MEET THE MANUFACTURER
Manufacturer invests heavily in ready meals as market booms Beak & Johnston is building a strong reputation as a ready meals manufacturer. CEO Ray Hanley said listening to consumers has been a critical part of the company’s continued success. Adam McCleery writes.
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eak & Johnston, an Australian ready meals manufacturer, is expecting to complete construction of a new $90 million kitchen facility in Western Sydney after the sector experienced rapid growth over the past seven years. The 12,000 sqm facility sits next to the company’s existing 10,000 sqm City Kitchen factory and is expected to open in October. Beak & Johnston was founded in 1986 and since then has grown
to include meals, pastries, sausages, and burgers as part of its offering. Its current brands includes Simmone Logue, Pitango, Beak & Sons, Strength Meals Co, as well as producing private labels. In 2020, the company also bought two more ready meal brands, Ready Chef and Pasta Maker, as well as a production licence from General Mills. Beak & Johnston CEO, Ray Hanley, said being in touch with consumer trends and needs was the
Beak & Johnston has doubled down on its commitment to the ready-meals sector after investing $90 million into a new kitchen facility.
18 Food&Beverage Industry News | March 2022 | www.foodmag.com.au
foundation for success in the ready meals space, especially when these types of products were unpopular. “We initially opened the first ready meals facility in 2015 to produce ultra-fresh ready meals, but to be totally truthful the market wasn’t ready for that yet,” he said. “Because of that, we had to course correct and get something that we could logistically produce to the Australian consumer.” Hanley said the company’s expansion would deliver the trifecta
of additional capacity, new product ranges and more jobs. But the key challenge still tends to centre around consumer trust in ready meals. For years the ready meals sector was looked at as a cheaper alternative with poor quality ingredients – the ‘TV dinner’ effect, Hanley said. “Building that trust with the consumers was ultimately what drove penetration into the Australian market, because
