Tues 18th Nov, Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, London

RETAIL TRENDS MAY 2023

Posted on by Paul Hargreaves

Back in 1999 when Paul Hargreaves founded Cotswold Fayre, the frozen category within the independent sector was viewed with some disdain. The largest frozen retailer, Iceland, had a reputation for a low-quality frozen offering and lowered the status of the category. (More than two decades later, the Iceland offer is now much better quality than it was.) The perception amongst the public was that chilled was better quality, fresher and more suitable for independent retailers to stock in their stores.

To some extent at Cotswold Fayre, we agreed with this and launched our first chilled range in 2016 after 17 years of only selling ambient products. And ‘chilled’ has been a great success for us over the past few years. However, it does seem that over the last couple of years, frozen is becoming the new ‘fresh’ with large amounts of innovation in the category.

Many brands, for example Crosta and Mollica and Squeaky Bean, which, up until recently, have only included ambient and chilled products have launched frozen ranges. It also seems that the Cost-of-Living Crisis has resulted in a spurt of growth in frozen, with NielsenIQ reporting in January 2023, frozen sales across all UK grocery sectors were up by almost 9% year on year. All the main retailers have reported an upsurge in frozen sales and frozen food retailer, Cook, reported in The Grocer that at Easter 2023, its sales were 24% up on the previous year. And Cook have been one of the main reasons that frozen is now perceived as being premium as they have rolled out into farm shops, food halls and premium convenience stores across the UK.

With perhaps fewer people eating out at restaurants during 2023, now may be the time to offer a high-quality frozen offering, yet, from our customer research, one of the barriers to entry is the high minimum order from many frozen producers. Retailers want to order a variety of frozen brands without ordering loads from any one supplier, so to make life easier for retailers, Cotswold Fayre has launched a frozen range with the ability to consolidate a growing offering of premium frozen products and deliver anywhere on mainland UK. So maybe it’s time to look again at frozen and beat the Cost of Living Crisis.

AUNT BESSIE’S GETS FESTIVE WITH THE LAUNCH OF STAR SHAPED YORKSHIRE PUDDING

Posted on by sam.buckingham@birdseye.co.uk

This festive season, Aunt Bessie’s will be encouraging consumers to elevate their roast dinners with the launch of its Gloriously Festive Star Yorkshire puddings. Available from mid-October, the limited-edition product will offer a touch of fun to family roast dinners. As with all Aunt Bessie’s products, the Gloriously Festive Star Yorkshires are easy to prepare as they are ready to be cooked from frozen, and the brand’s new star comes with just a five-minute cook time.

The Christmas period continually sees high demand for frozen food, with savoury frozen being the only category to see growth in the category over Christmas 20221, since it provides shoppers with fresh, great tasting meal components that have the added benefit of convenience. Out of all shoppers who bought frozen Roast Dinner items for Christmas 2022, 62% bought into Aunt Bessie’s – with over a quarter (27%) of these exclusively purchasing Aunt Bessie’s Yorkshire Puddings. As the Yorkshire pudding category leaders2, Aunt Bessie’s is well positioned to offer reassurance to retailers that this new product is essential to stock at Christmas.

Charlotte Vause, Brand Manager at Aunt Bessie’s said “During the run up to the festive period, we’ve been on a mission to create a new and exciting product that will allow families to elevate their roast dinners through their Yorkshire pudding offering. With an Aunt Bessie’s Yorkshire Pudding recipe shoppers know and love, and a prep time of just five minutes, consumers can enjoy the Christmas festivities knowing that Aunt Bessie’s is there to deliver on the taste and wow factor of their roast – creating a real star-shaped conversation starter over Christmas dinner.”

Aunt Bessie’s Gloriously Festive Star Yorkshire Puddings will join Glorious Golden Yorkshires, alongside Aunt Bessie’s Roast Potatoes, Mash, and Parsnips, in featuring NaviLens technology on-pack, which helps make them more accessible to people living with sight loss through the audio labelling and navigational support the technology provides. As part of Aunt Bessie’s continued support of the sight loss community, and to celebrate the launch of the Gloriously Festive Star Yorkshires, this year the brand

is also supporting the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)’s Christmas campaign which is helping to make sure that no child with vision impairment is left out of the festive magic.

Available in packs of eight, Aunt Bessie’s Star Shaped Yorkshire Puddings have an RSP of £2.50* and can be found in Asda, Farmfoods, Iceland, Booker, Henderson’s and Heron Foods from Mid-October to December 2023.

HOPWELLS & WINDSOR FOODSERVICE SMASH EXPO FOOTFALL!

Posted on by ahopwell@hopwells.com

Following the acquisition of Windsor Foodservice earlier this year, Hopwells joined forces with its new partner to put on their biggest, joint exhibition in Sheffield on Tuesday 10th October.

Over 70 exhibitors from major big brands through to artisan producers showcased over 800 products for customers to see & sample.

It was the perfect opportunity to showcase Windsors already established commercial bakery & patisserie, which prides itself in offering a collection of hand mixed, handcrafted, exquisite desserts, including their most popular & indulgent Peanut Butter Cheesecake.

As a reward for client loyalty, every order placed on show day was also gifted the popular dessert as part of the show offer.

Also taking pride of place in the Expo arena was the Windsor Fresh Meat / own butchery department. A thriving department offering a full range of steaks, handmade sausages, and all cuts of beef, pork & lamb. Part of the Expo appeal was the promise of live cooking demonstrations; and we did not disappoint, with all hot food suppliers offering fully cooked food for visitors to sample. The Windsor Fresh Meat stand showcased on-trend Smashed Burgers, using their hand-minced beef burger meat along with endless ideas for topping concoctions, fit to innovate any menu.

The show was hosted at the OEC Arena, which will similarly be the setting for the next, joint exhibition planned for 2024 as the ‘Innovation Expo’.

Tristan Hopwell, Group Managing Director said “It was incredibly satisfying to be part of the thriving atmosphere at our first major, independent exhibition. Customers from both companies voted their approval of our merger with their feet with over 500 visitors coming to the show. We also had a raft of inquisitive interest from potential new customers who

responded to our invitation and came to meet us, with our sales team becoming very busy in the coming weeks to welcome our increasing customer base”.

Ashley Hopwell, Commercial Director continued “as a strong, independent company it is important to us that we maintain our family ethos and values. We continue to enjoy our growth because we always try to demonstrate that good, honest customer service, as well as price, are both pivotal when maintaining customer loyalty. By hosting our own, independent event, our customers appreciate the reassurance that all the food we showcase is available to them, without the need to find a stockist or route to market; and with our new fleet of multi-temp vehicles, can also be delivered as a one-stop-shop too.”

BFFF RESPONDS TO UK DRAFT EPR REGULATIONS CONSULTATION

Posted on by Georgia Oxspring

Members will recall that Defra recently published a consultation on the draft Regulations which will implement Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging, as set out in the March 2022 Government Response. The consultation has now closed but the detail can still be found here.

Many thanks to those of you who shared your thoughts on the proposals. Coupled with outputs from INCPEN trade association group meetings, this allowed us to submit a BFFF response on behalf of the wider membership.

If anyone would like to view a transcript of the BFFF response to this consultation, please let deniserion@bfff.co.uk know and we will happily share that with you.

For those members who have a particular interest in this area, as a reminder, we do run a very successful BFFF packaging group. Should you want further information or wish to join please contact clairemathieson@bfff.co.uk

GOVERNMENT PUBLISH POLICIES ON CONSISTENT RECYCLING COLLECTIONS

Posted on by Georgia Oxspring

Government have finally confirmed the long-awaited policies for consistent recycling collections for households and businesses.

Branded as ‘a new, simpler common-sense approach to recycling’, the reforms are said to be more convenient and practical, enabling people across England to recycle the same materials and put an end to confusion over what can and can’t be recycled in different parts of the country.

Weekly collections of food waste will also be introduced for most households across England by 2026. This will also stop a trend towards three- or four-weekly bin collections seen in some local authorities across the UK.

The Government is also proposing new exemptions to make sure that waste collectors will be able to collect dry recyclables together, in the same bin or bag, and collect organic waste together, to reduce the number of bins required.

Timescales:

Households recycling collections: Councils will be legally required to collect all specified packaging materials for recycling by March 2026 except soft plastics which is by 31 March 2027 (or earlier if they are able to do so).

Businesses recycling collections: Businesses will be legally required to collect all specified packaging materials for recycling by March 2025 except soft plastics which is by 31 March 2027 (businesses can be offered recycling collections for materials sooner by their contractors if possible).

Micro-firms recycling collections (defined as those with 10 or fewer employees): Legally required to collect all specific packaging materials for recycling by March 2027 for all materials.

The policies document can be found here, which outlines the policies to be taken forward. For reference a summary of responses to the 2021 Consultation on Consistency are here.

For ease, the Industry Council for Packaging & the Environment (INCPEN) have also kindly provided a Summary of the Government’s Key Policies.

FSA WARN OF LISTERIA MONOCYTOGENES IN IMPORTED ENOKI MUSHROOMS

Posted on by Georgia Oxspring

Following an Rapid Risk Assessment the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) have published a news story advising pregnant women and those with a weakened immune system to thoroughly cook Enoki mushrooms before consuming them due to possible presence of Listeria monocytogenes and the risk of severe disease.

In addition to the consumer advice, they’ve also issued a smarter communications letter to Local Authorities and have asked that this letter be shared with members in case you are importing, using, or selling Enoki mushrooms.

This letter can be found here.

If you have any questions, you can contact the FSA at preventionteam@food.gov.uk

SYSCO GB TO OFFER SUSTAINABILITY TRAINING TO ALL 8,000 COLLEAGUES

Posted on by clare.twiss@brake.co.uk

Sysco GB has embarked on an ambitious plan to offer comprehensive training on sustainability to all colleagues across its British businesses.

The UK’s leading foodservice wholesaler has joined forces with specialist sustainability consultancy, Knowledge Labs from Nutritics, to create and deliver a bespoke training programme that will give Sysco colleagues the knowledge and tools to support customers in becoming more sustainable.

Initially starting with colleagues in commercial roles, the programme, developed following a survey of existing knowledge, is built around eight modules. It covers key sustainability topics including Climate Change; Carbon Footprinting; Operational Sustainability; Healthy and Sustainable Diets; and Food Waste. This will enable colleagues across the business to better understand the importance of sustainability at Sysco and in its customers’ businesses.

With the topic becoming increasingly important to customers, the training will initially be undertaken by frontline sales colleagues, who will join online training sessions delivered by experienced trainers.

In addition, Sysco GB’s 15 development chefs will receive additional face-to-face training to understand the main challenges for a sustainable food system at every stage of the food chain and how to apply that to the latest thinking on plant-forward and healthy, sustainable dishes.

Michael Andersen, Chief Commercial Officer at Sysco GB, said: “By far the biggest portion of our carbon footprint as a business is the food that we sell. This training aims to transform our sales teams into sustainability champions – supporting our customers to better understand the impact that they can have through their businesses and in particular their menus.

“We believe we’ve created one of the most comprehensive training programmes that the sector’s seen, which reflects the growing importance of sustainability across the supply chain. It builds on the success of our plant-based range and the work we’ve done to promote a plant-forward diet. Now, our teams will be armed with the knowledge that helps customers on their own sustainability journeys.”

Stephen Nolan, CEO of Nutritics said: “This partnership provides a fantastic opportunity to work collaboratively with Sysco – sharing our expertise and knowledge to help empower colleagues to make a difference and support customers on their sustainability journey.”

The Knowledge Labs consultancy service from Nutritics launched earlier this year and is steered by Director, Elbha Purcell.

FLEMING HOWDEN’S SCROCCHIARELLA PICKS UP GOLD AND SILVER AT BRITISH FROZEN FOOD AWARDS

Posted on by Carl Vitty

In a night to remember for all at Fleming Howden, attendees at the British Frozen Food Awards 2023 saw the team walk off with not one but two prestigious accolades.

During a doubly successful evening, the British Frozen Food Federation awarded Scrocchiarella Sandwich Classica the Gold Award, with Scrocchiarella Classica then picking up the silver gong.

Available exclusively from Fleming Howden, Scrocchiarella is the new frozen product that is turning heads in the UK food service market. This revolutionary product is a unique combination of high quality flour grains and traditional natural ingredients – ideal for easy and quick preparation. It’s light and crunchy, and easily digestible, and the perfect answer to the global consumer demand for healthy, high-quality snacking and on-the-go food.

With a diverse product range of five different doughs, Scrocchiarella delivers creative flexibility and is ready in ten short minutes – from frozen to table.

Speaking of their success, Carl Vitty, General Manager at Fleming Howden, said:

“It was such a pleasure to collect the Gold & Silver Best New Bakery Product awards on behalf of the whole team – who have been working so hard to bring Scrocchiarella to market. Scrocchiarella is a tremendous product and winning these awards only serves to thoroughly endorse that fact!

It’s been a busy but rewarding year introducing and promoting Scrocchiarella to the UK market, and setting up our frozen supply chain.

As a result we now have 18 partners across the UK & Ireland stocking and selling Scrocchiarella, and we’re confident that many more will follow.”

– Carl Vitty

 

If you’re interested in stocking this remarkable product get in touch on fleminghowdensales@abmauri.com

Fleming Howden

2 Edinburgh Distribution Park,

Newbridge EH28 8PJ

P: 0131 333 6666

W: fleminghowden.co.uk

fleminghowdensales@abmauri.com