Welcome to Fairfields Farm
Introduction Our families have been farming in East Anglia for three generations. We harvest potatoes, maize and rye on beautiful farmland across the Colne Valley just north of Colchester in Essex. On our farm we cold store, wash, grade and bag twelve different potato varieties which are then supplied to wholesalers and retailers across the UK. We also grow our own special varieties of crisping potatoes which are hand cooked on the farm to the highest possible standards which is why we’re SALSA compliant and soon to be BRC accredited. We deliver our crisps and potatoes to local customers using our own vehicles, but we also supply crisps to partners nationally and internationally. In fact we export to about 20 countries including Mauritius, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Russia, Dubai, Germany, Norway, North America and Canada. We started making crisps in 2006 which then lead to the production of vegetable crisps in 2013 and most recently Lentil Lites in 2016. These are proving to be very popular given that they are not only very tasty, but also high in protein and low in fat. In 2016 we were very proud to be voted East of England Cooperative’s best producer supplier and scooped more great taste awards than any other crisp maker in Great Britain. The 2-star award for our Parsnip with Essex honey and black pepper was particularly good news! Excitingly from early 2017 all of our energy will be generated on the farm using sustainable technologies including anaerobic digestion and solar power.
Founders - Laura & Robert Strathern
What makes us stand out?
Family owned farm Grow our own potatoes Produce our own energy All crisp production in-house No artificial flavours, additives and gluten-free Flavours with provenance Award winners for taste and great service We understand the needs of multiple retailers
Potatoes - all grown & packed on our farm
FF2GO munching on the move
+ 20g & 40g options. + space efficient & supply chain optimised. + perfect for sharing. + easy opening and closing. + 26 weeks shelf-life + hand cooked potato and veg crisps with a choice of flavours. + made on our farm from sustainable energy.
Adnams is a regional brewery founded in 1872 in Southwold, Suffolk, England, by George and Ernest Adnams. It produces cask ale and pasteurised bottled beers. Annual production is around 85,000 barrels. Working in collaboration with Adnams, we developed these hauntingly good beery crisps...
Sustainable Energy - for our potato cold storage, potato washing and sorting plant, crisp factory and offices. Our anaerobic digestion plant goes live early 2017. It's under construction, but will look almost identical to the image above. We already have solar power.
An interview with Robert & Laura Strathern by Chris McNeill, The Delicatessen Magazine So, Robert and Laura, what made you decide to start making crisps at the beginning? Our families have been farming in East Anglia for three generations. It seemed natural to us to make a consumer product from one of our crops; potatoes. In 2006 we decided to start making hand cooked crisps. In the beginning, we out-sourced our crisp production and then in 2011 we brought production to the farm so we could better control quality. We also started making vegetable crisps in 2013. What were your expectations to start with? We knew it would not be easy that's for sure - and we were proved right! We wanted to make the best crisps possible from our potatoes using locally sourced flavours. We now work with our good friends at Aspall Cyder, Wicks Farm Manor, Suffolk Farmhouse Cheeses and Adnams Brewery to make great tasting crisps with specially developed natural flavours which have provenance without using artificial additives. We heard from your staff that you are both incredibly hard working, what does a normal day consist of for you both? Doest't everyone in farming work hard? We're used to it - getting up early and working long days sometimes seven days a week. Fortunately, we enjoy what we're doing. We typically start at 6am and work 12 hours a day and longer during harvest. The weather plays such an important part of our lives that we have to take every opportunity to make sure the crops and equipment are being well looked after. This year this has been particularly difficult given the amount of rain we've had in short periods followed by dry spells. This makes growing potatoes quite a challenge - being British, naturally we never moan about the weather! Being that you work together all day, do you still discuss business at home? Yes we do and this is unavoidable, but given that we have two young children of five and seven, we make every effort to switch-off whenever we possibly can. We heard about your impressive haul of 5 Great Taste awards, including being the only crisp company to get a two star award - how did you celebrate your impressive win? We are particularly proud of winning these awards as it is testimony to the hard work of our development and production teams who are constantly finding new and exciting ways of making our crisps taste better. We have not celebrated our award wins yet, but we do plan to do so at the next Fairfields staff BBQ - once the harvest is in. We particularly liked the taste of your Essex Honey and Black Pepper Parsnip crisps, have you got any other vegetable crisps or healthy alternatives on the way? Thank you. This product is made using locally sourced honey and we're particularly happy with its delicate taste and light, crunchy texture. We launch a new healthy product range in September called 'Lentil Lites'. They're really tasty and healthy too with less than 99 calories per 20g bag. If you could go back in time and tell yourselves a piece of advice before you started, what would it be? That's an interesting question! Our advice to anyone starting a new business would be to make sure you understand your market really well and when it gets tough - as it probably will - just keep going, be flexible and never stop believing in what you're doing. Where do you see the brand going in the future? We're currently exporting to over 20 countries so given BREXIT and the impact on exchange rates, we see good opportunities for further growth in overseas markets where there is an appetite for quality British products. We also plan to expand our product range and production capacity.
Launched September 2016 20g foil fresh bags Three flavours 18/box 20 weeks shelf-life Less than 99 KCAL's per pack High in protein, low in saturated fat Gluten & GM free 100% natural flavours without additives Suitable for vegetarians
Launched January 2017 125g foil fresh bags Two flavours 12/box 26 weeks shelf-life GM free 100% natural flavours without additives Suitable for vegetarians
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Display Options CDU - 260 x 200 x 525mm FSDU - 450 x 300 x 1470mm
Our smashing neighbours at Aspalls use English apples for their cyder vinegar. The business is owned and managed by the 8th generation of the Chevallier family who have lived at Aspall Hall Farm since 1702. Working together we have developed these mouth-watering hand cooked crisps.
Fairfields Farm Crisps Fairfields Farm Fordham Road Wormingford Colchester Essex CO6 3AQ United Kingdom +44 (0) 1206 241613 hello@fairfieldsfarmcrisps.co.uk www.fairfieldsfarmcrisps.co.uk