FoodChain Issue 134 February 2018

FoodChain Issue 134

l

FEB 2018

The business of food and drink

Tapping into

the

market

The pioneer of premium wine on tap, Free Flow Wines, is now setting its sights on another innovation – wine in cans

Industry News Change for the better Why hospitality companies need to keep their brands fresh and vibrant

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New non-alcoholic botanical blends from ROCKTAILS

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Malcolm the Cat returns for Young’s Seafood adverts

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Cepac creates new packaging for Hernö Gin

Trend setters Keeping up with food trends requires intensive research and development

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09/10/2017 16:01

FoodChain ISSUE 134 L FEB 2018

THE BUSINESS OF FOOD AND DRINK

Editor’s Welcome

Tapping into

the

market

The pioneer of premium wine on tap, Free Flow Wines, is now setting its sights on another innovation – wine in cans

Industry News L New

Change for the better Why hospitality companies need to keep their brands fresh and vibrant

non-alcoholic botanical blends from ROCKTAILS

L Malcolm

the Cat returns for Young’s Seafood adverts

L Cepac

creates new packaging for Hernö Gin

Trend setters Keeping up with food trends requires intensive research and development

Chairman Andrew Schofield Managing Director Joe Woolsgrove

Global stories

Editor Libbie Hammond Assistant Editor Will Daynes Art Editor Fleur Daniels Advertising Design Fiona Jolliffe Sales Mark Cawston Tim Eakins Darren Jolliffe Dave King Theresa McDonald Rob Wagner Web Sales Darren Jolliffe Operations Director Philip Monument Editorial Researchers Alasdair Gamble Natalie Griffiths Kate Jones Wendy Russell Office Manager Advertising Administrator Tracy Chynoweth

I

am very pleased to be welcoming the East of England Co-op back to our pages – FoodChain and many of the UK’s Co-ops have developed a very rewarding relationship over the years and it’s always a pleasure to share their news and

stories. This issue reports on the launch of an interesting new campaign by the East of England Co-op aimed at reducing food waste – for more details of this innovative scheme called ‘The Co-op Guide to Dating’ see page 34.

We’ve also got some stories from further afield too – Scooter’s Coffee and Free Flow Wines from the USA, Massy Distribution from Guyana and Svenska Retursystem from Sweden to name a few, and I am excited for us to be looking around the globe for companies in the future. Do get in touch if you’d like to be included!

Follow us at:

@FoodChain_mag

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

libbie@schofieldpublishing.co.uk

© 2018 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

15 8 11

Features Refurbishment and rebranding 4 Change for the better In the hotels sector, the need to constantly update and refresh restaurants, rooms and facilities is ever-present

Hand hygiene Why it’s time to bin the bulk

News

10

Taste Test

16

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

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

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Why sealed cartridge dispensers are safer and more convenient than their bulk counterparts, and save time and money

R&D Trend setters

12

Will Daynes reports on why research and development is so essential to today’s food and beverage manufacturers

Fruit and vegetables Sprouting up

15

2018 will see some home growing food trends, including greenhouses, plant tech, vertical growing and an indoor revolution

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19

38

24 44 Profiles

48

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

Svenska Retursystem AB

19

Kiwa Agri Food

54

Scooter’s Coffee

24

Massy Distribution (Guyana) Inc.

56

Westons Cider

28

Magnolia Bakery

62

East of England Co-op

34

AccorHotels

68

Free Flow Wines LLC

38

Bistrot Pierre

76

Muntons Plc

41

Big Bite

80

Southern Proper Hospitality

44

Harvey’s Brewery

84

Port of Hanstholm

88

The system developed by Svenska Retursystem is based on durable crates and pallets made from recyclable plastic

Since the franchise model was introduced in 2002, Scooter’s Coffee operating stores’ tally has reached 175 locations

A leading, quality cider producer in the marketplace, Westons Cider has exciting export plans for 2018

An East of England Co-op scheme aimed at reducing food waste has already been embraced by customers

Free Flow Wines is helping to revolutionise the wine market with its stainless steel keg technology

Malt and malted ingredients expert Muntons is seeing a period of unprecedented investment into equipment

Providing a great value, excellent customer experience is at the heart of Southern Proper Hospitality’s operations

Konva

Greek seafood producer Konva is launching new products to capture the imagination of the export market

Lutti

Describing itself as a ‘Fizz, Fresh & Fun’ quality provider, sweet manufacturer Lutti continues to create surprising new treats

European food product certifier Kiwa Agri Food has ambitions to target the North American market in 2018

Massy Distribution (Guyana) Inc. is engaged in the distribution of food, pharmaceutical products as well as equipment and spare parts

With a brand name familiar to a wide audience, Magnolia Bakery now has its eye fixed on global success

AccorHotels’ programme of expansion has cemented its intention to be a leader in the luxury and upscale hospitality sector

Since it founded in 1994, Bistrot Pierre has expanded and now has 22 restaurants across Britain

Norwegian sandwich and sub chain Big Bite provides fresh, personalised food for its customers, with a focus on the best quality bread

Harvey’s Brewery is set to enter 2018 with a new look, and a passion and drive to deliver outstanding products

48

This year is going to see a massive expansion project at the Port of Hanstholm, allowing for bigger vessels and more customers

52

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Change

for the better

As the old saying goes, ‘Time waits for no man’. This is also true for the hospitality industry where the need for regular refurbishment and rebranding is all the more important in an increasingly competitive world.

By Will Daynes 4 www.foodchainmagazine.com

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here was a time, not too distant in the memory, when activities like dining out or short break hotel visits were very much limited to special occasions for the vast majority of the population. Today, such events are increasingly becoming part of everyday life and this is helping to fuel growth across the hospitality sector, which contributes over £140 billion towards the UK’s annual GDP. With British households estimated to spend approximately £45.10 on restaurants and hotels per week, competition is understandably becoming more intense. In order to stay as relevant as possible, hospitality businesses need

to be constantly alert to shifts in the market and respond quickly. One of the ways they do so is through rebranding/ refurbishment and by embracing the concept of brand evolution. While the former helps to create a fresh identity in consumers’ minds, the latter involves smaller changes through incremental innovations that reflect evolving market conditions, for instance the updating of menus to fall in line with the latest food and drink trends.

“In order to successfully navigate changing consumer mind-sets, one’s business branding needs to evolve with them, while at the same time remaining loyal to its core values so it endures. This

Refurbishment and rebranding Wolfscastle Country Hotel

Roof Terrace Deansgate View

The Rise at The Grand Hotel & Spa York

signals to customers and stakeholders that your business is moving forward,” explains Philip Harrison, President and Managing Director of Harrison, one of the world’s leading hospitality concept creation consultancies.

It is Philip’s recommendation that not only should hotels, restaurants and bars assess their brand and whether it meets market needs annually, but that, every two years, changes should be made, however small, in order to remain relevant. Having recently rebranded his own business, Philip has identified a number of key tips that he believes represents the ‘dos and don’ts’ of rebranding and brand evolution.

These tips include: l l l

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Building a strong foundation Responding to customer aspirations Considering all customer touchpoints Maturing with ones’ customers Avoiding unnecessary technology Recruiting and retaining talented employees Not rebranding for the sake of it

Embracing your past “The luxury travel market is thriving and it is vital to provide the best possible experience for ones’ guests,” states Philip Bolson, General Manager of The Grand Hotel & Spa, York,

Yorkshire’s only AA-rated five-star hotel. “It would be simple for us to rest on our laurels and rely on our beautiful Edwardian building and iconic location to attract visitors, however we are keen to uphold our five-star status and to continue to improve the guest experience where possible. Guest demand is ever-changing, and it is our job in the tourism sector to anticipate and respond to this – or risk being left behind.”

Spurred on by a desire to bring additional options to York’s already diverse range of dining and leisure options, The Grand Hotel & Spa, York is currently in the midst of a

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two year, £15 million refurbishment programme. Work has included the launching of a brand-new, Yorkshire tapas-style restaurant, The Rise, and the re-opening of its three-AA-Rosette fine dining establishment, Hudson’s

by Craig Atchinson. As a result of careful expansion work, the hotel will also benefit from the addition of 100 new luxury bedrooms, opening in early 2018. Upon completion, the development will double the number of five-star rooms in York, generating an additional £1.7 million of annual visitor expenditure for the local economy.

“For any hotel, expanding one’s facilities is a challenge, but with The Grand Hotel & Spa, York being set within an iconic Edwardian building we have to ensure that the new areas feel just as opulent as the pre-existing structure,” Philip continues. “When it comes to this programme, every step has been carefully taken to complement our home. For instance, when it comes to The Rise, its décor pays homage to the building’s history, including a press

Philip Bolson, General Manager, The Grand Hotel & Spa

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The Grand new guest room

tin ceiling, dark stained oak panelling and, as a nod to its original resident, the North Eastern Railway, a locomotiveinspired black steel bar front.”

The aim of the refurbishment programme being undertaken by The Grand Hotel & Spa, York, is to welcome global tourists and local visitors alike to one of the city’s newest culinary destinations, and the addition of The Rise has already seen an entirely new demographic walk through its doors.

Evolving with the times

The Grand new bathroom

“It is important to adapt as customers’ needs change and as the local environment evolves,” comments Moya Ball, Managing Director of Artisan Investment Group. It is Moya’s company that owns, and successfully developed, The Ainscow Hotel & Spa in Salford.

The building itself dates back to 1876 and, having immediately recognised its restoration potential, the hotel opened in August 2014. Since then it has been renovated sympathetically and today boasts 62 individually designed

Refurbishment and rebranding bedrooms, complete with locally sourced bespoke furniture.

Further developments to have occurred within The Ainscow’s grounds since the summer of 2014 have included the launching of Manchester’s only Cryotherapy UK spa, additional function spaces to complement its obtaining of a wedding licence and the inclusion of new meeting spaces.

The latter has proven to be a highly astute move that has allowed the hotel to capitalise on the rocketing demand emanating from Manchester’s main business district, Spinningfields, which it sits on the edge of.

Logistically however, the biggest challenge for the hotel came in the form of its addition of a contemporary new culinary destination, The Lynwood Restaurant and Lounge. Introducing the restaurant required the hotel building to be extended upward, adding strain to its existing, historical structure. Careful planning and execution has resulted in the incorporation of what is today a highly successful restaurant with stunning views, serving a seasonal and locally sourced menu.

“As an experienced property development company with a particular interest in brownfield sites, our refurbishments are always sympathetic to the original building’s make-up,” Moya notes. “The Ainscow project proved to be no different, in that we worked hard to successfully retain the building’s original, much loved features, while also being able to provide some nice additional nods to Manchester, such as the gooseneck lamps that feature in all of our rooms, which our guests have responded very positively too indeed.”

Already recognised throughout Pembrokeshire, and beyond, for the quality of its modern-styled food, and its ability to host lavish weddings and banquets, Wolfscastle Country Hotel’s continual push towards underlining its status as an exclusive five-star hotel and staying one step ahead of its competition has seen it introducing a spa into its portfolio.

“Our spa has been a perfect addition to what we have always aspired to be,” Andrew professes. “We see ourselves as a quality boutique hotel offering great food, service and a friendly, welcoming atmosphere, and we have now added to this by offering first-class spa treatments. We have since been delighted with the fantastic response we have had from our customers and now look forward to enhancing the spa experience on offer with the addition of a Jacuzzi and sauna in 2018.”

When it comes to identifying the best course of action for embarking on a programme of refurbishment or rebranding, Andrew perfectly sums up the secret that he and his peers have become so adept at understanding.

“The art is in listening,” he declares.

“Refurbishment work is regularly led by the customer. If you stop to ask your guests what area of the hotel they would like to see upgraded it can often by different to your own perception. At the end of the day, it is the customer that you are there to serve, so listening to them is vital!” D

www.wolfscastle.com www.harrison.hn www.thegrandyork.co.uk www.aig-ltd.co.uk

Listen and learn “You cannot afford to stand still in the hospitality industry,” correctly states Andrew Stirling, owner of Wolfscastle Country Hotel, one of Wales’ leading hotels and restaurants. “If no refurbishments or renovations take place over a two-year period, it is often the perception that specific hotels or inns are in decline. That is part of the reason why consistent improvements have always been a key factor for us.”

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Why it’s time to bin the bulk

Refillable reservoir dispensers used to be the standard way to provide soap in washrooms – and many companies in the food manufacturing sector continue to hold on to these so-called bulk systems. Paul Jakeway explains that there are inherent risks of bacterial contamination with these dispensers, making sealed cartridge dispensers the safer, more efficient choice

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here used to be nothing but bulk. Soap dispensers holding their product in a refillable reservoir were the only alternative to a bar of soap or a lotion from a bottle. For good reasons: bulk dispensers left less mess than bar soaps and were inexpensive. This made them a natural choice for health and safety/facility managers in the food manufacturing sector too. But budget-driven decisions in favour of bulk systems did not always take into a consideration an issue that we now recognise as extremely problematic: bacterial contamination.

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Bulk systems are ‘open’: because they are not sealed they are potentially vulnerable to contamination from the environment (bacteria fungi or moulds), or from the hands of the person refilling the system and handling the dispenser.

The widely-applied practice of ‘topping off’ dispensers – refilling them before they have been emptied out completely and cleaned properly – means that the old soap in the reservoir, which may have been contaminated by germs, can cause the new soap to be contaminated.

And even where the equipment is cleaned frequently, using aggressive products such as bleach, researchers

Hand hygiene have identified a high risk of recontamination, due to biofilms – microorganisms that stick to each other and adhere to surfaces.

Extensive research leaves no doubt about the seriousness of the problem: in one study, 25 per cent of bulk dispensers were found to be excessively contaminated. A separate study, conducted in Japan, found no fewer than 17 different types of bacteria in soaps that came from bulk dispensers. Further research came to the conclusion that bulk dispensers can leave hands with 25 times more bacteria after washing.

Shockingly, experts have linked the use of bulk dispensers to infection outbreaks in healthcare settings. They might be easy to refill and inexpensive, but they are most certainly not the hygienic, safe choice.

Better solutions are widely available.

Sealed dispenser systems are ‘closed’: they are refilled by inserting into the dispenser a sealed cartridge of soap.

There is no contact between the product and the environment before the product is being used to wash hands. The risk of contamination is reduced to a minimum.

In the study ‘Bacterial Hand Contamination and Transfer after Use of Contaminated Bulk-Soap-Refillable Dispensers’ the authors come to the conclusion that ‘extrinsic contamination of hand soap can be eliminated or considerably reduced through the use of sealed-soap-dispensing systems’.

In contrast to the often messy re-filling procedure of bulk dispensers, sealed cartridges are quick and easy to change.

Spills are no longer an issue, and sealed

cartridge dispensers require minimal cleaning. Maintenance is extremely low – saving both time and money.

Multiple benefits Modern dispensers have been designed to deliver exactly the right amount of a specific product at any given time – whereas bulk dispensers tend to deliver the same quantity whatever product they are filled with. This alone makes sealed cartridge dispensers the more economical option.

What’s more: sealed cartridge dispensers make it possible to use highly effective foam soaps instead of lotion products. Less foam soap is needed compared to lotion soap, with a standard one-litre cartridge yielding over 1400 hand washes.

Foam soaps can also contribute to significant water and energy savings. It has been estimated that their use can reduce water consumption by up to 45 per cent. A range of foam formulations also carry the European Union Ecolabel Certificate, which means that they are considered to carry a reduced environmental impact, whilst retaining their primary purpose of being effective and pleasant to use.

Using less product also means that the amount of packaging waste is reduced. Unlike bulk systems, which, thanks to frequent opening and cleaning requirements, could break easily, many sealed cartridge dispensers are built to last, with some manufacturers offering a guarantee for life.

There are aesthetic considerations too: some manufacturers offer customers the

opportunity to customise the equipment according to their individual wishes.

Organisations can incorporate texts and logos, furthering their brand identity in an unusual location.

A stylish, easy to use, clean sealed cartridge dispenser system can also make a significant contribution to increasing hand hygiene compliance.

Washroom users are much more likely to wash their hands with soap if the product is available from pleasant looking, clean and tidy dispensing systems.

To further this, skin care experts can offer training and education materials.

When should hands be washed, and what is the correct technique? Experts can also provide health and safety/facility managers with advice on which products to choose for a particular environment.

Stylish-looking, efficient, and both easy to use and maintain – sealed cartridge dispensers are safer and more hygienic than their bulk counterparts; they minimise the risk of bacterial contamination and help to prevent infections; they save companies time and money; and they ease the burden on the environment. If you take all these advantages together, they really make bulk dispensers look like a relic from a by-gone era - it’s time to bin them. D (For a list of sources for research in this article, please email the editor).

Paul Jakeway is Marketing Director at skin care expert Deb. For over 80 years, Deb Group has been establishing skin care regimes for all types of workplace and public environments, spanning industrial, automotive, healthcare, commercial, hotels, restaurants, catering and leisure, food manufacturing and retail sectors. Drawing on deep technical expertise and extensive field sales support, Deb provides employers with innovative skin care programmes that maximise employee participation through carefully devised, reliable skin care systems, supported by quality products that are both pleasant-touse and cost effective. www.debgroup.com/uk

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IndustryNews Rocking onto the shelves Craft drinks specialist ROCKTAILS has unveiled the first lightly sparkling botanical blend in its range, ‘The Citrus Spritz’ with design from B&B studio. Made using the finest distilled botanicals, ROCKTAILS represent a fresh, sophisticated approach to alcohol-free drinks. B&B studio has introduced a refined yet characterful brand identity to reflect the quality of the drink, craft of the steamdistillation process and character of the flavour.

Chris Yandell, Founder of ROCKTAILS, explained: “This brand identity reflects our considered yet characterful personality and allows people to fit in with those alcohol moments when choosing to drink less. B&B has captured this perfectly in the new identity, using the language of alcohol to create a refined brand that communicates the complex and crafted taste experience of our botanical blends.” www.rocktails.co.uk

Thinking out of the bag No More Teabags has undergone a re-brand to better reflect the quality and provenance of its teas. One of the most talked about drinks brands of the last 18 months, No More Teabags’ owner Guy Woodall, felt everyone understood the convenience that his products offer, but not the high quality. He explained what sets No More Teabags apart: “We use loose leaf tea to give a finer flavour and higher quality end product. Our Earl Grey uses natural Bergamot oil, and our Jasmine tea uses a green tea which is flavoured during the curing process with fresh jasmine flowers.”

No More Teabags also has exemplary green credentials, as its used tea leaves are composted and spread on its own organic farm at Leatherhead in Surrey.

The aluminium cans are fully recyclable and the recovered aluminium is as good as new.

It is these prominent USPs that Guy hopes are captured in the re-design, which gives the brand a more boutique feel, closer to that traditionally seen with loose leaf teas, and a more natural look in keeping with No More Teabags’ environmental aspirations. www.nomoreteabags.com

Fine fish Young’s Seafood Limited, the UK’s number one fish and seafood company, is investing heavily in the frozen fish category with its biggest ever advertising campaign. The £5 million-pound campaign began with Gastro TV advertising and, in a first for Young’s, a six-month TV sponsorship on UKTV’s Drama channel.

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Young’s brand ambassador, Malcolm the Cat (voiced by award-winning English actor Rupert Everett) returned to TV screens nationwide as he featured in two new adverts promoting Young’s top selling Gastro Basa lines. The adverts also introduced new Gastro Tempura Battered Chunky Fish Fingers and Gastro Sweet Chilli Marinated Basa fillets.

The brand will also be broadening its national advertising campaign by ‘sponsoring captivating moments’ on UKTV’s Drama channel. The six-month sponsorship will see a series of bumper idents showcasing ten of the best-selling Young’s skus, several of which have not previously been advertised on TV. www.youngsseafood.co.uk

IndustryNews Shelf appeal Crowned the World’s Best Gin & Tonic in 2016 by IWSC, Hernö Gin has turned to Cepac, the UK’s leading independent corrugated packaging producer to provide an eye-catching gift pack using its Arcwise range.

As Steve Moss, Group Sales and Marketing Director at Cepac, explained, the Arcwise range has been a hit with FMCG customers such as Hernö Gin as they look for shelf appeal. “The design and graphics options as well as the rigidity and strength properties of the range make it ideal for drinks brands in particular,” he said.

Cepac holds the UK rights to the innovative curved corrugated Arcwise range which offers exceptional printing and cutting solutions not possible with conventional packs. By curving the pack seamlessly, Cepac can digitally print high quality graphics without warping or dead corner space. There was the added challenge of protecting the contents of the pack from damage in transit.

“We’ve had great feedback from our customers on the packaging,” noted Maria Åman, Head of Communications at Hernö Gin. “People have told us how different the

Mayo with a heart shape, look and feel of the pack is and that the rope that has been integrated into the design is both striking visually and practical.

“As the market for gin in the UK and Europe continues to grow and more and more competitors enter the space, it’s critical to stand out from the crowd. By partnering with Cepac, we’ve certainly been able to do that with our gift set.” www.cepac.co.uk www.hernogin.com www.arcwise.se

The foods on the menu in 2018 EHL Ingredients predicts that vegan and gluten-free food ingredients are set to dominate menus and supermarket shelves in 2018 as consumers diversify their eating habits to suit modern lifestyles, diets and fitness, and healthy eating trends. In addition, pomegranate molasses (a great replacement for balsamic vinegar or soy sauce), spice blends and pastes such as harissa and sumac, edible flowers including lavender, rose, and violets, and authentic Hawaiian flavours using the right herb and spice blends, oils, sauces and seeds are all set to whet consumers’ appetites this year.

According to Tasneem Backhouse, joint managing director at EHL Ingredients, 2018 looks set to bring more exciting food trends as tastes and preferences develop. “Social media influencers, bloggers, health and fitness enthusiasts, and celebrity chefs play a huge role in encouraging consumers to follow certain diets and food trends,” she explained.

“The vegan and gluten-free markets are

Tasneem Backhouse

growing and they really present an opportunity for us, and for the food industry as a whole, so we are working hard to source and develop ingredients to ensure those adhering to these diets don’t have to compromise on flavour.

“We’re always looking out for the next big food trend and our new product development team is constantly working on sourcing new ingredients and developing new herb and spice blends to suit the ever-changing tastes and preferences of British consumers.

“Retailers, brands and food manufacturers can capitalise on these emergent trends to ensure they are meeting demand and making products more readily available, increasing convenience and choice for consumers in 2018 and beyond.” www.ehl-ingredients.co.uk

Gourmet condiments manufacturer Rubies in the Rubble has launched two new inventive mayonnaises– Aquafaba Mayo and Chipotle Mayo.

For the uninitiated, aquafaba is the water drained from a can of chickpeas (or the by product from the cooking of legumes) which most of us wouldn’t think to reuse, but which mimics the effect of egg whites. Rubies whisks it together with rapeseed oil, a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon juice along with a hint of Dijon mustard - or a good dose of Chipotle chilli powder to create delicious vegan mayonnaise, with all the satisfying creaminess and texture of regular mayo.

Co-Founder of Rubies in the Rubble, Jenny Costa comments of the new launch: “We were inspired after we saw a vegan foodie blogger making gorgeous looking meringue with aquafaba, saying it performed just like egg whites. Mayo is such a widely-used staple, so it seemed like a brilliant opportunity to create something gourmet for vegans and non-vegans who appreciate our sustainable approach. Currently we source our aquafaba from a hummus manufacturer.”

Key to the Rubies story is their belief that all good food should be cherished, Rubies works directly with UK farmers to source fresh fruit and veg from surplus produce. Jenny comments: “I knew it was about much more than just making delicioustasting preserves, I wanted to create a solution to food waste and, with every jar I made, raise awareness about the need to value our food supply.” www.rubiesintherubble.com

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Trend setters

Food and drink trends seem to change as rapidly as the tides in today’s market.

In such a climate, it has become all the more important that a company’s R&D capabilities are up to the task.

By Will Daynes 12 www.foodchainmagazine.com

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he Oxford English Dictionary defines the word ‘trend’ as meaning, ‘a general direction in which something is developing or changing’, and secondly as being another term for ‘a fashion’. The latter of these pops up again when discussing changing tastes in the food and drink industry with Jane Milton, Chief Inspiration Officer for the Food & Drink Innovation

Network (FDIN). “The speed of change experienced within the food industry can definitely be seen as being comparable to that of the fashion world, with new product constantly being introduced quickly in response to trends,” she states.

What with an estimated 2.46 billion people around the world having regular access to social media, sites such as Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram

R&D Bioenergy and Brewing Science Building home to Food Innovation Centre at the University of Nottingham’s Sutton Bonington campus

have helped play their part in ensuring that people see new things faster than ever, thus allowing trends to be adopted quicker. This, as Richard Worrall, Head of Projects at the Food Innovation Centre, which is based at The University of Nottingham, is only a piece of the puzzle however. “All manner of things can help to shape trends,” he explains. “These can include media influence, celebrity

culture, changes in lifestyle, and a greater awareness of health issues.

“To provide you with an example, we have witnessed the demand for free-from food, including gluten-free, meat-free and vegan items, increase dramatically. This comes at a time when consumers are more interested in healthy food, as well as the provenance of what they eat. At the same time, we have also seen more focus being paid to new sources of nutrition, with manufacturers looking at concepts such as alternative proteins.”

Similar trends have been witnessed by those within the FDIN. “During 2017, we saw plant-based food being welcomed across all sectors, particularly as more consumers begin

Lucy describes. “Sugar is not only responsible for sweetness, it also acts as a multifunctional ingredient, including being an anti-freezing agent in ice cream, and providing texture to chocolate and browning to baked goods.

Our experience to date shows that there is no single, universal solution that can replace added sugar. Our efforts therefore are targeted at standardised sugar replacement solutions for each application area.”

Richard and Jane’s own work has gone to great lengths to highlight how having strong R&D capabilities is vital for competitive purposes in an increasingly busy market. “How businesses conduct R&D, and how much resource they can or need to spend depends on the size of the

to reduce their weekly consumption of animal products,” Jane adds. “At the same time, we have seen the push towards sugar reduction become all the more prevalent over the last year, particularly in light of the impending ‘sugar tax’ being levied by the UK government.”

The issue of sugar reduction is one of immense interest to Lucy Dahlgren, Chief Executive Officer of Bayn Europe Ltd. Founded in 2009 in Stockholm, Sweden, Bayn Europe is an independent formulation developer of cutting edge sugar reduction solutions, with a specific focus on retaining taste, texture and cost-inuse. “All food business models are based on taste, especially when it comes to indulgences,” Lucy reveals.

“The consumer of today is typically concerned with food security, taste, health and cost, and we foresee that big consumer growth areas will head in the direction of products that fulfil these criteria.”

Co-operating with leading food research institutes and scientist all over the world, Bayn Europe is at the forefront of sugar reduction research and central to its work is its R&D team. “Our R&D involves sensory profiling to ensure the taste and master blending formulation is created to compose healthy, low calorie ingredients, while at the same time ensuring texture and taste,”

business, and the value if their brand,” Jane continues. “What we typically find is that small businesses trading locally can afford to test the market with a new product in a fairly informal way. Meanwhile, for larger businesses where there is more reputation risk involved, strict R&D protocols need to be followed to make sure that by the time a product goes to market it is likely to be successful.

“Irrespective of a company’s size, it is important to budget for R&D properly.

This allows you to continue to innovate and adapt existing products, while also reacting to new trends or concerns in the marketplace. The last thing you want as a business is to become unable to be responsive, as your product will quickly run the risk of becoming obsolete.”

Predictions for 2018 suggest that this year will see a continuation of many of the trends to have emerged in 2017, in particular the growing popularity of freefrom foods. “The younger generation of consumers are the ones that we see driving many of the major trends, such as veganism and flexitarianism,” Richard points out. “At the same time, retailers and manufacturers are doing their part to feed such demand by increasing the supply of free-from items and making them more appealing to consumers.” D

www.fdin.org.uk www.nottingham.ac.uk www.bayneurope.com

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Sprouting

What you need to know about food home growing and some trends to look out for in 2018.

By Andy Baxter

up

V

egetarian and vegan lifestyles are growing rapidly, with an increase of 360 per cent in Britons alone choosing the vegan life. With this and supermarket prices constantly rising, people are opting to growing food right in their back garden. It’s convenient, cost effective and a very useful hobby to undertake.

This article looks at what trends are currently hot with home growers and what you can expect in the coming year.

Smart home growing Home growing has been made significantly easier with the help of smartphones and smart technology.

We are now in a time where people can monitor their homes and gardens whilst at work from their phone.

Plant sensors monitor details like moisture levels in the soil, light,

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temperature and soil nutrition. It monitors everything you need to know about the soil your plants are living in. Let’s say the soil looks significantly under-watered you can then use your Wifi Green IQ monitor which is also connected to the wireless water valve to keep everything moist and healthy. It’s a winning combination for easy gardening.

Obviously, you can’t rely on such a system to look after your home growing forever, but whilst you are away or busy it acts as your personal gardening robot! Better yet, you can connect these systems to voice assistants and your phone to command the robots to look after your plants from the comfort of the sofa.

Verdure colour palette Pantone released their annual colour trends and this year saw the hit of the

Fruit and vegetables verdure colour palette. If you want to keep up-to-date and have a fashionable garden whilst growing your produce, then sticking to powerful berry-purples and deep foliage-greens will mean you can stay stylish whilst being practical.

Lavenders are perfect for this and a very practical flower to grow too! They are set to make waves in 2018 among food and drink trends with items like lavender lattes gaining popularity, therefore this purple beauty will allow you to stay ahead of the trends in food infusions and fashion. That’s cost effectiveness.

Greenhouse growth Whilst 2018 might see us embracing the future with smart home growing, it’s important to remember your roots with the trusty greenhouse. Ten great fruit and vegetables you can easily grow in a greenhouse are as follows: l l l l l l l l l l

Peppers Peas Tomatoes Radishes Spinach Cucumber Herbs Grapes Strawberries Chillies

Greenhouses are still considered fashionable for the garden and there is an array of hacks you can do to cut costs and keep your greenhouse running smoothly such as using half 2L drinks bottles to cover growing plants to keep them moist and at the right temperature. As with all gardening it’s key to do your research as every plant is different, there are various informative gardening apps across various app stores or gardening blogs and online communities.

Vertical fashion When you have minimal space, or want to make the most efficient home growing garden you can, the only way is up. Utilising bamboo is on trend and practical when growing certain plants like tomatoes for example.

More and more younger people are utilising spaces in this manner for

urban gardening initiatives to create gardens in the most obscure of places in the concrete jungles that millennials often live in. It’s a plant revolution and allowing plants to sprout upwards in confined spaces is becoming the norm.

Herbal remedies Herbs and spices are a staple when growing at home. Not only can they be grown in small spaces such as on window sills and flat balconettes, but herbs and spices are an easy way to add that extra bit of flair to home cooked meals, with vegetables from the garden of course.

Some home growing herbs and spices that are trending at the moment are basil, mint, tarragon and red chillies. As always, these growers will need specific attention so be sure to research their individual requirements before putting time and effort into your next home growing project!

Indoor revolution Whilst herbs and spices can sometimes be grown inside, there is currently an indoor revolution when it comes to growing plants, especially among young people. 2017 became the year of the pot-plant specifically targeted at ‘generation rent’. Making

for an easy to maintain hobby, young people are establishing themselves as small pot plant experts especially in cosmopolitan plants.

Cacti are set to make a big return in 2018, which is perfect as they are extremely hard to kill and require minimal monitoring - perfect for the lazy gardener! Avid home growers should not overlook the classic aloe vera which has maintained popularity and adds a splash of quirky colour to any dull room.

Huge retailers like IKEA frequently stock aloe vera and they are a great addition to any home growing project due to their versatility. They outgrow pots quickly; however, you can remove parts of the plant and use for treating skin irritation and even to help with digestion! D Andy Baxter is managing director of Internet Gardener.

Internet Gardener is a family run organisation established in 2006.

Experts in the industry, it has risen from grassroots beginnings to become a much loved and trusted supplier of Garden Furniture, BBQs, Muck Boots and much more. www.internetgardener.co.uk

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TasteTest

Golden oil Now available to independent retailers and stockists, Morocco Gold is a single estate, extra virgin olive oil grown and pressed in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains and brought to the UK by a unique British-Moroccan business partnership.

The first Moroccan extra virgin olive oil in the UK market, Morocco Gold is fully traceable and rigorously tested throughout its production to guarantee provenance,

authenticity and extra virgin quality.

Morocco Gold olives are grown using only natural, traditional methods and generations of knowledge, hand-picked early in the season when the fruit is young, then cold pressed within 24 hours of harvest. The oil is pressed by a local co-operative which actively supports schemes to create employment for women in agriculture, which helps to reduce family poverty.

www.morocco-gold.com

“This oil was clearly very high quality just from the outside – the bottle design was sophisticated and the label was eye-catching, with gold embossing.

The oil was a lovely green hue, and had an herby quality as well as a tangy and distinctive flavour, with a hint of fruitiness. I found it a beautiful oil for salad dressings, finishing dishes and dipping for bread with vinegar.”

The coast on the couch Thanks to Harry Ramsden, an authentic, quality seaside supper is no longer restricted to sunny days at the beach and can be achieved in the comfort of your own home.

Found in the freezer aisle of Sainsburys, the Harry Ramsden Large Prime Cod Fillets and Large Prime Haddock Fillets pair prime whole fillets with Harry Ramsden’s signature batter, and if you team them with chips and mushy peas, a restaurant quality meal can be dished up quickly and conveniently.

www.harryramsdens.co.uk

The taster for the Harry Ramsden’s products only likes fish that ‘has no face, fins or skin and is encased a nice batter’ and the cod and haddock passed all these criteria with flying colours. “These were really high quality, from the packaging which had a great seaside feel, right through to the eating – the fish was lovely, crispy batter, nice firm white fish, fresh tasting – excellent work Harry!”

Perfectly popped for peckish people Award-winning popcorn aficionado Metcalfe’s is renowned throughout the UK for its delicious range of popcorn flavours, available in Sharing Bags, Impulse Bags and Multipacks (for dedicated snackers). Metcalfe’s ensures all of its lightly seasoned popcorn offerings are made without artificial flavours and colours, with fewer than 115 calories per serving. Made with the very best butterfly popcorn and popped to be just so, the current range includes the brand new Salted Caramel seasoning, alongside moreish Sweet n’ Salt, savoury Sea Salt (a flavour which benefits youth cancer charity CLIC Sargent) and Stevia-sweetened Cinema Sweet.

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Furthermore, if you thought Metcalfe’s only created popcorn – think again! The revamped range now includes popcorn crisps, rice cakes and even popcorn thins, to ensure that any snack craving can be satisfied with something from Metcalfe’s. www.metcalfesskinny.com

“Just when I thought I’d tried every product in Salted Caramel flavour, the Metcalfe’s skinny arrived,” said our tester. “I couldn’t envision how it could translate to popcorn but Metcalfe’s have pulled it out of the bag on this one – sweet, caramelly, salty, crunchy – the popcorn was totally delish and very, very moreish!”

TasteTest

Continued expansion plans Raw Halo, the award-winning, start-up brand with 12 varieties of raw, organic, refined sugar free chocolate to its name, returned to Crowdcube for the second time in late 2017 to raise investment for its expansion into national supermarkets, continued marketing investment, and new product development.

What makes the brand’s products stand out is their combination of superfoods with rich Peruvian cacao to create six ‘Mylk’ and six Dark healthy twists on chocolate combinations; including Dark Chocolate + Mint, Mylk + Crispies (made from buckwheat) and Dark + Sweet Orange.

For more adventurous tastes, there’s zingy Dark + Lemon and Pink Himalayan Salt, superfood enriched Mylk + Goji Berries and Vanilla and the sultry Dark + Ginger and Pecan. www.rawhalo.com

is lovely; the chocolate is amazing and they are much healthier than ‘normal’ chocolate. What’s not to like!?

“Just seeing the credentials of the bars indicates their high quality – Great Taste Award winner, Soil Association Organic and Vegan certified, plus their stockists now include Booths and Harrods – I think Raw Halo have really captured a trend here and I look forward to seeing what’s next from them.”

Said our tester: “I absolutely loved the Raw Halo bars and I do now look out for them in shops as I think they make superb gifts – the packaging

Loving the unloved fruit Cotchel is a new range of four distinct juices made with apples and pears grown, pressed and bottled on a family farm in Essex. The aim is to give a new lease of life to fruit which is too big, too small or too ugly to be sold. The four flavours, Braeburn (crisp and sharp), Opal (tangy and sweet), Topaz & Evelina (classic apple juice) and Conference, Topaz and Evelina (a more complex apple and pear juice) launched in December in 23 Chelmsford Star Co-operatives and is now available at the Langham Hotel and Eat 17 in London.

Cotchel was founded by third generation farmer, Pete Thompson, who is on a mission to reduce food waste and use all the fruit grown on their farm, no matter what it looks like.

Cotchel apple juice was previously called Tendring Fruit and has been available in a handful of farm shops and independent retailers in East Essex. www.cotchel.uk

“The Opal apple juice is delicious, refreshing with a lovely sweetness to it,” said our tester. “The variety with the added pear juice smells of pear but the flavour is not overpowering in taste and the mellowness of the pear helps to soften the sharpness of the apple juice. The Braeburn juice has a lovely zingy almost citrus kick and proper sharp apple flavour – it was super crisp. I had all of the juices ice cold from the fridge and I believe that really helped to accentuate the flavour and make them all lip-smackingly good!”

Hot and tasty The world’s first hot sauce range based on coconut vinegar has reached UK shores with the new products from Buko (which already has a coconut water and coconut jam range). The sauces include Regular, Tangy and Fiery and look to give consumers ‘all the benefits of coconut vinegar in a tasty and convenient format’.

Director Aled Morris explains that the sauces don’t use the vinegar just because coconuts are in vogue, but because it adds an extra dimension to the sauces. “We’ve used Mother of Vinegar made from eight-month fermented coconut sap in all the sauces, not just for its host of nutritional benefits, but because it also adds a unique sweet tanginess, which makes them stand out from the crowd and gives them an extended versatility, above regular hot sauces. Beyond being used as a simple and tasty condiment, they also add an exotic twist to salad dressings, marinades and sauces.” www.bukofoods.com

The Buko sauces were a big hit with the taste test team, who found the flavours quite complex and interesting, rather than just a blast of heat. “These feel quite authentic to me, with a real Asian pedigree,” said one tester. “The coconut vinegar adds a sweetness, and I love all the health benefits associated with coconut too,” added another. “I tried all three on a range of different dishes, including pizza and in salad dressings, and in fact I found myself reaching for them to add a new dimension to a lot of recipes. I think they’re a very interesting new product!”

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Svenska Retursystem AB

A simple, sustainable idea Svenska Retursystem is responsible for developing and operating an efficient reusable system that has helped to simplify and improve the distribution of goods across Sweden

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or almost 20 consecutive years, the Swedish retail market has enjoyed positive annual growth, fuelled by a steady increase in its population and rising disposable income. A big beneficiary of this growth has been the food and beverage sector, with the country’s inhabitants spending approximately 12 per cent of their household budget on food and drink products, as per industry figures for

Schoeller Allibert Schoeller Allibert has been designing and manufacturing Returnable Transit Packaging (RTP) for over 50 years.

Our sustainable packaging solutions offer efficiency, hygiene and cost savings for the food and food-processing sector, from ingredient supply to retail shelves.

Through highly automated processing, intra-logistics stages and other food preparation robotised systems, our plastic packaging products offer unique and innovative alternatives to traditional methods.

We are striving to help our customers to move towards the ‘circular economy’ by inventing and manufacturing packaging with the minimum quantity of material for a maximised service life.

We also offer our EFSA approved recycling services to optimise resource use and reuse, avoiding waste and maximising the economic value of initial investment in our innovative packaging.

Svenska Retursystem’s Managing Director, Anna Elgh

2014. Those same figures show that the retail trade accounts for around 75 per cent of this expenditure, with the remaining coming from the food service sector.

When it comes to the retail sector, Sweden has long held a reputation for being a hot-spot for innovation and the embracing of new ideas. A prime example of a business that encapsulates these traits is Svenska Retursystem. Owned and operated

by The Trade Association for Grocery of Sweden (SvHD) and the Swedish Food & Drink Retailers Association (DLF), the company was formed in 1997 to facilitate the development of an efficient reusable system for the distribution of goods.

“The unique nature of our ownership structure has helped to provide us with a great degree of stability over the years and has allowed us to take a long-term view of what is a clear mission, and that

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Numafa is a leading global company specialising in industrial cleaning and handling systems. We develop, manufacture, deliver and service cleaning machines for both the food and non-food industry. Our core business lies in the cleaning of crates, pallets and containers to a high capacity, and with full automation across our system.

As an internationally operating company, Numafa is constantly developing its machinery to stay in-line with the demands of the market. These developments are made in different areas to improve our machines, making them more technical (higher capacities, better cleaning), durable (lower energy usage, recycling systems for water and heat, and better ergonomics) and better controlled (management information systems, remote servicing and keeping up with the latest technologies). The above-mentioned improvements result in high capacity handling equipment, centrifugal dryers, optimal label removal equipment, water fine filtration systems and more!

In 2017, we realised part of a 30,000m2 state-of-the-art washing facility, together with Svenska Retursystem. At this plant, we have included all our most recent developments when it comes to cleaning equipment, energy saving and automation. Numafa’s delivery to this system begins with four de-stackers and proceeds to two double track washing systems, both over 40 meters in length with high pressure cleaning modules for label removal.

From there on, the system proceeds to four centrifugal dryers, followed by a bale-arm erecting unit to make sure the crates are stackable. A 3D camera system checks the position of the bale-arms, as well as the cleanliness of the crates (cm² of label residue) and decides if the crate can proceed or not. If the crate can proceed, the crates are stacked up to pallet height and will be moved to the palletising equipment. However, if the crate cannot proceed due to lack of cleanliness, the crate goes to a special 140 bar high pressure cleaning machine where all of the labels are guaranteed to be sprayed off. After this special cleaning process, the crate is brought into the system again in front of the washer. The plant also includes a pallet washing system with a capacity of 400 large or 800 half pallets per hour. This impressive plant currently has the capability to wash approx. 10,000 large crates or approx. 17,000 small crates per hour.

The design of our machines begins with the modular build-up of the machinery. From thereon, industry or product specific options can be added to create a machine suitable for your cleaning, drying and handling needs. Depending on the required capacity to be washed, dried or handled, and the type and amount of soiling, Numafa can provide you with the best solution needed.

Do you have a washing, drying or handling need in your company? Challenge us!

Contact us through www.numafa.com, info@numafa.com or call +31 186 650 850 Or contact one of our Sales Managers, Olaf Andeweg, directly at o.andeweg@numafa.com

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is to work alongside Sweden’s food and beverage supply chain to deliver effective and sustainable distribution solutions,” explains Svenska Retursystem’s Managing Director, Anna Elgh.

“Our first crates were delivered in 2001, and in the time since we have seen tremendous growth. Today we are delivering the same number of crates in a single day that we were in an entire year when we first commenced operations,” Anna adds.

“We have grown to the point where the vast majority of the big players in our industry have specifically developed their automated processes in line with our pallets and crates, meaning that if we are not delivering, the industry grinds to a halt.”

Circular model

Svenska Retursystem AB

The food and beverage industry is becoming evermore reliant of digital technology and our SMART Pooling platform is an important step forward in meeting the evolving demands of our customers Additional benefits of the company’s units include the way that they are designed to protect primary packaging from impacts, thus reducing the amount of scrappage and food waste,

and the fact that the materials they are made from do not generate dust or wood chips, creating a cleaner and healthier working environment. The lightweight nature of the pallets, ten kilograms less than an equivalent Europallet, helps to lower transportation costs, while the use of chemicals that neutralise the pH level of washing water reduces the environmental impact of these activities.

As you can see, the essence of this entire operation is the concept of ‘sustainability’. A life cycle analysis from 2016 revealed that the use of reusable crates reduced carbon emissions by

The system itself is based on reusable, durable crates and pallets made from recyclable plastic that help to support an efficient supply chain, from producer to wholesaler, and finally to the retailer. These crates and pallets can be used over and over, without compromising on quality.

The company’s circular business model begins with delivery to the producers, where its reusable units are filled and delivered to the wholesaler.

The wholesaler then transports these to the retailer, where the crates and pallets are emptied. The wholesaler then takes the units back, returning them to Svenska Retursystem, which then instigates a process of quality control and washing in one of its four strategically located plants, before they are ready to be used again.

Numafa Cleaning & Automation B.V. Numafa is a leading global company specialising in industrial cleaning and handling systems. We develop, manufacture, deliver and service cleaning machines for both the food and non-food industry. Our core business lies in the cleaning of crates, pallets and containers at high capacities, with full automation across our system.

With over 2500 machines still operational worldwide and a high export rate, Numafa is a suitable, stable partner for your washing and handling projects, anywhere in the world. With Numafa’s technical developments, our focus lies on the reduction of energy consumption, the improvement of ergonomics and our working environment, and improving cleaning results.

In the year 2017, we realised part of a 30,000m2 state-of-the-art washing facility together with Svenska Retursystem. At this plant, we have included all of our most recent developments in the fields of energy saving and automation.

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as much as 74 per cent, compared with equivalent disposable packaging, a figure that translates to roughly 30,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Responsive to challenges With growth in the retail sector remaining relatively stable during 2017, Svenska Retursystem has focused more of its attention towards the growing food service industry. “Part of our growth strategy is to increase our presence within the restaurant, hotel and hospitality markets,” Anna states.

“We have always been quick to respond to trends in our industry and having seen a big shift emerging within the food service field we recognise how important this area will be to our own future goals.”

Another area where SRS is proving its innovative approach is through a new investment strategy. The company takes a 40 SEK deposit on its crates from customers, which is repaid when

the crate is returned. Over recent times SRS has launched a sustainable fund with its bank for this money, from which investments are made, and the fund has seen steady growth since it was created in late 2016, with SRS currently having invested more than 50m euros, and a total of more than 500m euros is now invested in the fund by all parties.

The company’s ability to respond to rapidly challenging market conditions was further evident in 2017 with the launch of its new digital platform. Dubbed SMART Pooling, it offers the food industry of Sweden improved control and simplified administration over all types of returnable transport items, such as return pallets, roll cages, wooden pallets, dairy boxes and pallet collars, as well as offering substantial savings in both time and cost throughout the complete supply chain.

“The food and beverage industry is becoming ever-more reliant of digital technology and our SMART Pooling platform is an important step forward in meeting the evolving demands of our customers,” Anna says. “It also forms part of our commitment to simplify the flow of goods in the industry, and we plan to extend this solution to more users over the course of 2018.”

Positive strides The company is also currently working on a system of incorporating smart sensors into its units, with a pilot project having recently been completed. “These sensors will allow our customers to track the location and temperature of their goods during transit,” Anna reveals.

“This is a scheme that we believe can have further important implications when it comes to sustainability and improving the efficiency of the supply chain, and therefore we continue to work very hard towards rolling this out on a much wider scale in the future.”

IPG Intelligent Packaging Group Relationships produce results. This is something we firmly believe in at IP Group. As part of that philosophy we regard and value all of our customers, including Svenska Retursystem, as partners. A close dialogue paves the way to joint success - If you win, we win.

We develop, sell and rent out intelligent, cost-effective packaging systems in 100 per cent recyclable plastic and aluminium, for companies in Sweden and Europe.

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Svenska Retursystem AB Having celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2017, growth opportunities for the business show no signs of abating.

In response to this, and as a way of creating the needed capacity for it to manage increased demand for its pooling services, Svenska Retursystems officially opened the doors to its newest washing and distribution plant in Västerås, Hållbara Aros, in September 2017.

“The opening of our new plant represents a huge step forward for the

company,” Anna enthuses. “The largest and most efficient washing facility we have opened to date, the plant will process 70 million crates and pallets annually. Being located in a logistical hub like Västerås also means that we can greatly improve our logistics network and reduce the environmental impact of our transportation activities even further.”

The ramping up of this new, state-ofthe-art facility will be a big area of focus in the first half of 2018 for Anna and her team, and its very existence represents what she feels is a very bright future for Svenska Retursystem. “We see ourselves as being extremely well positioned today.

We are excited about the positive strides the company is making in its digital development and will continue to make sure that we never waiver from working in the most sustainable ways possible,” she concludes. D www.retursystem.se

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Coffee with a smile

Having perfected its franchise model, Scooter’s Coffee is growing rapidly to become one of the leading drive-thru coffeehouse chains in the Midwest states of the USA

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cooter’s Coffee is one of the buzzing coffeehouse chains in the USA at the moment.

The Midwest-based franchise has received two prestigious awards since the turn of the year, including being presented with the 2018 Top Franchise Award by Franchise Business Review, as well as ranking at number 29 on Franchise Gator’s Fastest Growing Franchises for 2018 list. These feats,

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whilst impressive, cannot be regarded as particularly surprising, given the unprecedented growth Scooter’s Coffee has reached in the past few years. Since the franchise model was introduced in 2002, the company’s operating stores tally has reached 175 locations in 13 states. What is more significant, though, is Scooter’s plan to open 75 new stores within the next couple of years, starting with 35 sites

Scooter’s Coffee

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Proven concept, the Drive-Thru Kiosk

We spend a significant amount of time and energy ensuring that each and every of our locations executes our brand promise: Amazing People, Serving Amazing Drinks, Amazingly Fast

Store Manager Zac at 180th & Burke in Omaha, Nebraska

in 2018. The company is by no means short of ambition, and it has explicitly claimed its intention to be the USA’s number one drive-thru franchise. The start has been more than encouraging but as noted in a promotional video on Scooter’s website: “If you think of us as a 20-chapter book, we are still in the second or third chapter.”

Todd Graeve, Scooters CEO, Don Eckles, Scooters Founder and Mike

Rogers, who is Scooter’s COO, all agreed to talk us through the path the business has walked so far, sharing the company’s core values and biggest assets, as well as its long-term aims.

“The first drive-thru coffeehouse in Bellevue, Nebraska was opened in 1998 by Don and Linda Eckles and that marked the birth of Scooter’s Coffee,” Mike Rogers, COO begins.

“The venture attracted considerable interest in the market as more stores opened in subsequent years, which led to the introduction of the current franchise model in 2002.

The exponential growth we have experienced over the years taught us a lot of lessons, especially when it comes to learning how to stay ahead of the growth curve through proactive resource assessment and increased investment in people,” Don Eckles, Founder shared.

Family values Scooter’s Coffee appears to be a company with inherent sense of promoting family and communitybonding values through friendly service. In fact, the very name of the company is a good example of the family-inspired entrepreneurial spirit embraced by founders Don and Linda. Back in 1998, their daughter was nicknamed ‘Scooter’ and so this became the popular choice for the new company’s name. It also reflects the chain’s mission to offer fast and efficient service by helping customers scoot in and scoot out quickly, thus keeping them satisfied. This admirable business philosophy was reiterated

by Todd Graeve, Scooters CEO, on a number of occasions during our conversation, and it seems to represent a defining characteristic of Scooter’s identity. “When we partner with our

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franchisees, we strive to engage with them in a way that will make them feel as a real and truly valuable part of the Scooter’s family. To achieve this, we have made sure that we have a firstclass operational system that offers all the support our franchisees need to be successful.

“We spend a significant amount of time and energy ensuring that each and every of our locations executes our brand promise: Amazing People, Serving Amazing Drinks, Amazingly Fast. The three primary strengths to which we owe the success of the business are our dedicated, world-class leadership team, the top-quality coffee we use, and the business model we have adopted, the one of a drive-thru kiosk. We have spent years of honing and perfecting it, to reach the position we find ourselves in, at the moment,” Mike Rogers explains, taking pride in the fact that Scooter’s only roasts

from the top ten per cent of specialty coffee beans in the world. What is more, it has been just over a year since the company began sourcing only shade-grown coffee beans through its partner, The Arbor Day Foundation.

Making a choice of this kind speaks of Scooter’s commitment to operate in an environment-friendly way. It has been estimated that one cup of shade-grown coffee offered by the chain, amounts to two square feet of saved rainforest.

It is of no lesser importance that when their produce is more extensively used, shade-grown coffee farmers from Latin America receive fairer wages for their labour. Further to that, local infrastructure and better access to healthcare and education are forged in the region.

In terms of geographical footprint, the Midwest remains a stronghold for Scooter’s, and this is a result partly of the chain having its roots in Nebraska, and partly due to the targeted business planning that has taken place over time. “We concentrated on expanding in the Midwest, because we wanted to keep our resources focused, and since we had already established our market presence in Omaha, places like Lincoln and Kansas City, Missouri have proven very successful,” Todd Graeve points out.

Focus on training Scooter’s expansion dictated the inevitable growth in manpower and the need for a larger office for the company, and this is where the most recent investment has been placed.

Don Eckles details: “We are moving to a new Scooter’s Coffee National Headquarters, based in Omaha, which will house a much larger warehouse, bakery and a roasting facility, along with more office space. The property will give us more room to expand capacity as the franchise system is expected to continue growing in the next five to ten years. We are accommodating a best-in-class training facility in the new headquarters, too, with a fullsize and fully operational drive-thru Scooter’s Coffee store. Our intention is to elevate and strengthen our training department, training systems, and

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Scooter’s Coffee overall output. In addition to this, we are planning to create approximately 20 new jobs in our corporate office within the next 18-24 months.”

Business journey With the company being steady on the highway to ongoing success, and plans

for the future firmly in place, Don, Todd and Mike insist that Scooter’s will stay true to its system of values in the years to come: “In the midst of success, we will walk in humility. While we grow our business, we will attend to the success of others, too. We will be kind and compassionate, while competing with

intention and excellence. Greatness as a company will often be reflected in the small things we did for others along the way. We are confident that we will have a richer and much more meaningful business journey if we always remember this,” they enthused. D www.scooterscoffee.com

Renderings of the new Scooter’s Coffee National Headquarters

Grand Prairie Foods Grand Prairie Foods is a top food manufacturer in the Midwest. Serving our customers the best quality foods has been our number one priority since day one. We specialize in multiple production capabilities including private labelling and co-packing. Our co-packing process allows our team to work hand in hand with customers to innovate new products that best meet their needs. Our three facilities are SQF level 3 Certified.

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taste in values A good

Westons Cider has achieved unprecedented growth by taking wise and bold decisions to constantly reinvent itself in an unpredictable business environment, while holding onto strong family values

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Westons Cider

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D4748 Reflex Labels Plus Magazine Full Page Advert CMYK.pdf

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Westons Cider

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t is a period of exciting development in the 140-year history of Herefordshire cider maker Westons Cider. The familyowned business enjoyed a year in which it saw its turnover cross the £60 million threshold, and the future looks even brighter with key new ventures already lined-up for 2018. The company’s Commercial Director, Geoff Bradman was happy to share with us his overview of the past year, the cornerstones of Westons’ philosophy, the company’s most recent developments, and the plans for the future that are intended to lead the business to even greater success.

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“It was a very good year,” he begins, “as we grew by just over three times the rate of the market.

We have had consistent year-on-year growth, despite the general business environment becoming tougher and more challenging for everybody. We are very delighted with our performance, because it shows that we have been able to adapt and react to the everchanging market conditions.”

Another powerful characteristic defining Westons is its reliance, almost exclusively, on local ingredients. “We source 90 per cent of our fruits from within a 40-mile radius of our office in Much Marcle

The company’s evolution did not go unnoticed by the industry, which presented it with numerous awards. “In 2017, our Stowford Press Low Alcohol and Rosie’s Pig Flat Tyre brands won the ‘Grocer Drinks Awards’ in the low alcohol and the fruit cider categories, respectively. We were also presented with the British Bottler’s Institute ‘Diploma Award’ for the Mortimer’s Orchard English Berry,” Geoff says.

He puts this type of recognition in the wider context of the particularly strong year the company experienced in 2017: “These awards ratify and consolidate our position as a leading quality cider producer in the marketplace, as

Westons orchard

Reflex Label Plus Our story began with a vision of what the future could look like in packaging.

We had a sense of purpose to create a more efficient way of working. This shapes the way we see, perceive and interact with packaging. Reflex creates a unique ‘Shelf Presence’ for our clients’ consumer products all the way from brand conception design to the final pack on the shelf. With operating sites across the UK, Reflex stands proud of our Great British heritage, and awardwinning design and print. We look forward to future collaboration with Westons Cider and wish them all the best in their future plans.

Fourth generation family member Henry Weston in the orchards

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they send a very strong signal to the consumers. They also indicate that it is the quality of our ciders and their premium nature that are the driving force behind our growth.”

This is where the craft of cider making kicks in, and Geoff likens it to wine making, at least in some aspects: “We normally have 16 cider bases, which we carefully analyse, and our cider makers blend those to ensure that we get a liquid of the highest quality that has passed through all the procedures we employ. Of course, cider making differs significantly from wine making in that it is unusual to get a decent cider from a single variety of apple. They get much better when blended. But it is still quite artful,” Geoff argues.

Bold decisions While market success is the visible product of Westons’ efforts, a lot of hard work and cast-iron business principles have carried the company forward over the years. “An overriding objective of our business is to maintain its family ownership,” Geoff insists.

“We want to stay true to the original family and business values that have been ingrained into our long-term vision, as they keep us away from the pressures PLCs experience.” He goes on: “We can afford ourselves the luxury of making bold decisions, which may seem detrimental to the business in the short term, but they actually secure our position in the long run.”

The Bounds, Westons Cider, Much Marcle

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Another powerful characteristic defining Westons is its reliance, almost exclusively, on local ingredients. “We source 90 per cent of our fruits from within a 40-mile radius of our office in Much Marcle. We have developed long-term relationships with the most prominent growers in the region, who provide us with their best produce.”

Product launches Westons’ performance in 2017 illustrated the company’s enviable ability to enshrine its traditional values, while deftly adapting to the changes that occur in the marketplace. Geoff is quick to provide us with an example of one such operation: “A couple of years ago, we enriched our portfolio with new products,

Westons Cider such as Rosie’s Pig, Mortimer’s Orchard, and Caple Road, all of which are among the key brands we are focused on at the moment. We aimed these ciders at the younger market after we found out that 36 per cent of cider drinkers are millennials, and these brands are now growing by over 20 per cent on a year-on-year basis. At the same time, we continue to make cider today to the same recipe and in the same way that it was produced 140 years ago.”

Embracing change is easily observable in another recent key decision taken by the company. Geoff explains: “Two years ago we embarked on a change in our marketing strategy, which saw our two biggest brands – the off-trade Henry Westons Vintage and the on-trade Stowford Press, appear on TV, and this has helped us to drive sales of these products. We are planning to do more of the same in 2018, as we feel we need to invest more in our TV advertising in order

to support the currently growing ‘next generation’ brands.”

In addition to investing for marketing purposes, Westons is on course to upgrade its product portfolio. “We will be bringing new products to the market, particularly in the Rosie’s Pig range, where we will refresh some of the flavours,” Geoff outlines. He then reveals

2018’s most exciting development of all: “We will shortly announce this officially, but we are expanding into America, with the first shipment leaving for the United States very soon. This breakthrough fits our aspirations to grow our international business further in 2018,” he concludes contentedly. D www.westons-cider.co.uk

Westons Cider Oak vats

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Extending food’s life expectancy

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East of England Co-op The East of England Co-op has successfully launched an innovative campaign to reduce food waste and plans more exciting development in 2018

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he East of England Co-op recently made the headlines in the national media by becoming the UK’s first major retailer to sell products that are past their ‘Best before’ date. Having trialled its ‘Co-op Guide to Dating’ scheme for three months in 14 of its stores, the retailer was pleased to see an overwhelmingly positive response from its customers. Joint Chief Executive Roger Grosvenor shared with us that the results of the trial turned out to be a pleasant surprise, as products put on sale at a symbolic nominal price of 10p were cleared within hours by customers, when it was expected that it would take around a month for them to sell.

‘

‘Best before’ dates are quality dates given by the manufacturer, and they indicate the time frame within which a product is at its best quality. Products that have ‘Best before’ dates usually come in bottles, jars, packets and cans.

Roger was quick to reiterate that many products are perfectly fine to consume even when they have gone beyond their ‘Best before’ date. “Best before only means that the product cannot be guaranteed to be at its peak but is still edible.” Therefore, Roger clarifies, they can legally continue to sell the product after the indicated date.

‘Best before’ dates are not to be confused with the ‘Use by’ dates that

By demonstrating sensitivity to environmental issues, the East of England Co-op builds on the tradition it has established to commit to the continual introduction of green measures to its operations

are applied to products with a short shelf life, such as milk, meat or fish. Foods with a ‘Use by’ date cannot be sold after their expiration date. The East of England Co-op also announced that in order to comply with the Food Standard Agency guidelines, food being sold past its ‘Best before’ date will remain on sale for up to one month.

The motivation behind the East of England Co-op’s new initiative is plain to see – waste within the food industry has been a matter of concern for some time, with 30 to 50 per cent of food produced globally for human consumption estimated to be wasted.

The East of England Co-op Joint Chief Executive outlined three of the key benefits the ‘Co-op Guide to Dating’ initiative can bring to both the company and the wider environmental picture.

“The East of England Co-op will save money for not having to pay for the removal of waste,” Roger commented. In addition to that, although he did not play up the significance of the retail value that can be accumulated from selling

East of England Co-op Joint Chief Executive Roger Grosvenor

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products past their ‘Best before’ date, he acknowledged this as another welcome consequence of running the campaign.

“Furthermore,” Roger continues, “the food is being consumed for what it was intended to, rather than deposited to the landfill, has an environmental-friendly effect as it reduces the food miles in the disposal of waste.”

By demonstrating sensitivity to environmental issues, the East of England Co-op builds on the tradition it has established to commit to the continual introduction of green measures to its operations. “In 2008,” Roger reminds us, “we were the first major retailer to stop providing one-trip carrier bags free of charge.” Eight years later, in 2016, East of England Co-op completely removed one-trip carrier bags from across the business, which resulted in the use of re-usable and exchangeable bags only.

The ‘Sourced Locally’ initiative is

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another example that highlights the East of England Co-op’s willingness to be part of the solution to environmental issues. The campaign, founded in 2007, encourages the sourcing of local production to reduce one’s carbon footprint. The retailer has expressed its satisfaction over the consistently good results the initiative has achieved. The East of England Co-op now works with more than 100 suppliers who stock stores across the region with thousands of different products – from fruits and vegetables, to meats and fish.

Continued improvements Upon entering 2018, Roger reflected on the past year for the business. “Despite challenging conditions across the retail sector, the East of England Co-op managed to maintain year-on-year growth across its family of businesses,” he stated.

Asked about the latest employee development taking place at the East

East of England Co-op of England Co-op, Roger was keen to point out that the majority of East of England Co-op’s colleagues have undergone dementia-friendly training so that they can better support customers living with the condition.

So, what about the New Year? Roger emphasised the importance of finishing the refurbishment works still going on in some of the East of England Co-op premises across the Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex areas. It has been a targeted area of development for the company and it has played a central role in its plans for the past couple of years. “Of our 250 retail units, there are 30 remaining to be refitted to complete a challenge we started just over two years ago to have an estate fit for purpose, providing a safe and enjoyable environment for members and customers to shop or access our services,” Roger concluded. D www.eastofengland.coop

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Photography by Bob McClenahan

Tapping into the market

As California-based company Free Flow Wines has found, stainless steel kegs not only maintain superior wine quality, they also help to minimise the cost of packaging and transportation, delivering cost and carbon footprint reductions for the whole industry

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Free Flow Wines LLC

F

irst introduced in the 17th century, the glass bottle and cork stopper has been synonymous with wine ever since. With glass being non-porous and impermeable, its ability to also provide purity of taste to the product contained within has made it the most universally recognised method for transporting and carrying wine. Nevertheless, for anyone familiar with the process of bottling wine will be able to attest, there are also drawbacks to glass, not least of all its weight, its fragility, and the risks of spoilage that arise from its opening, closing and storage.

Jordan Kivelstadt is one of many winemakers to have encountered such issues. In fact, it was a bad bottling experience that provided him with the inspiration for the creation of Californiabased Free Flow Wines. “I remember it was after one particularly bad bottling day that I turned to one of the topping kegs sitting nearby and thought to myself out loud, ‘why can’t I just sell wine in one of these?’,” explains the company’s Founder and CEO. “It was then that I started to think about all the impracticalities that come with the glass bottling process, especially the act of serving wine by the glass from a bottle. After all, for winemakers, there is nothing worse for us than seeing the first interaction between our end product and the consumer being ruined due to issues such as the wine being opened or stored incorrectly.”

Numerous benefits

Jordan Kivelstadt

‘

It was also the timely rise in appreciation for craft beer on draught that made Jordan turn his focus to recreating this model with wine, devising in-house kegging line processes and procedures to ensure that wine gets from the barrel to the tap, tasting as the winemaker intended. The result of these early efforts was Silvertap Wines, the first nationally distributed wine on tap.

The real turnaround for the company, however, came when it pivoted its business model to become a packaging and logistics operation, leveraging its experience with wine on tap to allow other winemakers to enter into this space and expand the

category. Today, Free Flow Wines’ fully automated kegging line cleans and fills around 225,000 kegs per year, creating numerous benefits for the entire wine supply chain, from wineries to operators, including restauranteurs, hoteliers and others in the hospitality sector.

“The biggest beneficiary, economically, of serving wine by the glass from the tap are undoubtedly the operators. They get to serve better quality wine, experience zero spoilage and thus make more money. Similarly, a good number of winemakers, particularly those in the premium category are experiencing cost savings by putting wine into kegs rather than bottles,” Jordan continues. There are also considerable environmental benefits to what Free Flow Wines is doing. Up to 70 per cent of the wine sector’s carbon footprint originates from packaging, and stainless steel kegs help to reduce this by as much as 96 per

We believe that cans can fill a significant void in the market and that is why we are now working to double the capacity of our canning line at our Napa facility

cent, which creates massive positive implications when it comes to the sustainability of the industry.

“In a relatively short span of time we have gone from filling a small volume of kegs for Silvertap to offering a full suite of keg filling, leasing and logistics services for wineries throughout the world, including offsite keg leasing, launching a bulk storage programme, and acquiring a draught installation and services company in northern California.

We also successfully opened up our East Coast Filling Station in Bayonne, New Jersey, in 2017, which will help us to not only improve our logistical footprint and reduce costs for our customers, but also increase the number of imported wines from Europe and other non-domestic sources available in keg format,” states Vice President of Marketing & Customer Success, Heather Clauss, who has been with the company since it was only four employees strong.

“From the very beginning, we have led with service and quality at the core of everything we do,” Heather adds, when asked about the importance of keeping its customers intertwined in every decision it makes. “We always look to put our customers first, doing all we can to find solutions to the challenges they may encounter in order to make their lives easier. This has also helped define Free Flow Wines as an innovator within its field.”

Photography by Free Flow Wines

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Free Flow Wines LLC This ability to innovate will play a crucial role in the company’s development during 2018, which Jordan believes can be the year that Free Flow Wines takes a further step towards getting to where it wants to be.

“One of the big things we need to do in order to take this leap forward over the next 12 months is really hone in on helping our distributors to solve the challenges they face in adjusting to the change in demands on them when handling wine from kegs,” he describes.

“In order to address this, we will be making a number of unique logistics plays to relieve some of the burden, and therefore incentivise our distribution partners to scale up alongside us.”

Future plans At the same time, from a production perspective, Jordan is very excited about the unique opportunity that the canning of wine presents. Though

it represents a small segment of the overall wine category, it is one that is growing rapidly and the economics for wine in cans are compelling for wineries, what with cans being inexpensive as a form of packaging. “This is an area of the industry that is appealing more and more to a new generation of wine drinkers as it changes the dynamics of when and where people can enjoy wine,” he enthuses. “We believe that cans can fill a significant void in the market and that is why we are now working to double the capacity of our canning line at our Napa facility, ahead of a planned installation of high speed, fully automated line in the near future which will hopefully take us from a production capacity of 500,000 case per year to between five million and seven million cases per year.”

Such a significant increase in capacity forms one part of Free Flow Wines’ plan to restructure its infrastructure to better reflect the company that it is today, and will be in the future. Nevertheless, as Heather concludes, this expansion will be partnered with a desire to stay true to its core values; “We will ensure that we lead in the areas of quality, service and innovation, while also focusing on growing the category of wine on tap alongside our partners, which we strongly believe as being the future when it comes to wines served by the glass.” D www.freeflowwines.com

Photography by Free Flow Wines

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Muntons Plc

Crafting new

flavours

Muntons Plc invests heavily in new infrastructure, while remaining fully committed to establishing environmental-friendly practices across the industry

M

untons Plc is flying high. 2017 was a strong business year for the malt and malted ingredients producer, and its Manufacturing and Sustainability Director Nigel Davies was keen to tell FoodChain about the latest developments the company has undergone. “The demand for our products is running at all-time high levels, and we had to uplift our production in order to match that demand,” Nigel starts. “Coupled with this, we expanded our manufacturing

Mark Tydesley

operations into Thailand to service that part of the world, which has a particular affinity with malted ingredients in a wide range of products, especially the malted milk drink market.” Locally, Muntons directed its focus to support the ever-growing craft beer industry in the UK. “Some 2000 craft brewers are said to be operating in the country, and they need malt provided in sacks and crushed if they do not have mills,” he explains.

The food sector did not lag behind, either. Nigel praises the work Muntons’

Nigel Davies

Centre for Excellence is doing: “Our team is very successful in showing potential customers an impressive array of applications, where malted ingredients deliver product and costsaving benefits, that even they had not anticipated.” The new MaltiCrunch Chocolate ingredient, which was announced by the company in November 2017, seems to bring this point home. It is readily soluble and can be blended in water or milk to produce sweet tasting chocolate malt beverages.

The ingredient can be used in a wide

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range of applications, including sweet spreads, dairy and ice cream, instant beverages, snacks, cereal bars, and chocolate confectionery.

The past year was also marked by substantial infrastructural investment at Muntons. Nigel draws our attention to the significance of the decision the company took to install new colour sorting equipment, to remove ergot from barley samples: “Ergot is a result of black grass growing along with the barley in the field on which ergots are produced. These are not permitted in foods, because they are toxic. Hence, we have previously rejected barley containing ergot and sent it off site for cleaning. Installing our own colour sorter, which removes 100 per cent of all ergot, has saved us extra transportation mileage, equivalent to nine people driving their cars for an entire year. It is a big success in terms of food safety and sustainability.”

‘

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We have a lot of exciting projects happening at the same time, all of which have a strong sales demand, so our customers are already liningup for products from plant we are yet to construct

It is no coincidence that Nigel is so enthusiastic about the positive effects certain measures taken by the company have on the environment. Muntons has a long story of promoting sustainability and corporate responsibility, and its latest actions do not stray from this trend. “We are the first maltster to set a science-based target for greenhouse gas emissions. This is important because the targets the Government has set are insufficient to mitigate the impact on climate change,” he says.

“Muntons has also gained considerable benefits for its farm

Muntons Plc suppliers through the ‘Sustainable Futures’ farmer support group, based in Yorkshire. Over 100 farmers meet regularly to share best environmental practices, learn from each other, and reduce their input costs. This aligns very well with the newly-proposed UK farming incentive schemes, which will replace existing agricultural support with a scheme that favours those who improve the environment, rather than just providing financial support,” he continues.

Overall improvements Nigel describes the present time as a period of investment Muntons has not seen before. “This involves upgrading malting plant, installing new boilers that reduce our emissions in line with science-based targets that align with climate change protection, expanding the production capacity, and introducing new process streams to service our expanding market share.”

The improvement of its onsite facilities has been just one side of the internal development the company was subject to in 2017.

Muntons experienced a change in the management hierarchy too, as Mark Tyldesley was appointed Managing Director. Nigel discusses the move: “Mark’s background is closer to the retail sector than we normally operate, and as such, he brings a different view of what is interesting and exciting to those markets. He is keen to fast-track our capital programme to deliver an even better performance than our current record success. He is also a strong advocate of diversity and innovation.”

Nigel speaks confidently of Muntons’ plan for 2018: “We have a lot of exciting projects happening at the same time, all

of which have a strong sales demand, so our customers are already liningup for products from plant we are yet to construct. One such project is the building of a malt peating plant in Yorkshire, because we have noticed a strong demand from distillers as whisky sales stay high. The plant will service this market and the emerging craft businesses, which we anticipate to rise, especially in the US.” Finally, he touches upon Muntons’ position in the global market, and the general outlook in front of the company: “Since we have a particularly strong demand from Asia and the US, and direct European trade forms only a small part of our sales, we should be able to withstand any potential negative impact of Brexit. We are planning to keep on investing, and our focus will be on securing growth in the markets we know.” D www.muntons.com

Systempack Manufaktur Systempack Manufaktur, a worldwide operating glass packaging solutions provider based in Germany, has a background dating back over 110 years in supplying the beverage industry with tailor made solutions for their glass bottling requirements. Shape, presentation, print and colour of a bottle are important triggers when it comes to consumer choice, a fact which is understood very well at Systempack. As well as having worked for many years in international marketing-driven companies, Michael Schlegel, Proprietor, is also a Brew Master and Beverage Technologist, hence he carries a huge amount of real world experience within the beverage sector.

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Creating

new concepts

The Big Ketch Saltwater Grill by Lauren Rubinstein

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Southern Proper Hospitality Based in Atlanta, Southern Proper Hospitality is growing courtesy of its founders’ entrepreneurial spirit and creativity prowess in developing singular restaurant concepts

T

he American South is the birthplace of many cultural trends that are still deeply cherished in Western civilisation. The musical genres of blues and jazz and some of the most critically acclaimed 20th century novels by the likes of Harper Lee and William Faulkner, for example, are just few artistic pieces that have shaped our imagination of this region.

The modern times we are living in, though, have brought new cultural practices that have carved their way into society’s collective mind. Our relationship with food has changed, for instance. We no longer regard it as a mere necessity that keeps our bodies functioning normally. Today, food consumption is seen as an overarching experience, in which people socialise, develop affections for different cuisines, are encouraged to try new things, and ultimately encounter new cultures through traditional dishes.

‘

“The three of us were college friends, and each of us had an entrepreneurial spirit, allowing us to do different things. We came together just for fun and developed a concept called East Andrews Café & Bar, which was a neighbourhood tavern, to see how this would go. We did not really have in mind that we were creating a hospitality company. We just wanted to run a nice place where you can go with your friends, but it was such a big hit, that people started to come to us and ask us if we would be interested in expanding. It was at that time that the entrepreneur in each of us took over, and we became opportunistic.

This is how we started in the hospitality business,” Chris says, outlining the genesis of the company.

Setting the ball rolling, he and his partners began to convert the opportunities coming their way, and today the company has a total of 21 individual restaurants, across nine

As an independent group, we do not face any pressure from investors, which gives us the time to sit back and look at the community, and approach it with a blank canvas

Bridging the cultural heritage of the South with the new ‘cult of food’ sets the scene perfectly for the company we are going to present to you in this article. The Southern Proper Hospitality Group has grown naturally, as if by chance, and certainly thanks to the laidback, yet creative, approach of its three founders. FoodChain interviewed one of them, Chris Hadermann. Chris discussed with us how Southern Proper Hospitality came to be, its recent growth, and its future aspirations.

different brands. The first of those was Milton’s Cuisine & Cocktails, which opened in 2006. Chris remembers: “It used to be an old farmhouse in the suburbs, which we turned into a full-service restaurant. Perhaps it was not the best time to dip one’s tail into a venture like this, but we managed to establish ourselves in this challenging neighbourhood during a difficult time, and grew the restaurant. Our concept for Milton’s was that we should keep it a traditional Southern-style restaurant, due to its rural location, as we aimed

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to accommodate the neighbouring community.”

Friends Serving Friends What could be called Southern Proper Hospitality’s trademark brand is Tin Lizzy’s, the second concept Chris and company developed. Having set out to promote it heavily for a few years since its inception, Tin Lizzy’s has now grown into a chain of 14 locations that has broken the boundaries of the state of Georgia, and can be found in Florida and South Carolina, too.

Chris’ team applied what has become their well-tested approach when assessing what type of restaurant they should aim to open in a particular location. “We looked into the space and the neighbourhood to see what food categories did not exist, and so we developed it from there. What is now Tin Lizzy’s, was a pretty, little restaurant in the neighbourhood I

The Southern Gentleman Cocktail

happened to live. It had a nice patio, which got me thinking what would be the best way to develop it, so we came to the idea that this would be our version of a Mexican taqueria, where we would serve guacamole, salsa, margarita and a range of gourmet-soft tacos.

“We took a grassroots approach,” he continues, “It was at a location that many people would say was not particularly good for a restaurant.

But we rolled our sleeves up and won each customer by offering great service. We have a service mantra called Friends Serving Friends, which means a very unpretentious, direct, friendly approach. We wanted to create a place where when you go, everyone knows your name. Also, the prices were affordable, and that allowed us to grow even during the recession, because people still wanted to go out and be entertained. They just wanted to go to more affordable places. We were able to develop a strong brand equity across Atlanta and add some critical mass. This gave us the confidence to go to South Carolina and see if this concept was going to prove itself in another market,” Chris maintains.

Entrepreneurial outlook He insists on calling himself and his partners ‘restaurant entrepreneurs’ and it seems that Southern Proper Hospitality’s philosophy lies in this label and the ingenious, entrepreneurial outlook the three of them have adopted. “We are all concept guys and we like to try new things all the time. As an independent group, we do not face any pressure from investors, which gives us the time to sit back and look at the community, and approach it with a blank canvas. We travel a lot and get a lot of exposure to what is new and cool in terms of food trends, and we try to package those trends in a way that will fit nicely into the fabric of the Atlanta cultural community. We have added lots of fun and high energy in all of our concepts and we continue to do so, because we want to create an amazing overall experience, that does

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Southern Proper Hospitality not include only quality food, but all other details that contribute to a great restaurant atmosphere, such as level of service, the right lighting and good music.”

Proactive investment 2017 was a year of strengthening the quality of the company’s existing restaurants. As Chris puts it, the aim was to ‘raise the bar’. He elaborates: “We did not want to get caught up in the trap of growing just for growth’s sake.

Instead, we shifted our attention to the restaurants. We wanted to develop the space between the four walls, investing in infrastructure and human resources.

We hired a new Vice-President of Operations to inspect each and every store, and ensure that we continue to deliver an excellent customer experience. We see this as an example of proactive investment where we seek constant improvement and try to make

Seafood Paella Fried Rice by Heidi Geldhauser

our restaurants even better. We want to keep pushing expectations and create a culture where everybody is striving to get better. Our feeling is that the development of this culture will prepare us for future growth,” Chris concludes. D www.sphospitality.com

Blue Mountain Blue Mountain leads customers to success by providing solutions that increase sales and profitability. Through product commercialization and value-added services, Blue Mountain creates innovative menu offerings that stabilize inventory, while driving operational efficiencies to restaurant chains throughout the United States with a diverse portfolio of manufacturing partners.

Blue Mountain is a team comprised of elite R&D chefs supported by procurement specialists with experience throughout all levels of supply chain and distribution in the foodservice industry. As a performance-based company, Blue Mountain aids restaurants in achieving cost savings and competitive differentiation. – “Dream to Destination.”

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Seas of plenty Greek seafood has a reputation for quality and taste, a reputation that has been made possible because of the tireless, passionate work of producers such as KONVA

48 www.foodchainmagazine.com

KONVA S.A

W

ithin the canned seafood market, arguably there is no sector more competitive than that of canned tuna. With tuna possessing a very specific taste, being processed to be consumed with or without other food items, and thought to provide numerous health benefits, the popularity of canned tuna has continued to gain momentum, particularly in emerging regions in the Near East and Latin America. Such is the competitive nature of the tuna market that achieving any increase in market share is a huge achievement, and this was the case for Greek fish products producer KONVA in 2017.

“2017 was, in general, an extremely positive year for the company, typified by a 1.2 per cent increase in Greek market share when it comes to our canned tuna products,” explains KONVA’s Managing Director, Gianna Tzika. “At the same time, we have seen continued

improvement in the performance of our other product ranges, in part due to an increased availability in the raw materials that we use.”

With a family legacy dating back over 90 years, KONVA is responsible for supplying its customers with a rich line of seafood products, including sardines, anchovies, squid, octopus and herring, as well as the hugely popular TRATA and FLOKOS brands. Located in Kilkis, Northern Greece, the company sources its products from the waters of the Aegean Sea, a fact that Gianna points to as being one of KONVA’s greatest strengths. “The flavour and tenderness of the fish that we source is simply not comparable with anything else on the market,” she enthuses. “The temperature of our waters, the climate we experience year-round and the level of biodiversity in the region combine to make the fish of the Aegean Sea top of the range.”

In the time since we last spoke with Gianna, at the beginning of 2017, the company has made several additions and improvements to both its product line and supporting infrastructure. In the former, it has added new lines to its frozen products range. This range has become a top priority for KONVA and is led by its filleted, skin packed sardines and anchovies. In the meantime, the company has also made a considerable investment in new machinery in its packaging department. This machinery allows it to produce smaller tray sizes for its products, making it easier for its retail customers to stock greater numbers of KONVA goods on their shelves.

During our last conversation with Gianna, she also detailed a long-term strategic vision to increase the export potential of the company’s products and brands onto a number of key European counties. As she correctly notes, however, exporting ones’ goods into

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what is an already fiercely competitive market is no easy task, and requires a measured approach. “In order to make the most of our export activities we have focused a lot of our efforts on producing products with added value and that provide a unique taste experience, derived from specialist recipes and ingredients that are not found in basic canned seafood,” she states. “As part of our efforts we have targeted specific countries that we believe share a love for our types of recipe, countries like the UK, Belgium, Germany and several in Scandinavia, and we believe that our efforts this year will result in as much as a 50 per cent increase in export-based turnover over the course of 2018.”

These expansion plans are also being enacted with a watchful eye on achieving the highest levels of sustainability as dictated by industry regulators. “Sustainability is the single biggest issue in the seafood business,” Gianna continues. “As a responsible

player in this industry we are very active in supporting a drive towards greater improvement in this field. All of our products provide complete ‘track and trace’ information for the fish we use.

This information allows the customer or end consumer to identify the exact species of fish, where it was fished, what it was caught with, on which boat it was caught from and even who the captain of that boat was at the time. This provides a level of complete transparency that our customers demand.

“Further to the above-mentioned steps, we have also recently obtained Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Certification for our mackerel and herring production operations, and we are on the front line of spearheading research into the sustainability of the Greek seas, supporting investment in these activities to the tune of more than 100,000 euros.”

Rapidly evolving consumer habits and tastes also have a massive influence on the direction of the company and

its development of new products. A good example of this is KONVA’s introduction of a new organic range. “Our organic range will be made with only the finest organic olive oil,” Gianna adds. “At the same time, we have also worked hard to create a number of new healthy, Mediterranean inspired recipes. These include sardines in tomato sauce with oregano, anchovies with crushed chilli peppers, tuna with capers, and tuna salad with lentils or quinoa.”

Having enjoyed a solid 12 months during 2017, Gianna and the rest of the KONVA team are hard at work as they endeavour to achieve their goals for 2018.

“Among our objectives for this year are to achieve the desired 50 per cent increase in export-based turnover, retain and build upon our share of the Greek market and double our volumes of our frozen product lines,” Gianna says. “In achieving all of this, we will be one step closer to reaching our ultimate objective, and that is to become synonymous with fish products from Greece and to be an ambassador for these products on the world stage.” D www.konva.gr

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Mouth-watering products

Lutti’s name has been synonymous with innovation and market leadership for almost a century. In 2018, the company is planning to introduce its domestic markets to multiple new products, while also introducing itself to the USA and the Far East

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Thanks to state-of-the art technology, a passionate R&D team and innovative services, it has established long term partnerships with key local and international players. Contact us for advice tailored to your needs.

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tretching back to the late 19th century, the history of Lutti has been one of constant innovation and commitment to high quality products. The sweets and confectionary company’s roots are both French & Belgian, and it has since expanded across Western Europe, Northern Africa, and the Middle East. It is now part of Katjes International, a leading group in Western Europe’s candy market.

Lutti’s Export Director, Jean-Marie Beauvois, was happy to talk to FoodChain magazine about the historical milestones of the company, its products, and the plans it has laid out for the future.

“Lutti has been revolutionising the market ever since its inception. The first toffee we produced was one that was not sticking to teeth and that was considered a groundbreaking innovation at the time,” he begins. “Later on, we launched several other original products, such as Tubble Gum (bubble gum in a tube) and Bubblizz (also known as the fizzy blue bottle) both quite popular in the UK. We were also one of the very first companies that created the fizzy candy concept in the 1970s, and today, one of the first to offer some 3D personalised candies.”

The tradition of innovation in all candy segments (hard boiled, gummies, bubble gum, and chocolates) has been well-kept in present times, as in 2017 Lutti, known

as a Fizz, Fresh & Fun quality provider to all consumer groups, brought out two significant cutting-edge products in the likes of the Smiley Faces and the Mocktail candies. “The Smiley Faces are 3D roundshaped jelly candies that express different moods. What is characteristic about them is that they offer an unorthodox combination of fruit flavour and trendy taste, for example, cherry and popcorn, or strawberry and cotton candy. As to the Mocktails, they are powder-centred candy balls flavoured with virgin cocktail flavours, including mojito, pina colada, and spritz.

They give you the feeling that you are enjoying a refreshing cocktail at a French Riviera café on a sunny day,” Jean-Marie remarks poetically.

Sending the innovative Mocktails out in the market turned out to be yet another demonstration of the impact Lutti’s products have had over different industry segments throughout the years. JeanMarie explains: “In 2017, we replicated something we had done in the 80s with a product called Arlequin, which is still France’s number one fruit-flavoured sweet. When we were introducing it, this particular segment of the market was on a downward spiral, but Arlequin’s appearance reversed the negative trend.

Something similar happened with the Mocktails, because their introduction seems to have revived the candy balls sector. It was one of 2017’s highlights for Lutti,” he comments.

Top brand Innovation is undoubtedly a significant trait of Lutti’s products, but Jean-Marie adds two other notable aspects that contribute to the sweets’ high quality: “The strict selection of our ingredients and the production process itself define us and enable us to reach the quality we are looking for. We want our flavours to be as close as possible to the natural flavour, and we prefer to take three or four days more than our competitors to produce our items, in order to give them a very specific texture and achieve a lasting fizzy effect.”

The diligent process employed at Lutti is visibly paying off, with the company being a top brand in the confectionary market for packet sweets in Belgium, and number two in France and Luxembourg,

Lutti in addition to remaining a recognisable name in countries like Portugal and Norway. “Export represents 30 per cent of our turnover, and 80 per cent of our exports are to other European countries,” Jean-Marie details. “Belgium, France, and Luxembourg are our core markets, so the most significant export destinations for us are the Nordic countries. In the UK and Ireland, we established ourselves in the mid-1970s and the fizzy blue bottle is a strong product for us in the region. The challenge we have faced is that although the British customers have known Lutti’s products for years, they do not always recognise them as such, so we have set out the objective to make them aware that some items, such as the Bubblizz, are actually representatives of the Lutti brand. We have an excellent relationship with our distributor for the UK, BIP UK, which was formerly known as What Next Candy, and we hope to make our brand more popular with the British market in

the near future.” Developing its European ventures is certainly on the agenda for Lutti, but Jean-Marie is also excited to share with us that the company is going to introduce its products to the USA and the Asian markets, specifically Japan and South Korea, having already identified the distributors through which this will happen.

New products Other plans for 2018 include the introduction of ‘SMOOFIZZ’ an amazing soft, fizzy, chewy cube, unwrapped and veggie; and the marketing of the very girly Scoubidou Bijoux (delicious assorted fruity jelly laces and jelly charms that can be made into edible candy necklaces and bracelets) as well as the development of the most iconic LUTTI gummies in a low sugar version in order to adhere to Lutti’s policy of promoting healthy lifestyle and balanced food intake. “We want to have some of our best-selling products available with 40 to 45 per cent less sugar, while

making sure that we do not compromise on quality. We are striving to create the same taste as the rest of our items, while getting rid of unwanted ingredients,” he comments. “This follows the approach we took years ago, when we began to remove ingredients that were seen as controversial, such as titanium dioxide and E120. We also no longer use palm oil, unless absolutely necessary.” The accelerated growth of Lutti in the future is expected to be underpinned further by the multiplication of the company’s marketing efforts. Several new TV campaigns under the Fizz, Fresh & Fun concept have recently been launched in France and Belgium. They are organised around each product’s mascot, and target the teenagers and young adults market, in particular.

Lutti’s reinforced marketing strategy illustrates its incessant business proactivity.

It looks like there is a sweet future ahead of the company. D www.lutti.fr

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Certifying

quality

Relying on versatile staff, Kiwa Agri Food, a subsidiary of Kiwa, has established itself as a leading food product certifier in Europe. Anticipating further growth, the company plans to target the North American market in 2018

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iwa is a Dutch-based Training, Inspection and Certification (TIC) company that operates within numerous industries, including food, feed and farm industries, water and gas supply infrastructure, construction materials, health and care industries, civil engineering, chemical industries, tourism and recreation, transport and mobility.

FoodChain spoke with Kiwa Agri Food’s Food Scheme Manager Jonathan Troth who took us through the history of the company, its activities, as well as the challenges and the opportunities the firm has encountered in recent years.

“Kiwa Agri Food was Kiwa PAI until August 2017,” Jonathan starts, “which was formed when Kiwa purchased Product Authentication Inspectorate (PAI) in 2013. We specialise in secondand third-party food safety and integrity audits, and certification in the food, feed and farming industries,” he continues, stating that the company operates in the food and feed supply chain, from farm through to consumer food products. “Our main areas of food safety audit activity are the meat industry, brewing, millers and bakers, dairies and food processors.”

Going into detail about the company activities, he adds; “The main standards we audit against are the British Retail Consortium Global Standards for food, storage and distribution, agents and brokers and packaging industries. We undertake supplier audits for two major retailers and meat supply chain audits for the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).”

Simultaneously, Kiwa Agri Food works on multiple audit schemes covering the supply of animal feed materials, transport of animal feedstuffs and a fertiliser security scheme. “In addition to auditing,” Jonathan says, “we undertake bespoke and certified training in food safety, HACCP, internal auditing and food fraud vulnerability.”

While Kiwa’s global headquarters are based in the town of Rijswijk in the western Netherlands, Kiwa Agri Food operates from Harrogate in the UK, with the company’s headquarters in the country located in Cheltenham.

“Kiwa employs nearly 5000 staff and operates in 50 countries, and is a top 20 TIC company with a turnover of over 500 million euros,” Jonathan tells us. He also reported that Kiwa Agri Food undertakes

Kiwa Agri Food around 1500 food audits, 3000 feed sector audits and 1000 farm sector audits per year in the UK and overseas.

Development plans Jonathan identifies quality of service and the competency of staff as the company’s core strengths. “We view auditing as a customer service, not an enforcement activity, so rather than auditors being ‘officious’, our auditors are ‘human’ and work with sites to assess compliance competently, thoroughly and fairly,” he says, summarising the company’s philosophy.

Speaking of the challenges the firm faces, he focuses not on the economic conditions, but on the difficulties in recruiting qualified staff. He opens up on the topic; “Our strategy over the last few years has been to employ some auditors, and use a mix of employed and contractors. It is a long and expensive process training auditors from scratch, typically up to six months from start to finish, getting sufficient approvals to become a useful asset. We prefer people with a good range of food industry experience in several sectors, such as meat, fish, dairy and bakery, as this gives them a wider range of approval as an auditor.”

Nevertheless, Jonathan speaks positively of the growth Kiwa Agri Food has experienced, singling out the company’s high level of customer service, its prompt communication with customers, and its reliability and competence. “A lot of the new business we attract is generated by reputation rather than marketing campaigns,” he reveals. “We have started some promotional work to highlight Kiwa’s new image, as Kiwa is not well known in the UK food sector, although the former PAI was a trusted brand.”

It seems that getting the word out about the rebranding of PAI to Kiwa will be among the short-term priorities the company has set itself. But what are the other areas it will focus on in the future? “We are increasing the proportion of employed auditors to ensure reliability and consistency to our client base,” Jonathan explains. As Kiwa Agri Food operates in the service industry, he recognises people and IT

Kiwa Agri Food office

as key resources, so improving the work force skills and expanding their range of audit approvals, along with investing

in IT systems and infrastructure is at the forefront of company’s plans.

Including new types of services to its portfolio is another point on Kiwa Agri Food’s development agenda. “We are offering training and client support services,” Jonathan divulges, “but we are doing this under a separate company to ensure our audits and auditors remain impartial, as required by our accreditation requirements.”

Jonathan describes the certification industry in the UK as ‘very competitive’, but by offering excellent value for money, Kiwa Agri Food has experienced year-on-year growth of around 15 per cent. Reviewing 2017 for the company, he informed us that Kiwa Agri Food has expanded its portfolio of client companies into France, Belgium and Australia, and one of the main goals for 2018 would be to make a breakthrough on the North American market. D www.kiwa.co.uk

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Exceeding expectations

The largest multi-principal company of its kind in Guyana, Massy Distribution (Guyana) Inc. helps to provide the country and its customers with worldclass consumer products

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Massy Distribution (Guyana) Inc.

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Distributed by: Massy Trading Guyana Manufactured by Langston Roach Industries Ltd. 106 Saddle Road, san Juan, Trinidad, West Indies. Tel.: (868) 674-0216/ Website: www.lritnt.com.

Massy Distribution (Guyana) Inc.

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ocated in northern South America, bordering the north Atlantic Ocean between Venezuela and Suriname, lies the country of Guyana. The only English-speaking country of South America, Guyana is rich in natural resources such as gold, bauxite, rice, sugar, oil and gas, and pristine rainforests. It has also been the home of Massy Distribution (Guyana) Inc. (Massy) for over 100 years, and counting.

“We began operations in 1914, then as Geddes Grant (Guyana) Ltd, rebranding ourselves as Massy Distribution (Guyana) Inc. in 2014,” explains Chief Executive Officer, Navin Thakur. “Today the company is one of eight operating Massy companies in Guyana with the Head Office, Massy Holdings Ltd, based in Trinidad and Tobago, with two operating divisions of our own; Massy Trading and Massy Distribution. From our locations in Demerara, Berbice and Essequibo, we are engaged in the distribution of quality food and other consumer foods, and pharmaceutical products to consumers via supermarkets, wholesalers and the retail trade. We are also the authorised dealer for Case IH Agriculture, New Holland Agriculture, Dondi Spa and Walpeco Equipment, which we support with technical and after sales services.

Additionally, we have a spare parts department, which is focused on the upkeep of machinery, including tractors, harvestors and implements.”

Further benefits A fast-paced marketing and distribution company that employs a team of 250 employees, Massy Distribution prides

‘

Given the ever-evolving nature of our product offering, we are also constantly reviewing how best to capture new customers and how we can service them in an efficient manner itself on striving to provide its customers with positive experiences at all times.

“We are the largest multi-principal distributor in Guyana,” Navin continues.

“Over the years, the company has earned a reputation for its ability to positively represent quality brands from both local and international suppliers.

It has been as a result of this, together with the development of our people, the diversification of our ‘basket of

goods’, continuous improvement projects with our distribution operations and the introduction of a Warehouse Management System, that we have been able to capitalise on growth conditions within the market.”

The aforementioned advancements have helped create further benefits for the many different businesses and companies that Massy considers to be its business partners. These include the likes of Colgate-Palmolive Co., Fonterra Americas Brands, General Mills Marketing Inc; Nestle Caribbean Inc., GK Foods and Services Limited; Brasil Foods AS; The Kraft Heinz Company; Modelez International Holdings, Weetabix Limited, United Biscuits, Unilever Caribbean Limited, Kimberly Clark Puerto Rico, 3M Interamerica Inc; Mars Wrigley Confectionary Company; Bayer Health Care; Stansfeld Scott Inc.; Les Laboraties Servier; Norma Chemicals, Nova Group; SC Johnson de Puerto Rico and Langston Roach Industries to name a few.

“With each of these respected names, we have worked extremely hard to establish strong relationships that are built upon the highest levels of professionalism, open communication, mutual trust and respect,” Navin enthuses.

Extensive reach Such has been the success of this approach to doing business that Massy’s customer database today numbers almost 2100 different partners. These are serviced by the company’s fleet of

Langston Roach Industries Limited Langston Roach Industries Limited is the premiere indigenous manufacturer and distributor of household and janitorial cleaners and personal care products in Trinidad and Tobago. The company also sells its products throughout the English-speaking Caribbean through distributors.

Existing for 33 years, this company has strived to deliver excellence and value to its customers by providing quality products at affordable prices through an extensive range of household and industrial cleaners and personal care products. To supplement its product offering it procures and distributes an extensive range of complimentary products including mops and brooms, garbage bags, janitorial equipment and dispensers, bathroom tissues, hand towels, napkins and gloves and the list keeps growing.

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Massy Distribution (Guyana) Inc. 45 go-to-market vehicles, which handle both dry and refrigerated goods, and its considerable warehousing capacity, which totals more than 1.7 million cubic feet. The strategic location of its facilities affords it extensive distribution reach, while its newest facility in Starlite Square is Guyana’s largest and most modern of its kind.

“Across our warehousing operations we have automated processes in place for inventory management, product returns, and the receiving, picking and delivery of goods,” Navin adds.

“Each of our sales people is assigned a group of customers and products, and are equipped with tablets for the processing of orders, which we have found to be more efficient and to reduce errors when it comes to product code identification. Once the ordering process is completed the device is then synced to our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, where orders are automatically uploaded.”

location, the volume of shopper traffic and so forth.

“Our GTM is constantly under review, allowing us to identify opportunities within specific retail environments and to seize these, maximising growth, in the process. Given the ever-evolving nature of our product offering, we are also constantly reviewing how best to capture new customers and how we can service them in an efficient manner.

It is also thanks to our GTM strategy that we have resourced a fully outfitted sales team to ensure that we adequately service our customer database.”

Looking back at recent achievements for the company, 2017 was a year that saw Massy pick up a number of industry awards and certifications. In April, it was the recipient of the ‘Safety Award’ from the National Advisory Council on Safety & Health (NACOSH), while in June it not only transitioned and obtained certification to the new

ISO 9001:2015 standard, but was also praised by The National Blood Transfusion Service, in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and the Ministry of Public Health, for its donation of more than 250 units between 2015 and 2017. Most recently, in October, it was also proud to receive the ‘Gold Quality Award for Service’ from the Guyana National Bureau of Standards.

“Our focus for 2018 is to continue to build upon our success by expanding our distribution reach and coverage, adding new product lines and increasing our warehousing infrastructure,” Navin concludes. “At the same time, we will ensure that we remain committed to investing in the development of our people and that we push forward with our safety standards, with a goal of achieving zero harm to both our people and the environment.” D www.massydistribution.com

Seizing opportunities In order to handle the large product offering that Massy is tasked with distributing, the company has devised a detailed and focused Go-To-Market (GTM) structure to ensure cost effective delivery to its customers. “We categorise our customers into six different sectors, these being supermarkets, wholesalers, retail convenience, pharmacies, retail municipals and DT retail businesses,” Navin says. “We also break down each customer profile based on certain criteria, such as the specific profile/ size of their account, their geographical

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Caked in class From humble street corner beginnings, via a brush with primetime television royalty, Magnolia Bakery has grown into a global brand, bringing classic American baked goods to customers throughout the world

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Magnolia Bakery

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Magnolia Bakery

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t is said that a good many of us will get our ‘15 minutes of fame’ at some point in our lifetime. For Magnolia Bakery, all it took was 30 seconds of television screen time in 2000 to kick start the considerable growth of what was, at the time, a single store operation located on a quiet street corner in the heart of New York City’s West Village.

The 30 seconds in question occurred during an episode of HBO’s Sex and the City, which featured two of the series’ leading ladies eating cupcakes outside of Magnolia. With that, the bakery became ingrained in popular culture and the lines that quickly started forming from its entrance would be made up of those consumers that helped spark a global cupcake craze that created a multi-billion-dollar industry.

Prior to its dalliance with cable television, Magnolia Bakery was the

‘

brainchild of high school friends turned business partners, Jennifer Appel and Allysa Torey, who opened up their dream bake shop in July 1996, initially functioning as a small neighbourhood bakery selling products made in small batches on home kitchen equipment.

Following Jennifer’s departure from the business in 1999, it was then in 2006 that Allysa sold her incredibly popular business to its now CEO Steve Abrams and his wife Tyra.

Global expansion

At the time, Steve was enjoying a fruitful career within the construction industry, yet it was his background in the world of food that allowed for a smooth transition and helped him to quickly identify the potential of the Magnolia brand. “Since the day we took over the original Magnolia Bakery we have employed a very detailed,

Over the course of the last decade we have become experts in managing our activities correctly so as to maintain the same taste profile across all of our stores slow growth philosophy,” Steve begins.

“We immediately set about dissecting the bakery in order to distil the essence of what made Magnolia so great and interesting. We recognised that, in part due to its size, the atmosphere the store created allowed it to become something of a theatre experience for the customer where they could see and smell amazing, fresh products being baked and prepared instore, all the while being surrounded by nostalgic, pastelcoloured décor. It was this concept and value proposition that we decided we wanted to scale up and market on an international basis.”

The global expansion of the Magnolia brand commenced with the opening of a store within Bloomingdale’s at the Dubai Mall. “Initially, this was really seen as a fun opportunity to run with and see how things would develop, but what it did was create an enormous amount of interest in the brand overseas, leading to a high volume of incoming requests for franchise opportunities,” Steve continues. “Since then, we have become extremely well entrenched within the region, with locations today in Dubai, as well as Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Doha, to name a few. Next came a

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

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period of growth in Asia, including stores in Seoul, South Korea. In the meantime, further stores have appeared in Mexico City, and domestically in Chicago and Los Angeles.”

Diverse range While Magnolia Bakery did commence life as a cupcake centric operation, it was never just a one product wonder, boasting a diverse line of other products.

“Although we have succeeded greatly in riding the worldwide cupcake craze, we never wanted our notoriety to be gained in that one space alone,” Steve explains.

“Therefore, what we have done is work very hard to raise the profile of our many other product lines. Our second largest line is our banana pudding, which possesses a truly fervent following of people that are crazy about the product,

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while the 230-250 different recipes we have in our pocket also include a range of cheesecakes, cakes, blondies and brownies, cookies, pies and icebox desserts. At the same time, we work closely with our local partners around the world to cater for the demand for various local delicacies, which we can put our own Magnolia spin on.”

The brand’s local partners that play a vital role in ensuring that Magnolia’s products maintain their quality and consistency whether they are being served in New York or Chicago, or in Mexico City or Doha. “Over the course of the last decade we have become experts in managing our activities correctly so as to maintain the same taste profile across all of our stores,” Steve points out. “Sometimes achieving this requires the use of different ingredients, which

Magnolia Bakery is why we have head bakers who are prepared to go out to certain markets to test for quality and consistency. It is this level of dedication that has allowed us to maintain the reputation that the Magnolia brand has become known for wherever it exists.”

In addition to the success that the Magnolia brand has achieved, the brand’s popularity has also provided Steve with the opportunity to supersize his philanthropic efforts, which is a source of great personal importance.

From daily donations to local food pantries to international relief efforts, over the years Magnolia has partnered with the likes of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Autism Speaks, the Michael J. Fox Foundation and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, giving away between $2.5 million and $3 million worth of product in the process.

Brand development As this programme of ‘Giving Back’ continues into 2018, so too does the brand’s path towards thoughtful, appropriate growth. “This year we will begin looking to take on growth money, acknowledging the fact that we strongly believe that we have a solid platform for exponential growth laid down before us,” Steve adds. “With the brand in a strong place, we can now start looking for international partners who can support Magnolia’s growth both domestically and internationally.

“We feel that said partners will find that this is an exciting time for the brand, with new markets including Brazil, Turkey, Malaysia and the Philippines coming online in 2018,” Steve adds. “Furthermore, we have two corporately-owned stores that we are opening domestically in Washington D.C.’s Union Station and Faneuil Hall in Boston, both holding prime spots in high profile, high traffic locations, and we will continue to support the growth of our existing franchisees. After all, it is because of these individuals, together with all of the amazing, dedicated and enthusiastic people that make up Magnolia, that we have been able to execute our vision so successfully.” D www.magnoliabakery.com

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The lap of

luxury

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AccorHotels

A worldwide leader when it comes to hospitality, AccorHotels’ programme of expansion and targeted acquisitions today sees it renewing its push to be at the forefront of the luxury and upscale segment

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hen AccorHotels announced in December 2015 that it had signed an agreement with the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) of Saudi Arabia and Oxford Properties for the acquisition of FRHI Holdings Ltd (FRHI), parent of the Fairmont, Raffles and Swissôtel hotel brands, it marked an exciting new phase for the now 50year-old group.

With the purchase of FRHI’s portfolio of 155 hotels and resorts, located in 34 countries across five continents, AccorHotels cemented its intention to create a worldwide leader in the luxury and upscale hospitality segment, adding its brands to a list that already included the likes of Sofitel and Pullman. The deal also allowed the group to strengthen its human capital with FRHI’s talented global workforce, which has a proven record in operating and marketing luxury hotels, and in

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turn meeting the evolving expectations of their clientele. FRHI’s portfolio includes legendary properties such as The Savoy in London, The Plaza Hotel in New York, Raffles Singapore, Shanghai’s Fairmont Peace Hotel, Le Royal Monceau – Raffles Paris and Swissôtel The Stamford in Singapore.

Dynamic organisation The history of the AccorHotels group dates back to 1967, when friends Paul Dubrule and Gérard Pélisson opened their first Novotel in France. At the time, theirs was a business model that few believed would translate into longterm success, however it was through the pair’s creativity and boldness that the boundaries of what was possible in the hospitality industry moved dramatically. The result of the pair’s efforts is a group that today owns over 20 different brands, operates some 4200 hotels and employs approximately 250,000 ‘hospitality experts’.

AccorHotels One of many such experts to join the AccorHotels fold following its acquisition of FRHI is Martin B. Jones, whose 35 years of international expertise as a food and beverage leader sees him today holding the position of Vice President, Food & Beverage, Europe – Luxury Brands. “As a group, AccorHotels is a dynamic organisation and one that has never been afraid to take risks,” he begins. “The CEO of the core group has a clear vision when it comes to hospitality and is always looking at how we can grow value by diversifying our offering. Central to that is an ongoing programme of expansion, and it is this that led to the purchase of FRHI.”

Food strategy With said purchase, AccorHotels has also bought into FRHI’s unrivalled track record when it comes to food and beverage services. “AccorHotels has

always recognised food and beverage as being a vital part of its business, what with it making up some 40 per cent of its revenues,” Martin explains. “What it is striving to do now is put a renewed focus behind this area of the business, developing new ideas and concepts in order to solidify the group as a world leader in this space.”

This focus comes at a time of ever-greater competition in the food space and this has spurred the group on to modify its approach in order to be more competitive. “Our efforts have turned somewhat so that we are not just fixated on the hotel guests alone, but also on attracting the local community into our restaurants,” Martin adds. “Our aim is to establish these locations as being integral fixtures of the areas in which they are found as we know that if we can attract local customers to our restaurants the hotel guests will follow.

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A leader in precision manufacturing of quality products for more than 40 years

www.

worldwide.com

S. KIAN SENG SDN BHD ( ) was establish in 1974 as a furniture business in a modest 450m² factory producing only office chairs. Today, Group has grown into a globally renowned, multinational company with a total floor space of 55,000m² and is equipped with warehousing solutions. Servicing nine specific sectors under its own branding, Group has every solution for small to large projects. has over 20,000 project references globally under the group, while SKS Hospitality has become the top manufacturer and specialist brand in the HORECA space. Equipped with the widest and most complete range, furnishes hotels from rooms to BOH, FOH, banquet, and public spaces. also adopts the latest quality and environmental practices in its manufacturing. ’factory is made up of semi and fully automated machineries that allow customisation at its very best.Equipped with leading manufacturing capabilities and technology to fabricate metal, wood, stone, acrylic and glass, Group is position to be the one stop solution manufacturer. Coupled with cutting edge technologies and pneumatic controls to increase precision, mass production can be run seamlessly and accurately. An annual reinvestment into the most advance capital equipment, is able to maintain its international status as a full fledged manufacturing power house that is able to produce the latest designs and material finishes.

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‘

...we are already starting to see the benefits of this work with those customers who know they can get a great breakfast often being encouraged to come back to our hotels for other meals throughout the day

“At ground level, we are currently concentrating on getting the basics right, making sure that everything we do we do to the best of our ability. This has begun with the re-rolling out of our breakfast across our brands, where we are focused on delivering quality and authenticity with our produce. We have also done a lot of work in responding to changing consumer trends, for example introducing plant-based foods, vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free items, and we are already starting to see the benefits of this work with those customers who know they can get a great breakfast often being encouraged to come back to our hotels for other meals throughout the day.”

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To use an old saying, it seems clear that the Luxury Brands division of AccorHotels is making sure it has all of its ducks in a row when it comes to ensuring the consistency and quality of what it serves across its various restaurants. “In addition to this,” Martin says, “we are also investing considerable time and effort developing new concepts and programmes within the food and beverage space. At the same time, we have a big focus on hygiene, and are working to improve our meeting and banquet spaces in order to cater correctly to today’s consumers.”

What this approach does is guarantee that AccorHotels remains in touch with the world as it is today and with what its clientele wants from its hotels and restaurants. With new hotels that fall under the group’s banner opening almost every week, Martin and his team are unlikely to run out of opportunities to do things that are new and exciting with food and beverages anytime soon. D www.accorhotels.group

AccorHotels

www.foodchainmagazine.com 75

The

Anglo-French

Connection Bistrot Pierre has been serving its charming take on Anglo-French cuisine since 1994 and this brainchild of childhood friends John Whitehead and Rob Beacham has now grown to 22 restaurants around Britain

Adam Townsley - Executive Chef at Bistrot Pierre

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I

n recent times, there has been a massive push towards a fusion of French and British cookery, a style that has been popularised by numerous chefs on TV. Various independent newcomers and chains alike have taken this approach, but one that has had particular success has been Bistrot Pierre. Established in 1994 by school friends John Whitehead and Rob Beacham, Executive Chef Adam Townsley recalls how it all began: “Originally it was a small brasserie, working at around 40 to 60 covers. It

was mostly classic bistrot dishes, built on passion and a love of France.�

Since then, this Midlands eaterie has become a nationwide brand, with 22 restaurants across Britain, offering a new take on favourite dishes such as duck confit with cassoulet, as well as a more Gallic take on British staples like rhubarb crumble.

Cuisine The philosophy behind the company is about building on iconic recipes, albeit with a few added twists.

Bistrot Pierre

‘

It’s about staying true to the company’s values: satisfying customers and delivering quality food, in a fantastic environment, with a really friendly, warm and welcoming service

“It’s very much built on classic bistrot favourites; moules marinières, steak frites and crème brûlée, terrines, just to name a few examples,” said Adam.

“There is also that multi-cultural element you get in Britain, throwing in influences from around the world to further develop the range of flavours involved.

“Provenance is truly important to us and as a result a lot of cheese, cured meats and so forth are sourced from France. Additionally, local British

suppliers are also sought out, so there is the balance between the two,” continued Adam.

As any agent will tell you, the location of any commercial operation is crucial and, in the case of a restaurant, there are a few factors that can affect the final decision.

“When looking for a new site, ideally we look for an iconic building, preferably in a busy spot in a town or city with heavy footfall. Our sites tend to be somewhere with a great deal of culture and interest, but somewhere that may not currently offer a great deal of options in terms of eating out.

“We like to be able to offer something new, creating a client base which may not have previously had a quality dining option. Picking the right site is much like creating the perfect stage for the main event which, in this case, is the food,” he added.

In terms of a showcase, a great example is the bi-monthly six course Soiree Gastronomique. Dishes are wide ranging and include a freshly baked crottin de chèvre, cassoulet de moules, 21 day aged bavette steak, followed by a dessert and a cheese board.

Adam can pinpoint the exact appeal of this regular event: “It’s simply fantastic value!

“It’s a chance to showcase new dishes combined with classic favourites in a six course tasting menu format.

The concept is quintessentially French, a great way of providing a fabulous feast at a reasonable price point and, at that value, it really is giving something back to the customers,” he proclaims.

Drive Adam has a crucial role in the organisation: “I am also the head of development, looking after a range of duties, including menu writing, recipe design and culinary strategy.”

He is part of an impressive workforce of 750 employees, ranging from waiting staff, through to the chefs in the kitchens, not to mention the group’s management staff. Adam is insistent about what he expects from anyone looking to come on board.

“A passion for food is key, if you don’t have that then you are in the wrong industry, it doesn’t matter if you are the front of house manager or the head chef a passion for food is vital! It is possible to guide people, teaching them skills and

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technical competency, but you can’t teach someone to be passionate, you either feel it or you don’t.”

Solid foundations There are genuine concerns about the environmental impact that the hospitality industry is inflicting on the environment – but Bistrot Pierre has a firm commitment to reducing wastage, something Adam is strongly insistent about.

He said: “Throwing usable goods in the bin is not only commercial suicide but morally and professionally irresponsible, which is why we structure our menus to offer vast variety whilst also minimising the use of individual ingredients.

“Dumping lots of plastic and cardboard into landfill also isn’t sustainable, which is why our recycling policy is also very strict.”

It is this driven approach which has resulted in the group achieving an annual turnover of £30 million.

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“It’s taken a great deal of hard work to get to where we are today. You don’t get something for nothing nowadays and we’re committed to providing the best possible service, quality of food and dining experience for our customers – which doesn’t come without putting in the work.

“It’s about staying true to the company’s values: satisfying customers and delivering quality food, in a fantastic environment, with a really friendly, warm and welcoming service.”

As 2018 begins, Adam is looking toward the New Year.

“At the moment, it is about scouting locations as there will be five or six new sites opening over the next 12 months.

Bistrot Pierre is making some great noise in the industry – and we’d like to maintain this momentum into the New Year and beyond.”

Finally, Adam summarises the ethos that will keep the company going and

Bistrot Pierre developing as it further spreads around the country: “Our business is based on high quality, classic bistrot cooking being served at an excellent value for money and this is an idea we have always kept at our core. We ensure that each of our sites has its own character and maintains the idea of honest, authentic service and provides diners with a bistrot experience they’ll remember.

“Bistrot Pierre has a bright future as it has been built on solid foundations, forged with quality-driven customer focus and we have no intention of changing that.” D www.bistrotpierre.co.uk

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

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Hitting the big time In the space of 20 years, Norwegian sandwich and sub chain Big Bite has established itself across the length of the country, and is well on its way to becoming Scandinavia’s number one ‘food on the move’ company

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Big Bite

Eigil Almenning - Chief Executive Officer

B

y keeping consumers’ appetites satisfied, developing products at attractive price points, and developing a range of menu options that encourage choice and creativity, the sandwich and sub store franchise industry has managed to create a business model that is able to not only weather varying economic conditions, but excel in spite of them. Examples of brands that have prospered thanks

to the above approach can be found in markets all over the world, and in Norway the leading name is Big Bite.

In 2017, the company celebrated its 20-year anniversary, and there can be no doubt that it has come a long way since it began life with its first outlet opening within the City Syd shopping mall in Trondheim in 1997. “From our initial activities in the Trondheim area, we quickly began to spread our wings, moving into the Bergen region and then growing to the point where today we have 57 stores located throughout the country,” explains Big Bite’s Chief Executive Officer, Eigil Almenning.

One thing that has remained unchanged over the last two decades is the original Big Bite concept, which is to focus on simple and effective solutions for selling fast and affordable food to people on the move. “Big Bite has been, and will always be, about offering freshly made subs and accompanying products, made only with the best quality bread, which is baked to our own recipe, made in local

bakeries and delivered to our stores each morning,” Eigil enthuses.

Central to the appeal of the Big Bite brand is its motto of ‘freshly made for you’. “The concept of being able to personalise one’s food is very important in today’s world,” Eigil continues. “We work hard to provide as many menu and ingredient options as possible so that our customers can tailor their order to exactly what they want. Fewer people, in this day and age, wants things forced upon them and this plays well into the way we do business.”

Menu development Said trends also mean that the company can evolve its menu as consumer tastes and trends change. For example, there has been a recent rise in demand for Asian-style flavours amongst Big Bite’s customers and this has been met with the introduction of new spices and sauces. Similarly, the company has been quick to respond to other growth opportunities, introducing a ‘burger sub’ to tap into the popular

Photography by Øystein Eugene Hermstad

www.foodchainmagazine.com 81

‘

craft burger market and expanding its range of vegetarian options. The added ingredient, as it were, is that it takes each of these trends and adds its own ‘Big Bite twist’.

Support system

Photography by Øystein Eugene Hermstad

“Speed is also something that is of vital importance for a ‘food on the move’ concept, and we know it should never really take more than two minutes to arrive at a counter, order and be on your way with a delicious fresh sub,” Eigil adds. “In more recent times we have been looking to utilise technology to further enhance this capability, launching our Big Bite APP in 2017, and we will be actively researching pre-ordering and pick-up-point options in the coming months. We will achieve all this while also having the greatest confidence in the quality

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Eigil is keen to highlight the potential for expansion that still exists for Big Bite, with gaps in the market in a number of big cities that it plans to fill

of our ingredients. By controlling our own distribution channels, we ensure that we have full oversight of the entire food chain, from point of origin until it reaches our stores.”

Like many of the big players in the sandwich and sub store industry, Big Bite has successfully utilised the franchise model when it comes

to expansion, with all but three of its stores being run by dedicated franchisees. “We have found great success in entrusting our stores to local owners who know their markets and their customers, and are able to create a more personal atmosphere to their stores,” Eigil continues. “One thing that does differentiate us from our competitors in terms of franchising, however, is in the support system we provide. Through this, it is Big Bite itself that covers the costs and complexities involved in instore investment and improvements. This allows our owners to focus on the most important thing and that is provide our customers with the great quality food they want.”

Even with the solid growth that the company has experienced over the last 20 years, Eigil is keen to highlight the potential for expansion that still exists

Big Bite for Big Bite, with gaps in the market in a number of big cities that it plans to fill and strong relationships that continue to thrive with partners such as several of Norway’s largest shopping mall operators.

“The goal that we are presently working towards is the opening of around eight-to-ten stores in 2018,” Eigil says. “Meanwhile, when it comes to sales growth, we have a target of achieving organic growth of seven per cent and companywide growth of 12 per cent for the same year. These are targets that we consider to be very realistic if we are able to improve our speed of service, embrace digital technology, and stay in touch with current tastes and trends, all while we continue to do the thing that we have proven to be so strong in over the years, which is providing fresh, personalised food that everyone can enjoy.” D www.bigbite.no

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Brewing success

With roots extending back to the 18th century, today Harvey’s Brewery (Harvey’s) is renowned across southern England for its great beer, fine wine and sound business principles 84 www.foodchainmagazine.com

P

riding itself on serving its local area, nearly all of Harvey’s Brewery (Harvey’s) business is undertaken within 60km of the brewery. However, the business has also branched out through distribution channels and is now being stocked in restaurants such as Bills, helping to

introduce its delicious and interesting beers to a new audience further afield.

Today Harvey’s employs over 75 people in the brewery, but remains a family business, with a member of the eighth generation still firmly involved with the operation. The term ‘eighth generation’ gives a good indication of

Harvey’s Brewery

the long history that Harvey’s can look back upon - records dating back to the 1790s are where the first mentions of a John Harvey and wine trading are reported in Sussex. Over the decades that followed its foundation, the company went through not only growth and development, but also some

tumultuous times. However, thanks to some critical business decisions and inspired recruitment undertaken in the 1920s, Harvey’s survival and long-term prosperity were assured, and the firm revived its fortunes.

It is primarily its traditional cask ales that have made a name for Harvey’s

throughout the south east of England - these ales are unpasteurised and are known as the ‘champagne of beers’.

Sussex Best is the company’s most famous beer, and it is described as ‘a superbly balanced bitter with prominent hop character’. Finest Maris Otter malted barley is supplemented with a dash

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of Crystal malt for balance, while the hops are a blend of four different local varieties, to give a distinctive hoppy finish. The beer has won the Champion Best Bitter of Britain title at CAMRA’s Great British Beers Festival twice, recognising the success of Harvey’s approach of selecting only the finest raw materials and combining them with unique ‘local’ conditions, and creating the final beer within a traditional brew-house environment. Alongside Sussex Best, Harvey’s cask ale range also includes Armada Ale, Wild Hop, IPA, Dark Mild and Old Ale, as well as a range of Seasonal Draught Brews – each available for roughly a month.

Alongside cask beers, Harvey’s also offers keg beers, with these being reintroduced to the range in 2016 after a 15-year absence. “We wanted to make a range of new brews that people wouldn’t necessarily expect to see from Harvey’s but that still maintained our

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reputation for producing quality beers,” spokesman Bob Trimm explained. Two beers, Gold Bier and Malt Brown, were the beginning of the new keg offering, with Black Stout and Wharf IPA also now added alongside them. “As a company with a 226-year history we’ve always kept evolving, while ensuring we maintained our integrity and passion for producing world-beating beers,” added Bob.

Investing in the future The investment in the kegging line was made alongside additional spending on the in-house bottling line, which means that 26 of Harvey’s beers are now available in bottled format. While the beers’ taste is what makes them exceptional, in order stand out on the shelf and tempt customers to put them to the test, Harvey’s has created particularly eye-catching labels, which have become renowned for their

individual designs. In a clever move to appeal to beer fans, the company is now even able to create bespoke labels for customers who wish to custom design a beer label for themselves, a loved one or a particular event.

Indeed, special events are an area where Harvey’s is adding value to its business, and as part of this philosophy it has created its own Harvey’s ‘Hop Bar’ mobile bar units, which are now available to hire for events and functions. The Hop Bars are finished to an extremely high specification with oak topped bar and shelving throughout, and all dispense equipment built into the units.

It is clear that beer is at the heart of Harvey’s operation, but it is by no means the only string to the company’s bow. It also owns 49 public houses in London and the South East operated under tenancy, and while its Tied Estate Houses are run independently, they benefit from Harvey’s reputation within the community. Harvey’s thinks of its tenants as freelance ambassadors, and has expectations that the highest quality standards will be maintained at all times.

The business is also a Fine Wine merchant, selling a selection of carefully sourced wines from around the world.

In fact, its origins are in the wine trade, and following two centuries of unbroken experience in this area, Harvey’s today offers wines from some of the most prestigious traditional estates of Europe and an excellent range of bottles from around £6.

It sources small amounts of wellcrafted wine direct from a small

Harvey’s Brewery producer and endeavours to find stocks of characteristic local styles or regional grape varieties. This philosophy means it can offer great value (at every price level) because the wine comes directly from the winemaker without the profit margins of ‘middle men’.

Finally, Harvey’s also wholesales factored drinks brands to the licensed trade, and sells its ales, wines and a wide selection of premium and unusual spirits through its shop in Lewes and online.

Multiple award winners The Harvey’s motto is that ‘we are only as good as our last pint’ – given the company’s string of award wins in 2017, it seems a safe assumption that its last pint was extremely good! In September, Harvey’s was named ‘Best UK Brewer’ at the International Beer Challenge finals, and a month earlier it gained seven awards at the World Beer Awards

2017, as well as five awards, including four golds and one silver, at the British Bottler’s Institute 2017 competition.

Furthermore, in July, Harvey’s and Burning Sky Brewery’s collaborative brew, Anglezarke IPA, was awarded CAMRA’s ‘Beer of the Festival’ accolade at the South Downs Beer and Cider Festival 2017.

This impressive list of references is a reflection of the skills of the team at Harvey’s, with individual members also receiving recognition – for example, Joint Managing Director and Master Brewer Miles Jenner was installed as Master of the Brewers Company in 2015, which is a highly prestigious award, and as Miles stated at the time, is a ‘tremendous honour’.

Given its history, team and achievements, Harvey’s credentials as an extraordinary brewing company cannot be denied. As a member of the British Beer & Pub Association

(BBPA) and the Independent Family Brewers of Britain (IFBB) it upholds not only its own standards but recognised industry standards. It even has a Royal connection, with a visit from the Queen in 2013 highlighting its importance to the UK market. This reputation is continuously maintained by a vigilant machinery replacement policy and a dedication to continuous improvement – for example, Harvey’s is looking to move further forward into the canned beer market in the future.

After an extensive rebranding exercise in 2016, Harvey’s is set to enter 2018 with a solidly established new look, and a passion and drive to continue to deliver outstanding products to both existing customers and a new generation of drinkers. Proud of its heritage, but with a modern and forward looking approach, Harvey’s is looking forward to its next two centuries of brewing. D www.harveys.org.uk

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Your

port for

business

Having celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017, the Port of Hanstholm is about to undergo a major programme of expansion

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T

he Port of Hanstholm handles 400 tonnes of fish every day, but at one point it almost didn’t exist. This was first mooted as a potential project as far back as 1917, though it would be years before it became operational.

A committee in 1951 declared the area ‘unsuitable’, only for a new committee to come in four years later and reverse the decision. Partially, this was the result of model experiments conducted by Professor Lungdren from the Technical University of Denmark, proving the idea was a viable option.

After seven years of construction, it was finally ready in 1967.

Today, it is celebrating its 50th anniversary. CEO and Managing Director Niels Clemensen is happy to have witnessed the area go from strength to strength, becoming a crucial part of the Danish fishing industry: “The biggest customers are fishermen, there are also 22 processing plants for fish and fishmeal. This is the main product, and major focus for the area at the moment.”

However, this is just the start of the story. In 2018, a massive expansion project will begin. It is not simply a cosmetic upgrade, as the changes could potentially massively increase the size and the amount of boats coming in: “A new entrance to the harbour will be constructed. Around here there are very high winds, but there is also the advantage of being close to areas such as the North Sea. Access is currently affected by big waves and strong currents, so this will allow for a calmer way in.”

There are also moves to increase the capacity, vital in attracting larger vessels: “The entrance is going to be higher, around 11 metres, and with the additional backland it will be around ten metres in depth. Recently, there has been a trend towards larger trawlers and boats, so the aim is to adjust everything accordingly,” Niels explains.

It is not just the fishermen that benefit from these activities. In Denmark, 40 per cent of its electrical energy comes from wind power, and Hanstholm also

Port of Hanstholm directly assists the manufacture of wind turbines, performing as a base for loading and unloading parts for Østerild, one of the world’s largest turbine test centres. Niels is happy to confirm that as well as assisting, the port is also taking advantage of this technology to become more energy efficient: “There are three new windmills that will harness energy from the high winds, that will be in place by the end of the year. There is also a move towards reducing waste in the factories.”

Premium With rivals in England, Belgium and the Netherlands, it can sometimes be difficult to stand out. Niels believes that being home to one of Europe’s largest fish auctions gives it the edge over its competitors: “It is known for high prices, so naturally that attracts a crowd.

The goal is to keep the value of the commodity up, and to do that it is run in a traditional way, so that a buyer can look you in the eye when you sell the fish, as well as being able to physically inspect the catch before bidding on it.

With all the processing plants it means more bidders, further upping prices.”

Niels recognises that even with the success of the auctions and regular fishing, long term growth will require some diversification. There has been a move toward attracting a ‘service cluster’, including sectors such as aquaculture and freight: “Our role is changing. It used to be weighted very heavily towards technology, whereas now it is starting to become more about business development.” Niels states.

An increase in this hub is likely to have one major additional benefit.

Currently 1000 people are employed either directly or indirectly through port-based activity. After the expansion is complete, an additional 450 jobs will become available, providing further support to the local economy.

two, to further increase capacity. It will be about adapting to demand, so a lot will depend on how much more activity occurs after the building work is done.”

There is already a regular influx of vessels coming in, but Niels is also looking toward attracting interest from further afield: “Ideally, it would be

good to see increased international investment. At present, the industry is especially strong around Denmark.

Perhaps when Brexit happens, this could be the access point to Europe for British trade. For us, the closest competitor is Peterhead and there is a relationship there already, so this could further develop in the future.”

Already considered part of the ‘blue motorway’, it is thought of as the shortest route to various European and Scandinavian countries, as well as places such as the Faroe Islands, making it an attractive option when considering how to get goods out to market. It is well worth keeping a close eye on this expansion project to see what will be done with the additional capacity available. Once considered ‘highly unsuitable’, the Port of Hanstholm is now on the verge of growing into something incredible. D www.hanstholmhavn.dk/en/

Expansion The estimated time for completion is 2020, although this is not the end of planned construction work. Niels reveals that this actually represents phase one of a larger end goal: “Once this is finished, plans are in place for phase

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