Love Bites

We’re still standing!

On 2 January this year, Love Bites (www.love-bites.co.uk) celebrated 30 years as arguably the longest established independent sandwich manufacturer in the UK, having been founded in 1991 by husband and wife team, Richard and Gill Smith (pictured), who are still the only two directors to this day, having also brought up their family over this period. Here, managing director, Richard Smith, looks back over an eventful time for the sector…

1991

The sandwich industry was so very di erent back in 1991 with the majority of “entrepreneurs” making them in their houses without any control - calling at o ces with a basket of non-refrigerated products from the boot of their car (comedically depicted in the TV series of the time Bread).

As with all businesses, it has been a rollercoaster ride from humble beginnings on a post-Christmas dark early morning back in 1991 when our rst customer was a policeman just coming o a night shift (technically, he wasn’t our rst customer because we gave him our company’s rst ever sandwich!).

We had rented a small industrial unit belonging to the supermarket chain, Morrisons, bought a refrigerated van, and then began the process of nding customers.

There was very little legislation in those days relating to our industry and things such as labels were very small and just printed with “Egg Mayonnaise” or “Ham Salad” with a use by date and a “keep refrigerated”.

CORNER SHOPS TO FROZEN EXPORTS

Our rst real customers were corner shops and petrol stations, and where we supplied the sandwiches on a sale or return basis. The industry has gone through massive changes since those days and the afore-mentioned label is now nearly as big as the sandwich.

The corner shops, petrol stations and sale or return gave way to schools, colleges, universities and hospitals. Then came sporting venues, theme parks, prison service, foodservice, supermarkets and the odd co ee shop to name but a few. In more recent times it’s been trains, boats and planes, co ee shop chains and frozen exports to Norway and Hong Kong.

As mentioned earlier, it hasn’t all been plain sailing and our darkest hour came back in 2001 when a company quite deliberately took us for over £110,000! There have been others since then, but none as bad as that, so philosophically one might say it could have been worse and we survived.

PRESENT DAY

Does anyone remember the pandemic of 2020/21? That was interesting, wasn’t it! We decided to approach it with a positive attitude based on the old adage “there’s no point in crying over spilt milk.”

We have been very fortunate in the fact that not one of our sta caught the deadly coronavirus (I think they

were more used to the rst three syllables!), and although we initially lost around 80% of our business, we used the down time to target what we felt would be the type of industry which would possibly thrive under the current constraints.

This we decided would be vending because the popular opinion at the time was that the less you handle raw food materials the better, and of course all products related to vending are packaged.

Due to this, we now supply all of the top vending companies in the UK and Europe, not just for their machines but also their ever growing mini-market industry. It literally grows weekly, is now a major part of our business, and we’re told that we’ve only scratched the surface.

AIRLINES

We also used the time to nurture what had become a very good relationship with the airlines having supplied many of the established ones with in ight products over the years.

Towards the end of 2020 we picked up contracts with Virgin Atlantic and Malaysian Air and although understandably it went a little quiet with these during the dreaded lockdown of early 2021, they are beginning to start up again. On top of this we’ve added four more contracts with major airlines and a Hospital Trust in the south of England, all of which will commence once Boris sounds the claxon.

GLORIA JEANS COFFEE

Anybody heard of Gloria Jeans Co ee? You will soon. This is an Australian company with co ee shop chains in 55 countries. Back in late 2020, Love Bites were approached by the company who have secured a 20year franchise agreement for the UK, with a view to supplying all of their sandwich and snack o erings.

Since then, we have been working with them on a weekly basis putting together a comprehensive food menu ready for the imminent launch which was unfortunately delayed when a prominent member of the team su ered a series of tragic losses due to Covid.

Fortunately, we are now back on track and Gloria Jeans have over 40 sites already signed up in towns and cities throughout the country, all in prime positions, and have plans for 60 in the rst year. The majority of these will be operated by franchisees with several already signed up and ready to go and a further 100 + enquiries for the London area with seven already on board (Love Bites are contracted to supply every outlet with all of their sandwiches and snacks and the franchisees are contracted to purchase only from Love Bites).

Plans are also in place for major expansion at our factory in Bradford, West Yorkshire with potential business from as far a eld as Australia, and we have recently introduced our new Zapper range of re-heatable products incorporating susceptor technology which enhances the quality of products when microwaved by allowing the bread to stay crisp and not soften

So, we are still standing and hoping to come out of a very trying period very much stronger after more than a quarter of a century supplying good quality products to customers around the globe, and which started with one tired and hungry copper...