January-February 2024 Volume 25 Issue 1 gff.co.uk
Here, in black and white How The Leeds Deli is creating its own vision for neighbourhood retailing
ALSO INSIDE Kirkham’s cheese recall update The latest in pickles & chutneys Broom House Farm in Durham
only fresh and natural ingredients
stock up on your stock www.victusemporium.co.uk
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January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
WELCOME CONTENTS 4
NEWS
9
VIEWPOINTS
The year seems to have started in a chaotic blur. There’s been extreme weather, political uncertainty, and terrible re-boots of ’90s gameshows galore.
Christmas trading, Capreolus rescued, Olives et Al goes direct
The Leeds Deli’s origin story, cheese rooms, surviving a decade in retail
15 CHEESEWIRE
Kirkham’s restarts after December recall, Renegade Monk, Mozzarella in Cork
23 DRINKS
2023, English wine’s bumper vintage
25 CATEGORY FOCUS
Pickles & chutneys, biscuits
32 BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT
New Year advice for retailers and suppliers
35 SHOW PREVIEW IFEX in Belfast
37 FOODSERVICE 39 MEET THE PRODUCER
By Michael Lane, editor
We’ve all had those mornings, haven’t we? You’re pulling out of the driveway and one child loudly points out that you haven’t made them a packed lunch. Then when you do eventually leave (now with hastily assembled sandwiches), the road is icy, or flooded, or covered with debris caused by a storm with a silly name. Once you’ve herded the kids through the school gate, there is enough time to make it to the station. But you hit roadworks that definitely weren’t there last week and a subsequent badly signposted diversion reignites the jeopardy. You set a new sub-30-second world record for parking a car, paying for it and running over the bridge to the platform, only to look at the information board. Your train is running 15 minutes late. I’m not going to pretend that this kind of thing hasn’t always happened to me but while catching my breath after the latest mad AM dash, it felt very much like a
Lamiri Harissa
microcosm of 2024 so far. The year seems to have started in a chaotic blur. There’s been extreme weather, growing political uncertainty, and terrible re-boots of ‘90s gameshows galore. As for our sector, I don’t think we’ve ever had such a packed news agenda in the first edition of the year. Acquisitions, administrations, closures, new openings, health scares, cost increases. It’s all in here. The thing about most of these things is – even though they impact us and it’s important to be aware of them – that it’s better to focus on situations that you can affect. There’s lots of solid advice and suggestions for making improvements to your business (for both retailers and suppliers) in our feature on page 32. This magazine also comes with a supplement on best practice for running a cheese counter. And, if one of my recent experiences is anything to go by, retailers should be very focused on
43 PRODUCTS & MERCHANDISING
EDITOR’S CHOICE
45 SHOW PREVIEW
Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox, deputy editor
The Source in Exeter
Peat Smoked Tomato Juice
46 DELI OF THE MONTH
Tongue in Peat
Broom House Farm
51 ADVICE editorial@gff.co.uk Editor: Michael Lane Deputy editor: Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox Art director: Mark Windsor Contributors: Nick Baines, Patrick McGuigan, Greg Pitcher, Lynda Searby, Tom Vaughan Cover photo: Phil Taylor opportunities@gff.co.uk Sales director: Sally Coley Senior sales account managers: Becky Haskett, Jenny Homeshaw
their customer service this year. Only the other day, I had a pretty soul-destroying experience at one farm shop butchery counter. I’ll spare you the long version, but it involved a young lad who didn’t say hello, couldn’t answer any questions on cooking times, didn’t wash his hands at any point and took two attempts to cut a beef joint for me. I felt sorry for him rather than annoyed. The owners had let him down by sticking him behind a counter without the training he needed. When everyone is living such turbulent lives (surely it can’t just be me?), independent retailers can provide a little bit of relief. They should offer a good quality treat and some half-decent service. Next time you peer out your window at the latest natural disaster or political bonfire, just make sure you look over your shoulder and check that your own little refuge of calm is ready to receive and revive your world-weary customers.
It’s not often that I indulge in a Bloody Mary these days (perhaps something to do with not taking a default ‘hair of the dog’ approach to hangovers anymore). But when I do, I want it to pack a punch. It must be salty, umami, peppery and spicy. I want the rich tang of Worcester Sauce and the bright acidity of lime. It turns out I don’t mind a hint of smoke either, as I discovered when I made one with Tongue in Peat’s
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smoked tomato juice. And if you want a good match for your remedial Full English, I would recommend you try it too. More on p. 23
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Vol.25 Issue 1 | January-February 2024
3
NEWS
CYBER CRIME
Indie retail bodies say Government needs to deliver for business in 2024
UK introduces post-Brexit import checks
By Greg Pitcher
Leading figures have demanded action from the government this year to grow the economy, restore consumer confidence, tackle retail crime and keep a lid on business costs. Fine food firms faced a raft of challenges in 2023, including high energy bills, soaring inflation, rocketing interest rates, increasing theft and the cost of living crisis. With a general election on the horizon, there is both hope and fear that politicians of all parties will turn to bold policies to win votes, with a range of potential impacts on the sector. Andrew Goodacre, CEO of the British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA), pointed to a KPMG survey showing that more than half of people planned to cut non-essential spending over the coming months.
“While retailers will be flexible and adjust to these consumer demands, it is clear that government focus must be driving economic growth to restore consumer confidence,” he said. With inflation falling below 4% at the end of last year, Goodacre demanded cuts to interest rates as well as encouragement for businesses to invest and create jobs. “The government of the day needs to inspire business confidence as well as consumer confidence, and then retailers will be able to view 2024 in a more positive light,” he insisted. James Lowman, chief executive of the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS), said the year ahead would be defined by the general election pencilled for the second half of 2024. Key “battlegrounds” for retailers to keep a close eye on include crime, public health and wages, he added. On shop theft, “it is clear
PM Rishi Sunak and his Government have plenty to do to convince independent retailers ahead of a general election
that more needs to be done to deal with prolific offenders”, said Lowman, but “with prisons and courts under huge pressure, we may be seeing some creative solutions”. Meanwhile, with public health strategies expected from the major parties, “it’s up to us to explain in clear terms the impact that any future restrictions and interventions will have”. Lowman added: “One area that could have the most profound impact on
Capreolus back in production after Hunt’s buys charcutier out of administration Charcuterie producer Capreolus Fine Foods has been bought out of administration by fellow Dorset firm Hunt’s Food Group, with founder David Richards retained to run production and NPD. Capreolus will now offer a revised range of 12 retail products and will also be launching a foodservice brand, Charcuterie For Chefs. Richards told FFD Hunt’s has now taken over the company, with production already underway, and retail customers keen to re-list the Capreolus range, which will still include Great Taste 3-star winning Dorset Coppa 4
and the Salami with Pink Peppercorns. Production of the company’s New Forest Pannage Ham, which has PGI status, will also resume. The charcutier placed the business into administration in November 2023 when a another potential rescue deal fell through. Richards explained that trading had become increasingly difficult with onset of Covid. “We lost 90% of our sales,” he said, with furlough failing to cover tax, NI and pensions for their staff, and the ensuing cost-of-living crisis prevented them from servicing their debt.
January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
Hunt’s chairman Richard Hunt was alerted to Capreolus’s plight via a local business group. The Sherbornebased company also owns the Jon Thorner’s butchery brand, which Richards said would be working with the newly acquired charcuterie operation.
retailers is [minimum] wage rates. “It would be very easy for the main parties to start throwing higher and higher numbers back and forth without considering the negative implications for businesses.” Prime minister Rishi Sunak in early January said his “working assumption” was to call a general election in “the second half of this year” but insisted he had “lots that I want to get on with” before then.
The first wave of measures that form part of the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) have been introduced in the UK, as the Government rolls out the postBrexit framework. As of January 31st, EU exporters need to produce health certificates to bring in some medium-risk products from the EU, including raw milk cheeses and eggs. From April 30th, physical checks will be made on both EU and non-EU goods. Finally, as of 31st October, all EU and nonEU exporters will be required to fill in safety and security certificates. Food & drink representatives have raised fears the measures would cause delays, holding goods up at the border, and increase costs for the end consumer.
December saw the launch of The Black Farmer’s flagship farm shop in South London’s Brixton Village Market. Founded by Wilfred Emmanuel Jones (pictured below), the 5,000 square meter store offers the producer’s range of deli items, as well as homeware and gifts and a food-to-go offering. It is also calling for local businesses to pitch their products to the store. The long-term plan is to open more shops in other cities across the UK, including Birmingham, Bristol, Bath and Exeter. theblackfarmer.com
Retailers rejoice following “phenomenal” festive sales
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING ABOUT...
By Greg Pitcher
...WHAT SOLD WELL THIS CHRISTMAS
Independent food retailers have celebrated a bumper Christmas at the end of a tough trading year. Delis and farm shops told FFD of long queues, empty stock rooms and increased takings as embattled customers turned out in their droves throughout December – despite rising costs, damp weather and a sluggish economy. Jennie Allen, owner of West London deli chain Bayley and Sage, said the 25th December falling on a Monday allowed for a full week of shopping before the big day. “It was phenomenal,” she said. “There were more people coming in and they were buying more. “Central London emptied earlier than usual but that is a post-Covid adjustment. Our Wimbledon store had queues out the door.” Jen Grimstone-Jones,
cheesemonger at Cheese Etc, said the Berkshire business had a “very good Christmas”. “We took 10% more preorders, which we thought might mean that footfall in the shop would be down but actually it was up on last year,” she said. “Ordering in the cheese is the scary bit, we get so much in that you wonder how on Earth you’re going to sell it all but it is very satisfying to see an empty cold room at the end of it.” Steven Salamon, owner of Wally’s Delicatessen and Kaffeehaus, said the Cardiff store had an “excellent” festive period, with regular visitors buying more than in recent years. “We were more confident in buying stock and maintained good levels up to the last day,” he added. Customers were not put off by higher prices, either. “We trimmed our margin a bit but people are willing to pay extra for speciality food
Bramble Foods Group acquires The Bay Tree The Bay Tree Food Co. has been sold to Bramble Foods Group for an undisclosed sum. The artisan producer of chutneys, relishes, pickles, sauces and jams was founded in 1994 by Emma Macdonald, who will remain with the business under its new ownership. As well as its retail range, The Bay Tree makes own-label products. Based in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, Bramble Foods Group manufactures and distributes a portfolio of 2,000 fine food products to the independent sector, with an annual
turnover of £35m. As of 2022, it has been backed by private equity firm LDC, which is part of Lloyds Banking Group. Macdonald said her team were excited to work with Bramble Foods, adding: “Being part of a larger group will accelerate the next phase of our development and I’m looking forward to the opportunities that will bring.” Meanwhile Bramble Foods CEO Tony Foster said the acquisition “enhances our branded product offering and production facilities, and we’re thrilled to welcome Emma and her team to the Group.”
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JEN GRIMSTONEJONES, CHEESE ETC
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Percentage increases in Y-on-Y Christmas sales reported by retailers spoken to by FFD at Christmas,” he said. Rob Copley, director at Farmer Copleys, said the Yorkshire establishment enjoyed a “really strong” end to the pre-Christmas shopping period. A combination of higher footfall and increased prices left the business about 15% up on the previous
December on pure revenue terms. “As soon as you get a cost-of-living crisis, people stop buying new cars and holidays and go to the farm shop for a steak and a slice of cake instead, that becomes the treat,” Copley said. “And people decide to have a good Christmas.”
Discounters report record trading despite pressure on households The UK’s discount supermarkets reported record Christmas trading as the cost-of-living crisis raged on. Aldi said its sales were 8% higher in the four weeks to 24th December 2023 than in the same period last year, while Lidl reported a 12% hike in takings. These figures came at the end of a tough year for consumers, yet Lidl had its busiest day ever on Friday 22nd December and sold a British turkey every two seconds that week. Aldi welcomed more than 2.5 million customers on
the last weekday before Christmas and altogether moved on 42 million pigs in blankets. Lidl Great Britain chief executive Ryan McDonnell hailed “the busiest trading period in our history”. Aldi UK and Ireland chief executive Giles Hurley added: “We’re really grateful that so many customers chose Aldi for their main Christmas shop. “As the UK’s cheapest supermarket, we were able to help customers enjoy the Christmas they deserve and provide them with high quality products at the most affordable prices.”
“Our local cheeses are always really popular, we sell a lot of Barkham Blue, Waterloo, Wigmore, Spenwood. Both the Sinodun Hill and the Brightwell Ash from Norton & Yarrow sold out within days of arriving. Aside from the locals our biggest seller is most definitely Colston Bassett Blue Stilton.” STEVEN SALAMON, WALLY’S DELICATESSEN AND KAFFEEHAUS
“Turkish delight sold well, every customer bought that and chocolate Brazil nuts. You couldn’t leave without them. Stollen and Panettone went well. Cheese always goes beserk; people leave it until two or three days out so you have to hold your nerve.” ROB COPLEY, FARMER COPLEYS
“Turkey breast meat sold well but turkeys were down - they are getting a bit pricey. Meat in general was up by a fifth. We had a member of staff focusing on hamper business sales and she did a good job. It is getting harder to make a profit; you don’t make much in January so you have to do well in December.”
January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
5
NEWS
CYBER CRIME
Olives Et Al to stop selling via distributors IN BRIEF as climate change creates cost increases By Michael Lane
Olives Et Al products will now only be available to the trade direct, after the Dorset-based business announced it would no longer be selling to retailers via distributors due to cost pressures. With the prices of key ingredients like olives and extra virgin olive oil skyrocketing due to poor harvests brought on by climate change in recent years, the Mediterranean food specialist said the move would help it to keep its own prices down. Olives et Al was selling to independent retailers via Cotswold Fayre, The Cress Co, Holleys, PW Fine Foods and Artisan Food Club. In an interview with FFD, founder Giles Henschel said that if he had continued to partner with wholesalers, and offer them the margin they required, his products would have ended up being more
Gov’t offers £4m in grants to abattoirs Craft butchers have welcomed a government scheme offering cash grants to boost the performance of small abattoirs. Ministers in December launched a £4 million initiative to improve the sustainability and efficiency of slaughterhouses in England. The Smaller Abattoir Fund will offer grants of up to £60,000 for investment in items designed to improve performance. Farming minister Mark Spencer said the fund will help smaller abattoir owners to innovate, invest and improve standards, and give farmers more stability in getting their products to market. 6
Olives et Al has also been reformulating its lines to manage costs
expensive to stockists and the end consumer. “We’re not putting prices up, because that margin we were giving to wholesalers, we’re now passing on to the retailer,” he said, adding that Olives et Al could well return to the wholesaler channel if prices stabilised and harvests improved. “This is not a geopolitical problem, or a falling out with the wholesalers, this is hardedged climate change.” “Olive oil was £3,000 a tonne, then it was £5,800
in October, then 8,000 in November and it’s currently forecast to hit £12,000,” he said, adding that olive prices had also gone up 5080% in the last 12 months. Henschel said that the company had also been working on reformulating products across the 180-strong range to combat these increases in raw ingredient costs. “We are not importers. We buy ingredients from around the world and bring them to Dorset, that’s where the value is added.” One of the main focuses
DOWN ON THE FARM The latest from farm shops across the country that the owners of the Friday Street Farm Shop have installed 8 charging stations offering speeds of up to 160kW, including two fully accessible bays. fridaystfarm.co.uk The expansion at Bruern Farm Shop in the Cotswolds is well underway. The pandemic-era collection point now has a café, and the owners have recently renovated two old silos and a grain store for four local artisans to sell their goods. bruernfarms.co.uk
A secure dog run field has been created at the Forsters Farm Shop in Merseyside to encourage local dog walkers to let their pets have a good run before popping into the farm shop and stocking up on homebred meat and local produce. www.facebook.com/ forstersfarmshop
Electric vehicle users in Saxmundham, Suffolk, will be pleased to learn
North Yorkshire’s Keelham Farm Shop has closed for good after
January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
of revising product recipes was altering the liquid medium for olive mixes by adding brine, so they would rely less heavily on olive oil. “This is not shrinkflation, we’ve not taken a single olive out. “They’re the same weight, the same jar sizes and it’s the same eating experience.” With the company now celebrating its 30th year, the Olives et Al founder has decided to embark on a motorcycle trip, similar to the one he made with his wife Annie in 1992 that inspired them to set up the business. This new trip will see the Henschels visit a host of their suppliers across France, Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Sicily, Spain and Portugal, with the aim of gaining insight into the effects of climate change and what can be done to mitigate the effects. olivesetal.co.uk
administrators appointed in December failed to lock down any potential buyers. The Skipton shop was founded by the sister and brother team Victoria and James Robertshaw in 2015 as the second unit for their original shop in Thornton. It was taken over by James and Josephine Wellock, Gerard Downes and James Worrall in 2019, and closed on December 28th 2023, citing cost of living pressures. It employed 100 staff, who have all been made redundant. Sister restaurants Keelham Kitchen and Knead Pizzeria, as well as the Kind at Keelham fitness
What a Pickle! has acquired fellow Shropshire producer, Cheese Nibbles. As their first move, business partners Camilla Lywood and Emma Hallett are set to introduce new flavours of sablés to the range.
NFU deputy president Tom Bradshaw is set to take over from Minette Batters as the leader of the association when Batters stands down from the position in February, after six years in post. Premium frozen meal producer and retailer Cook is celebrating its good fortunes after recording a 12% net sales rise in the year up to March 2023. The retailer is set to open its 100th store and launched its 1,000th concession in December.
centre have also closed, but the original shop in Thornton lives on. Plans are afoot to bring fresh farm produce to the locals of Dorset with planning permission granted for a barn conversion at Manor Farm, Lower Waterston. A former grain store, the old barn will be converted into a farm shop.
In association with
Fabulous Farm Shops fabulousfarmshops.co.uk
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January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
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VIEWPOINTS IF I’D KNOWN THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW... NICK COLLEY, co-founder, The Leeds Deli, Leeds
When the pandemic hit I was working for a large corporation as one of four executive chefs looking after 30 restaurants. We were furloughed, then after 31 days of working during the Eat Out To Help Out scheme, we were told there was only one executive chef job. I walked away and took a head chef position in Leeds, but when the next lockdown was announced, I didn’t qualify for furlough. At that point I questioned whether I wanted to keep working 80-90 hours a week in restaurants. My wife Tory (who worked in hospitality too) and I had already discussed going into business together, so when premises became available we seized the opportunity. I actually wanted to open a bakery, but feared the hours aren’t conducive to family life. We called it a deli, but it isn’t a deli in the true sense. There are no bowls of olives, hanging meats or truckles of cheese. We have shelving with ambient items like olive oils and biscuits, but our mainstay is home-cooked food that people can take home or eat in – from sausage rolls and pain au raisin to parmigiana melanzane. There are two of us in the kitchen, and the business employs 12 staff in total, which requires a very different management style to running a huge industrial kitchen. For example, rather than drawing up a rota and pinning it on the wall, we consult staff and accommodate their personal commitments. My bakery dream has partly come true in that we make our own focaccia daily. Sandwiches are our best seller and baking our own bread has given us a point of difference and, to some degree, insulated us from price inflation – we have only had to raise our sandwich prices by £0.25-0.50 since we opened in March 2022. This doesn’t mean we are impervious to rising input costs. When we launched our electricity bill was £700 a month. Now it is almost £3,500. Fortunately, trade has remained high and we are turning over £28-30,000 per month. We have to maintain realistic margins because as a neighbourhood deli we can’t always pass price increases onto our customers. ldeally we would operate at a gross profit margin of 70-80%, but we are currently running at 56-58%. We recently opened a second site next door called Little Leeds. It is more child-oriented, with a play zone and a party room. We make the food for both sites in our original kitchen which has helped to keep costs down but also means we are working harder. Still, compared to the chef hours I was used to, it feels part-time. Interview Lynda Searby Photography Phil Taylor
January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
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View from HQ FFD’s publisher and Guild of Fine Food managing director John Farrand has his say
I CAN BARELY afford a train ticket to London these days, let alone a room in the Capital. If you then try and do anything fun while you’re there you need to remortgage the house you’ve just left behind. Nipping to the theatre is suddenly £100 a go (at least, some of you cry) and having a bottle of wine (or zero-alcohol beer, in my case) in a restaurant is, frankly, eye-watering. That being the case, ahead of an Independent Retailers Confederation (IRC) quarterly meeting I elected to stay in the metropolis with a mate. To repay the favour, I took that friend
GREAT TASTE 2024 ENTRY
Great Taste 2024 opened for entry on 22nd January and will close on 6th February (or earlier if the maximum number of entries is reached before then). For more information visit gff.co.uk/greattaste
CHEESE TRAINING IN 2024
New dates for 2024 courses are now available to book online. These one-day courses will take place in London, Dorset, Wakefield and Scotland. Visit gff.co.uk/training to book.
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January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
out for dinner to a half-decent neighbourhood restaurant. The meal was pretty good. Honest, wholesome, tasty, and enjoyable. Until the cheese course arrived. In contrast to what came before, I was presented with a remilled cheddar in wax, a sheep’s milk cheese that I suspect was brought to room temperature via the heat lamp on the pass and a cheese with debatable provenance filled with colourful chunks of cloying sweetness. I still had the pappy texture in my mouth as I arrived at the learned HQ of the Booksellers Association, doubling as the IRC’s London meeting house. We talked about the ‘Golden Quarter’ and then redefined it. For us in food and drink it’s always been the ‘Golden Four Weeks’ and some would say ‘Two’. But it was enlightening to hear from the non-food trade associations, that Christmas spend is still present but spent in a more concise timeframe.
It also told me that everyone in retail loves to gossip about December. The multiples and discounters are filling the trade press, business pages in the nationals and even hogging the airwaves on
I went to a neighbourhood restaurant. The meal was pretty good. Honest, wholesome, tasty, and enjoyable. Until the cheese course arrived.
my chosen radio newsfeed. While the grocers’ tales of festive success seem to be everywhere, there isn’t nearly as much about restaurants, bars and hotels. A cursory look online doesn’t satiate my curiosity. I should have quizzed the erstwhile editor of The Caterer. Lisa Jenkins knows her stuff and is now head of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts, an organisation that nurtures and extols excellence amongst both chefs and those ‘front of house’. It could be the Guild’s culinary cousin. Our meeting was instead dedicated to addressing the aforementioned (and in some cases unloved) course on a menu and how, with the help of the Academy of Cheese training, we could enthuse chefs and hospitality staff enough to sell excellent cheese. Our first booking on this course? I’ve already paid for the restaurant manager from my mate’s local eatery to attend.
The Word on Westminster By Edward Woodall Association of Convenience Stores
WE START THE year in politics with a sense of anticipation about the pending General Election. We had a New Year’s speech from Keir Starmer and an announcement from Rishi Sunak that the election will be in the second half of 2024. Unlike last year, political leaders haven’t yet introduced new missions or priorities to review and analyse. Instead, we got political narratives about ‘project hope’ and track records in Government. This is just a taste of what’s to come. While the official campaigning period for a general election only lasts six weeks, we should brace for a full calendar of electioneering. I anticipate there being lots of narrative but not much policy until much later in the year. From a business stakeholder perspective, this will be a frustration, as it leaves little room for clarity or confidence.
The reality is that political parties believe it is too high risk to set out their policy agendas yet. The key policy issues that parties will revolve around crime, employment and the future of high streets. We have all seen reports of the growth in shops theft, as well as violence and abuse towards retail workers. In our 2023 Crime Report, we recorded 1.1m shop thefts. This plays to wider voter concerns about community safety and police forces’ ability to respond. There is nothing to lose from being tough on crime, and the Crime and Justice Bill and Sentencing Bill in parliament will keep the issue relevant. Many people are seeing the direct impact of crime and antisocial behaviour on their local high streets, so we will continue to see debates about how we can support high streets to thrive, whether this is via pots of money from Government or new powers for local authorities to revive empty shops. There will also be an
ongoing focus on reforming the business rates system. As the cost-of-living crisis rages on, this very much relates to employment opportunities, pay, and conditions. At the upcoming Budget in March, we should expect to see more support for working people through tax cuts and clarification of how the National Living Wage will be set in the future. Labour has already made a commitment to deliver an employment bill within its first 100 days if it is elected to office. We will see other parties respond, not just on pay but on introducing new regulation on employers and reforming how workers access training. I look forward to seeing if these predictions come true and what other issues will emerge in the discourse of 2024. Edward Woodall is government relations director at the ACS edward.woodall@acs.org.uk
VIEWPOINTS
CONFESSIONS OF A DELI OWNER ANONYMOUS TALES FROM BEHIND THE COUNTER MANY YEARS AGO I was in Cape
Town. Always game for a busman’s holiday, I visited some delis and farm shops. There was a good little deli in Newlands that had a walk-in cheese room, perhaps two metres by three, with some decent local cheeses and some OK-ish imports. When I went back a couple of years later, the deli was still there but the cheese room had gone. I was reminded of this the other week when I saw another cheese room in London had disappeared from its store. There is still a strong serveover counter and an even bigger grab-and-go range, but the big glass theatre of cheese was done for. I wasn’t surprised, but sad. There’s this nagging feeling that cheese rooms inside stores are selfindulgent – they take up quite a lot of floor space for not much shelf space, and they need to be staffed. No doubt, some customers are put off by having to go through another door. Cheese can be intimidating
enough without forcing yourself into a small, enclosed space with a deli owner, who may not want to be that close to his customers! There are a few shops nowadays that chill the entire shop floor, so the whole retail space is a cheese room. Done well, these set-ups invite the customer to imagine the magical maturing caves and cellars
Cheese can be intimidating enough without forcing yourself into a small, enclosed space with a deli owner
Retail eye THE NORFOLK DELI OWNER MARK KACARY ON HOW TO KEEP A INDEPENDENT RETAIL OPERATION GOING FOR A DECADE My wife and I celebrated an anniversary at the start of the year. Not our wedding anniversary (and, yes, I do remember when that is), but our 10th year in business at The Norfolk Deli, our family-run shop in Hunstanton, Norfolk. “I’ve been asked to write an article,” I told my wife, about “how to keep a business going for a decade.” “Stamina,” she replied succinctly. I couldn’t have put it better myself. It takes endurance to own a delicatessen in a small town with a population of 4,000, which is also home to two mid-sized supermarkets that we’re convinced send spies in to copy and undercut our prices. Their presence is the main reason we never stock brands, and why we predominantly sell local produce. Being different isn’t always to the liking of some customers, who march in and declare we’re their last hope of finding an elusive bottle of celery juice or packet of millet flakes they thought we would be ‘bound to have’. The
that are the cheeses’s origin stories. Plus, there’s enough space to avoid close encounters with shoppers. Still, give me an old-fashioned counter every time. Nothing needs explaining, the customers know where to look, where to queue, how to choose and pay. And, if there’s no customers, you can help out with the cappuccinos and lattes. My small town’s full of people who are, well, quite ordinary. Everything they do is a mixed bag of weekly shopping, meeting friends and being in a rush, while grabbing a few treats along the way. Counters are quick and reassuring for these types of people. But that still doesn’t stop me wanting a cheese room. Impractical fantasy it may be, but I would love open shelves of whole cheddars, 40kg Comtés and 28-month Parmesans. I’d like to be washing my Eves, turning my Forme d’Ambert, and soaking my Stilton in Port for Christmas. And I’d like to do it all in front of the customers, behind a glass wall and then (maybe) invite them in to see it closer. I’m sorry to see the decline of cheese rooms. I’d like them to work. But we need to be practical if we’re going to still be here next year, and I’m too old to find a new job now. So my cheese room will only be in my dreams.
immediate thought may be to cave in and stock their requested item, but unfortunately, said customers rarely return, and doing so would leave you with many a niche item on your hands. A decade in business requires a vision. Importantly, you’ll need to be flexible and nimble in a way supermarkets can’t be. This is how we not only survived but prospered during the Covid-19 lockdowns. It means that if someone hasn’t visited the shop in the last 12 months, when they do come back, they can be sure that we’ll have refreshed our shelves. It means identifying new revenue streams, setting up an e-commerce site, having a social media presence and investing in digital marketing. From the outside, we might look similar to the business we were 10 years ago. And, in many ways we are. But we’ve made the right changes to keep us going strong.
It takes endurance to own a deli in a small town with a population of 4,000
8% The monthly rate of food inflation in
the
UK
in
December 2 0 2 3 d ow n f o r t h e ninth month in a row, from
9. 2 % in
Nove m b e r
Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS)
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CHEESE
Testing at Kirkham’s shows no E.coli after December’s high-profile recall By Patrick McGuigan
Tests carried out on Kirkham’s milk, premises and Lancashire cheese have found no trace of the E.coli strain responsible for a food poisoning outbreak, despite food authorities linking the cheese to the outbreak in a highly publicised recall. On Christmas eve, the FSA and UKHSA issued a precautionary recall of Kirkham’s Lancashire, linking the cheese to shiga toxinproducing E. coli 0145. The rare strain, which is not part of required testing, is responsible for making around 30 people ill, resulting in one fatality, over a five-month period. However, as FFD went to press, no evidence of the
pathogen had been found in 60 tests of Kirkham’s cheese and five analyses of its milk, while its manufacturing processes had been inspected and given the all clear. Kirkham’s has now started making cheese again. “We have been ‘SALSA + Cheese’ accredited since 2015 and have been making cheese for 46 years; we have never experienced anything like this before,” said owner Graham Kirkham. “Batches over a five-month period have been tested and the dairy has been swabbed, and nothing has been found. Our farm and milking practices have been praised by inspectors. We keep being told we’ve done nothing wrong, but our reputation has been battered. We’re in limbo.”
Kirkham’s Lancashire cheese was pulled from shelves just before Christmas after being linked to a food poisoning outbreak
He added that of 31 people infected with the strain, only eight said they had eaten Kirkham’s cheese. Of these, seven had eaten mixed cheese and charcuterie plates served by a third party. Other products are also being investigated, he said. The recall, which saw press camped outside Kirkham’s farm near Preston, was initiated on “epidemiological and food chain links”. This involves analysing health data and information from questionnaires completed by people who have been ill. “Efforts continue to confirm the source of the outbreak and to ensure that food placed on the market going forward is safe,” said Tina Potter, head of incidents at the FSA. “Epidemiological and food chain links are a reliable means of confirming an outbreak source. It’s not always possible to obtain microbiological evidence of the outbreak strain in foods in an outbreak investigation, as the foods are often already consumed or no longer available for sampling.” She added that the cheeses that have been tested were “not the actual cheeses consumed by cases who became ill”, while products listed in the recall “continue to be implicated”. She urged consumers to follow the recall advice.
NEWS IN BRIEF Exports of British cheese to Canada are likely to be hit after a deal maintaining tariff-free quotas following Brexit came to an end in December. Many cheese exports to Canada will now face 245% tariffs. The interaction of microbes during the maturation of cheddar plays a big part in flavour development, according to new research from Utrecht University. The starter culture Streptococcus thermophilus was found to be particularly important for boosting the growth of other bacteria and influencing flavour. Nottinghamshire Stilton-maker Cropwell Bishop has doubled the size of its shop at its dairy with a much wider range of locally sourced food and drink.
Paxton & Whitfield has created its first ever flavoured cheese in collaboration with local coffee roaster Rave. Named Kaldi, the cheese is made by brine washing the rind of a young goat’s cheese from the Somerset Cheese Company and coating it in coffee from Cirencester-based Rave, before it is matured for around 10 weeks. The hard cheese, which combines fruity, bitter notes from the coffee and caramel flavours in the cheese, is named after a young goat herder who, according to legend, discovered coffee centuries ago.
THREE WAYS WITH...
… Saint-Félicien This soft French cheese is twice the size of its older cousin Saint-Marcellin, but has many similarities. Made with cow’s milk in the Rhône region, it also has a wrinkly rind and comes in a ceramic dish, but cream is added during the make for a richer flavour and texture. Young cheeses are light and lactic, becoming gooier and fruitier with age. Black Garlic Chilli Jam Made by Easton Chilli in Bristol, this remarkable condiment won three stars at Great Taste last year for good reason. Combining brown sugar, roasted peppers, white and black garlic, plus a fermented ‘chilli mash’ made with bird’s eye chillies, it’s a fabulously sweet, soulful and spicy accompaniment to all cheeses, and cuts beautifully through the earthy, creamy cheese that is Saint-Félicien. Condrieu The old adage of what grows together goes together has never been more appropriate for Condrieu and Saint-Félicien. Made on the right bank of the river Rhône with viognier grapes, Condrieu is a fruity white wine with a wonderful richness often described as fatty or oily. This full bodied texture marries beautifully with mature SaintFélicien, while the wine’s peachy, floral notes emphasise a fruitiness in the cheese. Cranberries and Port Smaller in size than Camembert and often housed in an ovenproof ceramic dish, SaintFélicien is a perfect baking cheese. Stud with slivers of garlic and rosemary and bake in a hot oven (200°C) for 15-20 minutes. If you want something more adventurous, try frozen cranberries simmered in a pan with caster sugar and port until jammy. Stir in a few pinches of thyme and then spoon on top of the baked cheese and serve with crusty bread or crackers. January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
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CHEESE
Laverstoke owner cites soaring costs as cause for buffalo dairy closure
Lily Morris, Morris’s of Usk, Monmouthshire
By Patrick McGuigan
Pioneering organic buffalo mozzarella producer Laverstoke Park Farm has closed down due to “unprecedented levels of cost increases”. The Hampshire-based buffalo farm and dairy, owned by ex-racing driver Jody Scheckter, was closed on 31 December. In a statement the company said that its energy costs had more than doubled in the past year. It added: “We have tried to diversify by making new products, such as our buffalomi and buffeta, changing milking patterns, reducing mozzarella production days, and generally making efficiencies everywhere we could. However, as a consequence of the significant increases in costs, a reduction in milk volumes, and the additional capital investment required for future proofing, the very difficult and sad decision has been made to close down our
CHEESE IN PROFILE with Renegade Monk What’s the story? After being made redundant from his job in the music industry in 2015, Marcus Fergusson and partner Penny Nagle were looking for a new way of life. After a one-day cheesemaking course at River Cottage, one thing led to another, and Marcus’ family made the decision to move to Feltham’s Farm in Somerset’s Blackmore Vale. To avoid stepping on local cheddar makers’ toes, they set about creating a new, niche 16
BEHIND THE COUNTER TIPS OF THE TRADE
1979 Formula One World Champion Jody Sheckter, who has owned the farm since the mid-2000s, said energy costs had more than doubled in 12 months
buffalo farming and dairy manufacturing.” As FFD went to press, the company was looking to sell its herd of buffalo. Its composting facility will continue to operate as before, as will the annual CarFest event, which raises over £1 million every year for UK children’s charities. Laverstoke, which supplied Waitrose and Riverford, was product: Renegade Monk. A hybrid washed-rind, soft blue cheese, it is in name what it is by nature, due to the unconventional way in which the cheese is made, combining the attributes of soft white cheese, blue cheese and rindwashed cheese. The name also nods to local history: Feltham’s Farm is less than two miles from the village of Templecombe, where a Templar Preceptory was established in 1185; it is also commonly accepted that Monks invented the practice of washing cheeses. Marcus and Penelope have always led with organic farming practices and Feltham Farm is now certified organic with The Soil Association. Their cheeses have won many accolades, including Best British Cheese at
January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
a pioneer of biodynamic and organic farming. It first started making mozzarella in 2009 – the first British company to make the cheese at scale in the UK. Today there are several other buffalo mozzarella producers in the UK, including Buffalicious in Somerset and The Buffalo Farm in Fife, while the Newt in Somerset also plans to make mozzarella at a new dairy in Castle Cary.
You might recognise Lily Morris. Crowned Young Cheesemonger of the Year after a series of skills and knowledge tests at last year’s World Cheese Awards, she’s been the subject of numerous articles and TV interviews ever since. Not that she took part in the Academy of Cheese competition for the attention. “I wanted to put my cheese knowledge to the test and see where I was in my learning,” says 21-year-old Morris. “Winning has helped my confidence. The amount of support I have had is lovely but overwhelming at times - a real pinch me moment!” The win has helped boost sales at the shop, set up by Morris’ grandparents. “I was interviewed on ITV Wales News and the week after was manic with people visiting from all over,” she says. “Christmas was also good with lots of new faces.” The business has built on the press attention on its social media channels and proudly displays Morris’ trophy by the counter. “Because I’m young customers used to look past me, But they now value my opinion more and are keen to get my advice, which makes me smile.” uskgardencentre.co.uk
after three days, although the holes quickly close up so there is little actual veining in the final cheese. It is matured over four weeks during which time it is washed four times in ale from Milk Street Brewery in nearby Frome. the 2020 Virtual Cheese Awards. How is it made? Starter cultures Penicillium roqueforti and Geotrichum candidum are added to the organic, pasteurised cow’s milk before adding vegetarian rennet. The resulting curd is cut into 2.5cm pieces and transferred to a draining table before being moulded. The cheeses are surface salted and pierced
Appearance & texture: Renegade Monk is similar in appearance to an Époisses, with its sticky, orange vermiculated rind and creamy, dense paste. Similarly, it is pungent, bold and powerful in flavour, although it varies in intensity depending on batch and age. While its
barnyardy flavour is fitting of a washed rind it is balanced by the piquancy of the blue cultures. Variations: None Cheesemonger tip: A British alternative for fans of Époisses or Langres. Chef’s recommendation: With its moreish, indulgent texture, it is delicious on crusty bread topped with cornichons. It melts well in potato-based dishes, and can be baked in the oven with slithers of garlic. Serve with a strong Belgian Trappist ale or a sweet wine, such as Sauternes, to add another flavour dimension.
Renegade Monk is one of the 200 cheeses studied as part of the Academy of Cheese Level Three Certification. For more information on this and all of their courses, head to: academyofcheese.org
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January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
CHEESE It feels like Cork eats more olives than anywhere else in Europe
County Cork’s Little Italy Meet the cheesemakers tapping into Ireland’s market for quality Italian products – especially mozzarella By Patrick McGuigan
THE STORY OF how Toons Bridge Dairy ended up with a herd of buffaloes and making mozzarella in County Cork actually starts with a bucket of olives. On a trip to Germany in 1993, a fresh-faced Toby Simmonds got talking to a man selling olives at a market. One thing led to another and Simmonds ended up hitchhiking back to Ireland with two buckets to sell. This was the beginning of The Real Olive Company that saw Simmonds and his partner Jenny-Rose Clarke sell the Mediterranean fruit at markets across Ireland, operating from a permanent stall at Cork City’s famous English Market. The business is still going strong today. “The English Market is our golden goose,” says Simmonds. “We sell 600kg of olives a week. It feels like Cork eats more olives than anywhere else in Europe.” There are plenty of other Italian delicacies to keep Corkonians well-fed on the abundant stall, from olive oils and aged balsamics to charcuterie and imported cheeses. Buffalo mozzarella, initially imported from Naples, has long been part of the mix. But as all good gastronomes know, the fresher the mozzarella, the better it tastes. So the couple decided to make it themselves. How difficult could it be? Very, as it turns out. They initially set up the business with farmer Johnny Lynch in 2011, but then went their own way, investing in their own farm and herd. Learning the dark arts of pasta filata cheeses wasn’t easy either. Italian cheesemakers are loathe to give their secrets away, but Simmonds called in favours from contacts built up over years, securing a stint at a caseificio in Naples and employing
an Italian cheesemaker in the early days. The dairy continues to take advice from an Italian mozzarella consultant. “We’ve always looked outwards into Europe as market traders,” he says. “It gives us access to technical knowledge that most Irish cheesemakers can only dream about.” That technical know-how is clear to see in the glossy, white spheres of mozzarella made at the dairy near Macroom, which are on the stall within 24 hours, so fresh they weep tears of whey. “We still have to educate some customers, who buy bread fresh each morning, but ask us what the use-by date is on our mozzarella,” says Simmonds. “But our Italian customers totally get that the fresher the better.” The market is the perfect place to have these discussions, adds Clarke. “Customers don’t feel as intimidated as in a shop. The market feels more democratic – we get people from all walks of life and they feel confident asking questions.” As well as buffalo mozzarella, the dairy makes buffalo cheddar and uses local cow’s milk in scamorza, ricotta, caciocavallo and halloumi, as well as fior di latte mozzarella. It’s almost all supplied direct to restaurants, markets and retailers across the island of Ireland, and sold at the permanent stall in Cork, plus a second shop in Dublin. There’s also a shop and garden pizzeria at the dairy, which has become a cult destination in the summer. “There are huge opportunities in the countryside in Ireland,” says Clarke. The company used to supply mainland Britain, but Brexit has made it harder. “We’re trying to make it work, but the paperwork is time consuming,” says Simmonds. “There are real opportunities if we can. Our consultant says we have better milk than in Italy. There’s more fat, which means more flavour.”
CROSS
SECTION
Buffalo Mozzarella 1 Toons Bridge’s head cheesemaker Pawel
Malinowski and his team make around 150 tonnes of cheese a year, using milk from the 40-strong herd of buffaloes at the farm in Drimoleague, plus cow’s milk from a nearby farm. The buffalo mozzarella is made with whey starters and raw milk in 150g and 250g balls.
2
3
Malinowski, who previously worked at Mossfield Organic, is looking for a “wet” cheese. “When I press it the milk should come out and I want a bit of acidity in the flavour,” he says. “We are looking for a thin rind and an elastic layered texture. Not mushy.”
The company has recently invested in specialist equipment from Italy, including a machine with mechanical arms that knead and stretch the curd, plus a moulding machine which can be fitted with different drums to form different sizes and shapes of cheese.
toonsbridgedairy.com
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DRINKS
2023 will be “a vintage to remember” in English wine, says WineGB report
WHAT’S NEW Devon cider producer Sandford Orchards has collaborated with fellow cidermaker Moons Cider to create a celebration of West Country Cider. Made with Yarlington Mill apples from Somerset and Brown’s apples from Devon, the result is full bodied and lightly sparkling with a medium dry finish. sandfordorchards.co.uk Tongue in Peat is looking for more stockists for its peatsmoked tomato juice bottles. Handmade in Scotland, the drink delivers a rich, deep and complex Bloody (or Virgin) Mary. Available in cases of 12 x 250ml bottles for £19.50 + VAT, or in 6 x 500ml bottles for £19 + VAT. tongueinpeat.com
The vineyard owners who took part in the survey own 2,000-ha of vines including 1,700-ha in full production, representing 50% of the anticipated cropping area for 2023.
By Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox
Britain is set to celebrate its largest wine harvest yet, according to WineGB. The association representing English and Welsh wine has published a report of grape yields grown in 2023, and claims the bumper harvest – 50% higher than the previous record in 2018 – will produce between 20 and 22 million bottles of wine. Written by viticulture consultant Stephen Skelton MW, the report was based on data gathered across 132 producers and growers of all sizes in England and Wales. It cites a combination of good climatic conditions and significant plantings in recent years as the main contributing factors to the record yields. Indeed, on average, despite a wet summer, the UK experienced low winter frosts and high peak temperatures in September and October, while vineyard hectarage in full production went up 151% in the past five years. The four main grape
varieties – Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Meunier and Bacchus, which now make up 75% of all grapes grown here – are said to have performed exceptionally well, reaching 10 tonnes per hectare on average. Although growers reported lower than average ripeness and acid levels, they said they were optimistic about the quality of the grapes and the resulting wine. Skelton said 2023 would indeed be “a vintage to remember”. In an interview with FFD, he explained that in addition to a high number of growing degree days (GDDs) which ensure the ripeness of grapes and give us higher yields, there are more adept growers and winemakers in the country than ever before. This, he said, combined with investment in the sector, has contributed to rising volumes of wine. “It's going to be fascinating watching our wine industry develop over the next 30-40 years,” he said. And perhaps counterintuitively, this year's higher yields will likely result in quality wine, he added,
“because the conditions leading to high yields give you the chance of producing good wine”. While a great vintage is good news for all stockists of English wine, Skelton said the cost benefits of increased volumes won’t be passed on to every retailer. Independent buyers, for instance, don’t buy in large enough volume – but supermarkets could. “Extra volume enables you to lower the price, because if you’ve got twice the yield, by definition, your costs are halved. If a supermarket gets behind your brand and puts it on the right shelf and labels it correctly, it can easily increase volume. Which isn’t the same with on-off trade or small retailers.” Instead, Skelton suggested that independents should focus on the provenance and the story behind each wine. “People are making a lot of where their products come from and how they’re made, and producers are so much more open now than ever used to be.”
Premium vodka brand Altamura is now available in the UK. Made with southern Italian ancient grains, the 43% ABV spirit is distilled using a traditional process, for a result the producer says is elegant and refined, with rich notes deriving from the grains – ideal for making classic cocktails like martinis. altamuradistilleries.com For those seeking an out of the ordinary alcohol-free drink, South East London’s MOMO Kombucha has once again teamed up with Orbit Beers to create a limited edition Hops Kombucha. Made with Hallertau Blanc and Nelson Sauvin hops, said to bring tropical fruit and gooseberry flavours, these are rounded out with the tartness of the fermented drink. RRP £4.50 per 330ml bottle. momo-kombucha.com Vol.25 Issue 1 | January-February 2024
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January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
CATEGORY FOCUS
pickles & chutneys
Ambient staples We kick off the year with round-ups of new launches in two key categories for independents. First up is pickles & chutneys, followed closely by sweet & savoury biscuits (from page 26). Compiled by Lynda Searby
>> The Garden of Eva has translated the southern American tradition of upcycling watermelon rinds into a condiment that has secured a listing with seven Whole Foods Market stores. Pickled Watermelon Rind (RRP £6.50 for 200g) is one of three cheese accompaniments, along with Chili Watermelon Jam, made from the leftover watermelon flesh, and Chow Chow. gardenofeva.co.uk
Sway Chutney from Ewelina’s Home Pantry is the very definition of local, with the majority of its ingredients foraged from bushes and hedgerows and sourced from gardeners in the village where it’s made. There are two recipes: Fruity Hedgerows and Green Allotments. Both have a wholesale price of £3.80 per 260g jar; RRP £5. ewelinas-home-pantry. co.uk
The latest addition to Aye Pickled’s pickles and ferments portfolio is Curried Kraut, a mildly spiced, naturally fermented kraut that is said to be “aromatic, sweet and tangy”, as well as “gut-friendly”. It can be mixed through salads, added to Buddha bowls or paired with cheese and cold meats. Trade price is £23.97 for a case of 6 x 330g jars direct or via Greencity Wholefoods. RRP £5.35. ayepickled.com
Launching in March, Chimichurri Chilli Relish is this season’s special from Tracklements. The Argentinian-inspired, bright, herby relish is packed with flavour and a good kick of heat to complement steak or white, meaty barbecued fish. RRP £4.10 for 170g. In other news, from February, a new larger (345g) sharing jar of Fresh Chilli Jam will join the Tracklements family. RRP £5.50. tracklements.co.uk
Spicy Mushroom Curry Pickle is the third creation to come out of My Gourmet Mushrooms’ Kendal kitchen. Intended as a curry or cheese accompaniment, the medium spiced pickle combines oyster mushrooms with curry spices and tamarind. Wholesale price £3.80 for a 300ml jar (RRP £5.30). mygourmetmushrooms.uk
Leo’s Food, a new Liverpoolbased food producer, says its Mixed Vegetable Pickle, which launched late last year, is great for livening up salads and charcuterie boards. It says the amount of fresh chilli used is “just on point…not too spicy”. Trade price £3.10 for a 470g jar; RRP £4.80. leofood.uk
Made with either damson or quince Waterhouse Fayre says its new Cheeseboard Mice are proving popular with people who want to take their cheese boards to another level. The Devon-based producer has been making fruit cheese for a number of years. Then, in Christmas 2022, it started making tree-shaped pastes – a concept which led to the development of the Cheeseboard Mouse last summer. The quirky cheese accompaniments are made with either damson or quince, and weigh approximately 120g. Shelf life is three months and RRP is £5. waterhousefayre.co.uk
This original take on a British classic has been developed and by GingerBeard’s Preserves in collaboration with Fierce & Noble. Red onion is cooked down with the Bristol brewery’s Straight Up Stout, creating a sweet, sticky condiment. Wholesale price £2.25; RRP £4. gingerbeardspreserves. co.uk
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pickles & chutneys November 2023 saw the launch of two new pickles from Derbyshire’s Crooked Pickle Co. Baby Balsamic Onions (RRP £5.50 for 330g) are a smaller, sweeter alternative to the producer’s large Balsamic Onions, whilst lactofermented Salty Dill Pickles (RRP £6.50 for 650g) are akin to the pickles eaten in North America - a welcome change from the usual sweet gherkins. crookedpickle.co
biscuits Courgettes grown using a ‘no dig’ approach by Haye Farm Market Garden in Bewdley are the star ingredient in Bewdston Preserves’ new Crunchy Courgette Pickle. Although the pickle is light, celery and mustard seeds, chilli flakes and turmeric add depth of flavour, making it the perfect partner for grilled meat or cheese. RRP is £3.95 for a 200g jar. bewdston.com
Easton Chilli has put its own spin on chilli jam with original flavour combinations. Its two latest inventions are 3-star Great Taste award-winner Black Garlic Chilli Jam – a caramel-like jam with a rich garlicky complexity – and Blueberry & Habanero Chilli Jam, which balances blueberries with super spicy habaneros, lime and salt in a fruity chilli jam with a long burning heat. RRP £5.50-6. eastonchilli.com
>> Italian food importer Tenuta Marmorelle is introducing new flavours and partnering with a new supplier for its cannoli and lobster-tail sflogliatelle. The crunchy, sweet-filled, Italian flaky pastries are now available in eight flavours: Hazelnut, Lemon, Pistachio, Vanilla, Dark Chocolate, Orange, Italian Cream and Salted Caramel. Wholesale price is £2.20 per pack (RRP £3.10). Packs contain six cannoli or four lobster tails. tenutamarmorelle.com
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Highfield Preserves has the full heat spectrum covered with its new trio of chilli relishes, which take in sweet and fruity Amarillo, spicy Jalapeño and super hot Scotch Bonnet varieties. The relishes are handmade at the family-run jam factory in Devon, which has seen three generations working there since 1984. The jars are available via Holleys Fine Foods for £2.15 each. RRP £4. highfieldpreserves.co.uk
Andrea’s Kitchen arrived on the scene in February 2023 with its Pickled Beetroot, based on a Danish family recipe. The East Cork-based producer, the brainchild of Andrea Pedersen, uses sustainably grown beetroot which is preserved via a solarpowered process. At present listings are limited to local outlets, but the start-up has plans to go nationwide in 2024. RRP €4.80-€5.00 for 320g. andreapedersen64@ gmail.com
Sussex producer Ouse Valley Foods claims that it has elevated a household favourite with its Ploughman’s Pickle. It binds crunchy vegetables in a spicy amalgam of dates, tamarind, lemon zest, all spice and apple, which the producer says goes well with a scotch egg, sausage roll or cheese sandwich. Trade price £21.12 per case of six jars. RRP £4.95. ousevalleyfoods.com
With the launch of Chimi Mango Chutney, Chimilove is challenging home cooks to embrace the South American way of savouring sweet with a kick. The chutney marries sweet mango with spicy green jalapeños and has an RRP of £5. chimi.love
Born out of the pandemic, Country Cottage Preserves is a newcomer to the scene, founded by Chris Halliday and Claire Loud. Their courgette Relish is a best selling line, introduced last summer as a BBQ accompaniment. Trade price is £3.60; RRP £4.50. halliday.ful@btinternet.com
Fiercely Fine is a Welsh family business producing two varieties of Kimchi, the now ubiquitous spicy Korean vegetable condiment. Both the Classic and Vegan kimchi are raw, naturally fermented, unpasteurised and handcrafted. RRP £6.50 for a 350g glass jar. fiercelyfine.co.uk
January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
The Biskery, a Leeds bakery that specialises in branded and personalised biscuits, says it is on a mission to spread kindness and connection. To this end, the bakery has created a tin of 12 biscuits impressed with positive affirmations, such as “you are”, “loved”, “kind”, “capable”. The jam-filled biscuits are a gift that is designed to bring joy through flavour and kind words. RRP £29.95 for a tin of 12. MOQ 10 tins. thebiskery.com
Crumbs Box’s Vase of Flowers biscuit box offers a novel gifting idea for retailers. Each box contains eight flower-shaped shortbread biscuits that have been hand-iced and hand-made in Shropshire. RRP is £28. crumbsbox.com
Love Cocoa, the chocolate brand founded by James Cadbury (great-greatgreat grandson of the original Mr Cadbury) has launched a new biscuit tube that showcases one of Britain’s favourite flavour combinations. Already listed with Liberty London, Orange Chocolate Biscuits are packed with candied orange and coated in milk chocolate made from sustainably sourced single origin cocoa. RRP £10 for a 175g tube. lovecocoa.com
Czech bakery Pekarstvi Villa is looking for a UK distributor for its biscuit collections, which include Villandia Cookies and ‘What success tastes like’ biscuits with positive affirmation messages. While those pictured are in Czech, the baker can also produce English language versions. pekarstvivilla.cz
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biscuits The Yummy Yank says it has taken the best parts of a brownie and added “snap” to create its latest authentic American treat: Brownie Snaps. These hybrid biscuit bakes come in four flavours: Original, Mint, Orange and Raspberry, and are presented in 100% recyclable drums. They are on sale in Tebay Services, Gloucester Services and Cairn Lodge Services. theyummyyank.co.uk
Original Biscuit Bakers has taken the Christmas gonk trend and adapted it for Easter, allowing retailers to cash in on the craze for the bearded characters. The hand decorated gingerbread biscuits are presented in a counter display box, and have an RRP of £3 per biscuit (wholesale price from £2). Available via Cotswold Fayre, The Cress Company and Bon Bons. originalbiscuitbakers. co.uk
UK-based Italian food brand Crosta & Mollica is capitalising on the rise of the UK’s coffee culture with the launch of a new biscotti range. The lineup comprises two types of Amaretti - Crunchy and Soft - made in the Ligurian town of Sassello, Chocolate & Hazelnut Baci with Piemonte hazelnuts and Almond Cantucci from a bakery just outside Florence. RRP from £2.95 for 140g. crostamollica.com
Bristol bakery Step and Stone has developed a new Walnut & Cheese Biscuit that uses Shipton Mill organic flour and Old Winchester cheese from Lyburn Dairy in Hampshire. It describes the handmade biscuits as “moreish…with a buttery taste and short, crumbly texture”. Step and Stone is a social enterprise that works alongside people with learning difficulties. Wholesale price £3.99 for 120g. RRP £5.99. stepandstone.co
Easy Bean says its Moroccan Spice Chickpea Crispbread works as a sweet biscuit alternative for those who want to cut out sugar. The aromatic spices and crunchy almond topping give these crackers a naturally sweet taste without any added sugar. They are handmade using chickpea flour, Somerset butter and organic buttermilk, then slowly baked for extra crunch. RRP £4.15 for 110g. easybean.co.uk
The Shortbread Company is now offering three vegan options alongside its classic real butter shortbread range, with Vegan Maple Pecan its latest creation. All of the producer’s shortbread varieties, which include Terry’s Chocolate Orange, Salted Caramel and Strawberry & White Chocolate, come in 200g tins with an RRP of £10. theshortbreadcompany. com
Mother Bio’s new whole oat cookie line-up harnesses both the free-from and personalisation trends. Glutenfree, organic and vegan-friendly, they come in six varieties that reflect different moods and personality types, from ‘Happy’ and ‘Balanced’ to ‘In love’ and ‘Affectionate’. motherbio@gmail.com
This 150g gifting tin, filled with salted caramel biscuits, is the latest addition to Grandma Wild’s Victorian Floral collection. Made in Grandma Wild’s fourth generation Yorkshire family bakery, the buttery biscuits are studded with chunks of salted caramel. grandmawilds.co.uk
These biscuits, made with extra virgin olive oil, Greek yoghurt, thyme honey and raisins, showcase Greece’s abundant natural larder. They are available from Greek food exporter Greka Icons in 120g cardboard packs with an RRP of €4.90. grekaicons.gr
Angelica Belle’s Lemon and Orange Amaretti Cookies were featured on Saturday Morning Kitchen after catching the attention of celebrity chef James Martin. Inspired by Andrea Ashton-Worsfold’s sailing trips to Sicily and Sardinia during her time as a yacht chef, these traditional cookies are hand-crafted in her fisherman’s cottage kitchen on the Isle of Man using Manx free range eggs. Crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, the biscuits combine rich almond flavour with fresh lemon or orange. They are currently baked to order for retailers on the island, namely Robinson’s Fresh Foods and Woodbourne Deli. Following its TV appearance, Angelica Belle is looking to expand into mainland UK. The wholesale price for a mixed tin of 12 cookies is £16. A clear compostable bag containing 4 cookies wholesales at £4.95. angelicabelle.co.uk
Smiggy’s, a new baking brand conceived by Sumayyah Waraich, is making a name for itself with its fusion style cookies, which feature spices and ingredients from Asia and the Middle East. The Leicester-based baker’s Kashmiri Chai Cookie and Tahini Halwa Cookie were both awarded a star in Great Taste 2023. The Kashmiri Chai Cookie fuses a NYC cookie base with a Pink Chai spice blend, which balances Kashmiri green tea with cardamom, saffron and fennel. Pistachios complete the cultural tribute while ruby chocolate adds a fresh twist. The Tahini Halwa Cookie is baked with browned butter, tahini, halwa, roasted pistachios and chocolate chips - a sweet, crumbly and nutty dough with pistachio paste at its centre. Both cookies are individually wrapped and priced at £2.30 for the trade; RRP £3.75. smiggys_@outlook.com 28
January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
Find six different varieties of savoury biscuits in our Cheeseboard Selection Box. www.stagbakeries.co.uk
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Join the ultimate business event for food & drink product discovery 27,000+
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January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
XL FISH FRIDGE Temperature range: -1°c to +2°c 304 stainless steel inside & out Sealed refrigeration system No maintenance required Manual defrost
FR10
FR15
FR20
FRDD
“Simply the best fish cabinets on the market”
XL Refrigerators Ltd Specialist Manufacturers of Refrigerated & Heated Displays XL Refrigerators Ltd, Kent Road, Pudsey, Leeds, LS28 9LS
01132 577 277 / sales@xlrefrigerators.com www.xlrefrigerators.com
Axicon Labels were, we have to say, amazing. They delivered our labels on time and perfectly printed and took our last minute phone calls in their stride. They understood the importance of the perfect label and gave us the product that (hopefully!) stands out from the crowd! T: 01869 350442 E: labels@axicon.com W: www.axiconlabels.co.uk
Manufacturers of depositors & filling machines for the food production industry Tel: 01282 440040 info@riggsautopack.co.uk www.riggsautopack.co.uk Vol.25 Issue 1 | January-February 2024
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BUSINESS IMPROVEMENTS
Now is the time
Whether you’re a producer or a retailer, the early months of the year are the best time to reset, refresh and plan for the future. Here are some pieces of advice, good examples and upgrade options for you to consider. Compiled by Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox
FOR RETAILERS Gift packaging and retail display specialist Gadsby’s new metal stands are lightweight freestanding steel units available in three sizes (60cm, 85cm and 150cm). POS headers and chalkboards are also available. gadsby.co.uk
XL Refrigerators’ latest fish cabinet, the FRDD is made from 304 spec stainless steel to withstand the rigours of damp and corrosive conditions. It has 11 draws and double doors to reduce temperature fluctuations, and the sealed refrigeration system has a mechanical thermostat to control temperatures (from -1°C to +2°C). xlrefrigerators.com
Retail lighting provider Imoon has updated its Venere Projector with a new design, integrating the arm with the lighting unit and positioning the driver box vertically to give the projector a compact, lightweight, and stripped back appearance. imoon.it/en 32
How I start the year at Broad Bean Deli By Ian Evans
This year, we closed between Christmas and the New Year, which was an opportunity to do a full stock take, to fine-tune how we started 2024 with as few gaps on the shelves as possible. Just after Christmas is the best time to plan for the next Christmas – making detailed notes about 2023, ready for when it comes to placing orders in June: what didn’t sell, what sold substantially better and what people were champing at the bit for. If you’ve got an EPoS system, download the data on cheese numbers, olive numbers, everything you sold a lot of, so you’ve got it there to hand when it comes to negotiating prices with your wholesaler. Order the volume you sold last year but add an extra 10% and keep your prices down.
Using CSY Retail Systems has saved me weeks over a year for invoices and stock taking, so don’t forget to interrogate that data. Even though Christmas is the busiest time and a massive cash injection, the cost associated with staffing and price reductions on festive stock means that you need to do a bit of financial
juggling to start the year on the right foot. January is also the time to put together a social media and marketing plan – look at all the themed days and weeks (eg Veganuary, Real Bread Week, Pancake Day) and which ones you want to participate in. Once you have a raw plan, you can do the ad hoc stuff in between. Depending on how busy you are in January, February
onwards could be when you head out to visit other delis and meet new suppliers. You can only sustain growth over the duration by being savvy with what you stock and how you stock it, so having conversations with other businesses outside of your catchment is important. Also, go to trade shows that have as many potential suppliers as possible – pick two or three that are most relevant to your shop.
chocolate or tea? This could be the place to find it. Searchable by product, producer and retailer, it will allow you to find out more about the company that makes the product, as well as where it is currently stocked – or not.
radius. Need to beef up a certain shelf or look for new lines? Search by product category.
What’s different about it? As well as being a list of all award-winners from the last three years, the directory allows you to search producers and retailers by location. Going on a retail buying trip to a certain area? Have a look at the producers located within a 1-50 mile
What else can I do? You can also use the directory to contact producers directly. So, if you’ve found that killer item that you want to stock or you’d like to find out a bit more about a product, you can send an enquiry to the producer at the click of a button.
I’m a retail member of the Guild, am I listed? Yes. All our members are listed on the directory and given priority in search results. We’ll shortly be contacting all members to ask them to submit a photo of their business to make your listing even more eye-catching.
February onwards could be when you head out to visit other delis and meet new suppliers
Get more connected in 2024… … with the Guild of Fine Food’s new online directory What is it? A searchable database of award-winning products, suppliers and retailers. Predominantly UK- and Irelandfocused, but covering our contacts globally, this is the place to look for food and drink recommendations and the independent retailers in which you find them. How can it help me? Looking for a new cheese,
January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
Where can I find it? It’s completely free to use and available to everyone at gff.co.uk/directory.
FOR PRODUCERS Ahead of the introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility in the UK, regulations specialist Valpak is offering a Packaging Analysis service to help businesses identify which lines will be hit hardest. valpak.co.uk Vigo has launched the Doselite and Dosematic range of machines which precisely fill viscous food products into a wide variety of container types – including jars, bottles and pouches. vigoltd.com
Icertech‘s custom-printed boxes ensure temperature sensitive products arrive in perfect condition – chilled and protected – while making for a communications and brand strengthening tool. Icertech.co.uk
6 things producers can do to kick-start their year
challenges they’re facing. If you’re making chutney, it’s a good idea to talk to your tomato supplier about how they foresee the next 12 months rather than wait for them to phone up and suddenly have to hike your prices by 40%.
By Marcus Carter, founder, Artisan Food Club
1) Plan to have fun Mental health is really important and it’s quite easy to end up so busy in the business that you don’t actually stop. Book that summer holiday, earmark a weekend each month to go away – and not be working. When you are at work, your business should be fun. You shouldn’t be huffing and puffing. Enjoy it and don’t put too much pressure on yourself to get a big listing. 2) Identify key customers and grab attention Most people have got a wish list of shops
Solving labelling dilemmas with Axicon Working with Axicon Labels has allowed Welshhomestead Smokery to process its range of a range of chilli jams, seasonings and smoked meats four times faster than before. The Penuwch-based business used to have four labels for its Smoked Chilli Jam jars – on the front back, and top, as well as Great Taste stickers. Applying them was tricky and time consuming. Axicon suggested a wrap-around label which is easier to apply and removed the need for a separate Great Taste label. Axicon was also able to help Welshhomestead overcome the need for labels to handle refrigerated enivronments. As a result, its labels need to have a gloss finish, must be water repellent and require an adhesive suitable for ambient, chilled and frozen environments. Axicon looked at options, including paper and synthetic materials, before settling on a final product which met the above criteria, as well as reducing material costs by more than half. axiconlabels.com
that they want to supply. Often, it’s those big food halls and higher-end supermarkets. But you’ve got to be smart when you pitch to them. The buyers at these places are probably sick of lines like, “I make chutney, my granny gave me the recipe”. Instead, send a really to-the-point email that just says, “we’ve just won something’, “we’ve just achieved this milestone”, or “we’ve just made this number of sales”. 3) Discuss and lock down your supply chain Be aware of what’s going on, who your supply chain is and what
4) Put contingencies in place to notify customers about any potential price changes Forewarned is forearmed. If you say to your stockists that your tomato supplier has informed you there’s been a terrible harvest in Italy which might trigger a price rise, they’ll be prepared if you do. Pre-empt, as opposed to reacting. 5) Set out a social media calendar Particularly with your direct-to-consumer trade, it’s important that you start promoting products before the event. Give it some thought and make notes in your diary. Don’t wait until the 10th February to start posting
about Valentine’s Day. Make sure you’re putting relevant content out to what’s going on, particularly if you’re driving traffic to your website. 6) Let customers know about product development You can build up buzz by posting about new products in advance. And let customers know what’s going on in the development kitchen. Retailers are always after something new that’s going to give their shop a point of difference. artisanfoodclub.online
When you are at work, your business should be fun Enjoy it.
A supplier’s marketing plan for 2024 By Vhari Russell, Founder, The Food Marketing Experts Getting ahead with your marketing and social media planning enables you to capitalise on a range of opportunities. These are the things you want to put in the calendar: Key shows and events – plan out where you’re going to spread presence throughout the year. Awards – give yourself time to prepare solid entries by keeping abreast of key dates. Creating campaigns throughout the year gives you opportunities to drive sales. Lead generation is the
lifeblood of any business. Having a clear marketing calendar helps you to schedule in essential activity. PR plan – use the calendar to develop a programme of seasonal news releases. Setting targets for new subscribers – growth is key to having a successful business and new subscribers are potential customers. Getting social – pick out key events and their associated hashtags. Select those which will resonate with your customers. Planning your content will give you more capacity to respond to news and unexpected events. Planning your advertising budget – customers need to see a brand three times before buying a product, which
is why paying for one-off adverts doesn’t work. Any investment in advertising should form part of a tactical campaign. Planning your newsletter campaigns – put together a schedule to raise awareness of your brand around the key sales windows of the year. Sales targets for the year ahead – breaking down your growth goal by average order by B2B and D2C is a really useful exercise, as it enables you to work out how many calls you need to make to meet your targets. Remember to check mid-month as to how you are progressing so you can invest more time into sales if needed. thefoodmarketingexperts. co.uk/free-social-mediacalendar
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PREMIUM PANTRY INGREDIENTS INFUSED WITH IRISH FLAVOUR AWARD WINNING INFUSIONS
FOUND IN:
The Garden of Eva is the vision of Eva Thorne, who grew up with an American Southern mother who loved to preserve farm-fresh produce. Eva continued the tradition. She noticed that the UK didn’t have the Southern favourites that she loved. So the Garden of Eva is bringing Southern jams, pickles, and relishes to tables in the UK and beyond. Contact us on 07424 748333 or email pickles@gardenofeva.co.uk @gardenofeva.uk www.gardenofeva.co.uk
it’s a family thing award-winning craft bakery
Three generations ago William Kindness opened his bakery and set his standard, we’ve not compromised on that. For us the secret to great baking is simple; use the finest ingredients. Don’t just take our word for it, our oatcakes consistently win Great Taste Awards and we are now a Great Taste Award Producer.
Hand crafted in Aberdeenshire, Scotland
t 01771 644288 e mark@thekindnessbakery.co.uk www.thekindnessbakery.co.uk 34
January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
SHOW PREVIEW Northern Ireland’s largest foodservice and hospitality trade event, IFEX, returns 5th-7th March 2024 at the Titanic Exhibition Centre, Belfast, and it’s bigger than ever before.
Six reasons to visit… ...IFEX 2024
1
2
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All buyers covered
All under one roof
Experience Great Taste
IFEX is Northern Ireland’s largest industry showcase of food & drink, catering equipment and services, attracting both exhibitors and visitors from across Ireland and further afield. Whether you are a buyer in retail, foodservice or hospitality, there will be a host of exhibitors to pique your interest.
Whether you’re seeking high quality ingredients, fresh food, drinks, foodservice and kitchen equipment, furniture or EPoS systems, the show’s mix of exhibitors should have most buyers’ needs covered.
IFEX has partnered with The Guild of Fine Food – the organisers of Great Taste – to bring back The Great Taste Market. This much-loved feature, showcases award-winning food and drink producers from across Ireland. Also returning are the Innovation Awards, judged by an independent panel of experts, to showcase new stand-out products from exhibitors.
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5
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In The Spotlight
Skills On Show
Raising The Bar
It’s not all about products. IFEX 2024 will introduce a new Spotlight Stage which will play host to a three-day packed programme of great content, interviews, panel debates and ‘meet the maker’ presentations and tastings. The speaker lineup will be revealed on the IFEX website.
Addressing an industry-wide problem, the Hospitality Core Skills Hub at the show is a hands-on demo theatre where visitors can learn new skills from fish fileting to barista skills and cocktail making. IFEX also plays host to Salon Culinaire Belfast, where the best culinary talent gather to compete for the crown of NI Chef of The Year.
Visitors will be able to see what’s hot right now in the drinks world, learn about the latest trends, and sample some of the most innovative brands in a dedicated area. There will also be cocktail demos, tastings and business advice from drinks experts. Register for your free ticket at ifexexhibition.co.uk Vol.25 Issue 1 | January-February 2024
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Our Pear and Date Chutney was a Finalist for 2023 Blas na hEireann awards and we have high hopes this year for our Spiced Mango Chutney
Tastees specialises in Jam, Chutney and Sauces along with Herb & Cookie Mixes using locally sourced ingredients and supporting local suppliers. Small batch production creates a consistently unique flavour.
Call or email today to place your order: +00353 8515 89001 tastees.info@gmail.com
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January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
FOODSERVICE INGREDIENTS & EQUIPMENT
FROM THE DELI KITCHEN CUSTARD TART Serves 6-8 This recipe is for a 22cm tart case. Ingredients: For the pastry 300g ‘00’ flour 175g unsalted butter 85g icing sugar 1 free range egg 1 free range egg yolk 1 egg, beaten, for egg wash For the custard 5 free range egg yolks 1 vanilla pod 400ml double cream 30g caster sugar Nutmeg Method: • First, make the pastry. Ensure the ingredients are well chilled and put the flour, butter and icing sugar into a food processor. Pulse until breadcrumbs form. Add the egg and turn the processor on until the dough comes together. Turn the pastry out on a lightly floured work surface and work it for 30 seconds until it comes together.
• Wrap in baking paper, and allow the pastry to rest in the fridge for at least an hour. • Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160°C (fan). • Roll the tart case out on a lightly floured surface to about a ¼cm thick. Using a rolling pin, lift the pastry over the case and mould into the corners. You can use an offcut of pastry rolled into a ball to nudge the pastry into place. Allow the pastry to rest for a further 30 minutes in the fridge. • Line the tart shell with baking paper and fill it with baking beans or rice. Blind bake the pastry in the oven for 15 minutes or until it is beginning to brown at the edges. Gently remove the beans and baking paper, and return to the oven for a further seven minutes or until it’s golden brown. • Remove from the oven and brush with the egg wash before baking again for another minute. Ensure every part of the pastry has been sealed with the egg. Repeat the process, brushing with egg wash and baking for a minute. • Now turn the oven down to 120°C / 100°C (fan) before you start the custard.
• To make the custard, bring the milk and the vanilla to a simmer. As soon as it comes up to temperature remove it from the heat. • In a bowl, mix together the egg and sugar until just combined, don’t beat it persistently. Pour over the scalded cream, whisking continuously to prevent curdling. Gently skim off any bubbles and allow the custard to settle for a minute. • Place the tart case on a flat tray and have it just poking out of the oven. Gently fill the case as full as you dare, coat with a grating of nutmeg and then gently push it all the way in. Allow the tart to cook for 45 minutes, or until the is a wobble of cooked custard in the centre. • Take the tart out of the oven and allow it to cool before slicing and serving. Recipe by Charlie Hibbert, head chef at Thyme thyme.co.uk
The Deli Society is now selling a range of handmade, artisanal empanadas to the foodservice sector. The Argentinianinspired pastries encase a range of flavoured fillings from ‘Traditional Beef’ and ‘Pork Pibil’ to ‘Mushroom & Camembert’. RRP £4.10 per empanada. thedelisociety.com
Winter Tarn Dairy’s individually wrapped 1kg butter sheets were developed for professionals preparing large batches of pastry-based items. Made with cream from herds of grass-fed pasture-raised cows, both salted and unsalted versions have fat content of almost 90%. wintertarndairy.co.uk
Merrychef has introduced the third model in its conneX high-speed oven range, which it says is the lowest price point model for operators offering a hot food menu. The conneX 12e is described as a plug-and-play countertop unit that is compact, “and can turn out a chicken burrito in around 60 seconds”. nisbets.co.uk January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
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VIBRANT. INNOVATIVE.
AWARD WINNING
DESIGN
refresh FOR 2024
PICKLES, FERMENTS AND HOT SAUCES, HANDMADE IN SCOTLAND We're delighted to introduce our newly designed Oaty Biscuits & Oaty Mini Bites. Meticulously crafted for savoury enthusiasts, these exquisite biscuits are available in mouthwatering flavours. We have sourced the finest ingredients to create these biscuits that complement your favourite cheese, serving as a delectable savoury nibble.
AY E P I C K L E D . C O M | @ AY E P I C K L E D
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January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
www.grandma-wilds.co.uk
MEET THE PRODUCER
Harissa with a smile Young Sam Lamiri only started importing harissa to gift it to his friends in lockdown. Now he’s on a mission to champion Tunisia’s most emblematic ingredient - and share it with the world. Interview by Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox
What were you doing before starting Lamiri Harissa and how did it come about? Up until 2020, I was a carpenter building furniture. When Covid hit I was out of a workshop and I wasn’t really doing anything. I’ve always bought harissa back from Tunisia, but when we were in lockdown I ran out. I went to the shops, naïvely to buy more. What I brought back was something completely different – I didn’t recognise it at all. So I called my cousin, and the initial plan was to have him buy some from this husband and wife in our community in La Marsa. I wasn’t planning on starting a business but when my aunt found out what I was going to do she said they would make it for me, using my grandma’s recipe – hence the name, Lamiri Harissa. So they sent over a batch and I gave some out to friends. They said it was unbelievable, so I decided to do it again. How did you go about selling it more widely? My marketing was so organic at the beginning. I’d sell it to my mates, then their housemates would order it - it got one step removed from me really quickly. I set up a website and for the first year and a half I was doing bike deliveries. I used to call it ‘harissa with a smile’, because I was so happy cycling around throwing harissa at people’s doors. I had this feeling that I was so small, but in my head, I was thinking, ‘I’m coming for you big guys.’
That’s the thing with food – it’s not my harissa, it’s your harissa. Do whatever you want with it.
Social media is a huge part of my business. I’m not a big corporation with glossy adverts, you’re going to see me on the weekend sticking labels on jars, asking for help when I need it. Have you had to overcome any big hurdles? Importing from Tunisia has got to be the hardest. Tunisia makes amazing produce, but there’s so much paperwork and bureaucracy to
deal with. Finding suppliers that can meet UK requirements was tough. Time management is a challenge, making sure we’re focusing on the right things, whether that’s marketing, distribution, licensing… It’s super difficult, but we seem to be getting there. We’re at a really interesting point where we’ve made the jump in our production, so we know that we can make a product at the exact same standard that we make that we make right now, at mass. The scale up was so scary. It’s all good now, but it took a year to get a product I’m happy with. How selective are you with your stockists and who uses your harissa as an ingredient? Where you’re stocked really matters. I used to work for Moxon’s Fishmongers, and they stocked us from the start. Because it’s an established, high-end shop, it set us at a
certain level. They really champion us, they communicate with their customers to make sure they understand the product. Foodservice is a funny one, because monetarily, it isn’t great at all. Harissa isn’t like milk, you don’t use loads of it. I’m really selective about the places I supply, but if you work with the right places, you know they’re going to do something great with it. And that’s the thing with food - it’s not my harissa, it’s your harissa. Do whatever you want with it. I also do supper clubs and pop-ups, cooking Tunisian food, like Brik, because there’s a massive lack of it in London. But I don’t want harissa to just be used in Tunisian dishes. I want it to be used in everything. Like pasta - the best use for harissa is in a tomato sauce. It’s such an easy hack, you get the smokiness, the garlic, the tabil, all the spices coming through. So it’s great seeing shops that aren’t Tunisian using it, because then people go home and go, ‘I don’t need to make a Shakshuka, I can just put it in my sandwich’. Where would you like to be in 5-10 years’ time? All over the world. I want to be everywhere. Harissa will always be at the heart of our brand, because I honestly feel like it’s Tunisia’s product, it’s not just mine. We’ve been making it for hundreds of years and we’ve got it down to an absolute art form. But I also want to bring in other Tunisian produce, because it’s unbelievable. Our artichokes are amazing, the sun-dried tomatoes are so good… Tunisian olive oil is incredible, we use it in our harissa and really ties into my family’s heritage. I’m Berber - my great-grand parents were olive farmers who used to travel with a donkey with their olive oil to sell in Tunis every year. My grandma had tattoos on her face -that’s why we do the smoked variety of harissa rather than sundried. At the same time, my dream is to go on more trips to Tunisia with production teams, to highlight everything about Tunisian culture. lamiriharissa.com Vol.25 Issue 1 | January-February 2024
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PRODUCTS & MERCHANDISING Russell & Atwell sets sights on delis to “democratise” fresh chocolate By Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox
Russell & Atwell is looking to independents to help introduce its range of fresh, chilled chocolates to more British consumers. Launched in 2020 by third generation chocolate entrepreneur Giles Atwell and chocolatier Steve Russell, the concept revolves around fresh ingredients – organic cream from the Costwolds, British honey and sea salt, and sustainably-sourced cocoa. Since securing funding on Dragon’s Den in 2022, the pair have sold more than a million chocolates – most of them online, but also via a dozen retail outlets – including Booths, Fenwicks, and Panzer’s. The next step, Atwell told FFD, is to get their product into more independents. “They’re a great place for us to start – because so often that’s where big new ideas like ours are born.” The hope is that committed retailers will help reframe the notion of refrigerated chocolate – because despite studies showing that half of all consumers keep their ‘long life’ chocolate in the fridge, that’s not where they go looking for it in shops. “You need to be visible, because chocolate is an impulse product. People rarely walk into a store thinking, ‘I’m going to buy chocolate’,” Atwell said. “We work really well in a deli or a farm shop where the owner or the manager is a fan, so they actually can recommend it.” Retailers can choose from the core range of milk, dark and nut-based chocolates, as well as from limited edition lines – like the Great
Taste award-winning Seville Orange variety, which are only available in the winter, and a new Passionfruit flavour due to run from Valentine’s Day through to summer. Led by Steve Russell, the producer tests out new lines at The Foodworks SW in Westonsuper-Mare – a development and innovation hub fitted out with specialist kit like chillers and chocolate tempering machines. And although these micro-batches sell out purely off the back of social media buzz – like the Wimbledoninspired Strawberries & Cream chocolates, which sold out in under an hour – they do help inspire new permanent lines. “And it actually helps us to reduce the risk for [retailers] in terms of stocking one of our products, because we’ve already seen that there’s a nice bit of demand,” Russell said. The producer is also trialling on-thego pouches for cafés, and catering tubs for foodservice. russellandatwell.com
WHAT’S NEW Modern Persian Kitchen is now selling its ‘Made by Maman’ range of sweet treats to the independent trade. Options include Zereshk & Sour Cherry Brownies; Saffron & Rosewater Brownies; and Pistachio & White Chocolate Shortbread. RRP £24 per 10 slices, or £25.50 for 20 bitesize pieces. modernpersiankitchen.co.uk Seizing on the trend for mochi ice cream, Doughlicious is expanding its Dough-Chi range, with a new Sweet and Salty Popcorn flavour. Vanilla cookie dough is wrapped around popcorn ice cream, then rolled in a crunchy popcorn crumb. Made without gluten or refined sugars, each ball clocks in at 100 calories. RRP £4.50 per box of 6. doughlicious.co.uk Sales of ‘Wawah’, Cocoba Chocolate’s new Koala-shaped treat, will support wildlife conservation projects in Australia where the company’s founder is from. Each Koala is made from 250g of Cocoba Belgian milk chocolate and comes in a decorative gift box. RRP £14.95. cocobachocolate.com
WHAT’S TRENDING By Nick Baines
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second and third generation immigrants – like LA’s Roy Choi and his famed kimchi tacos. Clare Lancaster from the trend prediction company WGSN told Time that a new generation of chefs are “creating products that reflect their unique, multi-layered cultural identities”. 2 Want a flake in that?
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To make each item in its range of healthy cereals more distinctive, Rollagranola has redesigned its packaging. The new boxes feature a contrastingcoloured shade on the front and sign, which it says complements the existing window pack. The producer says it made the change on customers’ requests, and hopes it will make it easier for them to spot their cereal of choice on shop shelves. rollagranola.com
1 Third culture cuisine
Time magazine reports that third culture cuisine will drive a more modern and thoughtful approach to what would previously be branded ‘fusion’. This, in fact, is food from people raised outside their parent’s culture, often
Beer trends seem to be on a perpetual merry-go-round of exotic flavours, forgotten styles, collabs and edgy packaging. Right now, beer foam, or ‘head’ is what’s hot. Drinks publication Punch says this could be aided by the popularity amongst craft beer bar owners of a tap called the Lukr, which, thanks to a side-pour functionality,
allows bartenders to deliver Czech style beers with a decent amount of foam. Real enthusiasts can even buy the tap to use at home. 3 Buckwheat When quizzed by The New York Times about 2024 food trends, Cathy Strange, ambassador for food culture at Whole Foods Market predicted that the humble buckwheat is set to have a moment. Not only is it gluten free, but buckwheat can add texture when used instead of breadcrumbs to coat fish or other proteins. In NYC, buckwheat is everywhere – including in hot chocolate at Lysee in the Flatiron building. Meanwhile, the pairing is also used by Scotland’s Ocelot, which makes a 50% milk chocolate bar studded with the hardy grain.
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Baileys Bonbon
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January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
Coffee and Amaretto Bonbon
SHOW PREVIEW The South West’s annual trade show is back at Exeter’s Westpoint Arena, hosting food & drink buyers and suppliers from the region – and beyond
Six reasons to visit… The Source
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The region’s trade show
All under one roof
A full roster
Hosted by Hale Events in partnership with Taste of the West, The Source connects food businesses across the South West. The show has something to offer every food & drink buyer across the retail, foodservice and hospitality sectors.
Whether your seeking high quality ingredients, fresh food, drinks, foodservice and kitchen equipment, furniture or EPoS systems, the show’s mix of exhibitors should have most buyers’ needs covered.
The Source will feature a host of new and established artisan producers along with suppliers such as Bartletts, Chunk of Devon, Clipper, EPOS Buddy, Farm Frites, Forest Produce, Franke Coffee, Frobishers, Gusto Organic, Heritage Cider, House of Sarunds, Proper Cornish, The Cress Co, The Real Olive Co and Yeo Valley.
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Exclusive offers
Tap into tourism
Ease of access
Many exhibitors at the show will have offers for visiting buyers – including discounts, free delivery, free POS items and deals on service packages. It’s a great opportunity to land a deal and increase your profit margins.
The West Country Tourism Conference will run alongside The Source on both mornings, featuring two programs of topical presentations. The paid-for event is for all types of tourism and hospitality professionals, with the aim of providing updates, news, ideas and insights.
This show takes place on Tuesday 6th and Wednesday 7th February at Westpoint near Exeter, which is easily accessible via the M5 motorway. It’s free to attend for trade buyers, with plenty of free parking. All you need to do is register at thesourcetradeshow.co.uk Vol.25 Issue 1 | January-February 2024
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Perched atop the North Pennines near Durham, Broom House Farm attracts over 18,000 visitors a year. Here’s the story of how the Gray family built a business out of the ashes of the Foot & Mouth crisis. Interview & photography by Tom Vaughan
On the right track IT’S A BIT of a mission for FFD to get to Broom House Farm Shop, up a very snowy track on a bitter winter's morning. Given the shop’s location high up in the North Pennines (but just 15 minutes from Durham city centre), there are very few other customers braving the conditions as a snow storm settles in. But for a business born out of adversity, a few days of diminished trade is nothing in the grand scheme of things. “We were conventional farmers until 2001, the Foot & Mouth year,” says owner Jane Gray. “We were on the edge of the fire break cull and had to start all over again. So, we drove to Scotland, bought some
VITAL STATISTICS
Location: Broom House Farm, Durham DH7 6TR Average basket: £28 Annual visitors: 18,000 Employees: 20
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Aberdeen Angus cattle and here we are.” Fast forward 23 years, and Jane, husband Mark and daughter Emma now run an award-winning farm shop, butchers, café and adventure playground, welcoming in excess of 18,000 visitors a year. From the ashes of the Foot & Mouth crisis, the farm has risen like a phoenix. “It was karma,” says Gray. “The compensation gave us the time to think about what we actually wanted to do and enabled us to jump forward 10 years with a business plan.” At the heart of that plan is the farm’s own-reared beef, saddleback pork and lamb and mutton. The shop exclusively sells its
own meat, equating to 80 cattle a year, plus over 150 pigs. “They are entirely grassfinished and organic,” says Gray of her herd. “We decided on Aberdeen Angus because we wanted the added value of that breed – people will pay more for it. Plus we get a premium when we sell to market.” Much of Broom House's appeal to customers comes from the knowledge that all the meat sold in the shop is reared in the surrounding fields, with Gray refusing to supplement it with bought-in meat. “When I have a new butcher come in, sometimes they’ll say: ‘Jane, just buy some ribs in, we’ll make £10 a go, we’ll sell 100 of
DELI OF THE MONTH
them and make £1,000. But I say, ‘No, you don’t get it – people come here because they know the meat is reared on site’. And I think that integrity is important to maintain.” From the early days of selling meat on a pop-up counter on a Thursday and Friday morning – encouraging customers to make the journey up the hill with a raft of creative marketing including a maize maze on the side of the road – the farm shop has expanded into a custom-built premises, selling predominantly produce from County Durham and its surrounds, alongside the farm’s own meat. “We’re always on the lookout for local. If it’s local, we’ll sell it. But I’m not entirely strict. If it’s got a story we’ll stock it. So for example we have Godminster Cheese because the guy who makes it – I used to cook for his father up here on shoots, so I’ve got a connection.” Mainstay items include the likes of organic milk from Acorn Dairy near Darlington, farm-churned butter from Embleton Hall near Hartlepool and flour from Craggs & Co on Teesside. To these shopping basket essentials, Gray has slowly added items from small-scale producers – such as Belle & Herbs, a kimchi and ferments producer based on Tyneside. “We found them at Seaham food festival. We go around the place looking for new things. They were very new, and we were one of the first people to stock them. And they sell really well. There’s a huge interest in all these gut helping foods at the moment.”
Add to this list Screaming Chimp Hot Sauce, made just three miles from the farm shop, and Spicy Monkey curry sauces, produced just 15 minutes by car in Durham. It is important for Gray – especially in light of food inflation – that the shop has price points for all customers. The farm sells an organic chicken at around £30 a bird, alongside a free-range herb-fed option which could be £15, and then a barn-reared option at £6 a bird. “With veg we’ve now got either organic or non-organic, so you can choose what you want to suit your budget,” adds Gray. “We’re very conscious that we’ve got to cater for all budgets, we can’t sell what we want to sell but what people want to buy.” Customers also make the journey just to buy the farm’s mutton, which is cheaper than lamb and almost impossible to get in supermarkets. Just like everywhere else, the farm shop has been forced to put its prices up this year across the board. “We review meat prices twice a year. But as far as the suppliers that we buy, from, like the milk or veg, every time we get it in we check prices. And they are changing every time. Now we’ve got to check everything weekly – we didn’t used to have to do that. But that’s the market we’re in at the moment, isn’t it?” Alongside the butcher’s counter and deli items, Gray has added a small gift section that has proved successful enough to command its own corner of the shop.
MUST-STOCKS Belle & Herbs Kimchi Spice Monkey Curry Sauces Homemade Beef Dripping Lishman’s Yorkshire Nduja Slack House Organic Natural Live Yoghurt Home-cooked Saddleback Ham Fika Coffee New Warlands Farm Apple Juice Acorn Dairy Organic Milk Full Circle Brew Co. Beer Embleton Hall Farm-Churned Butter Yockenthwaite Farm Granolas Craggs & Co Flour Screaming Chimp Hot Sauce Weardale Cheese
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S: 4 SE 02 LO 2 C Y Y AR TR RU EN EB F
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Award-winning food and drink for independent retailers OPEN FOR ENTRY Members’ fortnight
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General entry
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For more information visit gff.co.uk/ greattaste or scan the QR code to sign up for entry alerts
Do you work with brilliant producers? Make sure they enter this year. gff.co.uk/greattaste | greattasteawards.co.uk | #greattasteawards #ISpyGreatTaste
DELI OF THE MONTH “They don’t have a shelf life, so they are much easier. The idea was to sell things that were connected to food, so nice candles, dinner napkins, and it just evolved from that.” In 2006 and 2007, Gray and husband Mark added the other two parts of the business – a forest adventure trail for families followed by a coffee shop and café. Between them, the two help solve one of the biggest challenges facing Broom House: getting people up the hill to visit them. Now, 18,000 people a year visit the forest adventure and that drives footfall in the shop. “If you assume it’s all families of four, and you divide that 18,000 by four, I would say one person for each family generally gets into the farm shop and buys something. It may just be a jar of honey or a packet of biscuits, but then it’s in their brain, and the next time they want something nice to eat, they come back here.” The café and coffee shop also profits
hugely from the family visits, with the kitchen cooking over 100 breakfasts most weekend mornings. “People will come up here just for our breakfast – made with our own bacon, our own sausages, our own black pudding. It’s full every Saturday and Sunday. Then they’ll all buy something to take home as well.” The kitchen also adds another arm to the farm shop’s operation, making pâtés from the pigs livers, producing Broom House’s signature black pudding (which is baked, not boiled) and baking cakes and seasonal treats such as mince pies and Christmas puddings. “It means that, on a snowy day like today when there aren’t many customers, there is always something for them to be doing,” says Gray. “And also, synergy-wise, they use all our waste. Tomatoes on the turn will go into a tomato chutney or be sold in the café as a tomato soup. That is really important when you’re running a small business – to minimise your waste, as that is your loss.”
The farm shop is manned by three fulltime and one part-time butcher, alongside a junior member of the team to help pack, while the café is run by a management team of three with 12 casuals. Balancing the demands of the coffee shop has always been the hardest challenge. “Until about four years ago, the coffee shop profit was probably in the pound notes. It’s very difficult to get right because you always have to have the staff but you can’t always send them home when it’s quiet.” But Covid provided a big boost to the business, and now all three arms of the business are in a very good place, says Gray, with turnover – and most importantly profit – healthy. “Turnover is vanity, they say, but profit is sanity. But what I’m most proud of is how we got this business up-and-running and maintained. We’ve never borrowed a penny. We’ve never been in debt. And we’ve always been profitable.” broomhousedurham.co.uk
We’re very conscious that we’ve got to cater for all budgets
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ADVICE
Expert View ANDREW BURTON AT MALCOLM SCOTT CONSULTANTS ON APPRAISING YOUR EMPLOYEES Appraisals, or ongoing performance development reviews, can help a business to evaluate how well employees perform their duties and identify areas where they can improve in order to achieve their goals and align with business objectives. Holding timely job reviews allows for an open dialogue about expectations and professional goals, and when conducted successfully, can result in a more motivated and dedicated individual and team. There are differing types of review but ones I like to use are: Documented six-monthly development reviews, also known as appraisals, or personal development reviews, scheduled to take place as infrequently as once a year or as frequently as once a month. They provide a helpful, documented snapshot in time about how well an employee is doing, but more essentially, they should be focused on SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and TimeBound) objectives for the next period to help the employee with their personal aims. Personal development plans can also be effective in developing a team. They are not just about existing performance, and don’t necessarily imply upward movement. Instead they enable individuals to improve their
MODEL RETAILING Could you help me?
performance and reach their full potential at each stage of their career. Personal development planning is the process of: • Establishing aims and objectives the employee wants to achieve in the short, medium or long-term of their career. • Identifying needs for skills, knowledge or competence development. • Selecting appropriate training methods to meet those perceived needs. • Creating a running document to track and review development. Meetings scheduled ad hoc are often the way managers focus on staff development, especially if the culture of the business is less corporate or small. The main purpose of a scheduled but ad hoc meeting is to give the team member an opportunity to talk about themselves and the business with their manager. It also enables the team to address urgent matters or unexpected situations promptly and efficiently. Communication with the team about personal or business development keeps everyone involved and encouraged.
Holding timely job reviews allows for an open dialogue about expectations and professional goals
Setting up shop for good hygiene The layout, design and materials of a retail premises must allow for maintenance and adequate cleaning. Building materials must not include any substance that may be toxic to food either by direct contact or vapour. Design and construction must allow for hygienic operations and avoid finishes that may lead to shedding of particles, build-up of condensation and undesirable mould growth. Equipment must be designed to facilitate cleaning and disinfection, e.g. lockable castors on heavy equipment and flexible hoses where necessary. Adequate lighting, either natural and/or artificial, must be provided. Artificial lighting should be protected from damage by diffusers or shatterproof tubes may be used. Mechanical airflow from a dirty area to a clean area must be avoided. Drainage systems must sufficiently allow solid and liquid waste to flow away. Appliances fitted to the system must be fitted with effective traps. Waste must flow away from clean areas to dirty areas, where drainage channels are fully or partially open. Provision must be made to allow cleaning chemicals to be stored away from areas where food is handled or prepared. This advice is an excerpt from the Guild of Fine Food’s Assured Code of Practice for Deli Retailing. The guide is available in PDF format (free for Guild Members, £250+VAT for nonmembers). To request a copy of the Code, email support@gff.co.uk
SOLVING EVERYDAY SHOPKEEPING DILEMMAS. IN MINIATURE.
I’ve had no training and have no knowledge of the products or practicalities of being behind this counter. Your guess is as good as mine.
Excuse me…
I’d love to help you but my zero hours contract, lack of tangible benefits and ill-fitting uniform have demotivated me too much.
I don’t want a career in food. Why would anyone?
FFD says: There’s nothing wrong with hiring younger staff – in fact it’s a good thing and vital for the sector – but don’t just treat them as weekend stop-gaps. Without the right training and investment, their stint with you will only end up in poor experiences – for them and for your customers. Motivated junior staff can invigorate the shop floor and, who knows, they may even stick with you. With kind permission of Geobra Brandstätter Stiftung & Co. KG, Germany. PLAYMOBIL is a registered trademark of Geobra Brandstätter Stiftung & Co. KG, for which also the displayed PLAYMOBIL toy figures are protected.
January-February 2024 | Vol.25 Issue 1
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01366 381250
sales@sfea.co.uk
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Discover an exceptional array of local, national, and international delicacies delivered to every corner of the UK! Our offerings include the most exotic foods in the world and probably the best cakes and biscuits in the country, all freshly produced in our very own bakery. We also supply a huge range of prepacked own-label products!
JuST A sMAlL sELeCTiON OF OUr IcONiC aND PReMIeR bRAnDS:
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