A Round Up of News in the World of Food and Drink

WAITROSE EXPANSION CONTINUES APACE
Waitrose opened its 300^th store this month. MD Mark Price declared his ambition to triple the group’s turnover in the next decade, with plans to open 20 stores each year.

WHILST ALDI’S MARKET SHARE JUST KEEPS GROWING
Aldi has grown its latest share of the UK grocery market to a new record high of 3.8%, compared to 3% this time year, according to the latest data from Kantar Worldpanel.  Aldi’s year-on-year growth rate of 31.7% is the latest in an unbroken series of double-digit growth figures that date back to early 2011.

YET MORE DIY MEAL KITS
A number of companies have jumped on the trend for scratch and semi-scratch cooking with new DIY cooking kits. Scratch has launched a range of desserts targeting couples, which are rolling out in 160 Tesco stores. Desserts include Almond & Mascarpone Crumble and Passion Fruit Lemon Cheesecake. This move follows hot on the heels of a couple of other food kit ranges that have been launched recently…

...Farmison & Co has introduced meal kits that allow consumers to replicate recipes that they’ve seen on the Saturday Kitchen TV Show. The meal kit company has teamed up with the BBC to offer 2 Saturday Kitchen Recipe Boxes – one for two people and one for four people.

...Ocado has started stocking Gousto dinner kits that include all the raw ingredients and recipe cards for cooking meal from scratch. The kits include ready measured out ingredients to avoid waste and the recipes vary with the seasons.

GLUTEN FREE GIANT ENTERS UK
Boulder Brands has arrived in the UK with its gluten-free bread range Udi which is rolling out in 800 Tesco stores. The company plans to launch a further 50 new lines over the course of the coming year. This is just the latest development in this fast-growing sector which has seen numerous product launches in recent months.

CROWDFUNDING CONTINUES TO HELP UK FOOD BUSINESSES

Growing food and drink companies are increasingly turning to crowdfunding to provide an injection of capital for their business. US based company Kickstarter is one of a number of options available for a cash injection. Originally set up to provide funding for creative projects such as films and computer games, the company has funded over 50,000 projects globally,  and over 1765 of these have been for food and drink projects. Kickstarter has so far helped over 119 companies in the UK to the tune of over £500k. Investors back projects with no expectation of a conventional share in future projects – many are just promised delivery of the end product.

The largest UK-based platform is Funding Circle which has lent a total of £169 million since it launched in 2010. It operates on a strict lending basis, linking individual lenders with small companies.  Another option is Crowdcube, which offers a means of finding multiple backers to fund a project in exchange for a share of the business. It has successfully funded 20 UK food and drink businesses in the UK, raising a total of £4.5m.

COMING SOON – FRESH GROCERIES FROM AMAZON
Christopher North, Amazon's UK boss, has indicated a rumoured rollout of its grocery business in Britain would be "pretty quick" as the company seeks to double its UK work force in the next three years. North said the company was not ready to make an official announcement on plans for a UK rollout of its AmazonFresh grocery business, which has just been expanded from Seattle to Los Angeles. However, according to recent consumer research, nearly 40% of UK shoppers would not buy groceries from Amazon. So AmazonFresh may have its work cut out if it’s to succeed in the highly competitive UK grocery market.

Chutneys in the Spotlight

All the supermarkets are geared up with their Christmas goodies, and one of the areas that tends to expand at Christmas is the pickles and chutneys section of the store. It's always nice to have a range of chutneys to accompany cheeses, cold meats and (the inevitable) cold turkey. But I've often found myself disappointed over the festive period, beguiled by an interesting-sounding chutney that turns out to be a bit gloopy and tasteless. So I thought I'd give a few chutneys a test run, to see how they compare, and if they are worthy of a place on the Boxing Day supper table. I'll probably be reviewing a number of these over the coming weeks, but here are my thoughts on the first  three chutneys that  I've sampled with a nice farmhouse cheddar.

First up is Spiced Peach Chutney from Bromley's Pickle Company - who I've never heard of, but I don't usually let that put me off. Some of the best of my recent food finds have come from small companies I've never heard of!  I found this in Asda. It was pretty cheap at £1.50 for 200g. And as soon as I opened the jar I could see why. The mixture is very liquid and quite gloopy. Not one chunk of fruit to be seen - and there's supposed to be 32% peaches. Taste was very bland indeed - the overwhelming taste was actually of vinegar. If there was spice in there, it was undetectable for my palate. So, now for the marks - I'd give it 4/10 for appearance 4/10 for texture and 5/10 for taste. A rather disappointing total of 13/30. 

Next up is Chutnee's Handmade Luxury Mango Chutney. I found this in Asda and it cost £2.43 for 210g - which is quite a lot more expensive than the spiced peach chutney. I had reasonable hopes for this one, as it has what looked like mustard seeds in it and seemed to be thicker. And whilst the appearance and texture were definitely better, this definitely isn't what I'd describe as a luxury chutney. Although the label says there's 45% mango, the pieces of fruit were very small, and so it was all a bit sloppy. The flavour was okay, but without much "bite" and the whole experience was a bit slimey. So this won't be a candidate for my Boxing Day supper either. I'd mark it 5/10 for appearance 5/10 for testure and 6/10 for taste. A miserable 16/30.

Finally an Apple, Mango & Chilli luxury chutney from Clippy's apples. This is available at Ocado and is normally £2.50 for 280g. But as I write this it's currently on offer at £2.00. 

Now this is in a different league. Nice and thick, with discernible chunks of fruit and a delicious piquancy that worked really well with the cheese. I think it would also go really well with ham and cold turkey. According to the label there's 35% mango and 24% British apples - so that accounts for its superiority. And it's a definite contender for Boxing Day supper! It gets 7/10 for appearance, 7/10 for texture and 8/10 for taste - the winner of this round by a fair margin at 22/30.


We want your reviews.
If you've come across any great tasting new products recently that you want to tell us about please let us know and we'll include them on the food blog. And if you've been disappointed in anything you've tried recently, post your comments on the site and let other people know about your experience.


To see some of the projects I've worked on as a marketing consultant for food and drinks companies, go to www.sa-marketing.com

Crumbs! Exploding the Myth of Breakfast Biscuits

If you're one of the recent converts to "breakfast biscuits" it's worth reading on. The new fad for breakfast biscuits has made this sector one of the most dynamic parts of the biscuit category. Sales of Belvita have increased by 85% in the past year, and new products launched by Kellogg's and McVities have helped drive growth in the biscuit category in the past 12 months.
But despite the positioning of these products as a healthy and wholesome start to the day, it's worth pointing out that breakfast biscuits actually contain more saturated fats than established biscuits such as Hob Nobs and Digestives. And even when it comes to fibre content - which we know is good for us - only Belvita's Fruit & Fibre and Kellogg's breakfast biscuits have more fibre than Hobnobs.
So my advice is to take a look at the nutritional information on your favourite breakfast biscuit to make sure you're not being taken for a ride. To be honest, on the one occasion I actually tried Belvita biscuits I found them quite tasteless and bland. They certainly wouldn't be my preference for a quick breakfast on the go. With so many alternatives now, I can't say I understand the fascination with them.

We want your reviews.
If you've come across any great tasting new products recently that you want to tell us about please let us know and we'll include them on the food blog. And if you've been disappointed in anything you've tried recently, post your comments on the site and let other people know about your experience.


To see some of the projects I've worked on as a marketing consultant for food and drinks companies, go to www.sa-marketing.com

Look What I Found.

I've just come across a really interesting website concept. It's called Virtual Farmers' Market - http://www.vfm.com - and it's a great idea. Basically there are a number of artisan producers featured and you can shop online for a variety of their products - from pies and cheeses to preserves and condiments. I don't know how successful it's been since it set up in 2010, but I think it's a really good way of helping smaller producers reach a wider public with their products. And as a consumer, I like the idea of being able to buy a variety of different quality foods on one consolidated website.

There are also little videos of some of the producers talking about their products, which is a really nice touch. Putting the face behind the food you might say. I haven't shopped there as yet, so I can't give you details of how fast the service or delivery is. If you try it before I do, please let me know what you think.

We want your reviews.
If you've come across any great tasting new products recently that you want to tell us about please let us know and we'll include them on the food blog. And if you've been disappointed in anything you've tried recently, post your comments on the site and let other people know about your experience.


To see some of the projects I've worked on as a marketing consultant for food and drinks companies, go to www.sa-marketing.com

We've Just Joined Foodies 100

Delicious Ready Meal - Product Review

As a marketing consultant specialising in food and drink brands, I'm always on the lookout for interesting new food products that might need some marketing help. And I'm really excited about a new discovery I made recently in my local Waitrose. It's a range of chilled, ready prepared meals from a company called David Oliver Fine Foods. There are 7 different meals using interesting meats such as venison, rabbit and guinea fowl as well as recipes with beef and pork.

I've always been partial to guinea fowl and so I decided to try their Guinea Fowl & lentils (£5.99). It was absolutely delicious - really tasty. The meat was tender, the sauce was perfect. And the carrots and lentils added welcome texture and crunch.  It really was like a restaurant dish. I can honestly say it was the best ready prepared meal I've ever tasted! Based on this recipe, I'd wholeheartedly recommend this range. The company was set up by a couple of chefs...

"The whole idea of David Oliver Fine Foods was to make fresh, honest, hearty restaurant standard meals that people could simply prepare in their own homes at a fraction of the price of going to a restaurant. We use all the same cooking techniques as we would if we were cooking in a restaurant or for a banquet. Our meals are ‘complete meals’: great meat, carbs and vegetables all incorporated with rich, delicious sauce to create a full, wholesome and complete meal.W e could see no reason that a fresh ready meal couldn’t be prepared in the same way as the food that you would find in gastro pubs and restaurants, yet we couldn’t find any that matched up. So we put our money where our mouth is and went about putting that right."
 
Sorry if this post is sounding a bit like an ad for David Oliver Fine Foods, but it's so rare to find ready prepared meals of this quality, and I want to get more people out there to sample them.
The range is available in selected Waitrose stores and from Ocado. For more information on the company, go to their website http://www.davidoliverfood.co.uk

We want your reviews.
If you've come across any great tasting new products recently that you want to tell us about please let us know and we'll include them on the food blog. And if you've been disappointed in anything you've tried recently, post your comments on the site and let other people know about your experience.


To see some of the projects I've worked on as a marketing consultant for food and drinks companies, go to www.sa-marketing.com

New Grocery Product - Goat's Milk Ice Cream

Great news for those of you who are allergic to cow's milk but can tolerate goat's milk. Those lovely people at St Helen's Farm are launching a vanilla ice cream made from goat's milk and cream to add to their extensive range of products. And at £3.99 for a half litre, it's quite reasonably priced. 
So now you can treat yourself to ice cream without any guilt whatsoever. It uses only natural ingredients and is gluten and egg free and suitable for vegetarians .I haven't sampled it yet - let me know your thoughts. Apparently it's going to be available in selected Waitrose stores.
To find out more, visit the St Helen's Farm website http://www.sthelensfarm.co.uk

We want your reviews.
If you've come across any great tasting new products recently that you want to tell us about please let us know. And if you've been disappointed in anything you've tried recently, post your comments on the site and let other people know about your experience.


To see some of the projects I've worked on for as a marketing consultant for food and drinks companies, go to www.sa-marketing.com