#5 It looks like we might have created a beast. Remember those Scotch Egg samples I was making for Littlewoods Butchers? Well they sold the first batch of 12 samples in about 4 hours and ordered a further 36 over the rest of the week. From a standing start we’re all pretty pleased with that. Stuff it, I’m thrilled. It’s not all sunshines and unicorns mind - they’re a pain to make - but that’s fine, we just need to work out a better way to make them. And if there’s one thing I’m good at it’s finding ways to do things efficiently – I hate wasting time and effort. Hate it. In fact efficiency was one of the original drivers for the way I set up my business. Making food and freezing it has almost zero waste. This is good!
Those of you with good memories will recall I mentioned a few weeks back that I had a couple of new brands slushing around my head, and so I’m thinking of moving our pies over to one of them – The PieSmith, crafter of artisan pies. People love a good pie, and with our wholesale pie business growing steadily it sort of feels like a good time to split them out from The Cheshire Food Co. and give them a push of their own. There are plenty of businesses out there that do this already so clearly a market exists which is always reassuring. What we might also do is change the way they are sold from baked and frozen to unbaked and frozen, what’s known in the trade as a Bake Off product. It’s the way all the large bakery chains operate and is so much more efficient in terms of time and costs, but importantly there’s almost no difference to the finished baked product. Boxes of 6 handmade pies by post to your door? Coming soon probably.
One thing I’ve been putting off for a while is changing our prices, but the time came a couple of weeks ago to increase each product by a fairly modest 25p (a couple by a bit more.) It’s a tricky decision because I know that some customers will be quite price sensitive, but in the face of significant rises in the cost of meat especially, coupled with ever increasing energy price rises something had to give. It’s the first time our prices have changed in 2 years so I’m comfortable in the knowledge that we’re not taking the micky, but still, it’s never easy.
I watch a few different podcasts on food and/or business, and one which has caught my attention more than most is by a fella called James Sinclair, a serial entrepreneur on an increasingly large scale (he’d not normally be my cup of tea but he has some quite interesting things to say so I’ve given him a pass – he’d be delighted to hear!) One of things he repeats regularly is the importance of integrating all his different businesses into each other. He owns a fairly broad range of businesses – amongst other things he has a chain of indoor play centres, a zoo, a childcare business, a small coffee shop chain and coffee roasters, an ice cream manufacturer and retailer, and a food service business. And guess what? His indoor play centres sell his ice cream, his coffee, and buy other food items from the food service company. The zoo does the same, as does the childcare business. The coffee shop now supplies all the other business, as does the food service business, and the childcare business has regular days out to his zoo and indoor play centres. In one episode he talked about how his businesses spent over £1m one year on food products from the largest supplier in the UK, whereas now that £1m is kept within his group of companies. So very simple yet so sensible. As we grow we need to remember this. It’s not just about making delicious food for your freezer, or bake off pies for the sports club, but how can we use those items in our catering business, or can we make large batches of curry for parties whilst also making curry for the frozen food business (we can – we already do some of this.) And when we eventually buy a pie press (I’m going to a manufacturers showroom this week for a demonstration) how can we use it after we’ve made our own pies? Could we wholesale pie cases? Maybe, because we know we make good pastry so there must be food retailers who currently buy in their pre-made pastry cases who would like to buy ours instead..? Who knows, but if I’m going to spend £1500 on a pie press you can be absolutely sure I don’t want to see it sat doing nothing for hours every week.
I'm currently cooking a trial batch of Britain's favourite curry - Chicken Tikka Masala. It's a tough gig.
Have I been rambling? Possibly. But do come back for more next week.
Dan
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