Fowl play

Whether it’s a case of mistaken identity or a ploy to boost profits, misusing premium brand names is rife in the industry.

WORDS Saskia Beer

I WOULD LIKE to talk about a problem that affects so many food producers and food brands in Australia — people appropriating your name on their menus when they are not buying the product.

My business produces freerange chooks, pheasants, turkeys, geese, guineafowl and Berkshire pork under the Saskia Beer brand and The Black Pig brand. Over the years, I have seen my name on more menus than I care to count. If I had sold as many chickens as those restaurants could have taken, I would be a very happy woman. But in some cases, I would be unhappy, as the restaurants using my name are not ones I want my brand associated with.

Brand appropriation happens in a number of ways, and in fairness, sometimes the chef is not aware they are misleading the public. A few years ago, a company in New South Wales was selling 700 buffet frames a week (off 1.3kg birds) labelled as Saskia Beer to an unknowing business for years. Once the business was made aware, the reaction was swift and we supplied them directly for the remaining 10 weeks of the menu rotation.

In this case, the meat wholesaler was fraudulently putting labels on the product and selling it to the catering company commissioned by the business under false pretence and with intent to make money through deception.

There are often cases of chefs changing jobs and new chefs not bothering to change the menu. We accept it is usually a mistake, but a simple phone call often clears these matters up. Most times, the businesses are very apologetic about the situation.

There are a lot more cases where companies or chefs have intentionally misappropriated my brand and have not desisted after repeated contact. The cost of legal action is prohibitive, and so the problem continues.

In another instance, a restaurant listed Saskia Beer spatchcock on their menu — I don’t grow spatchcock! I rang the restaurant, giving them the benefit of the doubt, but a disinterested manager informed me they never had Saskia Beer spatchcock on the menu. Of course I felt compelled to assure him I was well aware of that! He requested a copy of their own PR article to which I obliged and received no response. I contacted both the chef and management. No response.

The outcome of this tale is that we decided to out the issue on social media. I had done my due diligence and checked with any potential distributors or retailers that could possibly be supplying this outlet. I contacted the restaurant several more times to give them the chance to explain. The day after our social media post, I received a letter of apology saying there had not been time to check the press release in the lead up to the restaurant opening.

To everyone on all sides of hospitality, I know from personal experience how important it is to check everything. It is not just my name on the line — it is yours, too. ■