#2 So Where Are We Now?

The Cheshire Food Co is just over 5 years old and is mainly just me (Dan) with a team of willing, talented and enthusiastic casual workers who chip in when it's needed (more about them later.) We sell our frozen dishes

online at cheshirefood.co.uk, we provide outside catering services through our Marple Catering brand (marplecatering.co.uk), and increasingly we sell produce wholesale to farm shops, butchers, retailers, cricket clubs, golf clubs and pubs. There's also a couple of other brand ideas slushing around my noggin which would dovetail in to this quite nicely, and so it's the combination of these things which has led me think that now is right time to give this thing a push and take the risk I've been putting off for so long (if you’ve read the first blog you’ll have some insight in to why I’ve been so reluctant.)

We're still working from the family kitchen, cooking in relatively small batches (typically 30-60 portions of a dish at a time) and doing things the right way - a way that'd be familiar to a home cook (but definitely with bigger pans!) It's all very far removed your typical supermarket ready meal which is made in a factory with little to no human contact. By the way, this is one of the challenges we face as we grow - how to grow in an authentic way whilst taking full advantage of the economies of scale which will become available to us. I don't know yet but I'd certainly like to find a way to do it.

As an aside I spoke to a company this week as part of my research in to how other businesses in the sector operate. Their website talks about their product being handmade, artisanal and individual - so imagine my surprise when they told me how they make 1600 items an hour... Handmade, artisanal and individual? Not in my book.

Back to the team of casual workers. There's another Dan who's doing some recipe development work for me, as well as helping out on catering jobs as and when he's needed. He's an incredibly talented chef with enormous experience (Michelin trained don’t you know!) There's Neil who retired last year but worked as a chef for the first half of his career before he broke his back and couldn't do it any longer. He helps with deliveries and does a bit in the kitchen sometimes before his back complains. Finally there's Smithy. He's our sales guy and has been responsible for much of our growth in the last 6 months. He's almost as excited about the journey as I am.

But you're here for the growth journey so what are we doing about that this week? I have a meeting with a head chef at a local pub to discuss recipes for their pies with a view to them outsourcing their pie making to us. This could be 70-100 pies a week which would be amazing! I'll let you know how that goes. Smithy is talking to a local golf club about their catering - I don't know much detail about that yet but if it's doable we'll definitely be having a look at it. Dan is calling by with a new recipe to try. He said something about a stuffed chicken thigh with a potato and celeriac tartiflette. Sounds good to me! Finally Neil is travelling half way around Cheshire delivering on Tuesday, no doubt listening to an audio book about cricket as he goes. Oh, and I’ll be talking to the accountant about incorporating the business, as well as doing an awful lot of cooking.

So there you go. It could end up being a really good week, or I might be writing the next instalment with little report. Let’s see.

Feel free to ask questions as we go – I’ll try to respond to them all, and do check out our websites Cheshirefood.co.uk and Marplecatering.co.uk

More soon. 👍🏼