing. After more than 200 years in the County Town, Harvey’s has become synonymous with Sussex,” elaborates

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Joint Managing Director & Head Brewer, Miles Jenner. “The company’s Victorian Tower Brewery sits on the banks of the River Ouse in the heart of the town and is irreverently known locally as ‘Lewes Cathedral’. The philosophy of the company perpetuates the core values of a bygone age where local sustainability was paramount.”

As part of its philosophy of local sustainability, Harvey’s maintains longterm contracts with local hop growers, which provide support for the local farming community. Traditionally, the company’s trade was within a 60-mile

Harvey & Son (Lewes) Ltd

compost in the nearby market gardens.

Harvey’s is regarded as ‘the beer of Sussex’ and the company is woven into the very fabric of society.”

Modern and relevant

radius of the brewery but with changing market conditions it acquired its first London pub during the 1990’s. It is also selling through distribution channels, which stock establishments such as Bill’s Restaurant chain. The local sale of its popular beers is an important factor in further demonstrating a tangible interaction between Harvey’s and the community. “Our malted barley is sourced within the UK,” Miles adds. “The brewery’s ‘spent grains’ are collected by the local agricultural college and fed to their dairy herd, while the ‘spent hops’ are used as mulch and

Today, Harvey’s beers continue to be produced on the original brewery site.

The brewery itself was rebuilt in 1881 although parts of the original structure still stand, major additional works have doubled the capacity of the brew house, while retaining the site’s flexibility and maintaining the same architectural style. “Harvey’s have a range of 25 bottled beers covering most styles. By bottling ‘in-house’ even our speciality niche products can be produced viably.

Recently the company has invested in kegging plant and has branched out into canning. It has always been the philosophy of Harvey’s to remain both modern and relevant while maintaining its heritage,” Miles says. “Sussex Best Bitter (4.0 abv) is the flagship beer of the company but the core range of traditional draught beers also includes our Dark Mild (3.0 abv), IPA (3.5 abv), Wild Hop (3.7 abv) and Armada Ale (4.5 abv). Additionally, Old Ale (4.3 abv) is available in Autumn and Winter, while our Golden Ale is brewed for the Spring and Summer months.”

Harvey’s was the first brewer to publish a programme of 12 speciality ‘seasonal beers’ that are available for one month at a time. Each beer is brewed uniquely to provide different styles ranging from porters and ruby ales to wheat beers and barley wines. Many of these speciality beers have a local provenance; the company’s Tom Paine (5.5 abv), for example, is named after the celebrated Georgian radical and sometime resident of Lewes who wrote ‘Rights of Man’.

“Southdown Harvest (5.0 abv) is brewed using freshly harvested ‘green hops’ that are picked from the bine that morning and all beers are available in bottle throughout the year. Our newly devised Gold Bier, Malt Brown and Black Stout are served chilled from keg and can to meet the growing demand of a new generation of beer drinkers,” Miles reveals. “There are also two niche products that are worthy of mention: Elizabethan Ale (7.5 abv) barley wine was first brewed for the coronation in 1952 and has remained in production ever since, while Harvey’s Georgian ‘Imperial Extra Double Stout’ (9.0 abv) was created in 1999 and has been the recipient of a national or international award every year since its inception.”

Further to its award-winning range of beers, Harvey’s manufactures and sells different lines including wines,

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Harvey & Son (Lewes) Ltd

whiskies, foods, condiments and various merchandise. The brewery also procures its own ‘Lewes Blend’ Whisky and recently produced a ‘Malt Gin’ in collaboration with a UK distillery. The company’s brewery shop fronts Cliffe High Street in Lewes, which is the original premises occupied by John Harvey in 1810. The shop sells a large selection of local and foreign wines, some of which it imports, as well as a range of spirits from newly emergent distilleries. The company also sells souvenirs and local foods, including an award-winning marmalade made using Harvey’s Wild Hop beer. “The Brewery Shop is well supported by the local community and is extremely popular with tourists. Harvey’s is the last brewery in the UK to use returnable bottles, thereby forestalling the bottle bank, and the shop charges a returnable deposit to encourage their

return,” Miles details. “Draught beers are drawn from the brewery cellars for customers in containers ranging from four pints to nine gallons.”

its range of seasonal brews, thereby further strengthening the company’s local provenance. It is a move to engage with a new generation of consumer, confident in the knowledge that the existing customer base will remain loyal to the brand regardless of its packaging.

Miles concludes: “Our long-term goal is to retain market share and develop new markets for both established and new products. Within the pub portfolio, more houses are likely to come under direct management but investment will continue within existing outlets and new opportunities to purchase licensed estate in town centres will be examined.

Within the production and distribution areas of the business, investment and programmed maintenance will continue to ensure maximum flexibility and quality assurance.” D www.harveys.org.uk

Local provenance The reputation of Harvey’s beers has resulted in enquires from further afield in recent years. As the market has continued to evolve, Harvey’s has developed as a locally focused business with a growing reputation.

“With changing market conditions, all options are now being considered and wholesalers with a proven reputation for beer management are distributing Harvey beers where new markets are identified. We have also recently undergone a rebranding exercise, redesigning our logo and all pump clips and labels for our core range products.” Additionally, a local artist has redesigned the point of sale for

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A scoop of

success

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Rossi Ice Cream has been producing award winning Ice Cream since 1932. Over 80 years later it continues to be loved by generations throughout Essex and beyond 86 www.foodchainmagazine.com

ossi Ice Cream has a longstanding history in Essex and prides itself on providing premium, traditional ice cream as well as a high standard of customer service. By identifying each customer’s individual needs and offering a service that suits their requirements, many business relationships, including parlours, mobile vans and retailers, have lasted over many decades, which is a testament to both the quality of the ice cream and the company’s business approach. It offers a wide range of flavours and sizes for all market places

including classic Vanilla, Honeycomb, Mint Choc Chip, Lemon Ice and sizes ranging from 125ml to ten litres. With its deep roots in the Essex area, as the business continues to grow, it also cherishes being able to support local charities and contribute to the local tourism in and around the area.

Rossi is a company that is taking a product it loves and supplying it to an ever-growing customer base. Summer 2015 saw the brand refresh of Rossi, introducing the company’s first ever printed containers in over 80 years.

Together with the updated Rossi logo, this enabled products to sit proudly on retailer’s shelves, reflecting the premium ice cream produced and help to support sales. Colin Gray, Director at Rossi Ice Cream, discussed some of the success the company has had: “We have expanded the business into more retail areas, while still continuing to support independent retailers. This reflects on now supplying ASDA stores directly since June, as well as 30 Chelmsford Star Co-op Stores and 40 stores for the East of England Co-op. We have also been awarded an additional 40 stores throughout the region with the Co-op Manchester Group.” The company is fast becoming the ice cream of choice for many establishments as Rossi has been making moves further into the leisure, hotel and catering sectors including Havens Holiday Parks.

No wonder the company is aiming to continue the expansion of its market and broadening its customer base, much further than Essex.

One way in which Rossi is raising its profile and working with a diverse selection of companies is through a unique service of fully branded and personalised ice cream tubs. This is something that few, if any, of the company’s competitors offer and that has been overwhelmingly well received by all those that have used the service. The strengths of this tailor-made ice cream product were highlighted by Colin Gray: “We have supplied personalised ice cream tubs via branding and marketing agencies for a number of their clients including Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss and easyJet. We also offer door-to-door delivery

Rossi Ice Cream using temperature controlled vehicles for events in London, Scotland, even Europe as far as Monaco in the south of France. The tubs are perfect for such a range of reasons allowing companies to offer ice cream at an event or exhibition at the same time as promoting their own product. The unique experience is a great talking point for potential customers as well as a ‘holding point’ at exhibitions and events, as the customer enjoys the ice cream and discussions/ relationships can be built. The tubs used for Hilfiger were for a store grand opening in London and were so successful, they repeated the order a year later for its first anniversary.”

The company even has the capability to create and produce bespoke ice cream flavours with several companies approaching it with wild and wonderful ideas over the years it has been able to make a reality. From Gin & Tonic Sorbet for a Casino, Lavender for a London based hotel, even producing 80 different flavours as part of the ‘Around the World in 80 Scoops’ campaign for Insure & Go. Flavours included Squid Ink Ripple (Japan), Tobacco (Cuba) and Fish with Lemon Grass Syrup (Vietnam).

Rossi Ice Cream has recently been nominated for the ‘Pride of Essex’ award

by Essex Life Food & Drink Awards, which is evidence of the success the company has achieved. As the business continues to grow, so does its

online presence with its social media engagement steadily increasing and the launch of a brand new website due in October helping towards increasing brand awareness.

The quality and appeal of Rossi Ice Cream simply cannot be under question.

The name is spreading and with every mouthful of Rossi Ice Cream the customer base grows. The heart of the business may have started and remains in Essex, but as the company begins to expand and move forward, the whole of the UK may one day, have the chance to enjoy an original Rossi Ice Cream. D www.rossiicecream.com

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Crisp from the orchard As the UK’s largest independently owned cider maker, Aston Manor Cider is dedicated to producing quality products from orchard to glass

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stablished in February 1983, Aston Manor Cider, a familyowned business, is also the country’s second largest cider manufacturer overall. The company produces a diverse range of cider brands from four modern production facilities including three in the West Midlands; a fruit pressing and processing mill in Stourport-on-Severn, a production and packaging facility in Aston and a logistics and warehousing hub in Witton, plus a further production and packaging facility in Tiverton, Devon. Aston Manor also has orchards in Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

Although 95 per cent of its ciders are currently sold in the UK, Aston Manor Cider enjoys sales in as many as 20 countries around the world and its global export presence continues to grow.

“Being a family-owned business gives Aston Manor Cider the advantage of being able to plan for longer-term growth. We have greater control over

business decisions and are focused on sustainability,” reveals Managing Director, Gordon Johncox. “The company’s passion and dedication to making quality products and providing excellent customer service, coupled with the ambition to be recognised as the most capable and progressive cider company, is driven by the business owners and is shared by everyone within the organisation. The strong commitment to the success of the cider category and the future growth of the company filters down from the business owners to all our employees.”

Indeed, throughout its history Aston Manor Cider has worked to further enhance the growth of the business and the development of its cider products.

The company is presently undergoing a major investment plan that will enhance its production and processing facilities, including an investment of £3 million to increase capacity and capability. In total the investment plan is worth around £50 million over a decade.

Aston Manor Cider As part of this, in spring 2013 the business announced the planting of 1000 acres of additional orchards while also agreeing several 25-year contracts with its farming and growing partners.

Furthermore, in order to support further growth in the company, Aston Manor Cider announced a multi-million pound deal to create an outstanding logistics facility in July 2014 at a new site in Witton, just three miles from its main production site. “We have invested heavily over the past four or five years in our manufacturing capability and capacity. As part of a significant investment programme, we have focused on enhancing our operations across our production sites to help us become more sustainable to support wider company growth. The new equipment and initiatives we’ve introduced this year alone will help reduce waste, save energy and will make us even more efficient,” Gordon says.

“Another significant investment that we are proud of this year is our extended relationship with the Rugby Football League and in England Rugby League, giving us a great platform for consumer engagement with our flagship cider, Kingstone Press.” The cider is now the principle partner of England Rugby League, an agreement that covers two major international tournaments, the Four Nations later this year and the World Cup in 2017.

Extensive portfolio Further to its flagship Kingstone Press brand, Aston Manor Cider takes pride in being the only producer that offers a high quality cider that meets the unique requirements of every consumer and occasion. Its extensive portfolio spans the breadth of the cider category from mainstream ciders through to premium brands, which are all available in a variety of different packaging formats.

“Aston Manor Cider has made significant

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Aston Manor Cider investments in new product development this year to enable us to manage our brand portfolio and expand into new areas. Premium cider is experiencing a surge in growth, thanks to the rising consumer interest in provenance and quality. This led to us putting increased investment into the premium end of our portfolio,” Gordon explains. “We have developed our craft cider range under the Friels First Press Vintage Cider (7.4 per cent abv) brand to include new packaging formats and flavour variants.

Friels First Press Vintage is made in small batches with 100 per cent fresh apples from the first press of juice from a variety of dessert apples delivering a fantastically fruity, light-bodied yet full-flavoured craft cider. Great for consumers looking for an authentic cider, it is available in 20l bag-in-box, 500ml glass bottle and now a stylish 330ml can. A hops-infused variant has also been added to the range, offering a

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unique and refreshing flavour profile.”

In addition to its continued investment into new facilities and increasing its product portfolio, Aston Manor Cider was recently awarded an ‘AA’ rating at its Stourport cider mill and an AA* rating at both its production and packaging sites in Tiverton and Aston by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) meaning that all of its production locations now have the highest possible accreditations for quality of operations.

Print-Leeds Print-Leeds is a specialist printing house producing wet-glue labels, UV litho on plastics and digital print. The labels division prints wet glue labels – wraparound, square cut, punched and tube wrapped – which can be hot foil stamped or embossed. Printed using UV or conventional inks with a gloss or matt varnish, the labels are predominately for the beer, water and food industries.

Print-Leeds expertise is unrivalled, as is the quality of its work, attention to detail and customer service. It believes in investing in new technology and as recently invested over £4m in new machinery, making it one of the most technically advanced printers in the UK.

While the cider market may have suffered in recent years, Aston Manor Cider continues to enjoy growing success and is set to look to new markets in the near future. “UK cider sales have fallen in the last two years and whilst we’re not immune to prevailing market conditions, Aston Manor is doing better than the category as a whole. Though cider has declined as a total category there continues to be opportunities for growth, especially within the premium cider sector which as a category is experiencing the strongest rate of growth,” Gordon concludes. “Whilst the drinks industry will remain very challenging, we anticipate that we will continue to outperform the market over the next 12 months. We’re pleased with how we have improved the mix of business we do and that we are able to invest to support the future success we expect to see at home and abroad.” D www.astonmanor.co.uk

Innovative Bites Ltd

The US of Ate

Innovative Bites Ltd is a leading supplier, distributor and wholesaler of confectionary and grocery products that specialises in the import and distribution of American food brands

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ounded in 2008, American food wholesaler Innovative Bites has witnessed significant growth and established a deep-rooted culture of success based on winning products and industry-leading customer service. Discussing the progression of Innovative Bites from a company with a turnover of £100,000 in 2010 to an organisation with a group revenue of £55 million in 2015, Vishal Madhu, Founder and Managing Director of Innovative Bites Ltd, begins: “Although the business was incorporated in 2008, no trading happened until August 2010. We have come a long way since our inception as we began operations with one major customer before seeing a gap in the market for American food brands; since then the business has doubled year-on-year.”

He continues: “Of course American products have always been available in the UK, however because their place within the market was niche or high end, products were sold in places such as Selfridges at expensive prices. If you didn’t have the money you couldn’t enjoy these products, but we believed food shouldn’t be expensive and found a way to make American food affordable and sustainable for all customer bases.

The first retailer we worked with was Amazon and we were selling 1,400 products to this retailer; from there we worked with Tesco, Waitrose, Morrison’s and Sainsbury’s to name a few. All of these stores have an American range that we are a major supplier of. We have made products such as Lucky Charms available to customers now for £5 instead of £10 when they first came to market and thus made these

fun, exciting items more accessible; this development drove the market up and resulted in Innovative Bites surpassing the turnover of competitors that have been in the business for the last 18 years.”

Diverse products Having rocked the American market with its low prices, consistency of products and distribution into the UK and Europe’s markets, the company imports over 700 containers a year that carry more than 1400 lines. Proud distributors of key core American brands such as Hostess, Warheads, Cookie Dough Bites, Boylan’s, Ortega, Mega Marshmallows, Herr’s and New York Style chips, Innovative Bites is able to meet the continued growth in demand for its confectionary products.

Providing more detail on the diverse range of products available is the company’s website, which has divided

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Innovative Bites Ltd Global Container Services Global Container Services are specialists in customs clearance, freight forwarding and international logistics solutions for the food market.

Our experience, flexibility and knowledge, matched by our attentive personal service, ensures the smooth flow of imported and exported goods enabling you to concentrate on your core business. Our team of dedicated customs clearance professionals will tailor a solution to meet your needs – whatever its scale or complexity may be.

With over 100 agents covering 49 countries, we have the local presence worldwide to expedite the movement of your goods in the quickest and most efficient way possible.

American foods into different segments; these include American breakfast, American soft drinks, American lip balm, American spreads, American snacks, American confectionary, American syrup/toppings, American general groceries and American desserts. Within the confectionary segment, the company offers products from major brands such as Butterfinger, Flipz, M&M’s, Goobers and Tootsie Roll.

Focus on innovation In addition to supplying customers with established American brands, Innovative Bites has also developed its own Mega Marshmallows product, available in sizes of 700 grams and 400 grams bags under the brand Baking Buddy. Aware that the development of its own brands will result in independence and stronger control over the progression of Innovative Bites, Vishal comments: “Should a major manufacturer in the US decide to not bring a product to the UK any more, that would be a big hit to the business; this isn’t something we want so we are focusing tremendously on ensuring we have the right product base to launch.

One great thing about the US is that innovation is a big deal and it is also very good at launching new products; if we focus on that innovation and bring

Palletways London Palletways London, part of Palletways, Europe’s largest and fastest growing express palletised freight network, is the main logistics provider for Innovative Bites, delivering 7,500 pallets annually to shops, supermarkets, remote distribution centres and hotels. Innovative Bites benefits from Palletways’ industry-leading technology which enables them to track and trace all deliveries. Palletways London works with some of the UK’s finest food brands including Amigo Foods, L’Aquila, Sun & Seed, Tiana Fair Trade Organics and Wild Harvest. This experience means Palletways is well equipped to handle large swings in volume quickly and efficiently.

these products into Europe without GMO, artificial dye or colours, we would be providing customers with a much cleaner product, and who wouldn’t want that?”

As growth in demand has continued for the supply of American snack and confectionary products, the company made the strategic decision to acquire Bonds of London, one of the UK’s oldest sweet businesses; a development that is the first step in the company’s long-term plan to become the UK’s leading confectionary supplier. “The acquisition of Bonds of London was a strategic step to grow the company’s turnover,” says Vishal. “We have grown our business over the last few years, but a lot of the products we sell are produced by the same manufacturers such as Kellogg’s, Mars and Nestle.

Furthermore, some manufacturers are non-existent in Europe, but if they see this market develop these manufacturers will see opportunities to expand here. We need to sustain our business in the long-run and to do this we will change the direction of the business from trading to a business of our own brand; this is the drive behind the acquisition of Bonds of London.”

Powerful combination With the acquisition complete in April 2016, Innovative Bites benefits from the lack of common customers between the two firms, which will enable the company to significantly expand its customer base. “We have cross trade now, which makes us a stronger operator with connections to 17,200 retail points across the UK and Ireland; the synergies are huge for the

business,” highlights Vishal. “There is still a lot of ongoing integration between the two companies however we are working together to streamline processes to bring the synergies together so we aren’t distributing from two hubs. To ensure we have the level of space we need to have all operations under one roof we have acquired a new 105,000 square foot site in Dunstable; this complements our 46,000 square foot site in Nottingham where we develop packaging and create bespoke products and packaging for items such as confectionary. With this investment we now have more than 150,000 square feet of space to grow from.”

With the company targeting increased turnovers in 2016 and beyond, these new purpose-built premises will enable the business to operate more efficiently and improve its offering to customers – not only with products from America, but also from the UK. Having created a powerful combination of products, Innovative Bites is preparing for the next phase in its already highly successful history.

“The top priority for us is to ensure the integration phase is completed correctly and that we have the right people in place for this development to be completed smoothly. Once this phase is over we have a number of options for continued growth; we could acquire another business or expand our own product line. Why just focus on confectionary? We could do snacks or soft drinks, we could do anything as long as we have the right thought process behind our decisions,” concludes Vishal. D www.americanwholesale.co.uk

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Mooving with the times

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Multi-award winning family orientated business Cotteswold Dairy has achieved recognition in the industry for its high quality dairy and other fresh produce

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ounded in 1938 by Harry Workman, Cotteswold Dairy Ltd began operating with a 30-gallon a day milk round.

From these humble beginnings the company grew over the years thanks to Harry’s commitment to high quality, customer service and family values.

Today in its third generation, Cotteswold Dairy continues to have these values at the forefront of all business activities, a tradition that has resulted in a thriving, independent family orientated and owned dairy that processes approximately 100 million litres per annum.

“Before my grandfather started at the dairy he worked for the International Stores, where there was a policy for real service to customers and high quality products. He built the company on what he learnt there as well as family values, which is something we have continued over the years and view as a major strength. We are still very much traditional and focus on providing what our customer’s require, whether that is in a specific format for example,” says George Workman, Managing Director.

Providing an overview of the company’s portfolio, George continues: “Today our product range includes various liquid milks and cream; these include conventional milk and Channel Island milk, which is from the Jersey and

Guernsey breed of cow, that is richer in flavour and has a lovely golden colour as carotene is naturally in it. We also process organic milk, which is produced on farms without the use of artificial fertilisers or sprays, Welsh milk from Welsh farms and have just launched a free range milk which carries the Pasture Promise logo; which means it only comes from dairy farms where cows are given the freedom to graze in fields for at least six months of the year. In addition we also offer specialist dairy products such as clotted cream, crème fraîche and Greek style yogurts, all made from the Jersey milk under our Upper Norton Jersey brand.’’

This focus on quality has not gone unnoticed in the industry, with Cotteswold Dairy receiving a number of awards over recent years. In 2016 the company won multiple Great Taste Awards for its products, with the Upper Norton Greek Style Yogurt being awarded the prestigious three star Award, while the Upper Norton Clotted Cream and free range whole milk were awarded one star.

Key to delivering high quality products is the company’s commitment to sustainability, which includes working with 50 farmers who operate to the Red Tractor Farm Assurance scheme. Representing quality food that can be trusted, the Red Tractor

Cotteswold Dairy logo ensures strict governance when it comes to regulations for food safety and traceability, animal welfare and environmental protection. “We also seek to improve and meet targets on recycling and reducing our carbon footprint,” says George. “We still provide a doorstep delivery servicewhereby a glass bottle will do on average 25 to 30 delivery trips, the majority of which is delivered on environmentally friendly electric milk floats; this vehicle was way before its time and was one of the pioneers of electric vehicles.”

Complementing Cotteswold Dairy’s headquarters are its three depots that have been set up in order to get products to a wider range of customers.

The North Wales depot supplies Welsh milk packed under the Dragon brand; The Shrewsbury depot serves mid Wales with the Dragon brand as well as Shropshire and the surrounding area with its Cotteswold milk and products;

the Cheltenham depot, is dedicated to the doorstep delivery service.

Cotteswold Dairy provides multi sector coverage to Doorstep, Bottle milk Buyers, Foodservice, Retail and Wholesale. Its Tewkesbury site provides daily deliveries, serving an 180 mile radius. In addition to dairy products, the company also offers customers an extensive range of other products such as fruit juices, bottled waters, and breads.

While business remains positive, George says Cotteswold Dairy is keen to remain at the forefront of the dairy industry by moving forward with a 15 year masterplan of its eight acre site: “There are seven stages of which we have just completed the first which is the creation of a new lorry park that adjoins our site. The next stage is to produce a cold store extension and other facilities which will free up additional production space. Once the first two stages are complete we will be able to double our current capacity.

“We are looking to continuously improve what we are doing by becoming more efficient and lean while also endorsing our quality, service and family values. Over the coming years we will also be looking at improving the products and services we provide while also seeking opportunities to expand our presence into new sectors,” George concludes. D www.cotteswold-dairy.co.uk

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FoodChain The business of food and drink

Schofield Publishing Ltd

10 Cringleford Business Centre Intwood Road l Cringleford l Norwich l NR4 6AU T: +44 (0)1603 274130 | F: +44 (0)1603 274131 Editor Libbie Hammond libbie@schofieldpublishing.co.uk Sales Director Joe Woolsgrove jwoolsgrove@schofieldpublishing.co.uk Sales Rob Wagner rwagner@schofieldpublishing.co.uk

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