Around Noon secures major supply deal with Tesco.

Around Noon, the awardwinning food to go manufacturer, has secured a new contract to supply its Scribbles range of sandwiches and wraps to 60 Tesco stores across Northern Ireland.

The deal will see the Newry-headquartered firm, which produces an extensive range of products – such as sandwiches, salads, wraps and fruit pots – supply the Scribbles range across the retail giant’s supermarkets, Tesco Extra and Tesco Express stores, including its petrol forecourt sites.

Around Noon has been in business for over 30 years and employs over 300 people. It already supplies a broad range of high-quality chilled, hot, frozen and bakery products to customers including forecourt and convenience retailers and cafés throughout the UK and Ireland.

Commenting on the new supply deal, Philip Morgan, Around Noon sales director, said: “At Around Noon we work hard to help our customers move with and stay ahead of changing trends and our Scribbles range is an enticing and engaging proposition for the on-the-go consumer. “We currently occupy a strong foothold in the convenience retail and foodservice markets. Our new supply deal with Tesco Northern Ireland further expands our market presence as we grow our product offering with the large multiples.”

Michael Crealey, Tesco buying manager for Northern Ireland, added: “We’re proud to support local and our new partnership with Around Noon reflects our commitment to continually improving and expanding our popular lunchtime meal deal offer. The Scribbles range, with its unique personality unlike anything else in the local market, is the perfect addition to complement our existing food to go offering and has been an instant hit with consumers.”

Alongside its own brand products, which include Scribbles and Twelve, Around Noon offers a white label service for blue chip convenience retail and coffee house brands. In 2016, it established Around Noon Bakery, which supplies well-known high street retailers and independent stores under the Sweet Things brand. Last year, the business secured rank in the prestigious Food & Beverage Fast 50 report produced by global advisory firm Alantra.

Benugo provides complete food and drink offering for ABBA Voyage

Benugo is providing the complete food and drink offering for ABBA Voyage, a revolutionary new concert that sees Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid performing digitally with a live 10-piece band, in a purposebuilt arena in London from 27 May at the ABBA Arena (a state-of-the-art purpose built 3,000 capacity arena located at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London). The offering includes a premium Departure Lounge area, a concourse eatery, four public bars, and a Prosecco bar. Additionally, there are eight dance pods seating up to 14 people which will include a private dance space, waiter service drinks and access to their own bar.

The Departure Lounge showcases a premium hospitality space within the ABBA Arena where guests can enjoy free-flowing food and drinks before the concert. With a capacity of 150, the Departure Lounge has been created with seating and areas to gather with friends around the bar or poseur tables, and serves food and drinks up to one hour and 45 minutes prior to the show, as well as post-show for evening performances. The menu features bowl and finger food, with highlights of smoked chicken with celeriac remoulade, pomegranate, and watercress; Hells battered cod, skin-on chips and caper emulsion; pulled jackfruit slider, slow cooked BBQ jackfruit, baby gem, jalapeño, and a plant-based bun; and sweet treats including Crosstown raspberry jam doughnut, and Nutty Chocolate Brownie.

Afternoon tea is served in the Departure Lounge for matinée performances with Blackcurrant éclairs and Battenburg cake. Prosecco, wine, beer, soft drinks and cocktails are be served as part of the hospitality package along with a food station of charcuterie and pickles, British cheeses, and antipasti. All members of the family are welcome with small portions for children available. The concourse eatery serves menu items including a London Dog, Cumberland sausage, onions, Dijon mustard mayonnaise, and an artisan baguette, a Vegan burrito, roasted Quorn, black beans sauce, tomato salsa, lettuce and vegan cheese, and a selection of Crosstown doughnuts.

German Doner Kebab opens 100th UK restaurant

Famous for pioneering gourmet kebabs in the UK and worldwide, German Doner Kebab (GDK) has reached the major milestone of opening its 100th UK restaurant, confirming its position as the UK’s fastest-growing restaurant chain.

The new site has opened in the heart of Covent Garden on St. Martins Lane, London, in the heart of the bustling theatre district.

The chain says that it has always prided itself on crafting ‘expectationdefying kebabs’, elevating what is one of Britain’s most-loved late night takeaways to a new level of quality, freshness, and variety, all wrapped into a superior dining experience. GDK’s food is freshly prepared in front of customers, using open kitchens in all restaurants. An uncompromising focus on quality means GDK uses only premium and lean cuts of meat, fresh locally sourced vegetables, unique signature sauces made daily in each restaurant, and handmade Turkish-style bread with its crisply toasted waffle pattern.

To mark the 100th occasion, GDK hosted a weekend of launch activity to celebrate its significant milestone. The latest opening also comes as German Doner Kebab forges ahead with plans to open 78 new restaurants in the UK during 2022, building significantly on the 39 opened during 2021.

Now employing over 3500 people in its restaurants throughout the country, the brand boasts a development pipeline of 350 franchise units over the next seven years and has delivered a significant rise in UK total sales in 2021, up 75% from the previous 12 months, they report.

Based in Glasgow, Scotland, the brand has grown at great pace in the UK, Sweden and Middle East and now rapidly expanding in the USA, Canada, Saudi Arabia and across other key locations in Europe.

Imran Sayeed, GDK CEO, said: “Opening our 100th UK restaurant is a landmark moment in the German Doner Kebab story but we are not stopping there. Our goal for 2022 is to almost double our UK portfolio and continue our mission to bring the GDK experience to more cities and towns throughout the UK.

“We are a brand that listens to the needs of our customers and have been responding to the huge demand for our game-changing kebabs throughout the UK. We are now looking forward to forging ahead with our growth strategy and developing GDK as the fast-casual brand of the future, bringing a fresh and exciting alternative to the Gen Z and Millennial audience.”

Greggs awarded prestigious National Equality Standard

Greggs has announced that it is proud to have been awarded the National Equality Standard (NES) in recognition of its efforts to improve diversity and inclusion (D&I) across the business. The UK National Equality Standard was launched in 2013 by EY and has become the accepted standard for inclusiveness in business across the UK. It is supported by the Home Office and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) was involved in its development and launch. To achieve NES certification, organisations are independently reviewed via a rigorous assessment against defined set of criteria and best practice standards. Companies must meet a minimum of 25 out of the 35 competencies with a degree of consistency across each of the NES seven pillars. Achieving NES accreditation formed a key part of Greggs’ commitment to ‘Embracing Diversity’, one of the company’s 10 pledges to make help make the world a better place by 2025. Being awarded the standard is an important step in Greggs’ journey to continuously improve in this area, enhance D&I across the business and ensure its colleagues increasingly reflect the communities the company serves, say the company. Some of the work undertaken by Greggs that was highlighted in the standard’s assessment included establishing a D&I steering Group of individuals from across different areas of the business, developing and enhancing D&I training for all levels in the business and commissioning third party research into the barriers faced by potential applicants from ethnic minorities. The final review noted that Greggs scored above industry average when benchmarked against other organisations in the consumer products and retail industry. Roisin Currie, CEO of Greggs, said: “I am extremely proud of our collective efforts from colleagues across the whole business to achieve this fantastic recognition. However, the work does not stop here, whilst the accreditation is a significant milestone for us we need to keep this momentum and continue to work hard together to embrace diversity and inclusion across all areas of our business.”

Simon Feeke, EY Director and lead NES assessor, added: “Greggs have demonstrated tremendous progress in embedding D&I throughout their business and HR processes with mechanisms for continuous review and measurement of progress. We were particularly impressed by their strong culture of learning and development, proactive approach to accessibility focus and the newly formed colleague network groups. Congratulations to Greggs and to all those who were involved throughout the process.”

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IGD supports aim to create a more transparent food system

Following the publication of the Government Food Strategy, IGD - an organisation that helps to deliver positive social impact in partnership with the food and consumer goods industry - has outlined its support for the ambition to create a more transparent food system and the need for more consistent data to enable businesses to make better decisions and inform consumers’ choices. Susan Barratt, CEO of IGD, said: “We are supportive of the intention to work with the food industry to develop a reliable set of metrics and methodologies for data collection. It will be important to ensure that in doing so, data collection is simple and consistent, but importantly, adds value.” A key policy set out in strategy is the Food Data Transparency Partnership which, in addition to working with industry to develop at set of corporate metrics across health, sustainability and animal welfare, will provide consumers with the information they need to make more sustainable, ethical, and healthier food choices. This will include developing a mandatory methodology that must be used by those who want to produce eco labels or make claims about the sustainability of their products. Susan Barratt continued: “We welcome the aim to develop a mandatory methodology that must be used by those who want to produce eco labels. This will build on the work IGD is leading with DEFRA, the wider industry and WRAP in developing a uniform approach to environmental labelling for the UK food sector. “In addition, IGD welcomes the confi rmation that government will undertake a programme of randomised control trials to develop a suite of evidence based and value for money interventions to encourage and enable healthier and more sustainable diets, with the fi ndings informing future government policy. This is an exciting research area with signifi cant support from industry – IGD is currently working with 20 leading organisations across industry and the University of Leeds to collaboratively test behaviour change levers in real-life settings and identify the most eff ective ways to drive positive and tangible change. “We look forward to sharing the results of our real-life trials, using the fi ndings to work with government to build the evidence base. The trials take us on the journey of realising our longer-term ambition, to establish what levers truly inspire sustained behaviour change and help our industry to adopt best practice and create wide-reaching social impact. “We know from our conversations with businesses across our industry that there is a real desire to fi nd a clear way forward and to help deliver a long-term positive change to Britain’s food system. IGD stands ready to play our part using our unique ability to bring stakeholders together from across the whole food and grocery industry.”

The man behind high street chains Pret and itsu is back with a bao!

Julian Metcalfe, the ‘king’ of the high street sandwich, who co-founded the global food chain Pret-A-Manger 36 years ago is back with a bao! His crayfi sh & rocket sandwich changed lunchtime for millions of people forever, Pret selling in 2018 for $2 billion dollars and now the grandfather of two is returning to where he started with a revolutionary (hot) sandwich - itsu’s original chicken big’bao. itsu’s Asian-inspired (hot) sandwich steams in the microwave in 90 seconds. The two-handed soft steamed bun is stuff ed with a signature blend of fi nely diced chicken, spring onion, soy sauce and shitake & wood ear mushrooms. At 380 calories, and with an RRP of £3, it’s the perfect hot lunch, say itsu. “Successful innovation in the food business is rare,” said Julian Metcalfe. “But here we have a breakthrough product.” Julian Metcalfe and the itsu grocery team say that they spent years perfecting big’bao which can now be found in selected stores nationwide - Sainsbury’s, ASDA, Tesco and online via Amazon Fresh - and ahead of the recent British Sandwich week, itsu’s original chicken big’bao was also shortlisted for the New Food to Go award at the Sammies. “When they founded Pret in 1983, Julian and Sinclair were inspirational in creating the £8 billion sandwich market that we have today. Having known Julian over the years I have absolutely no doubt that his latest innovation will prove to be another success story,” said Jim Winship, director of the British Sandwich & Food to Go Association.

Celebrating success and rising to the challenges ahead

May saw British Sandwich Week take place (turn to page 18 for a review), the final of the Sandwich Designer of the Year competition and announcement of this year’s Sammies Awards winners at a celebratory dinner held at the Royal Lancaster London Hotel on 5 May 2022.

At the start of the Sandwich Designer Competition, BSA director, Jim Winship, acknowledged how good it was to be back out in the real world again after so much time spent in lockdown, but also how tough it still is out there for operators. “The good news is our market seems to be coming back, although the high street’s still remaining somewhat subdued - figures from Springboard indicating that footfall is still down on 2019 - but all the evidence is that our industry is adapting to the new world, and volumes are coming back quite well in most cases,” he said.

“It depends where your business is located, but it’s a world that’s changing around us and our industry, being adaptive as it has always been, is rising to the challenge. One of the things that is really important in our market is the innovation which helps to drive things, although it’s very difficult right now with all the supply chain problems, but innovation is the way we’ve always known it over the last twenty or thirty years.”

At the evening Sammies Awards dinner, Jim Winship thanked all the sponsors, judges, venues and data providers, and all who had supported the events, saying: “In all my years of steering this organisation, there’s never been a more challenging time than the one we now face, but I also know

that we will come through this as we are a creative and resilient industry which will reinvent itself to meet the challenges of the new normal.

“Indeed, we face a time of unprecedented challenges which are not helped by government being increasingly hard of hearing. In fact, there has never been a more important time for us to stand together and make our voices heard. While we recognise that the Treasury has no money to directly support business, there is much government could do to help businesses and consumers through these difficult times without having to dig into their pockets to do so.

“For example, we’re facing more and more costly new legislation from calorie labelling and environmental taxes to bans on the display of advertising of foods high in fat, salt and sugar. The taxpayer is going to have to pay for these things on top of the cost of living rises they already have to face over the months ahead. Why not delay them? It would not cost the Treasury anything to do this.

“If there is one message to the government at this time, it is support us and work with us through these difficult times, and in return we will help you deliver the political objectives you have set for the longer term whether that is tackling climate change or obesity. As an industry, we are stronger if we work together. Equally, as a country, government and industry can similarly be stronger by working together.”

In his dinner speech, current BSA chair, Greencore’s Robert Potts, said how the event was always a big social highlight of the industry calendar, and how, after a tough couple of years, it was all about celebrating success and about recognising outstanding creativity and innovation, and acknowledging the hard work that everyone in the industry is doing to drive and recover the food to go market.

“Over the past couple of years, lots of phrases and words have appeared that we all know and use. One of my favourites is ‘the new normal’. This implies that everything was normal and stable before 2020, but that’s just not true in this industry which has always been fast-changing and dynamic, and this is what we thrive on. Pace, constant change, and new ways of working, and long may it continue. But what we have experienced… Since 2020, has been truly unprecedented,” Robert Potts continued, referencing closures in the food to go market and crazy queuing scenes from the recent past.

“The pandemic had a devastating impact on our industry that affected all of us, large and small. Virtually overnight 80% of all food to go outlets were closed, market value plummeted, city centres and some of the world’s busiest city centres were empty. Everyone was in lockdown and didn’t need their food to go. And sadly, we lost a number of key players, and outlets, from the market, and we cannot deny the personal costs and impacts. But throughout this, the BSA has been there for our industry, offering valuable support and guidance to its members, lobbying civil servants and MPs to speak up for the industry and help protect its good name and integrity. Jim, and the team, we thank you for all the great work that you do.

“Speaking as someone working in insight, who talks to consumers on a regular, everyone was always wanting to know what are consumers thinking, how are their habits changing, what will the new normal look like? So even when sales were 70% down, we realised that we needed to get even closer to consumers – we needed to ‘get into their homes’. And we did take some comfort in what we found. Thankfully, they still loved their sandwiches, but they were really terrible at making them and were getting very, very bored at lunchtimes! And they were really missing going to buy their favourite food to go.”

In asking consumers what their perfect food to go experience should look like in the future, via a short video Robert Potts revealed Greencore’s findings, identifying a warm welcome, a lovely space in which to enjoy food, the option of a drive-thru as well as a preorder app, packaging made from recyclable material, locally sourced food, a sumptuous all-day brunch offering, the possibility to choose form many cuisines (everything from fresh salads to noodles and beyond), snack boxes for children, fresh desserts and something more indulgent when needed.

“There’s still a lot of work to do,” Robert Potts concluded. “We’ve all done lots to help achieve this vision for our consumers, but we must keep going on, and this is what sets the pace for our industry… Listen to your consumers, make sure that you listen to your esteemed insight colleagues, and do look out for each other.”