Back in August last year Sheffield-born Peter Canetti returned to Yorkshire to head up the rapidly-expanding salad division of Leeds-based salad and veg manufacturer Troy Foods. The industry veteran, who has 26 years of experience in chilled food manufacturing behind him, has been given the lofty task of growing the firm’s turnover to £100 million in just five years. Here’s how he intends to do it.
Director David Kempley wants Troy Foods to become a £100m business by 2022. How are you going to make this happen?
Peter Canetti (PC): I think the way to achieve this is by offering our customers a one-stop shop – for both salads and prepared vegetables such as roast packs and tray bakes. We have a multi-channel facility – we can cook, we can blanche – and although these are things that other suppliers can do too, most can only do one or the other.
My main aim is to grow our business with both existing and new customers in retail and foodservice. Foodservice is a bit of an untapped channel for us but one that we’d like to get into.
At the moment we supply our retail customers – Lidl, Aldi and Iceland – with salads, as well as sending prepared vegetables to a host of manufacturers for use in ready meals. Now we want to start supplying prepared veg direct to the retailers. It’s about taking things a step further and adding more value to our offer.
What investments are you looking to make in the next few years?
PC: Based on audits and unprompted feedback from customers, I think the manufacturing site itself is already well invested. It has enough capacity to maintain a high level of service – certainly for the next 18 months – and in some areas, especially mayonnaise manufacturing, we’ve invested ahead of the curve.
One area that we’ve made big investments in recently is new product development. We’ve doubled the size of our NPD team in the past 12 months and we’ve brought in people with a lot more foodie and chef-based skills. This is really important if we are going to grow into other areas beyond salads.
What is the greatest achievement of your career so far?
PC: It was probably back in 2009 when I helped bring a food manufacturing site owned by former food manufacturer Uniq back to profit. The site was earmarked for closure, it had had four years of consecutive loss-making, and in two years we managed not only to return to sustainable profit, but to growth. It was a great feeling to help rescue a business like that.
What are the main trends in salad at the moment?
PC: It’s all about health foods right now – the trends are towards lightly dressed salads; additions of fruit such as pomegranate; grains and pulses, particularly quinoa. Although it’s old news, quinoa is still bang on trend – and people now want it in different colours such as red and black. Old established vegetables such as artichokes, cauliflower and celeriac have also gained a new following, plus seaweed, which is more unusual. Health food doesn’t need to be bland but it’s the trick of how to get there. Driving a health agenda is something we can get a lot more mileage out of at Troy Foods.
Do you think breakfast salads, launched by Waitrose this month, could be the next big food trend?
PC: The concept’s really interesting and I think a number of consumers will buy into it, but it’s very early to say whether it will be mainstream or just niche.
The salads eat very well, and because they are discounted at the moment, the price point is okay. But I see the salads as more of a brunch or lunch dish than a breakfast. I personally wouldn’t want to eat a salad at 7 o’clock in the morning.
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