Best Brands 2018-19

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Best Brands 2018-19

2 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

FINE FOOD DIGEST

Welcome It’s brilliant that these brands exist and the level of market penetration or ubiquity they have is not a bad thing

Michael Lane, editor, Fine Food Digest EDITORIAL Editorial director: Mick Whitworth Editor: Michael Lane Assistant editor: Lauren Phillips Art director: Mark Windsor Contributors: Nick Baines, Garen Ewing, Patrick McGuigan, Lynda Searby, Richard Faulks

Best Brands 2018-2019

ADVERTISING advertise@gff.co.uk Sales director: Sally Coley Sales manager: Ruth Debnam Sales executive: Becky Stacey Managing director: John Farrand Marketing director: Tortie Farrand Operations manager: Karen Price Operations assistant: Claire Powell Training & events manager: Jilly Sitch Events assistant: Stephanie Rogers Circulation manager: Nick Crosley Financial controller: Stephen Guppy Accounts manager: Denise Ballance Accounts assistant: Julie Coates Chairman: Bob Farrand Director: Linda Farrand GENERAL ENQUIRIES Tel: +44 (0) 1747 825200 editorial@gff.co.uk Printed by: Blackmore, Dorset ADDRESS Guild House, 23b Kingsmead Business Park Shaftesbury Road, Gillingham, Dorset SP8 5FB United Kingdom Published by The Guild of Fine Food Ltd www.gff.co.uk Š The Guild of Fine Food Ltd 2017. Reproduction of whole or part of this magazine without the publisher’s prior permission is prohibited. The opinions expressed in articles and advertisements are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher.

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Food shopping, especially at Christmas time, is a bit of a busman’s holiday for me and it must be even more so for you, our readers. Often when I’m buying cheese or browsing for hamper items, I end up deliberating too much. So used to the sight of these items, I ponder on the margin being made, whether it’s actually good value, or the true uniqueness of the product. It’s neurotic, I know, but not all of this overfamiliarity I have with the products on shelf is a result of my job. Some of these brands genuinely are everywhere and the results of our Best Brands Survey – the cornerstone of this publication – bear that out year after year. In the past, we have received criticism for publishing a magazine that provides extra limelight for brands that are already wellestablished. But we can’t lie about the products that work well for retailers. I want to be completely clear, I think it’s brilliant that these brands exist and the level of market penetration or ubiquity they have is not a bad thing. Don’t forget that names like The Fine Cheese Co, Pipers and Tracklements all started off as unknowns. They, and the people behind them, earned the right to be here and remain committed to the delis and farm shops that helped launch them. These products are independent retailers’ bread and butter, they are getting new shoppers

through the door and making regular customers out of them. Even those in the survey rankings that are ensconced in the supermarkets are a good thing. They add a touch of familiarity to the shelves and make uncertain consumers more comfortable with all of the lesser-known brands that they share space with. If you read the analysis pieces that go behind the survey’s frontline category data, you’ll see there is so much more going on than just a few established brands performing well. And just to pour a little more water on any critical ire, this magazine probably has more pages looking at the other end of the producer spectrum than it does those famous winners. We’ve talked to top retailers about the brands they think will do well in 2019 (page 33), our editorial team has chosen their 2018 favourites across a range of categories (page 61) and there’s even an in-depth look at how a brand is put together (page 38). Retailers also need to think about how they can be more exemplary and we’ve got that FRYHUHG WRR <RXĹ?OO Ć“QG DOO RI WKH ZLQQHUV IURP 2018’s Shop of the Year competition in this magazine (page 20) as well as insight into the rebranding at Ludlow Farm unveiled early this year (page 45). :KDWHYHU SDUW RI Ć“QH IRRG \RX ZRUN LQ hopefully this magazine will spur you on to a successful 2019.

Inside: BEST BRANDS SURVEY Survey

BEST BRANDS SURVEY

Making the right impressions Towards the end of every year, Fine Food Digest conducts a survey of independent retailers to find out which were their best-selling brands. Here are the results for 2018, plus further insight into the data behind them‌ Analysis by Michael Lane Survey compiled by Nick Crosley, Ellie Jones and Jilly Sitch

The anatomy of a brand

Sweet & Savoury Biscuits 1st The Fine Cheese Co 2nd Peter’s Yard 3rd Botham’s of Whitby 4th Artisan Biscuits / Border

Words by Lauren Phillips Illustrations by Garen Ewing

Side of pack The Logo

Your logo should conjure up a wider picture of your brand. It will be the most recognisable and consistent part of your branding across all platforms, so it needs to be personal, unique and communicate the brand’s ethos in the right way. It should also scale well so you can use it across your website, marketing campaigns and merchandise.

4 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

Analysis The annual tussle of the cheese accompaniments, between The Fine Cheese Co and Peter’s Yard, resumed this year. As usual, it was a close contest but the former has UHFODLPHG WRS VSRW IRU WKH ƓUVW WLPH in several years, with the iconic Toast For Cheese range spurring it to a narrow victory over the versatile Scandi-style sourdough crispbreads. While these two brands accounted for the lion’s share of retailers’ votes in this category, Border again made the rankings thanks to its ever-popular Dark Chocolate Gingers, while Artisan Biscuits – the sister company to The Fine Cheese Co – ensured its regular spot with the bulk of votes for its savoury Miller’s range. Botham’s of Whitby is the only new entrant this year but it’s not necessarily a shock result, as its Shah Ginger Biscuits have propelled it into the rankings in previous Best Brands surveys. FINE FOOD DIGEST

FINE FOOD DIGEST

2018 Best Brands Survey results

The Contact Details

Listing contact information, including website, email address, and social media handles, is an essential step in encouraging communication with customers. It shows you are open to feedback and they may even want to promote your product through their social media. When it comes to the email address, why not try using “hey@� or “hello@� than “info@� to sound more personable and welcoming.

BEST BRANDS SURVEY

BEST SURVEY Shop of BRANDS the Year 2018

Retailing perfection

The Key Messages

It might be tempting to put your brand's life story on the front of your packaging, but it’s best to be strict with yourself. Only include what the product is, why the consumer should buy it and who made it, although the hierarchy of those messages is up to you. Jason Gibb says: “The main factors for buying a food product are health, taste and indulgence, so push those three things on the front.�

The Brand Name

Keep it simple. The brand name should be punchy, memorable and searchable so choose one or two words that are easy to spell and pronounce (no longer than three syllables). The best brand names are like poetry, says Perry Haydn Taylor of Big Fish, so think about using rhyming words or alliteration. Consider future growth, will you want to branch out into other products later down the line? Finally, check the availability of your chosen name, online and in terms of trademarking.

Branding is so much more than a logo. With the help of our own 'new' brand plus that of The Foraging Fox, Olive Branch, Tracklements, Planet Jason and design agencies Big Fish and Kingdom & Sparrow, Fine Food Digest explores what it takes to create the perfect, shelf-ready food brand and packaging.

How does it work? b Every brand ranked in this section is here because independent retailers put it here. We asked buyers in delis, farm shops and food halls around the country to name their top-selling lines in around a dozen categories. The survey was conducted by email and telephone during October and November 2018. The top scoring brands in each category – in other words, those most mentioned by FFD readers – are revealed here. Where brands achieved very similar scores we have given them a joint position.

The anatomy of a brand

Front of pack

A brand’s anatomy

The Colours

“Branding is a subtle art and an amazing science. It is about preparing the ground for the ultimate pleasure of buying your product. But it is also in a constant state of evolution. I always advise clients to apply their branding to the three bears rule – is it too little? Is it too much? Or is it just right? Ideally, food brands should apply this rule to their branding every year and modern brands should do it every six months.� Perry Haydn Taylor, founder and creative director Big Fish

Colours have certain emotions attached to them so will invoke different feelings in shoppers. Red and yellow are associated with hunger (think of those famous Golden Arches) while purple is associated with luxury. Big Fish’s Taylor suggests using colour to make the branding taste like the product. Its client Dorset Cereals uses block colours to reflect the ingredients in its mueslis, for instance – deep pinks, purples and blues represent the different berries. Punchy, bold luminous colours can make a statement, while jarring colours (think those on the opposite end of the colour wheel) can be uncomfortable on the eyes and therefore stand out.

“We chose our logo – the fox’s bottom and tail – to make our branding more distinctive. Nobody had used the fox’s bottom as a logo before so it also worked on a trademark level too. You don’t see the front of the fox which makes it look as though it is walking off the label. Not only does it make the logo look dynamic, it implies that we’re always moving forward, we’re always busy and we’re always looking to the future.� Frankie Fox, co-founder The Foraging Fox

The Visual Elements

The right photography, symbols or illustrations can communicate a brand’s message more effectively than words. Illustrations of ingredients can make a product look more appetising, highlight what’s in the pack or just make flavour identification easier. Not many brands will be able to afford bespoke packaging with a window, so investing in good photography is the next best thing. Visual additions can also help you stand out from similar products. Olive Branch’s EVOOs all feature a little map of Crete on their labels to mark out where on the island the oil is from, as a creative way of showing provenance without directly telling the FRQVXPHU b Cartoon illustrations, like those on Tracklements’ branding, can inject some fun into the brand and will continue to engage with the consumer when they have taken the product home.

Analysis The annual tussle of the cheese accompaniments, between The Fine Cheese Co and Peter’s Yard resumed this year. As usual, it was a close contest but the former KDV UHFODLPHG WRS VSRW IRU WKH ƓUVW WLPH in several years, with the iconic Toast For Cheese range spurring it to a narrow victory over the versatile Scandi-style sourdough crispbreads. While these two brands accounted for the lion’s share of retailers’ votes in this category, Border again made the rankings thanks to its ever-popular Dark Chocolate Gingers and Artisan Biscuits – the sister company to The Fine Cheese Co – ensured its regular spot with the bulk of votes for its savoury Millers Damsel range. Botham’s of Whitby is the only new entrant this year but it’s not necessarily a shock result, as its Shah Ginger Biscuits have propelled them into the rankings in previous Best Brand surveys.

“Putting your name into the brand can feel like a very exposing and risky thing to do but it puts a face to the brand and gives it authenticity, something us smaller producers can do that large corporations can’t. It creates a dialogue with the consumer and helps set the tone of the brand. If you decide not to put your name in the brand then put a picture of the founder on the back, or at least a signature.�

With more entrants and new categories, the 2018 instalment of the Guild of Fine Food’s Shop of the Year competition was the biggest yet. Fine Food Digest takes a look inside all of the major winners. Interviews by Lynda Searby Photography by Richard Faulks

Jason Gibb, founder Planet Jason BEST BRANDS 2018-19 5

4

Shop of the Year

20

Emerging brands

33

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FINE FOOD DIGEST

BEST BRANDS 2018-19 39

Branding & packaging

38

Retail branding

45

National & regional award winners

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BEST BRANDS 2018-19 21

Deli of the Month ‘must-stocks’

55

FFD’s Pick of the Year

61

47 BEST BRANDS 2018-19 3

BEST BRANDS SURVEY Survey

Making the right impressions Towards the end of every year, Fine Food Digest conducts a survey of independent retailers to find out which were their best-selling brands. Here are the results for 2018, plus further insight into the data behind them… Analysis by Michael Lane Survey compiled by Nick Crosley, Ellie Jones and Jilly Sitch

How does it work?

Every brand ranked in this section is here because independent retailers put it here. We asked buyers in delis, farm shops and food halls around the country to name their top-selling lines in around a dozen categories. The survey was conducted by email and telephone during October and November 2018. The top scoring brands in each category – in other words, those most mentioned by FFD readers – are revealed here. Where brands achieved very similar scores we have given them a joint position. 4 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

FINE FOOD DIGEST

BEST BRANDS SURVEY

Sweet & Savoury Biscuits 1st The Fine Cheese Co 2nd Peter’s Yard 3rd Botham’s of Whitby 4th Artisan Biscuits / Border

Analysis The annual tussle of the cheese accompaniments, between The Fine Cheese Co and Peter’s Yard, resumed this year. As usual, it was a close contest but the former has UHFODLPHG WRS VSRW IRU WKH ƓUVW WLPH in several years, with the iconic Toast For Cheese range spurring it to a narrow victory over the versatile Scandi-style sourdough crispbreads. While these two brands accounted for the lion’s share of retailers’ votes in this category, Border again made the rankings thanks to its ever-popular Dark Chocolate Gingers, while Artisan Biscuits – the sister company to The Fine Cheese Co – ensured its regular spot with the bulk of votes for its savoury Miller’s range. Botham’s of Whitby is the only new entrant this year but it’s not necessarily a shock result, as its Shah Ginger Biscuits have propelled it into the rankings in previous Best Brands surveys. FINE FOOD DIGEST

BEST BRANDS 2018-19 5

BEST BRANDS SURVEY

Pickles & Chutneys Analysis Tracklements continued its dominant run in this category – it has won by a decent margin in every single Best Brands Survey. It is that holy trinity of condiments – chilli jam, onion PDUPDODGH DQG Ć“J UHOLVK ĹŠ WKDW KDYH NHSW WKH :LOWVKLUH EDVHG SURGXFHU RQ WRS IRU D seventh year in a row. &RQYHUVHO\ D ZLGH UDQJH RI SURGXFWV LQFOXGLQJ IDUPHUV SLFNOH SLFFDOLOOL DQG caramelised onion relish) seems to be behind Mrs Darlington’s rise to 2nd from 3rd last year. It’s the only brand to feature in WKH UDQNLQJV IRU WZR FDWHJRULHV KDYLQJ FRPH VHFRQG LQ WKH -DPV 3UHVHUYHV OLQH XS WRR Ouse Valley’s Cheeseboard Chutney SURYHG WR EH D SRSXODU OLQH DPRQJ WKH VXUYH\Ĺ?V UHVSRQGHQWV 7KHUH ZDV QR RQH SURGXFW WKDW JDUQHUHG notably more votes for The Bay Tree, but LW LV ZRUWK QRWLQJ WKDW WKH SURGXFHU DOVR accounted for a number of retailers’ ownEUDQG VDYRXU\ SUHVHUYHV QRW FRXQWHG DV SDUW RI LWV UDQNLQJ LQ DGGLWLRQ WR WKH PHQWLRQV RI its branded lines.

6 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

1st Tracklements 2nd Mrs Darlington’s 3rd Ouse Valley / The Bay Tree

FINE FOOD DIGEST

SEL L IN G E V E RY T H I N G B U T OU R P RI N C I P L ES There is a reason you will never find The Fine Cheese Co. in a British Supermarket. As we are independent retailers ourselves, we understand the importance of commitment to other independents. We really appreciate your support, so from one independent retailer to another: Thank you.

www.finecheese.co.uk FINE FOOD DIGEST

BEST BRANDS 2018-19 7

2018 - 2019

2018 - 2019 The Taste of Success

2018 - 2019

2018 - 2019

Proud to be one of your family favourites for nearly 40 Years We’re celebrating winning runners up in Best Preserves Brand and Best Chutneys and Pickles Brand; voted for by Fine Food Digest readers. Marion Darlington began making her unique Lemon Curd in 1980 in the farmhouse kitchen and since then we’ve never looked back. Today with over 80 family favourites to choose from; there’s so much more to the Mrs Darlington’s family!

To find out more please visit our website at www.mrsdarlingtons.com 8 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

  

Search “Mrs Darlington’s” on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram FINE FOOD DIGEST

BEST BRANDS SURVEY

Chocolate

Analysis

1st Choc Affair 2nd Monty Bojangles 3rd Montezuma’s

This category provided one of the biggest surprises of the survey, as York-based Choc Affair took the top spot. Its range, transparent approach to ingredients (no palm oil here) and ethical sourcing policy obviously strikes a chord with those who stock it. And the votes for this brand didn’t just come from its native Yorkshire. This result shows what might be possible for a smaller producer in a category that is traditionally dominated by larger companies with supermarket SUHVHQFH DQG RQO\ ƓOOHG RXW E\ ORFDO VXSSOLHUV There were both of those present in this year’s results. Brands like Lindt, Green & Blacks and Divine (last year’s winner) were all there but didn’t have enough votes to place, as were a host of regional names. Monty Bojangles and Montezuma’s continue to operate in that sweet spot, with broad enough appeal to sell well across independents and multiples. Maybe the bigger names are losing their grip on consumers, leaving space for new independentfocused challengers to gain more listings.

Tea Analysis Whether shoppers buy their tea from supermarkets or independents, it seems they want to buy big brands. Taylor’s, Teapigs and Pukka are all widely available in the multiples but their brews still do the business for delis and farm shops, too. The biggest shift this year is that Taylor’s, aided by its Yorkshire Tea and Yorkshire Gold blends, has come out on top after several years of Teapigs taking top spot. Pukka, recently purchased by Unilever, has not lost any of its credibility with indies or their customers. It’s the only genuine herbal specialist in the rankings, too. On the whole, breakfast blends tend to be retailers’ top sellers, followed by Earl Greys. The results of this category hint at a growing preference among respondents for smaller and local options – something that has been even more stark in other categories this year. Miles, Joe’s and Birchall are regulars in the annual survey results but they are more representative of this trend than the top three.

FINE FOOD DIGEST

1st Taylor’s of Harrogate 2nd Teapigs 3rd Pukka 4th Miles/ Joe’s Tea / Birchall BEST BRANDS 2018-19 9

BEST BRANDS SURVEY

Soft Drinks

1st Fentimans 2nd Sanpellegrino 3rd Belvoir Fruit Farms 4th Luscombe

Analysis It’s a case of same names, different order this year. Votes are all quite tight in this category but Fentimans edged it to reclaim the top spot from last year’s winner Belvoir, which dropped to third. Nestlé-owned Sanpellegrino’s cans are ubiquitous but prevail as a top-selling line in independents. And, as always, Luscombe soldiers on and continues to occupy the slot for most popular non-supermarket brand in soft drinks. With these three (and Belvoir) sharing the bulk of the votes, it’s obvious that this category is crying out for a challenger brand – more than any other. It’s very 2018 that there was a hint of kombucha in the results and local apple juices do still seem to sell better than the big brand for some retailers but there aren’t many signs of a new brand or style of drink bursting onto the scene soon.

Beers, Wines & Spirits No rankings Analysis

After years of trying to get a result in this (or any kind of alcoholic drinks) category during our poll of retailers, last year’s Best Brands Survey did have enough votes to name a Top 3. This year, we’re back at the point of ‘no result’ but that shouldn’t be viewed as a negative. The difference to other previous results is that fewer respondents answered with “n/a” and almost everyone highlighted a different product. Gins still dominate but given that there are in excess of 300 distilleries in the UK now, independent retailers are spoilt for choice. Small and local producers give them a point of difference over supermarkets and even other independent competitors, so this result makes sense. As long as the gin boom continues, you would expect to see this kind of fragmented, localised response. That said, no one knows when the bubble will burst and what kind of consolidation might result from it. 10 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

FINE FOOD DIGEST

D E L I V E R I N G

A F OB OI G D

F I N E

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR CUSTOMERS & SUPPLIERS FOR YOUR SUPPORT IN 2018 WE LOOK FORWARD TO WORKING WITH YOU AGAIN IN 2019 F R O M AD LE LL I VAE TR I NCGR E S S C O F I N E

F O O D

D E L I V E R I N G F I N E

F O O D

D E L I V E R I N G F I N E

F O O D

www.thecressco.co.uk 8 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

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12 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

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BEST BRANDS SURVEY

Jams & Preserves 1st Tiptree 2nd Mrs Darlington’s 3rd Cottage Delight

Analysis There was some jostling for position in what is usually a very competitive category. One of those brands that has mastered the art of selling to the multiples and the independent trade, Tiptree is back in pole position. Last year’s winner, Mrs Darlington’s still performed well and is the only producer to rank in two categories (see Pickles & chutneys on page 6). While it is always developing new products across a variety of categories, Cottage Delight’s placement proves that it still has clout when it comes to more traditional areas. These three brands took a larger proportion of the vote than in previous years, hence there were less ranked names than in previous years. Regardless of producer, it seems that strawberry jam, raspberry jam and orange marmalade are still the best-selling preserves. That’s not to say there were no hints at successful NPD – booze-laced preserves, such as gin marmalades or jams VSULW]HG ZLWK Ɠ]] ZHUH GRLQJ WKH EXVLQHVV IRU PDQ\ RI WKH surveyed retailers.

Coffee

1st Grumpy Mule

Analysis

[No other companies with enough votes]

Grumpy Mule was the only brand that garnered enough votes to be ranked here. On the face of it, this result seems quite XQXVXDO EXW LW LV D UHŴHFWLRQ RI D ERXQWLIXO marketplace and retailers’ mentalities rather WKDQ DQ\WKLQJ VSHFLƓF EUDQGV KDYH GRQH wrong this year. As is the case with gin (see page 10), there always seems to be a local option for independents looking to source coffee. The results here certainly bear that out, with lots of brands getting a small amount or even a single vote across the whole survey. Some retailers even sell their own branded house blends of coffee (prepared by local roasters). Other Latin American countries were mentioned but Colombian coffee appears to do the business for a lot of retailers out there, while espresso seemed to be the most popular blend where origin wasn’t stated. FINE FOOD DIGEST

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14 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

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BEST BRANDS SURVEY

Savoury Snacks 1st Pipers Crisp Co QG Burts Chips UG Torres / Eat Real WK Manomasa / Tyrrell’s

FINE FOOD DIGEST

Analysis Pipers is about as close as you can come WR D VXUH ƓUH EHW LQ WKH %HVW %UDQGV 6XUYH\ ,WV UHIXVDO WKXV IDU WR VHOO WR WKH PDMRU PXOWLSOHV D YHU\ ULJRURXV DSSURDFK WR ŴDYRXULQJV DQG VWURQJ 13' LV D ZLQQLQJ FRPELQDWLRQ WKDW VHHPV WR VHW LW DSDUW IURP D ƓHOG WKDW DOZD\V FRQWDLQV D KRVW RI ŌKDQG FRRNHGō FULVS EUDQGV Burts DQG Tyrrell’s XVXDOO\ PDNH WKH FXW DKHDG RI ZKDW \RX PLJKW FDOO PRUH UHJLRQDO FULVS SURGXFHUV )ODYRXU ZLVH LWōV WKH WUDGLWLRQDO VDOWHG VDOW YLQHJDU DQG FKHHVH RQLRQ WKDW UHPDLQ WKH PRVW SRSXODU EXW WKLV \HDUōV UHVXOWV VXJJHVW D FKDQJH LQ FRQVXPHU WDVWHV Torres WKH 6SDQLVK EUDQG IDPRXV IRU LWV WUXIŴH ŴDYRXUHG FULVSV LV EDFN \HW DJDLQ DQG SURYLQJ WKDW LW ZDV QRW DQ DQRPDORXV UHVXOW 7KH UDQNLQJ RI WRUWLOOD FKLS VSHFLDOLVW Manomasa DQG Eat Real Ŋ ZKLFK PDNHV VQDFNV OLNH KXPPXV FKLSV DQG TXLQRD FRUQ SXIIV Ŋ DUH IXUWKHU SURRI WKDW WKLV FDWHJRU\ FRXOG EH PXFK PRUH WKDQ WKH EDWWOH RI ELJ SRWDWR FULVS EUDQGV

BEST BRANDS 2018-19 15

BEST BRANDS SURVEY

Olive Oils & Vinegars

1st Seggiano 2nd Deli-cious (Rowcliffe) / Honest Toil 3rd Aspall’s / Willy’s ACV Analysis After placing as runner-up last year, Seggiano has returned to the top spot in this category thanks to its balsamic range and, even more so, its extra virgin olive oils – particularly its original Lunaio oil. The continued success of the Deli-cious range of in-store dispensers (distributed by Rowcliffe) should hearten retailers. It’s clear evidence that not every single customer wants grab-and-go and there is a place for old-school service and theatre, depending on how you deploy the system. After not making the rankings last year, Honest Toil is back and suggests (together with Seggiano) that EVOO with clear, strong branding is a good way of winning over retailers and shoppers alike. Serial food entrepreneur Will Chase looks to be making a success of his Willy’s vinegar brand, which has emerged to challenge Aspall’s cider vinegar supremacy.

Distributors Analysis There was a little bit of movement in rankings this year. By retaining 1st place from last year, it would seem The Cress Co is offering customers the right level of service and selection of products. The same goes for Cotswold Fayre, up to second from fourth last year, as well as Hider and Bristol-based Holleys Fine Foods. Many respondents said as much during the surveys conducted on the phone. But, as these businesses well know, you can’t rest on your laurels when it comes pleasing retailers. In fact, a number of respondents declined to comment on their preferred wholesaler. While the odd negative comment is thrown in every year in this category, more respondents than ever before expressed their displeasure with a “none of themâ€? and others opted to instead name single suppliers that they dealt with directly. There have always been retailers that don’t like using distributors and those that VHH WKHP DV YLWDO VXSSOLHUV VR WKHVH UHVXOWV GRQĹ?W UHĹ´HFW D VHD FKDQJH ,W LV LQWHUHVWLQJ to hear retailers being more vocal about their feelings on the subject, though. 16 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

1st The Cress Co 2nd Cotswold Fayre 3rd Hider 4th Holleys Fine Foods

FINE FOOD DIGEST

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Crisps as they should taste. FINE FOOD DIGEST

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14/12/2018 11:32

BEST BRANDS SURVEY

British Cheese

Analysis The UK cheesemaking scene has a style to cover every taste these days but when it comes to pleasing the crowd, Snowdonia’s Black Bomber clearly can’t be beaten. Number one again, the Welsh waxed cheddar was the most votedfor product across the whole survey – regardless of location or type of retailer. Colston Bassett Stilton also had a, now customary, strong showing and it is good to see farmhouse cheddar featuring at the top of so many deli counter lists – Montgomery’s was the most popular of those named by respondents. Unlike last year, no other cheesemakers had enough votes to extend the rankings but there were plenty of modern British varieties mentioned. Given the volume of cheese that some produce, you would not expect to see them in the rankings.

1st Snowdonia Cheese Co 2nd Colston Bassett Stilton 3rd Montgomery’s Cheddar

Continental Cheese Analysis No amount of political or economic turmoil seems to get between the British public and their Brie de Meaux. As in previous years, Rouzaire’s version proved to be the most popular cheese but this variety is an even clearer winner when the other votes for makers that weren’t named (yes, some retailers are still not sure where their Brie de Meaux is coming from) are added. And the softer charms of the Continent clearly appealed to shoppers in delis and farm shops in 2018, judging by the second and third placed triplecream cheeses – Délice de Bourgogne and 0RQWDJQROR $IƓQ«, the German blue that won a slew of major awards a few years ago. FINE FOOD DIGEST

1st Brie de Meaux (Rouzaire) 2nd Délice de Bourgogne (Lincet) 3rd Montagnolo $IƓQ« .¦VHUHL Champignon) BEST BRANDS 2018-19 19

BEST BRANDS SURVEY

20 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

FINE FOOD DIGEST

BEST SURVEY Shop of BRANDS the Year 2018

Retailing perfection

Analysis The annual tussle of the cheese accompaniments, between The Fine Cheese Co and Peter’s Yard resumed this year. As usual, it was a close contest but the former has reclaimed top spot for the first time in several years, with the iconic Toast For Cheese range spurring it to a narrow victory over the versatile Scandi-style sourdough crispbreads. While these two brands accounted for the lion’s share of retailers’ votes in this category, Border again made the rankings thanks to its ever-popular Dark Chocolate Gingers and Artisan Biscuits – the sister company to The Fine Cheese Co – ensured its regular spot with the bulk of votes for its savoury Millers Damsel range. Botham’s of Whitby is the only new entrant this year but it’s not necessarily a shock result, as its Shah Ginger Biscuits have propelled them into the rankings in previous Best Brand surveys.

With more entrants and new categories, the 2018 instalment of the Guild of Fine Food’s Shop of the Year competition was the biggest yet. Fine Food Digest takes a look inside all of the major winners. Interviews by Lynda Searby Photography by Richard Faulks

FINE FOOD DIGEST

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borderbiscuits.co.uk

OUR GREAT TASTE AWARD WINNING, TRIPLE CERTIFIED LANDSCAPE BLEND IS NOW AVAILABLE AS AN ESPRESSO GRIND.

22 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

FINE FOOD DIGEST

BEST SURVEY Shop of BRANDS the Year 2018 Best Farm Shop or Garden Centre with Food Hall

Sponsored by Petty Wood

Keelham Farm Shop Skipton, North Yorkshire Last year’s runner up has moved into the top spot in the Farm Shop category this year, reflecting a culture of continuous improvement that drives this Yorkshire food emporium, with siblings Victoria and James Robertshaw at the wheel. “I don’t think you can stand still in the retail business – you have to innovate,” says Victoria Robertshaw. This mindset has proved invaluable in the face of challenges that Keelham – in common with other retailers – has faced in the last 12 months or so. “Brexit and the associated economic uncertainty have led to increases in operating costs that we haven’t wanted to pass on to customers. Instead, we’ve tried to work more efficiently and effectively to keep things affordable. Continuous improvement and empowering our team to come up with ideas are fundamental parts of our culture.” This approach is certainly evidenced by Keelham’s expansive own-label offering, which is one of its growth engines. Products made on site now account for half of all shop sales and are the focus of “continuous product development”.

Continuous improvement and empowering our team to come up with ideas are fundamental parts of our culture Keelham makes everything from pies and sausages to jams, sandwiches and ready-meals on site, but Robertshaw notes that it is the ‘grab and go’ and convenience lines that are growing in popularity with time-pressed customers. The judges made particular reference to Keelham’s new curry range, as well as its selection of pulses and juice bar. A self-service dispensing system for loose grains, pulses and seeds has been a fixture since the shop opened in 2015, but has recently come into its own. “As people move away from meat and two veg and towards veganism and flexitarianism, they are becoming more experimental with pulses and quinoa,” says Robertshaw. “Also, there is increasing concern about packaging waste.” Another of Keelham’s ‘novel offerings’ that is going from strength to strength is its juice bar. Juices are made ‘fresh while you wait’ and Keelham’s signature green juice has become so popular that it is now available in a DIY juice pack so customers can recreate it at home. Of course, not every area is as buoyant and dynamic. Robertshaw reports that fresh produce – which represents a large percentage of sales – has become “quite commoditised”. But the Robertshaws have plans (that she won’t disclose) to breathe new life into this challenging category in the New Year. Nothing, it seems, fazes the Robertshaws. keelhamfarmshop.co.uk FINE FOOD DIGEST

BEST BRANDS 2018-19 23

BEST ShopBRANDS of the SURVEY Year 2018

Best Grocer, Village or Community Shop Sponsored by Le Gruyère AOP

Godfrey C. Williams & Son Sandbach, Cheshire Despite being one of a dying breed of traditional grocers, this fifth generation family business is thriving, nearly 140 years on from when it first opened its doors. “Sticking to our roots and traditional grocer values whilst looking at ways to remain relevant” is current owner Daniel Williams’ explanation for the shop’s longevity. “One of the longer term changes we have had to face up to is that the grocer’s shop has gone from being a place of convenience and necessity. We’ve had to shift our focus to providing an experience,” he says.

“Cracking” displays, ready anecdotes and theatrical in-store coffee roasting on a vintage Whitby roaster are just some of the features that give this store its colourful character and enduring appeal. “This time of year, I do a full day of roasting every week,” says Williams. “At any one time, I’ll have six or seven people asking what I’m doing. I tell them; I recount little stories; I let them try the coffee I’m roasting.” While coffee, hampers and a range of over 250 cheeses are its mainstay, the business has adapted by introducing a food-to-go offering and cheese wedding cakes. Williams reports that they have done about 60 cakes already this year and orders are coming in “thick and fast”. This combination of readiness to embrace change and deference to tradition will surely secure Godfrey Williams’ place as a Cheshire institution. godfreycwilliams.co.uk

The grocer’s shop has gone from being a place of convenience and necessity. We’ve had to shift our focus to providing an experience.

24 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

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BEST BRANDS 2018-19 25

Flavours for all Seasons new

250ml bottle shape for

Spring

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26 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

250ml pressés packed in cases of 12. 500ml cordials packed in cases of 6.

www.belvoirfruitfarms.co.uk

*IRI52w.e 13.10.18

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BEST SURVEY Shop of BRANDS the Year 2018 Best Delicatessen sponsored by Le Gruyère AOP

Delifonseca Dockside Liverpool There’s no doubt Delifonseca Dockside’s general manager, Lavinia Cooke, is a woman of many talents, but one in particular – her ability to remain calm – jumps out at me. At the time of interview, the quayside deli is entering its busiest month of the year with “a gaping great hole next door”. I must sound concerned at this revelation, because she reassures me that “all the pilings are in for the roof…and they have started putting the walls back in”. Of course, this current state of chaos is entirely planned and an inevitable rite of passage for a two-phase expansion project that will give Delifonseca a kitchen that is five times the size of its current space, increased dining capacity (140 rather than 60 covers) and a large outside seating area. “We have to turn a lot of people away from our restaurant, especially at weekends,” says Cooke, explaining the rationale for the expansion. “But the main reason is the kitchen. The outside catering arm of the business has taken off massively, to the

It will allow us to invest in the future of the industry by working with colleges and taking on apprentices point where our Stanley Street site is no longer operating as a restaurant, which doesn’t make sense when we are paying city centre rates. We will be bringing all of that under one roof and have space to prepare more products for the deli counter and restaurant.” Another, longer term goal of the expansion is to equip Delifonseca to “train the next generation”. CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

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BEST BRANDS 2018-19 27

Every Peter’s Yard recipe is now

Great Taste awarded

28 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

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BEST SURVEY Shop of BRANDS the Year 2018 “It will allow us to invest in the future of the industry by working with colleges and taking on apprentices – whether chefs or front of house. There are a lot of passionate youngsters out there who don’t have the best opportunities.” Delifonseca had hoped to part-fund the £0.5 million project via the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform. The campaign, which ran for the month of November, didn’t quite raise the target of £150,000, but it did bring unexpected benefits for footfall. “We aren’t close to our target, but with all the publicity surrounding the campaign, we have had a much busier November than usual. It’s also been a great team building exercise – getting everyone behind the expansion,” she says. Not that Delifonseca has any issues with getting its team to gel. The judges praised the deli’s “good atmosphere and low staff turnover” and Cooke is effusive about the “strength and passion of the team”. “It comes from the top down. Candice is fantastic – very hands on and willing to do anything. You will quite often find her fixing a pipe or washing up. That ‘can do’ attitude filters down,” says Cooke. delifonseca.co.uk

Sponsored by Le Gruyère AOP

Retail Hero

Clare Jones Delifonseca Dockside FINE FOOD DIGEST

BEST BRANDS 2018-19 29

We have a simple philosophy: In order to make great charcuterie, you need two things; great animals and time. When we started Tempus we made a conscious choice to be responsible for every part of what we create; from ethical sourcing of animals, to their age, to a commitment to whole-animal butchery. Our ideology guides everything we do and we believe it is borne-out in the quality of our charcuterie. Tempus charcuterie won Overall Champion Producer at the inaugural British Charcuterie awards claiming 3 gold medals, 2 silver and a bronze. Our products are available at some of Britain’s most prestigious restaurants, food-halls and delicatessens.

“

We are proud to be a stockist of Tempus Charcuterie, who combine quality with integrity which align with our brand ethos. The passion and dedication shown by producers Dhruv & Tom, to deliver a range of British Charcuterie which, in my humble opinion, can rival continental classics, makes this brand one to watch for 2019 and beyond.

For further information on Tempus or our stockists, please go to our website www.tempusfoods.com. If you are interested in stocking Tempus products, please email Dhruv@tempusfoods.com for further information +44 (0) 203 778 0630

“

Adrian Boswell, Selfridges.

30 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

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BEST SURVEY Shop of BRANDS the Year 2018 Newcomer Award

sponsored by Le Gruyère AOP

Fillet & Bone Gloucestershire With its yellow stone store fronts, Chipping Campden is every inch the classic Cotswold market town but two years ago things were not looking very bright for its high street. The town had lost its butcher and the greengrocer was on the verge of closing. Thankfully, both of these things are now under one roof, together with a deli and wine shop, as Fillet & Bone. The retailer – set up by West Midlands entrepreneurs Pat Willins and Chris Gates – occupies what was previously the butcher’s shop. Although its remit goes well beyond fresh meat, it is a key part of its retail mix. “It’s a hard one to quantify, because the sheer value of meat means it consistently provides six of our top 10 biggest sellers,” general manager Tom Greenstock told FFD in October. “But it’s going very well – especially since we’ve moved from buying joints to whole animals.” Whatever the category, Fillet & Bone makes sure that there is always clear provenance in what it is selling – especially given the proximity of Waitrose. Now it is looking to differentiate itself more by redeveloping the former abattoir unit behind the shop into a café. filletandbone.co.uk

Best Specialist Cheese Shop

sponsored by Le Gruyère AOP

The Cheese Society Lincoln This city-centre cheesemonger, run by mother-and-daughter team Kate and Lucie O’Meara, is a simple but effective retailing case study. While a serve-over stocked with well over 100 varieties provides a welcoming focal point, en route to the counter, a strategically placed fridge displaying ready-cut portions caters to those wanting a speedier transaction. This unit also houses a ‘cheese lucky dip’, which allows customers to pick through portions of blue, cows’, sheep & goats’ milk cheeses from three wooden boxes up to the value of £5 (for three) or £10 (for seven). “These sell well and it is a nice way of introducing people to different cheeses,” says Lucie O’Meara, who joined her mother in 2016. Then there are the branded cool bags that are given to any customer who spends £40 or more. “If people are almost at the £40 mark, often the promise of a free lunch bag tempts them to throw in a few extras and in the process they might discover a new favourite variety.” These promotional initiatives are, of course, underpinned by a solid foundation of outstanding customer service and vast product knowledge. “We pride ourselves on our customer service; our aim is to make people feel undaunted by cheese,” says O’Meara. thecheesesociety.co.uk FINE FOOD DIGEST

BEST BRANDS 2018-19 31

Great Taste Award winning flavours Let your customers create their own culinary delights Contact your Territory Manager

01538 382020 www.cottagedelight.co.uk /cottagedelight

32 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

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Emerging brands

Winners in waiting What’s got the legs to become a long-term Best Brand? We asked eight top buyers to pick their most promising newcomers of 2018. Compiled by Mick Whitworth

Adrian Boswell

Diane Brown

Val Berry

Buyer - cheese, deli & food-to-go concessions Selfridges, London

Owner Provender Brown, Perth

Owner Haley & Clifford, Leeds

Cheese Pop is unique: a crunchy cocktail snack made in the Netherlands from gouda that has been cut, dried and then popped. There are no added ingredients – just cheese – so it’s allnatural. Good with a glass of red or something sparkling. Made with Australian F1 Wagyu beef and South African spices, Wagyu Biltong Co’s drywors is the caviar of biltong. The fat in Wagyu beef is monounsaturated, so it’s high in Omega 3 and 6, and the fat is liquid at room temperature, which releases the flavour of the meat without the fat cloying on the pallet. Large Black pigs, rather than Wagyu beef, are the basis for most of Tempus Foods’ British charcuterie. Tom Whitaker and Dhruv Baker spent years trying different British heritage breeds before selecting the Large Black, and the result is a wonderful depth of flavour and the perfect ratio of lean to fat for curing.

cheesepop.com wagyubiltong.com tempusfoods.com

Most of the new products that have done well for us this year have been gin or gin-related. Gintensify botanical and fruit infusions were developed by a former greengrocer to garnish and enhance the flavour of gin. The dried fruits, flowers and botanicals look beautiful in the glass. Also perfect for popping in a G&T are the blood orange dried fruit slices from Dardiman‘s California Fruit Crisps. Their apple and tomato slices are fantastic with cheese in place of a cracker and look good on the cheeseboard, The best thing about Cushiedoos Superior Tonic Water is the name: cushiedoos are Scottish wood-pigeons, which pair for life – like gin and tonic! This is tonic for people who don’t like quinine. It’s made with all-natural Scottish ingredients and has 24% less sugar than the “leading premium tonic”. Solway Rhubarb Crumble Gin is a beautifully smooth, full-strength gin with rhubarb, juniper and citrus on the nose. It’s great served with ginger ale. Finally, Appley Ever After is a tiny local producer who makes the most amazing apple juice – it really is just liquid apple.

gintensify.co.uk dardimans.com cushiedoos.com solwayspirits.co.uk @downiemillapples

From Richmond, North Yorkshire, Kacao has a new range of five handmade chocolate bars infused with pure essential oils. They’re wrapped in pretty foil and paper sleeves which give them great standout on the shelf. Our best seller is definitely the milk chocolate with geranium, followed by white chocolate with grapefruit & basil. Philippa Quayle, who lives just down the road from our deli, has been making gourmet marshmallows for a few years and is now extending her range to include other traditional confectionery. Her creamy, smooth, meltin-the-mouth Art of Mallow Smooth Butter Fudge is handmade in copper pans. Philippa’s attention to detail with her packaging makes these beautiful little ribboned bags a great gift. There are quite a few local bries available but Wensleydale Creamery Yorkshire Brie, launched in April 2018, is particularly good. At peak ripeness it’s a mouth-wateringly oozy cheese with a savoury flavour and a clotted cream finish. We stock the baby 230g versions, as the larger one is inclined to run off on its own when we cut it.

kacao.co.uk artofmallow.co.uk wensleydale.co.uk

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BEST BRANDS 2018-19 33

Emerging brands Tom Greenstock Operations manager Fillet & Bone, Chipping Campden Everything about Meracinque Risotto Kits impresses and our customers have been quick to agree. The philosophy, the presentation, the product – TLC has been poured into every step and the results speak for themselves. Convenient and delicious. We were a little more cynical at first about The Driver’s Tipple Ŋ D DOFRKRO GLVWLOOHG VSLULW ŊbEXW a thorough tasting soon convinced us otherwise. An emerging brand in an emerging category, it’s genuinely delicious and beautifully presented. Cotswold Brew Co Unfiltered Helles Lager is a recent addition to our shelves but already attracting a following. It’s a welcome alternative to the well-hopped craft beers that currently dominate the marketplace, offering instead smooth malts with subtle hops. It’s been a fair wait for the I Love Italia glutenfree pasta range, but well worth it. The variety of flours used makes for beautiful presentation and the pea variety, with its deep green colour, has proved the star so far.

uk.meracinque.com thedriverstipple.com cotswoldbrewco.co iloveitalia.co.uk

Bill De La Hey Co-owner The Mainstreet Trading Co St Boswells, Scotland Edinburgh’s The Drinks Bakery launched with three flavours of bite-size biscuit, all paired to a particular drink and has a new one coming out as we speak. They're beautifully packaged, bite size and so moreish that it’s a challenge not to eat them in one go. Sweetdram Escubac spirit drink is also made in Edinburgh and offers something different to the gin craze that is equally good neat or mixed with tonic. Up front it has notes of a smoky malt and spice, then it lengthens with a lovely balanced fruitiness reminding me of a Manhattan. First rate bottle design too. Also in a gorgeously designed bottle is La Guinelle’s Zaza Rose Wine Vinegar from The Vinegar Shed. A versatile, premium vinegar made outdoors in the south of France, it’s delicate enough to dress a salad but complex enough to add when roasting vegetables and meat. thedrinksbakery.com sweetdram.com vinegarshed.com

Emma Murphy Head of buying Sourced Market, London

Johnny Mcdowell Co-owner Indie Füde, Comber, Co Down Brothers Mark and Dean Wright of Ballylisk Farm in Armagh have launched Northern Ireland’s first farmhouse cheese in more than two decades. The Triple Rose is a triple brie-style, rich, mouldrind cheese, truly unctuous and delicious and has already won accolades including a Silver Medal in the Irish Food Awards (Blas ná hEireann). The bright new thing on the foodie scene here is definitely Peanut Rayu by White Mausu (pronounced white mouse-u). Made in Dublin by Katie Sanderson, it fuses Japanese and Chinese flavours to spice up anything from stir-frys to avocado on toast. Burren Balsamics’ white balsamic condiments launched in 2018 and are due for big things in 2019. Susie Hamilton-Stubber has produced a range of infused vinegars that will appeal to delis and chefs, with flavours like blood orange & cardamom and beetroot & cocoa nib.

We've listed BeppsbEODFN H\HG SHD SXIIV DV DQ alternative to Hippeas, which are now in many VXSHUPDUNHWV %HSSV DUH JOXWHQ IUHHbDQG YHJDQ friendly, so they deliver on many customers’ dietary requirements without forgoing the taste. Eve Yankah, who runs the business, isn't all about the financials either, as 10% of profits go to Great Ormond Street hospital. Carbonated drinks, you could argue, have been stagnating for some time, with big brands monopolising the market. We searched for some new, interesting lines and DRGN turmeric drink and Something+Nothing yuzu and cucumber seltzers were our two favourites. DRGN was launched by Vishal Sodha. He dreamed of being stocked in Sourced Market, Marylebone – his regular hang-out – and after he VHQW LQ D VDPSOHbRU WZR ZH ZHUH KRRNHG ,WōV D multifunctional soft drink, inspired by the Far East. Something & Nothing is a low-calorie, lightly carbonated seltzer, using grape juice to add a touch of sweetness. I have been known to pair the yuzu with a dash of vodka, loads of ice and a little spring of mint.

Steve Salamon Owner Wally's Deli, Cardiff Based on a premium quality gin with a compelling, artisanal story at unparalleled value, Benjamin Hall Strawberry Gin offers consumers an authentically flavoured variant, without artificial flavours or sweeteners. In blind tastings, Benjamin Hall consistently FRPHV RXW RQ WRS b Punjaban hot curry base is homemade – and tastes like it. It has a very authentic flavour and is free from all artificial ingredients. A welcome addition to this category. @benjaminhallgin punjaban.co.uk

beppssnacks.com drgndrink.com somethingandnothing.co

ballyliskofarmagh.com burrenbalsamics.com whitemausu.com

34 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

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Mediterranean Deli Pr oducts LAUNCHING TO THE INDEPENDENT RETAIL SECTOR AT THE FINE FOOD SHOW NORTH IN MARCH 2019 “These olives have changed my opinion of olives! I absolutely love them and so do all that try them.”

“This is THE BEST Extra Virgin Olive Oil I have ever tried! I should know I’ve been in the trade for years.”

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Ayshea Hawthorn Beyond The Kale, Bath PDO Kolymvari, Crete

GOLD LABEL

GREEK EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL PROTECTED DESIGNATION OF ORIGIN

KOLYMVARI CHANION CRETE

COLD EXTRACTION

PRODUCT OF GREECE

500ml

info@meddelifood.co.uk | www.meddelifood.co.uk

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BEST BRANDS 2018-19 35

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Reserve Champion, British Cheese Awards 2018

36 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

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Since 2014 we have been awarded 24 Stars in the Great Taste Awards for our outstanding products

Our Range of unique products Include: Extra Virgin Olive Oil Gluten Free Pasta Traditional Pasta Speciality Pasta Antipasti Items Balsamic Vinegar Charcuterie Confectionery Panettone Limoncello Prosecco Italian Artisan Craft Beer For more Information on our full range; www.tenutamarmorelle.com or call: 01189 29 84 80

Because we believe in producing clean, additive free, healthy food, we are wholly commited to sourcing high quality Because we and believe in producing clean, free,And healthy food,we wehave are awholly committed to souring high beliefs quality sustainable healthier ingredients foradditive our recipes. because passion for taste, we add to those sustainable and healthier our recipes. And because we have a passion add to those beliefs by using only small batch ingredients production for methods with minimal processing to produce all for ourtaste, rangeswewhich adds greatly to by using only small batchcreated. production methods with minimal processing produceand all hugely our ranges which adds greatly to the flavours and textures At Genovese Foods we produce awardto winning flavoursome fresh pestos, the flavoursand andmayonnaise textures created. Genovese Foods we produce award winning and hugely flavoursome fresh pestos, tapenades with aAt real clean food ethos. tapenades and mayonnaise with a real clean food ethos. Authentic Italian recipes using traditional ingredients.

A range ofMade fresh mayonnaise in exciting flavours. Clean Food, Expertly Veganand range of intensely tapenade and vegan mayos. All our products are chilled available in retailflavoured and food pestos service ,sizes All products are chilled and available in retail andTO food service sizes, directly shipped DIRECT SHIPPING 48 HOURS FROM OUR DOOR YOURS VIA OUR ONLINE SHOPto ATyou via our on-line store.

www.genovese.ie www.genovese.ie FINE FOOD DIGEST

Contact: Gill Toal/Owner gill@genovese.ie

BEST BRANDS 2018-19 37

Branding & packaging

A brand’s anatomy Branding is so much more than a logo. With the help of our own 'new' brand plus that of The Foraging Fox, Olive Branch, Tracklements, Planet Jason and design agencies Big Fish and Kingdom & Sparrow, Fine Food Digest explores what it takes to create the perfect, shelf-ready food brand and packaging. Words by Lauren Phillips Illustrations by Garen Ewing

Side of pack The Logo

Your logo should conjure up a wider picture of your brand. It will be the most recognisable and consistent part of your branding across all platforms, so it needs to be personal, unique and communicate the brand’s ethos in the right way. It should also scale well so you can use it across your website, marketing campaigns and merchandise.

The Contact Details

Listing contact information, including website, email address, and social media handles, is an essential step in encouraging communication with customers. It shows you are open to feedback and they may even want to promote your product through their social media. When it comes to the email address, why not try using “hey@” or “hello@” than “info@” to sound more personable and welcoming.

38 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

“Branding is a subtle art and an amazing science. It is about preparing the ground for the ultimate pleasure of buying your product. But it is also in a constant state of evolution. I always advise clients to apply their branding to the three bears rule – is it too little? Is it too much? Or is it just right? Ideally, food brands should apply this rule to their branding every year and modern brands should do it every six months.” Perry Haydn Taylor, founder and creative director Big Fish

FINE FOOD DIGEST

Branding & packaging

Front of pack The Key Messages

It might be tempting to put your brand's life story on the front of your packaging, but it’s best to be strict with yourself. Only include what the product is, why the consumer should buy it and who made it, although the hierarchy of those messages is up to you. Jason Gibb says: “The main factors for buying a food product are health, taste and indulgence, so push those three things on the front.”

The Brand Name

Keep it simple. The brand name should be punchy, memorable and searchable so choose one or two words that are easy to spell and pronounce (no longer than three syllables). The best brand names are like poetry, says Perry Haydn Taylor of Big Fish, so think about using rhyming words or alliteration. Consider future growth, will you want to branch out into other products later down the line? Finally, check the availability of your chosen name, online and in terms of trademarking.

The Colours

Colours have certain emotions attached to them so will invoke different feelings in shoppers. Red and yellow are associated with hunger (think of those famous Golden Arches) while purple is associated with luxury. Big Fish’s Taylor suggests using colour to make the branding taste like the product. Its client Dorset Cereals uses block colours to reflect the ingredients in its mueslis, for instance – deep pinks, purples and blues represent the different berries. Punchy, bold luminous colours can make a statement, while jarring colours (think those on the opposite end of the colour wheel) can be uncomfortable on the eyes and therefore stand out.

“We chose our logo – the fox’s bottom and tail – to make our branding more distinctive. Nobody had used the fox’s bottom as a logo before so it also worked on a trademark level too. You don’t see the front of the fox which makes it look as though it is walking off the label. Not only does it make the logo look dynamic, it implies that we’re always moving forward, we’re always busy and we’re always looking to the future.” Frankie Fox, co-founder The Foraging Fox

The Visual Elements

The right photography, symbols or illustrations can communicate a brand’s message more effectively than words. Illustrations of ingredients can make a product look more appetising, highlight what’s in the pack or just make flavour identification easier. Not many brands will be able to afford bespoke packaging with a window, so investing in good photography is the next best thing. Visual additions can also help you stand out from similar products. Olive Branch’s EVOOs all feature a little map of Crete on their labels to mark out where on the island the oil is from, as a creative way of showing provenance without directly telling the FRQVXPHU b Cartoon illustrations, like those on Tracklements’ branding, can inject some fun into the brand and will continue to engage with the consumer when they have taken the product home.

“Putting your name into the brand can feel like a very exposing and risky thing to do but it puts a face to the brand and gives it authenticity, something us smaller producers can do that large corporations can’t. It creates a dialogue with the consumer and helps set the tone of the brand. If you decide not to put your name in the brand then put a picture of the founder on the back, or at least a signature.” Jason Gibb, founder Planet Jason

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BEST BRANDS 2018-19 39

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@tyrrells FINE FOOD DIGEST

Branding & packaging The Wording

Back of pack

It can seem impossible to put your entire brand’s message into such a small space so be harsh on yourself. Think of three points of difference and push those. It’s not about writing elegant prose, it’s driving home why your product will be the most rewarding for the consumer. Recipes or pairing suggestions are a good way of doing this. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes, how would you talk to them? This will make the tone of the brand seem more authentic.

The Fonts

As with colour, different typefaces inspire different feelings. You want a font that stands out against your competitors but is still legible in all sizes. A typewriter-style suggests the product is handmade while the clean Helvetica font implies efficiency. Classic styles are elegant and have more staying power in the long run while edgier, stylised trendy fonts will stand out but are in danger of dating quickly. Always opt for simpler fonts for the ingredient list, storage advice and allergy information.

The Packaging

The anti-plastic movement has put added pressure on food brands to use more recyclable and even plastic-free packaging. Help consumers understand your stance on sustainability. Tell them if it’s compostable, plasticfree or widely recycled. If it isn’t, be honest. Perhaps mention that you’re doing your best to be as sustainable as possible. And if it can’t be recycled suggest a new use for it. Even plastic yoghurt pots can be handy storage containers.

The Barcode

Getting your brand’s personality across to the consumer needn’t be confined to the front of the pack. Jason Gibb says even the barcode can be cut out into a funky shape, such as a fish, so long as it can be scanned by a barcode scanner. Producers can check if a barcode is scannable by using the barcode image review through the company GS1.

“We are a big company but still handmake our products in small batches so we developed a colour and number theory that reflected that in our branding. Each flavour has a corresponding colour and recipe number. The word ‘recipe’ highlights that we still cook all our own products and makes the customer think ‘If I’ve tried number 31, I wonder what the other recipes are like’.”

“We wanted to differentiate ourselves from the traditional olive oil bottles with images of olive grove landscapes. We opted for colourful, artistic illustrations of ingredients on the label which offer a touch more class and elegance than straight photography. You want to tell the customer that the product is made with good quality ingredients.” Kamil Shah, co-founder Olive Branch

“Fonts, typefaces and lettering are all part of a brand’s look, feel and tone of voice. A product invoking the era of the 1920s would suit lettering and typefaces of that era. Fonts that become overly popular and over-used can become a flashin-the-pan trend, but that is the balancing act. A font might be bang on trend, but you want the flexibility that your brand can be adapted and updated.”

Guy Tullberg, owner Tracklements

Danny Gradwell and Johnny Paton, managing and creative director Kingdom & Sparrow FINE FOOD DIGEST

BEST BRANDS 2018-19 41

The perfect accompaniment for cheese

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Award winning...

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Shop branding

Taking the brand back to the land You can stack your shelves with slick brands, but what if the name over your door is all wrong? Jon Edwards tells us why nothing was sacred when Ludlow Food Centre underwent its own radical rebrand last autumn. By Mick Whitworth If your business name isn’t working for you, there’s a lot to be said for changing it early. You have fewer customers to alienate and can put your effort into building the right brand, not the wrong one. In the case of Ludlow Food Centre – probably the first farm retailer to incorporate artisan food-making, from jams and ice cream to cheese, within its walls – it took 11 years to make the switch. But, to be fair, it’s only now the name has changed to the shopper-friendly umbrella brand ‘Ludlow Farm’ that it seems obvious what was wrong. The words ‘food centre’ really smacked more of a steelclad factory unit on an urban enterprise park than a rural shop. “The name came across as quite industrial,” says MD Jon Edwards, who joined the business – part of the Earl of Plymouth’s 8,000 acre Oakly Park estate in Shropshire – in 2016, from Rhug Estate farm shop in North Wales. “I think they’d originally stepped back from the name ‘farm shop’ because they felt it was so much more than that. But actually, no. When you consider what a farm shop should be and FINE FOOD DIGEST

what it stands for, it’s all about offering retailing products that you either produce on your own farm or buy on your doorstep. So we are a farm shop.” Even before his appointment, says Edwards, the estate’s owners had seen the need to make the shop’s link with the estate farms “front and centre”. Now, following a 2018 rebranding exercise led by London design agency Household, that link is hard to miss, whether you’re in the core Ludlow Farmshop, its Ludlow Kitchen café-restaurant or The Clive restaurant-with-rooms that sits alongside them. It starts with the logo: a stag’s head that not only reflects the estate’s own herd of deer but also the crest of the Earl of Plymouth’s

The words ‘food centre’ smacked more of a steel-clad factory unit than a rural shop

family, the Windsor-Clives. It now appears everywhere, from the external walls of The Clive to the shop’s private-label packaging. There are photographs of the farm everywhere too. The business had thousands of images on file, mostly taken on mobile phones, but with no cohesive ‘house style’. Now, two photographers have been selected – one taking outdoor shots of the estate, one doing interiors – to start building a library of images for use on signage and marketing materials that can change with the seasons. Over the past decade, Edwards says, most people didn’t understand what the food centre stood for. The new imagery is designed to provide “visual, nonverbal ties” between the estate and its public-facing outlets. Products grown or produced on site, from charcuterie to jams and preserves, account for more than 50% of shop sales. Revamping so much packaging has been a mammoth task in itself – and went well beyond changing the logo. “Packaging and recycling are very much ‘of the moment’,” says Edwards, “so we took the opportunity to look at it in detail.

“It had almost been moving into the realms of London food hall packaging – it was sharp, really slick and getting a bit too far removed from what’re about. “At the same time, we wanted to make sure we were using materials that ticked the environmental boxes but also reinforced the fact we’re a farm shop. So, for example, we’re using a lot of kraft boxes, which compost naturally.” Despite a programme of working parties and focus groups ahead of the rebrand, not everything has worked 100%. Some shoppers misread the stag’s head that appeared above the store front as a sign Christmas stock had arrived. Others have objected to the ‘plastic’ film lid on the kraft cake boxes, not realising it’s biodegradeable cellophane. Some signage is so small that older shoppers simply can’t see it. But those are largely communication issues. “What we set out to do last year was get the framework right”, says Edwards. “We always knew there would be things we’d need to revisit, but we have the foundations to develop from. And it’s looking really good.” ludlowfarmshop.co.uk

BEST BRANDS 2018-19 45

OU R FAM IL Y

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– FARMHOUSE CHEESEMAKERS –

VINTAGE RESERVE CHEDDAR CRAFTED IN SOMERSET SINCE 1833

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Always matured for a minimum of two years to provide a cheddar that is powerful and complex YKVJ GZEGRVKQPCN FGRVJ QH ƔCXQWT It has a slightly brittle and often crunchy texture as a result of its long and slow ageing

BARBERS.CO.UK TEL: +44 1749 860666 BARBER’S FARMHOUSE CHEESEMAKERS, MARYLAND FARM, DITCHEAT, SOMERSET, BA4 6PR

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Luisa’s family have been making pasta by hand for generations. When one of her best friends was diagnosed with a gluten allergy she couldn’t believe the poor taste and quality of the gluten-free pastas available, and set about creating the perfect alternative. Freshly milled in small batches from organic corn, wholegrain sorghum, wholegrain rice, buckwheat and quinoa, this really is perfect gluten-free pasta. Varieties include tagliatelle, penne, fusilli, spaghetti and gnocchetti.

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46 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

FINE FOOD DIGEST

National & regional award winners Great Taste 2018

On to the winners Keeping up with the latest award-winning products can be a mammoth task, which is why Fine Food Digest has done the job for you with our annual round-up of this year’s national and regional award winners, starting with our very own Great Taste 2018

gff.co.uk/gta

Supreme Champion 2018 Premium Pili Nuts with Ecuadorian Cacao Mount Mayon mountmayon.com

Golden Fork for Best Imported Food Premium Pili Nuts with Ecuadorian Cacao Mount Mayon mountmayon.com

Nigel Barden Heritage Award Southport Potted Shrimps by James Peet Southport Potted Shrimps pottedshrimp.co.uk

Ambient Product of the Year Honeyed Fig Relish with Black Garlic The Quirky Cook thequirkycook.co.uk

Golden Fork from Ireland Signature Tastes Smoked Rack of Bacon SuperValu supervalu.ie

Golden Fork from Northern Ireland Organic Apple Cider Vinegar Natural Umber naturalumber.com

Golden Fork from the South West Saddleback Neck Steak Pipers Farm pipersfarm.com

Golden Fork from Scotland Kiln Roasted Salmon The Argyll Smokery argyllsmokery.com

Golden Fork from East Anglia Brazilian Chilli and Coconut Sauce Capsicana capsicana.co.uk

Golden Fork from London & the South East Baba’s Rashi & Dibis with Sesame Seeds Terra Rossa terra-rossa.com

Golden Fork from the North of England Sicilian Bronte Pistachio Ice Cream Rogue Artisan Ice Cream rogueicecream.co.uk

Great Taste Producer of the Year Wessex Mill wessexmill. co.uk

Golden Fork from Wales Celtic Promise &DZV 7HLƓ &KHHVH WHLƓFKHHVH FR XN

Small Artisan Producer of the Year Tea Shirt Tailored Refreshments tea-shirt.co.uk

Charcuterie Product of the Year Iberico Bellota Ham Carnicas Ibericas Mozarbez ibericosmontellano.com

Golden Fork from the Midlands Beech Wood Smoked Salmon Macneil’s Smokehouse macneilssmokehouse.co.uk

FINE FOOD DIGEST

BEST BRANDS 2018-19 47

Join the ancient grain revolution Upgrade your homebaking offering and stock up on the award-winning ancient grain flour range from the UK’s No.1 organic flour brand.* Discover the full range, including rye, spelt, einkorn, emmer and KAMUTŽ khorasan flours, at dovesfarm.co.uk or contact our team: Call: 01488 684880 Email: sales@dovesfarm.co.uk *Kantar Worldpanel 52 w/e 4. Nov. 18 48 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

FINE FOOD DIGEST

National & regional award winners Taste of the West Awards tasteofthewest. co.uk

Supreme Champion Product St. Louis Dry Hopped Cider Sandford Orchards sandfordorchards.co.uk

Real Ale & Cider Awards

Best Canadian Alfred le Fermier Grand Cru Fromagerie la Station, Canada

camra.org.uk

Champion Beer of Britain Broken Dream Breakfast Stout Siren Brewery

Best South African .LOHPEH Belnori Boutique Cheesery, South Africa

sirencraftbrew. com

belnori.com

Best Greek (SLURV 2UJDQLF )HWD &KHHVH 3'2 Epirus, Greece

Champion Cider Gold Award +DUU\Ĺ?V 6FUXPPDJH Harry’s Cider

Best Welsh &HOWLF 3URPLVH &DZV 7HLĆ“ &KHHVH :DOHV

harryscidercompany.co.uk

WHLĆ“FKHHVH FR XN

World Cheese Awards

Best Branding Conker Spirit conkerspirit.co.uk

Champion Confectionery Caramel & Sea Salt Butter Fudge Copperpot Originals copperpot originals.co.uk

Champion Cheese Mature Raw Milk Cheddar Keen’s Cheddar keenscheddar.co.uk

Champion Perry Gold Award Piglet’s Perry Nempnett pigletschoice.co.uk

The International Chocolate Awards – British Chocolatier Competition 2018

keenscheddar.co.uk

Champion Cured Meat Dorset Soft Salami Capreolus Fine Foods FDSUHROXVĆ“QHIRRGV FR XN

Champion Sweet Preserve (joint winners) Beekeepers Marmalade Cedrics Cakes

World Champion Cheese Fanaost OstegĂĽrden ostegaarden.no

Best New Queso Con Vino Don Apolonio SAT Luapel 7993, Spain quesosdonapolonio.es

Best British Golden Cross Golden Cross Cheese Company, UK

Best American +DUELVRQ Cellars at Jasper Hill, USA jasperhillfarm.com

Best Smoked 2DN 6PRNHG 9LQWDJH Organic Cheddar Godminster, UK godminster.com

goldencrosscheese.co.uk

Best Goats’ Helfeit, Brun Geitost Tinntradisjon Stordalen Gardsbruk, Norway

The Ann-Marie Dyas Award For Best Artisan Almnäs Tegel Almnäs Bruk AB, Sweden

Best Le Gruyère AOP /H *UX\ÂŞUH $23 3UHPLHU &UX Cremo SA – von Muhlenen, Switzerland

almnas.com/en/

cremo.ch

Best Unpasteurised 7DXSLQHWWH -RXVVHDXPH Jousseaume Earl, France

Best Italian Riserva Del Fondatore &DVHLĆ“FLR ,O )LRULQR ,WDO\

chocamor.co.uk

goat-and-cheese.com

FDVHLĆ“FLRLOĆ“RULQR LW

Flavoured dark chocolate ganaches or WUXIŴHV %ODFN )RUHVW L’Amethyste Patisserie

Best Australian Sunrise Plains Berrys Creek Gourmet Cheese, Australia

Best Spanish 0DMRUHUR 3'2 ĹŠ 0D[RUDWD 6HPLFXUHG ZLWK 3DSULND Grupo Ganaderos de Fuerteventura, Spain

internationalchocolate awards.com

White chocolate JDQDFKHV RU WUXIŴHV &DPERGLDQ &XUU\ Fifth Dimension Chocolates Champion Dairy Product Keen’s Whey Butter Keen’s Cheddar

gff.co.uk/wca

Best French $JRXU 3XU %UHELV $23 2VVDX Iraty QST International limited, France

5dchocolates.com

Milk chocolate bars with inclusions or pieces %URZQ %XWWHU 1LEV Choc Amor

berryscreekcheese.com

Best Central & Eastern European $QGUH ([FHOOHQW Andre Juustufarm, Estonia andrefarm.ee

Best Jersey Milk 0DVFDUSRQH Lancewood Cheese Holdings, South Africa lancewood.co.za

Best Vintage Cheddar 'HHU &UHHN 7KH ,PSHULDO %XFN The Artisan Cheese Exchange, USA deercreekcheese.com

Best Extra Mature Cheddar %DUEHUĹ?V 6ZHHW 7RQH Barber’s Farmhouse Cheesemakers, UK barbers.co.uk

Best South American $ÂłHMR GH ORV DOWRV ([WUD aĂąejo) Grupo Industrial y Comercial Navarro, Mexico Best Irish Kerrygold Mature Ornua, Ireland ornua.com

maxorata.es

amethystepat.co.uk

cedricscakes.co.uk and

3UROLĆ“F 3OXP -DP 7KH $UWLVDQ .LWFKHQ theartisankitchen.co.uk

Champion Pickle/ Chutney %ODFNEHUU\ ,QIXVHG 0LQL 3LFNOHG 2QLRQV Hillside Foods hillsidefoods.co.uk

Champion of Wines, Spirits & Liqueurs -DFN 5DWW /XJJHU 5XP Lyme Bay Winery lymebaywinery.co.uk

FINE FOOD DIGEST

The World’s Original Marmalade Awards dalemain.com

Artisan Double Gold Winners Smoky Seville Marmalade with Urfa Pepper & Star Anise Absolutely Preserves absolutelypreserves. wordpress.com

Seville Marmalade with Dartmoor Honey Clare’s Preserves clarespreserves.co.uk

National Trust Fine Farm Produce Awards

Free From Food Awards

nationaltrust.org.uk

freefromfoodawards. co.uk

Overall Food Winner Portland Hogget Calke Abbey

FAIR Trophy for the Best FreeFrom Food 2018

nationaltrust.org.uk/ calke-abbey

Orgran Vegan Easy Egg orgran. com

Overall Drinks Winner Medium Sparkling Cider Killerton Estate nationaltrust.org.uk/ killerton

BEST BRANDS 2018-19 49

Stock up on the Multi Great Taste Award-Winning

Turmeric LATTE

Turmeric - Black Pepper - Palmyra Blossom Nectar - Cinnamon

Now Available in 1kg Café Barista Bags Tel: 08452335000 Email: info@sugavida.co.uk www.sugavida.co.uk

50 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

FINE FOOD DIGEST

Taste the Doddington Magic in Every Mouthful

Birchall’s Great Rift Breakfast Blend has won a Great Taste Award for 8 years in a row. TO O R D E R :

020 8699 0511

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FINE FOOD DIGEST

|

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B I R C H A L LT E A . CO. U K

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This delicious medium cut marmalade, made with Blood Oranges from the slopes of Mount Etna Sicily, has a sweet tangy flavour and is perfect on a warm croissant or when used as an ingredient when cooking with duck or pork.

“Even a judge who does not like marmalade loved this and went back for more.�

Award-Winning Cornish Ice Cream Tel: 44 (0)1621 814529 jams@thursday-cottage.com www.thursday-cottage.com 52 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

Contact us for a tasting now: enquiries@treleavens.co.uk 01503 262499 www.treleavens.co.uk FINE FOOD DIGEST

National & regional award winners Deliciouslyorkshire Taste Awards

Taste of Kent Awards tasteofkentawards.co.uk

deliciouslyorkshire.co.uk

2018 Supreme Product Champion Wagyu Short Rib Warrendale Wagyu warrendale-wagyu.co.uk

turnerscider. co.uk

Best Ready to Eat Yorkshire Pork and Fennel Salami Lishman’s of Ilkley lishmansbutchers.co.uk

Best Cheese Squeaky Cheese with Rosemary Yorkshire Dama Cheese yorkshiredamacheese. co.uk

Best Ice Cream/ Yoghurt YORG Original Stamfrey Farm

Dairy St Andrews Farmhouse Cheddar St Andrews Farmhouse Cheese Company standrewscheese.co.uk

Fish & Seafood Bradan Orach Loch Fyne Oysters

Best Bakery Olive, Pumpkin and Polenta Sourdough Haxby Bakehouse

staalsmokehouse.co.uk

lochfyne.com

Wine of the Year Bacchus 2016 Chapel Down Tastiest Juice of the Year Spiced Kent Apple Juice Owlets Fruit Juice owletfruitjuice.co.uk

Food Product of the Year Craft Mead with Kent Goldings Hops Marourde

sloemotion.com

thelittleredberry.co.uk

Best Savoury Condiment Rare Breed Chorizo Jam Three Little Pigs threelittlepigschorizo. co.uk

FINE FOOD DIGEST

whitelake.co.uk

Reserve Champion Montgomery’s Mature Cheddar J A & E Montgomery montgomerycheese.co.uk

Best English Cheese Ducketts Caerphilly Westcombe Dairy

The Golden Bean Award Chuncho 70% Morropon 70% Qantu Chocolate qantuchocolate.com

The Golden BonBon Award Maracaibo & Cranberry Caramel Chocolat Grace chocolatgrace.com

mullaghafarm.ie

Distilling Isle of Harris Gin Isle of Harris Distillers

Best Scottish Cheese Smoked Mull of Kintyre First Milk Campbeltown

Nantwich International Cheese Awards

ƓUVWPLON FR XN

internationalcheese awards.co.uk

harrisdistillery.com

Business of the Year Border Biscuits

Supreme Champion Traditional Farmhouse Coloured Cheshire Belton Farm

borderbiscuits.co.uk

marourde.com

beltonfarm.co.uk

Blas na hEireann Irish Food Awards irishfoodawards.com

North East Scotland Food & Drink Awards nesfoodanddrinkawards. co.uk

Best Welsh Cheese Celtic Promise &DZV 7HLƓ &KHHVH

Reserve Supreme Champion Low Fat Cheese Arla Foods

WHLƓFKHHVH FR XN

arlafoods.co.uk

Best Export Rollright King Stone Dairy

Supreme Champion Millbay Oysters Rooney Fish URRQH\ƓVK FRP

Best Spirit Military Spirit Gin The Little Red Berry Co

Supreme Champion Sheep Rustler White Lake Cheese

Best Irish Cheese Boyne Valley Bán Boyne Valley Farmhouse Cheese

chapeldown.com

Academy of Chocolate Awards academyofchocolate. org.uk

westcombedairy.com

stamfrey.com

Best Spirit – Flavoured Gin Hedgerow Gin with Rhubarb and Raspberry Sloemotion

britishcheeseawards.com

Cider or Perry of the Year (OGHUŴRZHU Cider Turners Cider

cryerandstott.co.uk

Best Fish and Seafood Oak Roast Mackerel Staal Smokehouse

British Cheese Awards

foodanddrink.scot

Best Wholesaler/ Distributor Cryer & Stott Cheesemongers

haxbybakehouse.co.uk

Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards

Best Artisan Refuge Hot Chocolate Refuge Hot Chocolate facebook.com/ refugehotchocolate/

Best New Product Refuge Hot Chocolate facebook.com/ refugehotchocolate/

Best New Retail Product (Small Businesses) Luxury Single Malt Whisky Ice Cream in 3 Casks of Character Balvenie St. Ice Cream whiskyicecream.co.uk

Best New Retail Product (Medium Businesses) St Clement’s Summerhouse Drinks

rollrightcheese.com

BBC Food & Farming Awards

Best New Cheese Stratford Blue Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses

bbc.co.uk

butlerscheeses.co.uk

smallfoodbakery.com

Best Food Producer Small Food Bakery

Best Goat Cheese Ashlynn Cheese Cellar Dairy harveyandbrockless.co.uk

Best Drinks Producer Burning Sky

summerhousedrinks.com

burningskybeer.com

Best New Retail Product (Large Businesses) Scottish Smoked Trout John Ross Jr (Aberdeen)

Best PDO/PGI Cheese Stilton Colston Bassett

Derek Cooper Outstanding Achievement Award Peter Hannan

johnrossjr.com

colstonbassettdairy.co.uk

hannanmeats.com

BEST BRANDS 2018-19 53

Introducing Welsh Lady’s individual portions of award winning products. Jams, marmalades, mustards, sauces and chutney in mini glass jars. Talk to us about small production runs and bespoke by brand

0Ç EMIUÇ› PÇ EǢǣ¤Ǣ MAÇ’Ç? WITÇ” Ç EAÇ™ FRUIǤ JUICEǢ Available in 330ml & 750ml glass and 425ml PET Elderower PressĂŠ | Traditional Lemonade Fiery Ginger Beer | Raspberry Lemonade Blackcurrant Crush | Apple & Rhubarb | Strawberry & Mint

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For over 20 years we have sourced traditional regional Italian specialities, from top artisan family producers, who re passionate about the quality, integrity and flavour of the food they make.

020 7272 5588 www.seggiano.com 54 BEST BRANDS 2018-19

FINE FOOD DIGEST

Must-stocks

Looking for some top stuff? Every retailer has a list of go-to items that they couldn’t operate without. Here are the must-stock items at each of our Deli of the Month stores from 2018. January-February

DELI OF THE MONTH Johns has been a grocer on one bank of North Devon’s Taw-Torridge estuary for the best part of a century and it has been trading on both for almost a decade, fuelled by a culture of self-improvement Interview by Michael Lane Additional photos by Lauren Phillips

Best on both sides IT’S NOT UNCOMMON to encounter independent retailers with more than one site. Nor is it unusual for these outlets to share stock, supplies and staff. But I’d never heard of the transfer happening by ferry. That is, until I visited Johns in North Devon. “In theory, it’s not supposed to happen because we do have a daily delivery by van that goes between the two stores. But this is an emergency back-up,” says Anthony Johns, the fourth generation of his family to run a shop in the village of Instow on the Taw-Torridge estuary. Together with his wife Sue, he is also the man who has overseen the business’s transformation from convenience store into a deli-grocer-café and, more to the point, its expansion to a second premises in Appledore on the other river bank. On a grey and bitterly cold day in January, I have to be content with squinting across the water at Appledore from the Instow branch because the ferry only runs from April to October, during the area’s tourist season. But things have far from shut down here.

By the time the boats are in service again, Johns of Appledore will look very different as it is undergoing a makeover, inside and out. And it’s busy on the Instow side too. Inside the brightly lit shop there are plenty of people milling about, perusing shelves stacked with both mainstream branded goods and specialist deli items. When lunchtime arrives there isn’t a seat left in the café and, by the time I leave, the piles of Johns famous homemade brownies and sausage rolls have been reduced to mere handfuls. Even in low season, Johns has nearly 40 staff on its books across its two 2,000 sq ft locations. And a combined annual turnover of £2.8m. There’s nothing sleepy about that. The Johns family has been in the area for more than a century – many generations have been involved in the running of the ferry – but they first became grocers in 1926 when Anthony’s great-grandmother Queenie opened a shop a few doors down from the current location. It moved into its current site during the ’40s and operated under convenience store fascias during the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. Since he took

VITAL STATISTICS

Locations: Instow (EX39 4HY) and Appledore (EX39 1QS), North Devon Turnover: £2.8m No. of staff: 36 (50+ in high season) Size: Both 2,000 sq ft each Average basket: £8.50 Average margin: 38%

66

over the business from his father, Anthony has set about shifting the emphasis from general branded groceries to deli foods, bought in from small producers or made in-house. The Appledore site opened in 2008 and was actually the first of the two to get a café, when the Johns seized the opportunity to take on the neighbouring unit that was previously inhabited by The Co-op. Instow followed suit in 2016, when the gallery next door became available. The wall was knocked through to create space for seating and it took its current form. Now it’s Appledore’s turn for a revamp. Don’t expect it to be a carbon copy, though. Sue tells FFD that the ideal situation is for customers to experience both Johns of Instow and Johns of Appledore because, despite sharing similar product lists and levels of service, they are run by different teams with different menus and favourite lines. Anthony adds: “The two stores are too close to be identical. Although they trade similarly and we have a lot of the same principles, we do want to keep them unique from one another. That’s important for our sanity and for our customers’ wishes as well.” The shops do cater for two different sets of people, whether they are holiday-makers or locals. Some prefer the simple charm of Instow, with its single shop, a couple of pubs, and a beach, while Appledore is a fishing village that has more to offer in terms of shops and activities. Although the colour scheme chosen for Appledore will set it apart from Instow’s signature sea foam green, the two do help to inform each other despite their differences. For example, the Johns have learned that an easily maintained stainless steel kitchen will be more useful than the country home fixtures of Instow. Thought has also been given to ensuring there are enough covers and to the layout behind the counter, so the coffee station and other drink-making apparatus is all in one place and laid out to cope with lunchtime takeaway rushes. Other improvements that will be made include relocation of the Post Office counter (both shops took over this duty in their villages) away from the deli, more shelf and merchandising space and installation of temperature-controlled refrigeration. All told, it’s going to cost £130,000. “We’ve got a lot of competition in Appledore,” says Sue, justifying the scale of the project. “In Instow, we’re in the fortunate position where we’re just surrounded by pubs. In

Johns of Instow North Devon

MUST-STOCKS Sibling Gin Godminster cheddar Sharpham Brie Johns sausage rolls Johns brownies Dog poo bags Tide table booklets

Sibling Gin Godminster cheddar Sharpham Brie Johns sausage rolls Johns brownies Dog poo bags Tide table booklets

Dunn’s Dairy clotted cream Chunk of Devon steak pasty Johns soups Miles tea Waterhouse Fayre strawberry jam local Instow honey Otter Vale Devon Fire chutney Johns salads

Fourth generation shopkeeper Anthony Johns runs the two-site business with his wife Sue

Appledore you’ve got to make yourself stand out a little bit more. “Although it’s brilliant being on the seafront, our location is the worst location on the seafront because the car park is the opposite end of the village.” The Johns say that securing a 40% grant – from North Devon’s LEADER 5 Rural Development Programme scheme – was the only way they could be upgrading the Appledore shop. It was also a vital component when they carried out the work on Instow. Getting two grants approved in the last three years is also a testament to Anthony’s accounting skills and he is unequivocal about the importance of knowing your numbers, whether it’s a fiveyear cashflow forecast or your margins. As it happens, Johns’ are healthy. The average margin across the business is 38% but they are upwards of 40% and 60% in the deli and café respectively. While the average basket might look a little low at £8.50, that’s down to the convenience side of things – plenty of customers still come in for a newspaper, a tin of beans or a pint of milk. Given its past, some still use Johns of Instow as a c-store, so it carries a variety of mainstream branded food and drink. CONTINUED ON PAGE 69

January-February 2018 | Vol.19 Issue 1

Vol.19 Issue 1 | January-February 2018

67

Dunn’s Dairy clotted cream Chunk of Devon steak pasty Johns soups Miles tea Waterhouse Fayre strawberry jam local Instow honey Otter Vale Devon Fire chutney Johns salads

March

DELI OF THE MONTH Four years ago, beer was not riding as high as it is now. But that didn’t deter Anne-Marie and Charlie Beatty from opening one of the country’s few, if only, ale and cheese shops. So far, it’s proved to be a winning combination. Interview by Michael Lane

Plenty of bottle IF YOU GOOGLE ‘cheese and beer shop’, the results are dominated by references to a small unit tucked away in the slightly neglected Harris Arcade near Reading station. Given its unusual proposition, The Grumpy Goat seems at home among the arcade’s eclectic mix of tenants, including a tattooist, a Chinese medicine practitioner and a tobacconist. Nowadays ‘quirky’ has become over-used – often as a backhanded compliment – but The Grumpy Goat is worthy of the adjective in the most positive sense. It’s not often you visit a shop on a Tuesday morning and the first thing you witness is a customer requesting a kilo of cheese from the counter, for a raclette party. By contrast, I watch other customers silently and reverently browse the impressive and colourful selection of bottles and cans, spanning traditional ales and craft beers, before buying a handful and squirreling them away in their rucksacks. Now embarking on their fifth year of trading, co-owners Anne-Marie and Charlie Beatty have proved that their chosen specialities are a bona fide retail combination with broad appeal, rather than just an odd gimmick.

“They are two things that make my heart sing,” Charlie tells FFD. “People easily get addicted to cheese and it’s the same with trying new beers. I think someone has described them as fermented friends.” She adds: “It’s a much more accessible pairing than wine.” Thanks to The Grumpy Goat’s popular side-line staging cheese-matching events off the premises, the Beattys are able to reel off a roster of crowd-pleasers. For a classic strong cheddar, you need a robust traditional British bitter. Blue cheese works well with 8%+ imperial stouts and for goats’ cheese try a deliberately tart sour beer brewed with wild yeasts. They even suggest partnering chilli cheese with a hoppy red ale. Given the prevalence of food-matching articles and events, The Grumpy Goat’s concept might not seem that ground-breaking but the Beattys were way ahead of the times when they decided to set up four years ago. On the cusp of their 30s, they didn’t want to do their 9-5 London jobs any more (Anne-Marie was a teacher and Charlie worked in property development). They both loved beer and cheese and the town, where they were once students,

VITAL STATISTICS

Location: 8-9 Harris Arcade, Reading RG1 1DN Turnover: £150,000 No. of staff: 2 full-time (owners), 3 part-time Retail space: 320 sq ft No of beers: 400-450 No of cheeses: 40+ 50

didn’t have a shop that specialised in either. Loosely related to an ale-drinking stereotype, the shop’s name just “kind of fell out” and seemed catchy enough. The fact that some regulars now shorten it to ‘The Goat’ indicates how established the shop has become but there were encouraging signs for the Beattys on their “mental” opening day in December 2013, with queues out of the door. While cheese has always been a banker for independents, beer was a different proposition back then. “We started with about 100 different beers, most of those local real ales and traditional styles,” says Charlie. “And then as the demand and market’s grown, we’ve grown with it.” The beer selection has more than quadrupled, thanks mainly to a modern brewing renaissance. “The craft beer scene is going mad, and that’s happened off the back of the American beer scene,” says Anne-Marie, adding that new breweries are even popping up in places like Poland, Estonia and Israel. At this point, I have to ask the eternal question. What exactly is craft beer? “It’s been coined as a term to give an expectation of more experimental beer rather than traditional styles and real ale,” says Charlie, gamely tackling a term that many beer experts find difficult to define. And the term does mean a lot of things. She adds: “Real ale is defined by CAMRA as undergoing secondary fermentation in its final vessel. Craft beer doesn’t have to do that.” Anne-Marie says that to be “craft”, a beer should also be small batch, or at least not massproduced. And, often, lots of hops are used in the brewing process. While traditional breweries are very visible, the collection at The Grumpy Goat is an homage to the UK’s craft brewing scene. The West Country is well-represented with Somerset’s Wild Beer Co, Arbor and Moor from Bristol and brewery of the moment Verdant from Cornwall. But there are examples from London (Beavertown, Gipsy Hill), the North (Cloudwater, Northern Monk and Magic Rock) and Wales (Tiny Rebel). And of course, there are bottles from the highly regarded Siren Brewery, which is less than 10 miles south of Reading. Among a healthy selection of foreign beers, there are also top craft brewers from Scandinavia (including Denmark’s Mikkeller, Sweden’s Omnipollo and Norway’s Lervig) as well as traditional stalwarts from Germany, well-known

The Grumpy Goat Reading, Berkshire

MUST-STOCKS Verdant Brewery canned beers Siren Brewery - Undercurrent (oatmeal pale ale) Chimay Blue (strong Belgian Trappist ale) Arbor - Yakima (American style pale ale) The Spirit of TOAD - Oxford Dry Gin Two Hoots - Barkham Blue Caws Cenarth - Perl Las Village Maid Dairy - Wigmore Preservation Society candied jalapeños Bosteels - Kwak (strong Belgian ale)

Verdant Brewery cans Siren Brewery Undercurrent (oatmeal pale ale) Chimay Blue (strong Belgian Trappist ale) Arbor Yakima (American style pale ale) The Spirit of TOAD Oxford Dry Gin Two Hoots Barkham Blue Caws Cenarth Perl Las

Fen Farm Dairy - Baron Bigod Charles Martell - Stinking Bishop Jumi - Blue Brain Lyburn Cheese - Stoney Cross Somerset Cheese Co - Rainbow’s Gold

Belgian brands and a smattering of American beers – Belching Beaver Milk Stout, anyone? It’s easy to be bamboozled by the brands regardless of your level of interest in beer, so the Beattys have arranged the UK beers on the shelves and racking by style, with a special section for British cans, and then by country. Creating this kind of structure has helped build The Grumpy Goat range and could also be a blueprint for other retailers looking to dabble in beer. The Beattys’ first recommendation for newbie retailers is the IPA, or India Pale Ale, and specifically the modern version of the style that is made with hops from America to give the beer a big hit of tropical fruit, pine or citrus notes. Effectively, this style is the cornerstone of craft beer. Then they suggest fleshing things out with traditional British bitters and golden ales, before adding some stouts. If they had to choose one brewery, they agree on Arbor, as it bridges the gap between traditional and modern styles with its range. For the more adventurous, strong Belgian staples like Delirium, Kwak and Chimay are all popular, too.

Co-owners Charlie and Anne-Marie Beatty opened The Grumpy Goat in 2013

CONTINUED ON PAGE 53

March 2018 | Vol.19 Issue 2

Vol.19 Issue 2 | March 2018

51

April

DELI OF THE MONTH The owners of Welbeck Estate have resisted turning their home into a Chatsworth-style tourist magnet, but they’ve built a thriving artisan food community with a 1,600 sq ft farm shop, run by Oliver Stubbins, as perhaps its most public expression

Welbeck Farm Shop Nottinghamshire

Interview by Mick Whitworth

A class of its own

Stichelton cheese Hedgerow Preserving Co raspberry jam Rosebud Preserves Old Yorkshire chutney Welbeck Abbey Brewery Cavendish blonde ale Lincolnshire Poacher cheese

MUST-STOCKS GETTING YOUR HEAD AROUND a shop that doesn’t follow conventional retail rules – an ethical supermarket, say, or a food hall with exceptionally cash-rich owners – is tricky. Those easy starter questions about margins, ranging, footfall and growth plans can go off-target. It can take a while to get into the operator’s mindset. So, for the first half hour or so with Oliver Stubbins, general manager at Welbeck Farm Shop, I’m slightly discombobulated. This 1,600 sq ft outlet sits in the heart of one of England’s great historic estates, the 15,000 acre Welbeck Estate in Nottinghamshire, owned by the Parente family. The shop is perhaps the most public expression of the family’s commitment to traditional foods. Since William Parente inherited in 2009, on the death of his aunt, Lady Anne Bentink, the family has opted to regenerate Welbeck, not by throwing its gates open to the public, but by creating a thriving community of small firms in the old estate buildings. While these include craft and design studios and environmental start-ups, the main focus has been firmly on artisan food and drink. Welbeck Abbey Brewery, Ottar Chocolate and cheesemaker Stichelton Dairy are among the producers now operating from the estate, which also has its own bakery. And Welbeck is perhaps best known in the trade for the School of Artisan Food, set up by William’s wife, Alison Swan Parente MBE – a retired senior child psychotherapist – to promote traditional butchery, bakery, brewing and cheesemaking skills. The school now offers short courses for hobbyists and potential startups as well as a full-time advanced diploma course in artisan baking. Welbeck Farm Shop was created in 2006, in the former estate gasworks. It sits on one side of a walled courtyard that also houses two art galleries and their accompanying café. Pulling in

VITAL STATISTICS

Location: Welbeck, Worksop, Nottinghamshire S80 3LW Turnover: £1,400,000 (shop only) No. of staff: 9 full-time, 13 part-time (shop only) Retail space: 1,630 sq ft Key categories: Butchery (50% of sales), deli & cheese (20%), fruit & veg (14%) 56

serious food shoppers at weekends and an older, lighter-spending demographic on weekdays, the shop’s annual sales are £1.4m, and it provides full or part-time employment for more than 20 people. The Harley Gallery café across the courtyard, until recently run as a concession, was brought under Oliver Stubbins’ wing at the start of 2018. While still a bit of an unknown quantity, it’s expected to add at least £400k a year to his business unit’s overall sales. So far so normal. But walk inside the farm shop itself and compare it with, say, Lord Newborough’s Rhug farm shop in North Wales or the Earl of Plymouth’s Ludlow Food Centre in Shropshire and there’s a distinctly different, and, frankly, less commercial feel. Most notable is the sparseness of its ambient foods section, which takes no more than a fifth of the floor area. In most estate shops owned by the landed gentry – even those with the fine food credentials of Chatsworth or Ludlow – it’s normal to see big blocks of ownbrand preserves and confectionery, interspersed with food and non-food gifts, to capitalise on tourist coach parties and casual visitors. But here, where tourism isn’t the big driver, there are just 500 ambient SKUs, with only one or two carefully chosen options in most categories. There’s a positive aversion to gift packs, and the familiar ambient catalogue brands found in most delis and farm shops are almost entirely absent. There’s not a hint of pile-it-high, let alone sell-it-cheap. “The grocery section is about foods we’d like to eat ourselves, that we’re happy with,” Stubbings says. “We don’t expect customers to come here and do their full shop.” Refreshingly, he stops short of describing the finely honed ambient range as “curated”, but says it has been “very rigorously tested”. “We want people to buy our food and really enjoy it. We want them to get to the end of the packet

Stichelton cheese Hedgerow Preserving Co raspberry jam Rosebud Preserves Old Yorkshire chutney Welbeck Abbey Brewery Cavendish blonde ale Lincolshire Poacher cheese Butchers’ own honey roast ham Welbeck sourdough Raw milk Tuxford Windmill quick porridge oats Comté cheese Steenberg spices (whole range) Welbeck back bacon Welbeck leg of lamb

and say, ‘That was delicious’.” Nothing is rushed into the range. Despite the importance of fresh meat, for example, there were no ready-made cooking sauces to accompany it until 18 months ago, when Stubbins found the family-owned Punjaban brand from Northamptonshire. He’s since added Yau’s Chinese sauces from Peterborough, and tells me: “It’s the same kind of business. It’s family-run, and when you go down the tick-list it’s all natural ingredients.” If a product doesn’t fit the estate’s values in terms of sustainability and high ethical standards, he adds, it’s not here. Because profit is not the be-all and end-all. “Financially, we want to stand on our own two feet. Sometimes – like last year – we make a profit, and sometimes we don’t. But that’s not the first priority.” On the whole, he’s happy to leave gift packs to the neighbouring Notcutts garden centre, a Welbeck tenant, whose main entrance CONTINUED ON PAGE 59

April 2018 | Vol.19 Issue 3

Vol.19 Issue 3 | April 2018

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Co-owners Charlie and Anne-Marie Beatty opened The Grumpy Goat in 2013

From humble beginnings as a deli-wholefood shop, Penylan Pantry has evolved into a multi-site enterprise. But owner Melissa Boothman still holds sustainability and ethical sourcing at its core. Interview by Lauren Phillips

Penylan Pantry Cardiff

A deli at heart into a multi-site business with a second retail stall in Cardiff Market specialising in British cheese, and a newly opened outdoor wholefoods café, called the Secret Garden, in a park in the city centre. “I’ve seen a lot of my customers from Penylan Pantry go down to support,” says Boothman, when I ask her about Secret Garden’s first day of opening over the Easter weekend earlier this year. “That is half the battle because those customers get what we do. They’ve already bought into the brand and ethos.” It’s persuading new customers that is going to be the challenge, she adds. “We don’t do chips and we don’t sell PG Tips or instant coffee.” Penylan Pantry was created in December 2013 after Boothman, a former hairdresser, was looking for a career change. Holidays spent visiting food halls and farmers’ markets were the inspiration to open her own deli.

The opportunity arose during her morning commute through Penylan when she saw a To Let sign on an Edwardian-fronted shop – one of the few left in the city – with its curved glass windows and awning. The location was familiar territory for Boothman who then lived in the area, while expensive business rates made the prospect of opening in the city centre off-putting. “There’s less of a community to support you [in the city], and being an independent you need a core community,” she says. “That is your bread and butter.” “People aren’t quite as loyal in a city centre as they are to their neighbourhood. That was my thought process: get the community to support you then hopefully your business will survive.” This was the case for Penylan Pantry. After beating off bids from a beauty spa, estate agents and gluten-free bakery, she had four weeks to get the shop ready for opening. Boothman called in DIY help from friends

MUST-STOCKS Penylan Preserves Coedcanlas maple syrup Welsh Honey (Cardiff) Hangfire mustard sauce Halen Môn oak smoked water Prava Spices turmeric latte blend Manumit Coffee Hafod cheddar Perl Wen Holy Yolk scotch eggs Trealy Farm black pudding Blodyn Aur rapeseed oil Homemade frittata Homemade vegan muffins Oatly Barista oat milk

VITAL STATISTICS

Location: 72 Kimberley Road, Cardiff, CF23 5DN Annual turnover: £295,000 Sales split: 80% foodservice, 20% retail No. of staff: 8 No. of retail lines: 85 Average spend: £15 50

May 2018 | Vol.19 Issue 4

FINE FOOD DIGEST

Butchers’ own honey roast ham Welbeck sourdough Raw milk Tuxford Windmill quick porridge oats Comté cheese Steenberg spices Welbeck back bacon Welbeck leg of lamb

May

DELI OF THE MONTH

IT’S 11 O’CLOCK ON A TUESDAY morning when I visit Penylan Pantry in Penylan, one of Cardiff’s leafiest suburbs, known for its Edwardian townhouses and spacious tree-lined roads. Each table is occupied by people in their mid-20s to early-30s and I watch as one couple are served plates of smashed avocado on toast. Without a word to each other, they both whip out their phones faster than you can say #foodiegoals and spend the next five minutes taking photos of their plates from various angles, presumably to show off the best one on social media. This is the typical customer for the café section, owner Melissa Boothman tells FFD. “We’ve got quite a young following especially on weekends,” she says. “We get a lot of 20-to 40-year-olds that come in for brunch. They love their food and are great on social media.” But Penylan Pantry is more than millennials eating the ultimate hipster dish. It has grown

Village Maid Dairy Wigmore Preservation Society candied jalapeños Bosteels Kwak (strong Belgian ale) Fen Farm Dairy Baron Bigod Charles Martell Stinking Bishop Jumi Blue Brain Lyburn Cheese Stoney Cross Somerset Cheese Co Rainbow’s Gold

while the neighbourhood donated wood for shelving, old worktops and even a set of large cast iron scales, which now sit on a top shelf in the deli for decoration. Before it had even opened, word had spread about the new deli in the area partly because the local community had a hand in its creation. Fast forward four-and-a-half years and the deli is bustling on a midweek morning. Customers fill every available table on the shop floor, surrounded by shelves filled with ambient jars of chutneys and jams, bags of wholegrain pulses, bottles of nut oils and tins of organic legumes. When the store first opened it was predominantly a deli-wholefood shop with three small tables. But the café side has expanded over the years as it brought in the most revenue, with 80% of the Pantry’s sales made from foodservice between January and November. December is the exception, when shop sales overtake the café at 60% to 40%. “I used to joke that the coffee machine pays the rent,” says Boothman. “And to be completely

honest, if we stayed as a deli with two or three tables we would have closed, which make me a bit sad, but that’s the truth of it.” The business model might have changed but Boothman insists she is still staying true to her original ethos. “Our main core is good food, sustainability and ethical sourcing.” Locality, sustainability, branding, taste and uniqueness are all considered in the buying process and potential products have to fulfil at least three of those criteria before Boothman will stock them. She is also committed to Welsh products, with local brands like Manumit coffee, Welsh Honey, Barry-based sauce producer Hangfire, Coedcanlas (“Their maple syrup flies off the shelf”) and neighbouring Penylan Preserves all in store. The margins on each product are a minimum of 40%. Boothman says she used to take as little as 30% but found the deli still getting the reputation of being more expensive than supermarkets. CONTINUED ON PAGE 53

Vol.19 Issue 4 | May 2018

51

Penylan Preserves Coedcanlas maple syrup Welsh Honey (Cardiff) Hangfire mustard sauce Halen Môn oak smoked water Prava Spices turmeric latte

Manumit Coffee Hafod cheddar Perl Wen Holy Yolk scotch eggs Trealy Farm black pudding Blodyn Aur rapeseed oil Homemade frittata Homemade vegan muffins Oatly Barista oat milk BEST BRANDS 2018-19 55

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Must-stocks June

DELI OF THE MONTH Barbakan Delicatessen and Bakery has been serving the people of Chorlton for more than half a century. And this Manchester institution’s traditional style of retailing is still doing the business despite demographic shifts, pressure from the supermarkets and changing tastes in bread.

Barbakan Manchester

Interview by Michael Lane

Circle of loaf FRANKIE DYER IS JUST MONTHS AWAY from ushering a third generation of her family into a Manchester business that she was born into herself. In the meantime, she is putting her pregnancy cravings to good use during the dayto-day running of Barbakan Delicatessen. “I could be upstairs right now, going ‘I really want a beef sandwich with some Manchego’, so I’ll come down and slice it myself,” she tells FFD, “but I cost it as I do it.” Some of these sandwich-making whims do end up on the specials board, provided they meet the approval of the deli’s kitchen staff. When she’s not exploring new combinations, 30-year-old Dyer is at the helm of a deli-bakery that has become something of an institution in the district of Chorlton and famed for its bread city-wide. Although Barbakan has always been part of her life, Dyer has only worked as a director here

for three-and-a-half years. She now has the task of maintaining a tradition that stems back more than half a century. Barbakan opened in 1964 in smaller premises on the same spot, a few miles to the south west of the city centre, as a Polish bakery. After years of working in various food businesses, Dyer’s Polish-Italian father Stefan Najduch bought the bakery in 1984 and has overseen its expansion into the full-service deli you see today, as well as building up a wholesale bakery customer base of 100 other retailers and restaurants. If you’ve eaten good bread in Manchester, it’s likely to have come from Barbakan. The heart of the operation is just as impressive as its sphere of influence. When you enter via the “suntrap” outdoor terrace, you can just about make out the wall of bread through the displays of ambient goods.

A member of staff will greet you at the bread section and then continue to serve you along the full-length counter – through the cakes, food-to-go, coffee and a packed cheese section before following the serveover around the corner to administer deli salads and olives and, finally, slicing to order from a full gamut of Continental charcuterie. The whole experience is refreshingly traditional. The staff are all decked out in full uniforms complete with tabards and there is even a ticket dispenser at the entrance for a numbered queuing system that is used on Saturdays. But it’s also unpretentious. “It’s more of a personal service,” says Dyer. “It’s what can make us stand out from supermarkets, aside from the quality of the food. Having a chat with your customers.” Barbakan has always served its customers this way – at least since Dyer’s father took

VITAL STATISTICS

Location: 67-71 Manchester Road, Chortlon-Cum-Hardy, Manchester, M21 9PW Established: 1964 Turnover: £1.4m (retail only) No. of staff: 21 (retail), plus 14 bakers Retail space: 1,500 sq f

50

over the business. Despite stepping back into a more chairman-like role, Stefan Najduch is still regularly on the shop floor. When FFD meets him, he echoes his daughter’s concerns about competing with the supermarkets – especially the German discounters who he says are altering consumers’ value perceptions when it comes to Continental products and bread. His theory is that Barbakan’s style of “simple and relaxed” retailing will see a customer spend less than they do in supermarkets and get better value – because they’re not being pressured, by lurid signage and promos, to buy things they don’t want. Unlike a skeleton-crewed branch of Lidl, Barbakan is a very labour-intensive operation. Some 21 staff are employed across the 1,500 sq ft retail area while 14 bakers work across three shifts in the 1,000 sq ft bakery at the rear of the building. Many of the team have been in place for more than 20 years and remember Dyer as a child. There is even one member of staff who pre-dates her father’s ownership. “We’ve got good people in good positions that we’ve trusted for a really long time,” says Dyer. A workforce this big doesn’t come cheap, though, and Dyer says the introduction of workplace pensions and increases in the National Living Wage have had an impact on profit. Even so, the retail side of Barbakan, which accounts for 70% of turnover in the business has annual sales of £1.4m and approximately 3% growth year-on-year. Even if it seems like things are ticking over nicely, Dyer has still been ringing the changes since she took over day-to-day running. However, she has had to adapt from the constantly churning approach of her previous career in fashion retail.

“When I first started working here fulltime, I thought every four days you should change things and customers were saying ‘Where’s this? Where’s that? I don’t like it’.” She may have ceased tinkering but Dyer did spearhead a refresh of the shop about a year into her tenure. The frontage was spruced up and the vinyl wraps that covered the windows were stripped away but the biggest changes were on the shop floor. Dyer scrapped the previous double-sided and linear shelving for Barbakan’s extensive range of ambient goods and replaced it with modular units from WBC that are deeper can be easily moved and adjusted. These units actually allow for more stock on a smaller footprint, which has given Dyer the space to counteract a change that is beyond her control – supermarkets listing items that she was carrying and undercutting the price to boot. “We were thinking we can’t compete with these ambient products that keep going to supermarkets,” she says. “Sales were going down. So, we increased the indoor seating, increased our menus and hot food has shot up.” It now accounts for 13% of monthly sales, on average. As a comparison, cakes and pastries make up 10%, as do deli meats. Salads and olives are about 7% of takings. The cheese counter, which is 6% of sales, reflects Barbakan’s theme of ‘Continental plus local’ with a 60-strong line-up that sees Gouda and Parmigiano sharing space with Leagram’s Lancashire and Burt’s Blue. Curiously, whole cheeses are portioned and vac-packed daily rather than cut to order – an efficient system that works for those on both sides of the counter. Ambient groceries, spanning all the major

MUST-STOCKS Barbakan maple & pecan granola Chorlton-cum-Hardy Apiary honey Barbakan Chorlton Sourdough Barbakan German Norlander bread Barbakan homemade quiche Bach’s Deli pesto Worthy Farm cheddar Barbakan Polish traditional baked cheesecake Pek Polish Boczek (bacon) Fiorucci Italian Mortadella with pistacchio Burt’s Blue cheese Agromonte Italian Pomodoro Passata Matilde Vincenzo Amaretti Fingers Winiary Polish Plum Butter Jam

CONTINUED ON PAGE 53

June 2018 | Vol.19 Issue 5

Vol.19 Issue 5 | June 2018

51

July

DELI OF THE MONTH Guzzl in Brixton started life as a subscription service but when trading online proved to be too hefty an investment, owner Andrew Murray-Watson found himself on a more traditional retailing path – and loving it

Guzzl Brixton, London

Interview by Michael Lane

Thinking outside of the box THEY SAY THERE’S A FIRST TIME for everything. I had never been interrupted midinterview by a kombucha sales rep before, but that’s exactly what happened in south London last month. After patiently listening to the plainclothes interloper (no suit or briefcase here!), taking the sample bottle and cheerily waving goodbye, my interviewee Andrew Murray-Watson turns to me, slightly jaded, and says: “We get at least one of them in here every week.” As it happens, he already has three different brands of the fizzy stuff among the colourful array of items in his shop. Whether you’ve enjoyed a glass of this sparkling fermented tea or not, you will have heard or read something about its magnetising effect on health-conscious Millennials. And the

volume of people peddling to this retailer should tell you all you need to know about how trendy the locale is. The aptly named Guzzl has a modest unit in the Brixton Village covered arcade. Its largely ambient grocery offering fits nicely into the mix of cool eateries and more traditional grocers offering produce from the Caribbean, Africa and Latin America. Even though it has been trading less than 12 months, it was named ‘most loved local shop in Brixton’ in this year’s Time Out Love Awards and counts food critic Jay Rayner among its customers. Filling a gap in the market (literally), in a prime retailing spot, in one of the hippest parts of the Capital? It sounds like the result of a meticulously executed business plan, but Guzzl wasn’t ever supposed to be a retail business.

After a decade in journalism, including a stint as the business editor of The Independent on Sunday, and several more years in corporate communications and PR, Murray-Watson decided “one rainy morning at a farmers’ market” to pursue a career in food. Thinking that there had to be a better way of doing things, he hatched a plan to start Guzzl as an online subscription business – supplying consumers with boxes of ambient deli foods. But what appeared to be a low-risk venture, when he set up last September, soon left Murray-Watson in a quandary. “The start-up costs are really low,” he tells FFD. “You buy some boxes and packaging material, you find a few local suppliers, and you clear a space in your spare room at home and get off-the-shelf website design.” This is achievable for roughly £1,000, he says,

VITAL STATISTICS

Location: Unit 9, Brixton Village, Coldharbour Lane, London SW9 8PR Turnover: £150K+ (projected for 2018) Retail space: 280 sq ft Staff: One full-time; two part-timers Average basket: £12

but getting even one customer to sign up requires some serious investment. “The really big healthy eating subscription box companies are happy to spend £200 per customer acquisition.” These costs usually come in the form of heavy initial discounting to attract subscribers. “There’s a really high churn rate when people get to the end of their discount period and say, ‘Thanks very much, I’m off’.” The only other approach is to spend a fortune on social media advertising, marketing and PR. “Either way, it’s a really, really expensive business and I didn’t have deep enough pockets to do it,” he says. “I realised quite rapidly that a subscription business alone was not going to produce results in the time frame I had in mind.” Funnily enough, it was a walk in the park that helped Murray-Watson overcome his dilemma. When his dog befriended a Boston Terrier one morning, he got talking to the owner, Joe StoreyScott, who runs 20 Storey – a gift shop just around the corner from Guzzl in Brixton. The two decided to submit a proposal to Brixton Village and before Murray-Watson knew it a unit was available, he had signed the lease and was rushing to open by the end of November last year. There could not have been a better time to open than during the Christmas run-up, because the basic premise of Guzzl is that it is a shop filled with treats rather than offering a complete shopping trip. “You only have to look outside to see the area’s well-served with fresh fruit and veg, and fresh meat, so it didn’t make sense for me – in such a small space – to create a rival,” says Murray-Watson. “The ethos of the business is to sell amazing tasty things that complement homecooked meals.” The range takes in a host of store-cupboard items, like preserves, honey, tea, coffee

and condiments along with chocolate and confectionery, snacks, soft drinks and charcuterie. The fresh selection is small, like Guzzl’s chiller, and niche: jars of kimchi, Abernethy Butter (a vehement recommendation from Mr Rayner) and that all-important kombucha. There is also an assortment of non-food items, including dog treats, classy kitchenware from Guzzini and restored vintage lamps – a side project of Murray-Watson’s that helps to fill the spaces above the shelving and attracts the odd high-margin sale. “It’s probably a more eclectic mix of stuff than in most places,” he says. “Had I accumulated 20 years of conventional retail wisdom, the shop would probably look very different.” What he lacks in retailing experience, Guzzl’s owner more than makes up for in an eye for what looks good. From the array of good-looking brands on display through to the furniture they’re sitting on, the shop is well-dressed. There’s a custom-built “industrial” counter, an old mangle that doubles as a hot spot and several Dexion shelving units, which MurrayWatson “picked up for a song” from a farmer on Ebay. And, with some more clever carpentry still to come, he estimates he can increase the number of lines by 20% in the 280 sq ft space he has to work with. And he’s going to need it because there are none of the high volume, fat margined items – like coffee and food-to-go – that you would find in a standard deli. As he gets more space, Murray-Watson will continue to add premium lines and maintain what you might call premium pricing. After all, if people want cheap food they will go to the supermarket, he says. “Some brands work in very competitive markets where they’re used to dealing with retailers working at very low margins,” he says.

Mercanti di Calabria unfiltered cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil Cloudberry Bakery salted caramel spread Abernethy Butter Single Variety jams Pao Pickles kimchee

MUST-STOCKS Mercanti di Calabria unfiltered cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil Cloudberry Bakery salted caramel spread Abernethy Butter Single Variety jams Pao Pickles kimchee Remedy Kombucha Cornish Charcuterie patés Wiltshire Chilli Farms chilli sauces Chocolates by Eloise Coco Choclatier Coaltown Coffee Snaffling Pig pork scratchings The Little Herb Farm salad dressings The Olive Branch loose olives Old Post Office Bakery bread

CONTINUED ON PAGE 57

July 2018 | Vol.19 Issue 6

54

Vol.19 Issue 6 | July 2018

55

Peck’s Farm Shop has grown from a market stall into a fully fledged business over the last 15 years, and a lot can be said for its owner’s resourceful and practical approach to retailing Interview by Lauren Phillips

Pecks Farm Shop Bedfordshire

Barn this way The is just one example of Peck’s resourcefulness and ability to use what she has to create a business that is turning over between £600,000 and £700,000 a year. And probably one of the reasons why it’s a finalist in this year’s SME National Business Awards for Best Enterprising Business. What Peck’s lacks in bells and whistles it makes up for in rustic charm. The farm shop is neat and well-presented but there are obvious signs it has grown organically over the last 15 years and within its means. “We work very hard for our money,” says Fiona Peck. “We’ve never had a hand-out, never had a grant and everything we spend we have earned. We don’t spend it if we can’t afford it.” The shop began life in 2002 when Peck and her husband decided to switch from dairy farming to rearing their cattle for meat and started selling fruit and veg from a stall on site. The stall was a success and by its fourth week Peck had extended its opening hours from three days a week to seven. Two years later and Peck raised £700

through a ‘maize maze’, a children’s attraction that the farm created for the summer months. It was enough to buy 10 telegraph poles, a few pallets, some bricks and a roof, turning the stall into a proper fixture which still stands today. Today, the farm shop comprises two units. The original shop is a long, rectangular space selling fresh fruit and veg alongside free-range eggs, takeaway options like sausage rolls and Cornish pasties, and a cheese counter. To its right is the larger store, a converted cow shed which holds all its ambient lines and a selection of pre-packed meats delivered from a local butcher. The pens might have been cleared out, but little else has changed, with the shed’s high metal sheet roof and plastic panes that allow in natural light. Most of the fixtures within the shop are second-hand refrigerator units and upcycled tables. “It’s a real farm shop on a working farm with livestock and the occasional tractor driving through,” she says. “It’s not a new building that you’ve had a quarter of a million

VITAL STATISTICS

Location: Stockwell Farm, Eggington Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire LU7 9PA Turnover: £600,000-£700,000 Staff: Five part-time; two students at the weekend; one full-time No. of retail lines: 500+ Average basket: £25

Peck’s Farm Shop local honey Wessex Mill 6 Seed Flour Hines Butcher Bunkers sausages Willow Tree Gin artisan gin

MUST-STOCKS Peck’s Farm Shop – local honey Wessex Mill – 6 Seed Flour Hines Butcher – local Bunkers sausages Willow Tree Gin – local artisan gin

pounds to spend on doing fantastically.” Peck had considered upgrading the barn by cladding the walls and lowering the ceiling, but the reaction from her customers to the prospect dissuaded her. “Every single customer said, ‘Don’t do that, Fiona. Don’t change because then you’ll be like every other farm shop around’,” she says, adding that if she were to have a brand-new building she’d lose the atmosphere and probably half her clientele. Peck’s customer base ranges from young mums, with small children in tow, shopping for their butternut squash and pure apple juice, to health-conscious young men looking to buy organic produce. Her older customers visit for traditional ambient goods like biscuits, oils and condiments but Peck has noticed them seeking out reduced-sugar options in jams and chocolate as well. The shop floor purposefully has wider aisles to cater for those two demographics, who bring buggies or wheelchairs with them. Clear signage highlights the products on offer and everything is displayed at one level for easy reach. A unit at the front of the shop is dressed every couple of weeks to show off the latest products and offers. Behind that, the eye is drawn through the shop to neatly laid out tables of soft drinks, dried pastas, sauces and handmade sweets until it reaches Peck’s hamper baskets and organic range at the back, set up to look like market stalls.

“You’ve always got to change things around and have good displays,” says Peck. “Just because it’s a converted cow barn doesn’t mean it can’t look pretty.” Brands on the shop floor are a mix of wellknown names, such as Fentimans, Wessex Mill and Mrs Darlington’s, supplied by Hider and Cotswold Fayre, alongside an array of local jams, biscuits, honeys, ales and Peck’s own-branded lines. Peck is unfazed by carrying brands also available in supermarkets like FeverTree, but prefers to focus her efforts on local foods. Many local producers now approach Peck with new products and sometimes she will invite them to do a free tasting in store to gauge her customers’ responses. If it sells she’ll stock it and if it doesn’t nobody has lost anything, she says. Other than working with local producers, Peck is also engaging with the community, inviting school pupils in to educate them on where their food comes from, giving talks for the WI or residents of sheltered housing, and delivering milk to the 21 surrounding villages. The nearby village of Eggington uses Peck’s as its local convenience store. But the shop itself offers customers more than just fresh milk or a jar of chutney. Peck says many customers enjoy visiting the shop to chat to a familiar face. That’s something she can offer that the six supermarkets, within a

Leighton Buzzard Brewery – Borrowers Ale La Mara Wine Estate – Jersey Black Butter Woburn Country Foods – local Black Bacon Healeys Cyder Farm – Rattler Cyder Taylors – English Mustard Peaches and Cream – local fudge Mrs Crimble – gluten-free brownies Fentimans – dandelion & burdock Anthony Rowcliffe – Cornish organic brie Lime Tree Pantry – beef & ale pie Snowdonia – Black Bomber

Vol.19 Issue 7 | August 2018

September

Equally inspired by a plethora of native producers and the markets of the South Pacific, Indie Füde has developed a simple retail concept – sourcing only from the island of Ireland. And it is thriving in a small town just east of Belfast.

Indie Füde Comber, Co Down

Interview by Michael Lane

A positive island mentality world. For a start, its blue brick-tiled frontage is at odds with the more demure grey that dominates the rest of Comber’s architecture. Inside, the distressed concrete floor, chipboardclad walls and exposed lighting gantries are more “urban” than you would expect. But there is substance here as well. As trendy as the shop’s name appears to be, it denotes both independent and indigenous. Yes, every single item in the building – from the assortment of ambient goods on shelves through to the cheese and charcuterie in the L-shaped counter – comes from the island of Ireland. This current incarnation of Indie Füde has been several years – and continents – in the making. After working as an accountant all over the world, from West Africa to the South Pacific, founder Johnny McDowell returned to Northern Ireland for treatment of a serious illness.

Unable to leave the island for months, he spent weekends visiting farmers’ markets in Cork and Dublin but also had another more far-flung shopping experience on his mind. “Vanuatu was a place I spent a lot of time and I just loved the food,” he tells FFD. “Everything was from the island. You had the avocado, tomato and pineapple in season. We were going to the mamas’ market there every day. I was thinking ‘Why can’t we have a bit more of that here? Why are we not a bit more self-sufficient?’” Spurred on by encountering a Brooklynbased business that was selling solely New York produce online, McDowell took the plunge in 2014. “I got up into my parents’ loft, kitted it out, got all these products in from all over Ireland, all ambient at this stage, got a website built with

VITAL STATISTICS

Location: 30 Castle Street, Comber, Co Down, Northern Ireland BT23 5DZ Turnover: £250,000 Average margin: ambient 30%, fresh 50% No. of lines: around 1,000 from 200 producers Average basket: £15 (shop), £35 (online) Retail space: 1,400 sq ft

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Young Buck Raw Milk Blue Cheese Ispini Fennel Salami Ballylisk Triple Rose Brie O’Dohertys Nitrate-Free Black Bacon Cobden + Brown 70% Dark Chocolate & Lime w/

Abernethy Dulse & Sea Salt Butter Roll Cavanagh Free Range Eggs Long Meadow Armagh Apple Juice Deli Muru Shortcross Gin & Plum Chutney Broighter Gold Thai-Infused Oil Burren Balsamics White Balsamic w/ Beetroot & Cocoa Nibs

my savings, and lit it up,” he says, “and there was nobody at the end of it.” The solution was supplementing the site with a roving market stall. And by late 2015, it had proved so popular that McDowell found himself needing a permanent base. He opened up a shop around the corner from the current one in Comber. “We probably did everything you shouldn’t do. It was up a set of stairs, off the high street, and nobody could see it,” he says, adding that, despite this, it saw steady footfall sourcing policy gained some media attention. Friend and loyal customer Laura Anne Bradley joined as a co-owner in 2017 and, since then, she has helped improve the business’s branding, marketing and social media presence. McDowell still does the accounts (“I would rather not have to touch the numbers,” says Bradley. “He enjoys it, so that’s the dream.”) but both work in the shop and are responsible for sourcing. When FFD visits, the pair have only been in the store on Castle Street for a few months but already McDowell is forecasting a £100,000 increase in turnover by the end of the next financial year. The business remains just as diversified, with the website, market stall and even a grilled cheese street food operation – but retail accounts for 75% of total sales. The location clearly works for Indie Füde but many would still ask, why Comber? “Number one, I’m from here, it was where I was brought up,” says McDowell. “Two, it’s got the best farmers’ market in Northern Ireland here. That’s where I started trading and I realised there was a customer base here.

“Three is financial. If we wanted to move this into Belfast, we’d probably be looking at two-and-a-half times the cost in rent and rates.” Although Comber is predominantly inhabited by Baby Boomers, there are 500 new homes being built in the town, and with them a potential influx of young professionals and their families. Indie Füde has already struck up a partnership with the developer that will see a branded hamper arrive on every new resident’s doorstep. The town is 25 minutes from the centre of Belfast. It’s a popular stop off for day-trippers and the country’s cycling enthusiasts will soon be passing through on a new greenway that traces the old railway line out of the city. Thanks to the multicultural nature of Ireland, McDowell and Bradley have assembled a “well-rounded deli offer” that can cater for all of these different demographics. There are world foods, free-from and even vegan sections on the shelves to cater for the younger and more health-conscious punters, while the Baby Boomers are drawn to the traditional roast ham on the counter and local produce at the front of the shop, including the famous PGI-protected Comber Early Potatoes. Cheese appeals to all ages, says McDowell, and despite being limited to the island of Ireland he feels that all the styles are covered – mainly by the South’s producers. That said, there is a strong showing from the North’s small band of cheesemakers, including the raw milk blue Young Buck, the Dutch-style offerings of City Cheese and the recently launched triple cream

Irish Black Butter Black Beef Dexter Onglet Steak Ballyhornan Smoked Anchovies

CONTINUED ON PAGE 89

September 2018 | Vol.19 Issue 8

86

Vol.19 Issue 8 | September 2018

87

It began with a vague plan to revive a historic high street butcher’s shop. Less than two years later, Cotswolds start-up Fillet & Bone has just been named the UK’s best new specialist food store.

Fillet & Bone Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire

Interview by Mick Whitworth

Take a butcher’s butcher’s shop – complete with redundant abattoir at the rear – which had recently closed after generations in the same hands. “We thought it was an amazing building,” says Willins, when I meet her and general manager Tom Greenstock at the shop on a glorious late September morning. “So we moved into the flat above for a while, and thought we’d develop the whole site.” At this stage, she admits, there was no grand plan for the shop, which had closed six months earlier. (It was as if the previous butcher had just hung up his coat and left, she recalls.) “Chris and I just thought we’d refit it and let it out. But it became evident early on that any butcher would want a fairly long lease - three to five years – and no-one really struck us as right for it.” The couple were already rashly toying with re-opening the butcher’s themselves when news emerged that Chipping Campden’s fruit & veg shop, owned by wholesaler Drinkwater, was also

MUST-STOCKS Cotswolds Distillery gin Own-label wines: - Slaughter House Red Chilean Merlot

closing. Neither of Campden’s other two delis – one more focused on bakery, the other on cheese and wine – sold fruit & veg. For Willins and Gates, who were already starting to feel part of the local community, this was the clincher. “In the space of two or three months, people here were losing their butcher and their greengrocer,” says Willins. “So we spoke to Drinkwater, and said, ‘If you’ll supply us, we can replace them both.’” The couple have no lack of business experience, but moving from engineering into two notoriously difficult sectors of fresh produce is still a bit of a leap. “We thought, ‘How hard can it be?’” says Willins, tongue firmly in cheek. “‘We have the right background... in manufacturing and electrical contracting!” To see them through the set-up phase – and as the vision widened to take in “beer and cheese and perhaps a bottle of wine to go with it” – they brought in short-term foodie assistance in the

VITAL STATISTICS

- Bone Dry White Italian Pinot Grigio Garganega Windrush garlic & herb goats’ cheese

Minimum margins: ambient 35%, fresh 40% Turnover: Over £300k in year one Staffing (including owners): 5 full-time, 2 part-time, 2 casual

Cotswolds Distillery gin Own-label wines: - Slaughter House Red Chilean Merlot - Bone Dry White Italian Pinot Grigio Garganega Windrush garlic & herb

Spoonable Gorgonzola The Handmade Scotch Egg Co scotch eggs (whole range) Willy’s organic apple cider vinegar Cotswold RAW Meaty Sticks dog chews Cotswold Gold rapeseed oil Svensson’s Swedish crispbreads Cotswold honey Ethical Addictions coffee – Macharé Blend Love Smoked smoked salmon Mr Filbert’s French rosemary almonds The Parsnipship Glamorgan Crumble

shape of Barry Hancox, a retail and restaurant consultant whose CV included stints with Claridges, The Daffodil in Cheltenham and (briefly) Dalesford Organic. “Barry was a great asset during start-up,” says Willins, “especially with helping us find local suppliers. Without his input we would never have fast-tracked as well as we did.” But it was another hospitality specialist who subsequently joined Fillet & Bone to bolster its food skills and take the business forward. Tom Greenstock comes from a family of hoteliers and spent 12 years running the Horse & Groom in Bourton-on-the-hill with brother Will, culminating in winning Best Pub in the Good Pub Guide 2016. He had just sold the business when he hooked up with Willins and Gates. “I had a non-compete agreement as part of the pub sale,” he said, “and this was everything I love, but in retail, not foodservice.” Greenstock is now general manager, with Willins working full-time alongside him and Chris Gates filling in as one of the shop’s two part-time staff. Other full-timers include Ben Allan, a former

Location: High Street, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire GL55 6AT

42

builder who has thrown himself heart-and-soul into his new trade – and who joined Greenstock in London to collect the Shop of the Year award last month. “It’s a small team, but everyone’s commited,” says Willins. “Ben has taken some courses and also spends a lot of his own time learning more about butchery. He’s intelligent, keen and really cares about it – which is the great thing about all our staff.” Although the vision for Fillet & Bone swiftly grew beyond fresh meat, Greenstock says it’s central to the business. “It’s a hard one to quantify, because the sheer value of meat means it consistently provides six of our top 10 biggest sellers. But it’s going very well – especially since we’ve moved from buying joints to whole animals. “For beef, we have two local farms, one producing Highlands and the other one Dexters. One of those animals tends to last us a couple of weeks, and we alternate between them. Even if we don’t have space for the whole carcase we buy it whole and the abattoir holds it for us. CONTINUED ON PAGE 45

October-November 2018 | Vol.19 Issue 9

Vol.19 Issue 9 | October-November 2018

Roots, Fruits & Flowers Glasgow

Interview by Lauren Phillips

The root of all vegan MUST-STOCKS

VITAL STATISTICS

Location: 455 Great Western Road, Glasgow, G12 8HH Sales split: Retail 65%, deli counter 35% No. of retail lines: Approx. 3000 Avg. basket spend: £7.50

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December 2018 | Vol.19 Issue 10

FINE FOOD DIGEST

goats’ cheese Spoonable Gorgonzola The Handmade Scotch Egg Co scotch eggs (whole range) Willy’s organic apple cider vinegar Cotswold RAW Meaty Sticks dog chews Cotswold Gold rapeseed oil Svensson’s Swedish

crispbreads Cotswold honey Ethical Addictions coffee – Macharé Blend Love Smoked smoked salmon Mr Filbert’s French rosemary almonds The Parsnipship Glamorgan Crumble

December

For nearly 40 years, Roots, Fruits & Flowers has been a torchbearer for organic, healthy food in Glasgow’s trendy West End, and it's well-placed to capitalise on the recent surge in demand for vegan and free-from food

And for a shop which has built its business over the past 35 years selling organic veg, vegan cheese and tahini, I can’t help but notice the lack of socks-and-sandals amongst this lively customer base. Which is why Roots is the perfect example of modern wholefoods’ retailing, not because it is doing anything out of the ordinary business-wise, but because it has the perfect demographic mix surrounding it in Glasgow’s trendy West End. “The West End is very different to the rest of Glasgow,” says 71-year-old owner Garth Gulland. “It’s like a little village where very different groups of people all live together. You could be walking through a residential area one minute and then be on a road with student accommodation the next.” The shop is situated on Great Western Road among high-end restaurants, bars, vintage

Plum Chutney Broighter Gold Thai-Infused Oil Burren Balsamics White Balsamic w/ Beetroot & Cocoa Nibs Irish Black Butter Black Beef Dexter Onglet Steak Ballyhornan Smoked Anchovies

43

DELI OF THE MONTH

DID YOU KNOW that you’re more likely to bump into a vegan in Glasgow than anywhere else in the UK? Even London? A recent report revealed that 24% of Glaswegians have adopted the plant-based diet (Edinburgh, Brighton, and Leicester follow behind). This figure might jar with the clichéd image of Glasgow as a rough-around-theedges, industrial city. But it doesn’t seem so surprising during my visit to Roots, Fruits & Flowers on a cold, grey Thursday morning in November. Students mill about the deli’s single counter waiting for their soy milk lattes; a group of laughing middle-aged women catch up over brunch; and every now and then an elderly customer pops in to pick up a loaf of bread, a jar of reduced sugar jam or a couple of organic carrots.

Himalayan Sea Salt Bar Lick Gelato Lemon Meringue Pie Ice Cream Comber Earlies Potatoes (PGI) Abernethy Dulse & Sea Salt Butter Roll Cavanagh Free Range Eggs Long Meadow Armagh Apple Juice Deli Muru Shortcross Gin &

October-November

DELI OF THE MONTH

PLENTY OF DELIS OPEN on a wave of enthusiasm, only to fail for want of a realistic business plan. It takes luck and a whole heap of commercial nous to get away with no plan at all – and even more to go from zero to hero in less than two years. But that’s pretty much the story at Fillet & Bone, which, barely 18 months from start-up, has just been crowned Best Newcomer in the national Shop of the Year awards. Nestled amid the honey-coloured limestone store fronts of Chipping Campden high street, the store – a butcher’s, greengrocer, deli and wine shop – was started almost on a whim by veteran West Midlands entrepreneurs Pat Willins and Chris Gates. Willins had just retired from her family’s electrical contracting firm, while her partner was starting to wind down from his global engineering business. They were looking for a Cotswold home and fell for the former L Smith

Mrs Crimble gluten-free brownies Fentimans dandelion & burdock Anthony Rowcliffe Cornish organic brie Lime Tree Pantry beef & ale pie Snowdonia Black Bomber

57

DELI OF THE MONTH

EVEN IN AN AGE when Brexit looms large, nowhere does uncertainty quite like Northern Ireland. Given that it actually has a border with the EU and the old sectarian tensions that any kind of deal might revive, it’s hardly ideal that it also hasn’t had a government sit at Stormont for 18 months. Once I’ve driven past the Assembly’s stately home on the way out of Belfast, heading east into Co Down, things become a little more straightforward. My destination, Comber, has all the things you would expect of any market town in the British Isles: a picturesque square, a famous son (Thomas Andrews, the man who oversaw the construction of the Titanic) and a deli. That last one is rare for Northern Ireland, though, and the shop in question, Indie Füde, is a totally unique proposition for this part of the

Leighton Buzzard Brewery Borrowers Ale La Mara Wine Estate Jersey Black Butter Woburn Country Foods local Black Bacon Healeys Cyder Farm Rattler Taylors English Mustard Peaches & Cream fudge

CONTINUED ON PAGE 59

August 2018 | Vol.19 Issue 7

56

Remedy Kombucha Cornish Charcuterie patés Wiltshire Chilli Farms sauces Chocolates by Eloise Coco Choclatier Coaltown Coffee Snaffling Pig pork scratchings The Little Herb Farm salad dressings The Olive Branch loose olives Old Post Office Bakery bread

August

DELI OF THE MONTH

NO DETAIL IS TOO SMALL for the owner of Peck’s Farm Shop, located on the outskirts of Leighton Buzzard, an old market town in central Bedfordshire. I’m standing in the shed-turned-farm shop with my camera poised to take photographs, as Fiona Peck checks every shelf meets her exacting standards, turning the odd product here and there so that all labels are at a uniform angle, before I begin to snap away. And it’s this meticulousness that Peck lists as one of the reasons for her success. “I’m very particular about how things are displayed,” she tells FFD. “I’m very fussy. I want nice labels and I want the shop to look welcoming. It’s those sorts of things that help the whole picture.” I’m not the first to visit and break out the camera. The farm shop has been the setting for numerous photoshoots before, including a fashion shoot which saw a model in a gingham outfit pose moodily atop the farm’s old machinery and beside its milk churns and pitchforks.

Barbakan maple & pecan granola Chorlton-cum-Hardy Apiary honey Barbakan Chorlton Sourdough Barbakan German Norlander bread Barbakan quiche Bach’s Deli pesto

Worthy Farm cheddar Barbakan Polish traditional baked cheesecake Pek Polish Boczek (bacon) Fiorucci Italian Mortadella with pistacchio Burt’s Blue cheese Agromonte Italian Pomodoro Passata Matilde Vincenzo Amaretti Fingers Winiary Polish Plum Butter Jam

Greencity Scottish porridge oats

boutiques and fellow indie retailers, Mexican deli Lupe Pintos and I.J. Mellis Cheesemonger. It attracts hungry-but-health-conscious students from the university just a 10-minute walk away, while a private school nearby means there are plenty of ‘yummy mummies’ on the school run wanting organic spelt loaves first thing in the morning. A subway station behind the deli supplies post-work commuters looking for something for their evening meals at home. It’s no surprise then that the bohemianyet-cosmopolitan West End has become the epicentre of Glasgow’s vegan, organic and freefrom movement. And Roots, Fruits & Flowers is at its very core. But the plan wasn’t to become a wholefoods’ retailer when Gulland first opened up in 1980. Like the very products it sells, the business developed into what it is today quite organically.

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Gulland started out as a fruit and veg merchant, and was the first in the city to offer a full spectrum of produce - including an organic range - well before the supermarkets. He was also one of the first wholesaling businesses to supply fruit and veg to the restaurant trade, building a reputation as a supplier of pricier, good quality produce. This side of the business continues today and the wholesale now includes organic, free-from wholefoods. A flower shop was bolted on five years later and the fruit and veg shop started selling freshly-baked artisan bread after a bakery in the area closed and Gulland took on its staff. It wasn’t until 15 years later that Gulland started specialising in health foods when local wholefoods distributor Greencity approached him with their products. Soon after, the shop floor was filled with pallets of tea, buckets of chickpeas and sacks of flour, which Gulland says made it look both chaotic and laid back at the same time. “It was a niche market,” he says. “You used to get the old, fuddy-duddy health food shops

that had a man in a white coat behind the counter which you only bought from if you had some sort of ailment.” Today, products on the shop floor look very different. Boldly coloured, heavily-branded recyclable packaging pops out of the deli’s dark wooden shelving as products now aim to be more than just a ‘functional health food’. These days a key target is the youngest consumers: millennials and Generation Z. Students make up a big part of the store’s customer base. They visit predominantly in the week and Roots offers them a 10% discount. “Even in the time I’ve been here the amount of student customers we have has increased substantially,” says store manager Kieran Austin, who has been with the business for the last seven years. “We maybe had a few students coming in here and there but now, with the rise of veganism, they are relying on us more. A lot even do most of their shopping with us now.” The store carries around 4,000 ambient CONTINUED ON PAGE 51

Vol.19 Issue 10 | December 2018

49

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Visit us online or contact us to discover our great range of juices. We supply good food shops, hotels, pubs and restaurants.

English Cox & Bramley Apple Juice

English Ashmead’s Kernel Apple Juice

01489 878685 | info@hillfarmjuice.co.uk www.hillfarmjuice.co.uk |

COLLECTOR’S EDITION Featuring iconic Steven Brown Art designs, Dean’s bring you a range of beautifully presented gift tins containing their melt in the mouth, all butter shortbread.

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FINE FOOD DIGEST

Staff picks

Personal favourites The Fine Food Digest editorial team reflects on the products that they thought lit up 2018 Lauren Phillips

Michael Lane

Assistant editor

Editor

Gin & Tonic Garnish Box The Spice Pioneer’s G&T garnish box

Soup IPA Garage Beer Co

This G&T garnish box from The Spice Pioneer (a sister brand to Seasoned Pioneers) is a great example of lateral thinking about how to capitalise on the gin boom. The box allows consumers to garnish their favourite gin & tonic with a choice of eight botanicals. This might sound a little frilly, but given the genuine interest in gin from consumers it makes sense that they’d be just as interested in how to serve their favourite tipple as they are in drinking it.

There is a wealth of heavily hopped modern IPAs in beautifully designed cans on the market. Not all of them are this good, though. Brewed in Barcelona (yes, the “craft” revolution has spread across Europe), this hazy IPA features Citra and Mosaic hops but strikes the perfect balance between juicy fruit notes and bitterness. garagebeer.co

Fruits of Perception Wylam Brewery

seasonedpioneers.com

Sour beers are always going to divide opinion, even among seasoned enthusiasts. I’ll always give one a go but they often lack the promise of their ingredient list and end up too wine-y. This effort from Newcastle’s Wylam is brilliant. The added cucumber, kiwi and melon come through crisply with a hint of sweetness but you still feel like you’re drinking beer. wylambrewery.co.uk

Lynda Searby Sweet Potato Sticks Emily Crisps If you’ve tried their crunchy red apple or pineapple varieties, you’ll know that Emily Crisps has pedigree in the snacking category. These sweet potato sticks are cleverly flavoured with sea salt to balance against the natural sweetness of the potato. The mixture of gold and purple varieties is very attractive on the eye and the purple ones offer subtle floral notes which are quite pleasant. They have a satisfyingly good crunch, too.

Feature writer

Pacari chocolates

This family-owned Ecuadorian company does sensuous, aromatic, flavoured

dark chocolate that you just want to inhale. Using rich, fruity Arriba Nacional cocoa beans as the base, Pacari builds in bold, heady flavours, from jasmine to cardamom and my personal favourite Andean rose – to create a multi-sensorial H[SHULHQFH bbb home.pacarichocolates.uk

emilycrisps.com

FINE FOOD DIGEST

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Staff picks Mick Whitworth

Nick Baines

Editorial Director

FFD trends columnist

Patrick McGuigan FFD cheese specialist

Air-dried Canada goose ham

High Tideb

It’s not even commercially available yet, but if The Pig chef-director chef James Golding can’t make a go of air-dried Canada goose ham I’ll eat my hat. Thousands of these birds are shot as pests each year, but no one has produced a really appealing product from their meat - until now. Hat-eating was exactly the sensation I was expecting when keen wildfowler James – also a partner in artisan charcutier A Pinch of Salt ŊbJDYH PH D VOLFH RI KLV LQLWLDO WULDO SURGXFW EDFN LQ November. He’d mentioned that even many hours in a casserole couldn’t normally render these lean, muscular birds edible. But seven days in his own herby pancetta cure did the job magnificently, producing a dark, richly flavoursome meat with great texture – and great free-range, wild-game cred. A genuine ‘wow’ moment.

Caffeine alertness, but without the jitters. This CBD-infused cold brew definitely delivers focus, but functional aspects aside, the earthiness of the cannibidiol (CBD) is incredibly well balanced with the other flavours in the cold brew.With CBD already on a dramatic rise in health food stores, products infused with it are a trend to back in 2019.

A Pinch of Salt

CBD-infused cold brew

hightidecoldbrew.com

Sparkenhoe Blue Leicestershire Handmade Cheese Company From the makers of Sparkenhoe Red Leicester, this new blue is based on a Stilton recipe, but cannot be labelled as such because it is made with raw milk. It has a wonderful rounded flavour – sweet, creamy and savoury. leicestershirecheese.co.uk

Pitchfork Cheddar Trethowans Dairy Rubies In The Rubble Aquafaba Chipotle Mayo

Rathlee Distilling

Golden Barrel-Aged Rum Paola and Stuart Leather, the founders of Cornishbased Rathlee Distilling, had me hooked when I met them last summer at The Seed Fund, the mentoring scheme for food & drink start-ups. Their product, a light, Latin American-style column-distilled golden rum, makes a change from the usual strong and dark stuff associated with the West Country, pirates and smuggling. Better still, their branding – by agency Stranger & Stranger – is a brilliant distillation of the couple’s Cornish and Columbian heritage. An early listing with Harvey Nichols is a handy endorsement for this start-up, and they’ve been quietly picking up awards too. With rum reputedly on the up, this stylish tipple has to be worth a try.

Not only does this product tackle food waste, by using the discarded liquid from a can of chickpeas (aquafaba), but it also happens to be veganfriendly. This mayo is as rich and glossy as the real thing, amped up with some smoky chipotle. It GRHVQōW KDQJ DURXQG ORQJ LQ RXU KRXVH b

It’s so heartening to see a new raw milk cheddar being made in Somerset. Pitchfork, from Gorwydd Caerphilly producer Trethowans, is cloth-bound, aged for 12 months, and has a juicy, fruity flavour with a long, grassy finish. trethowansdairy.wordpress.com

rubiesintherubble.com

rathleedistilling.com

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FINE FOOD DIGEST

Born in Switzerland in 1115.

A Family Recipe for 900 Years

Le Gruyère AOP Switzerland - a centuries-old tradition of artisanal cheesemaking.

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For over 900 years, our milk producers, cheese makers and affineurs in Western Switzerland have followed the same strict protocols and procedures. This is the only way that we can ensure that Gruyère AOP carries the quality and flavour that is known and trusted for generations. For artisans such as ours, this is what matters above all. This authentic recipe and the care that goes into every wheel makes Gruyère AOP the finest choice for your family and friends. Enjoy it as it is, or in your favourite dishes.

All Natural, Naturally Gluten- and Lactose-Free. For more information and some great recipes, please visit us at gruyere.com

AOP = PDO (Protected Designation of Origin)

Cheeses from Switzerland. www.cheesesfromswitzerland.com

Switzerland. Naturally. FINE FOOD DIGEST

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Gruyere_FineFoodDigest_Dec_Fondue_230x315.indd 1

Publication: Fine Food Digest

11/21/18 10:57 AM

Title: Fondue

Position: ****RHP****

Bleed Size: 236 x 321mm

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