THE RIGHT SELECTION
The brand Select Lincolnshire is now in its fifth year and has become an established aid for food and drink companies from the Humber to the Wash. A development of the Lincolnshire Forum for Agriculture and Horticulture - a partnership between the private and public sector - Select Lincolnshire is funded by Lincolnshire County Council and is now recognised as a sign of quality by producers. But as brand project manager Jill McCarthy explains, this is only the beginning and the next hurdle is bringing the message home to consumers.
We have to raise consumer awareness of the brand; that is our main aim at present and probably the biggest shift in direction in the last two years. We have spent a lot of time increasing the membership of the project and businesses using the brand, and have worked very hard with the multiples to get it onto their shelves. But now we are at the stage where we have to make sure the consumer recognises what the brand means and we are in the middle of a major thrust towards consumer recognition. We held back a little in the past because we did not have enough products bearing our label, but this is beginning to change, with The Co-operative, Asda and Morrisons displaying the Select Lincolnshire logo on products and more retailers in the pipeline.
The brand is now at the point where we can concentrate on a consumer-focused campaign and we aim to do that through a number of marketing-oriented activities, working in partnership with major multiples on in-store promotions, PR and radio campaigns, where appropriate.
Getting the Select Lincolnshire brand onto fresh produce in the multiples is difficult to crack, but we are seeing a gradual change and have found that some supermarkets are looking at putting the brand on fruit and vegetables again. That is why it is a big step forward with companies such as Key’s of Lincolnshire, which has managed to get its own branding, as well as the Select Lincolnshire logo, into a major multiple with its pink onion offer. The packaging comprises pink netting and a wrap-around label, which is very eye-catching. This is why I feel that it is the right time to push forward the consumer angle. Most of the fresh produce in the supermarkets will be from Lincolnshire, but consumers just do not realise this.
Select Lincolnshire’s work with wholesale markets and the foodservice industry will not falter, however. We will continue to identify markets for Lincolnshire businesses to help them grow. We do feel that these parts of the marketplace are just as important in the current economic climate.
Lincolnshire businesses are passionate about their products and that is the key thing that we have become aware of over the last couple of years. From the early days, Select Lincolnshire has been able to tap into that passion and drive businesses on. This has enabled not only the number of businesses that join Select Lincolnshire to increase, but it has also added another dimension to the marketing strategy. For example, when organising our presence with producers at IFE and The Restaurant Show, we are building on our success year after year, with more companies taking part each time. This has added to the representation of the brand in the marketplace. In the summer of 2007, Select Lincolnshire had 45 members; we have now almost tripled that number and have 134.
A good deal of fresh produce businesses support the brand, not just through packaging, but through customer awareness and through logos on lorries and Select Lincolnshire sign boards in fields. This all helps to make my job a lot easier, but the businesses also get the benefit of access to additional PR, as well as the option to showcase and promote their product at exhibitions and events.
The other way we work to support fresh produce businesses is by identifying new markets that they may not have considered before. For example, we are looking for new markets for JEPCO (Marketing) Ltd’s niche salad leaves.
In the fresh produce industry, it is all about finding new ways of adding value to products. There appears to be a trend towards diversifying away from traditional products and routes to market, and we are helping companies move to meet the ever-changing appetites of consumers.
FRESH PRODUCE FOCUS FOR THE RESTAURANT SHOW
TV chef Rachel Green was brought into the Select Lincolnshire fold three years ago as the brand’s first ambassador. Since then, 11 more ambassadors from all walks of the farming community have been working to heighten the brand’s profile and promote the work it has done among Lincolnshire’s agricultural community.
A farmer’s daughter, Green’s family still farms in Lincolnshire and she continues to be proud to push Select Lincolnshire’s message forward. “We are getting a bigger range of product on the shelves and seeing more innovation within the industry, to ensure a sustainable future for the county, which is great,” says Green, who first found fame through Yorkshire TV’s Flying Chef and has recently featured on UKTV’s Market Kitchen. “It is great to see ambitious, younger ambassadors from all different elements of the industry join Select Lincolnshire.
“I am continuously involved with food shows and events around the UK and regularly carry out cookery demonstrations with Lincolnshire produce. Our message is to get Lincolnshire produce out of the county and recognised as such - as well as continuing to supply demand within the county.”
The Co-operative in Lincolnshire now has Select Lincolnshire products on end-of-aisle displays within its stores and Green believes this is a big step forward. “We have got to be doing something right,” she says. “There certainly wasn’t a large local following like there is now, say, five years ago - maybe in beef and lamb, but definitely not for fruit and vegetables. The product has always been there, but it wasn’t on display as being from Lincolnshire.”
Select Lincolnshire has just hosted a chefs’ visit, with Green leading the way, aiming to get London chefs to use Lincolnshire ingredients in their restaurants. The visit was a direct result of the brand’s success at Earl Court’s The Restaurant Show in October last year. “We sold the produce so well at the show that chefs were asking if they could come up to the county to see for themselves,” explains Green. “We went to JEPCO (Marketing) Ltd, among other companies, and some chefs just couldn’t believe the array and quality of lettuces that were on offer. We are working with the view to get our food into London, so we will be at The Restaurant Show again this year and I will be on the stand cooking, with a particular emphasis on fresh produce, which is our theme this year.”
THINKING OUTSIDE THE COUNTY
Mark Tinsley, chairman of the Lincolnshire Forum for Agriculture and Horticulture, faces FPJ’s question time on the Select Lincolnshire brand, its success and its future.
What changes has the brand been through since FPJ’s last regional report on Lincolnshire two years ago?
The market has been tougher but, despite this, Select Lincolnshire has been very successful with the retail sector - largely with product in local stores. Due to the credit crunch and recession, it is well known that retailers have turned more towards value lines and products, which has made this year in particular very difficult. Retailers have been concentrating on price rather than provenance, which is short sighted, but that is the way it has gone.
We have realised that we have got to promote the county of Lincolnshire, as well as its food. Select Lincolnshire has not only got to embody the fertile soil or the climate, but the whole county experience and move to a more holistic process. The production of food from Lincolnshire involves a lot of hard work from growers, packers, processors, tractor drivers and the community. There is an enormous number of local people involved at all levels. We need to see Select Lincolnshire as something that enhances the lives of all of these people. The food out of Lincolnshire is premium product, and retailers and consumers should recognise that.
How will you realise this?
For companies to put the Select Lincolnshire logo on their food, the item must be at least 66 per cent sourced from Lincolnshire. But what we are prepared to do is give companies that operate within the county a Select Lincolnshire Company status. This applies to transport lorries and import companies. This fits in with our new holistic approach.
We have continuing support from Lincolnshire County Council and it is interesting that it has gone full circle by recognising the county again and has realised how important food and farming is to the county’s economy.
In the last two to three years, before the recession, retailers were really taking provenance seriously and Select Lincolnshire fits in with that. Hopefully, this interest will return soon and I think there are signs of this already.
What is Lincolnshire’s point of difference?
We are very lucky that our marine silt soils are so rich in minerals and that we have limestone areas; both soils add to the flavour of food. The soils are great for brassicas and there is a huge amount of produce available. Agriculture is significantly better in Lincolnshire, which is why traditionally, wholesalers always asked for Lincolnshire potatoes. On top of that, the county provides a consistency of product. So there is inherent value in the county and that is why people desire our produce.
What’s next for Select Lincolnshire?
The next step is getting retailers to realise that having the brand on a pack is good for them and their suppliers. This is a key barrier to pushing the brand forward to the consumer, which is what we really need to concentrate on. We will tackle this by working in partnership with retailers and producers. We want our produce to be seen as it is, not just a general product on the retailers’ shelves.
JEPCO’S TIME TO TRANSFORM THE BAGGED SALADS MARKET
Lettuce specialist JEPCO Marketing Ltd is on a mission to transform the bagged salads market, to offer better quality, shelf life and choice, as well as a point of difference.
Managing director Stuart Piccaver and his team are on the case at the family-owned firm based in Holbeach. “Wholehead lettuce development specifically for use in bagged salads is the main drive of our business and will be for the foreseeable future,” he explains. “This is very much in the development stage and we know that multi-leaves are now mainstream in salad packs, but this area still needs a lot of work. There are different varieties and leaf textures, and we are now concentrating on what the consumer wants.
Piccaver maintains that trends come and go, which means that leaf salad producers must keep abreast of the ever-changing market and consumer demand. “Until recently, oakleaf was widely used in prepared lettuce mixes, but now it is more of a niche product and a minor variety,” he says. “It was much more used in France generally and the fashion travelled, but now it plays a small part in the mix because of its inherent weakness. Now, new varieties are coming in thick and fast from the likes of Rijk Zwaan and Syngenta. And we have to focus on getting the offer right.”
JEPCO believes that the development of bagged salad combinations is so critical to the future of the industry that it has brought former Nunhems man Richard Pett into the mix. He will start work at JEPCO as crop development manager in mid-August, working particularly on improving the farm’s leaf salad offer. “We see the way to take the category forward as growers is to improve what we do for the industry,” explains Piccaver. “Quality sells; if you go to a supermarket and the quality of a product is right and not stupidly priced, then generally you will pick the product up. And, in the same way, prepared lettuce for sandwiches has to be fit for purpose and answer those particular demands by having varieties to suit.”
JEPCO’s new product developent manager Nick Sandall joined the company four years ago, and has been concentrating on getting the product right for the consumer from inception to the plate. Piccaver feels that the bagged salad offer is in need of innovation and continued improvement to maintain and increase usage of the produce.
Sandall is now working on niche lines in the hope of introducing them to mixed bagged salads to revive the offer. JEPCO has been trialling lines such as edible flowers and pea tops.
“We hope that accommodating these niche lines in bagged salads will give them broader appeal,” says Piccaver. “Pea tops have been identified as something that kids will eat gladly and we also have some very new lines to introduce. We are looking at the possibility of introducing some seasonal leaves back into the lines, which I believe could bring freshness, as well as excitement into the category in the summer months.”
LINCOLNSHIRE INSPIRATION
QV Foods’ Inspire range is going from strength to strength. With consumer demand up for ranges such as Inspire potato wedges with olive oil and herbs, the range has now expanded to offering prepared vegetable lines.
“Dishes like the potato wedges are popular with consumers who used to buy microwave meals,” explains QV sales and marketing director Simon Martin. “Consumers are becoming more interested in where their food comes from and want to cook from scratch, but some just don’t have the time. This is the next step up as it takes a little preparation, it’s simple to cook and the end result is impressive because it is using a fresh ingredient.”
QV Foods has gone through quite a transformation over the last three years, when the enterprise welcomed a new management team, along with a different outlook. With a 6,500-acre farm and preparation facility right in the middle of Lincolnshire’s horticultural hub, Spalding, it was time the company took the reins.
“QV Foods is a well-invested, very ethical, true family business,” ensures Martin, who joined the company three years ago. “The Worth family has been quietly running a hugely successful business for generations, but never shouted about it.”
As part of the Worth Group, QV Foods supplies major multiples and retailers, as well as foodservice companies with prepared potatoes from Worth Farms.
Furthermore, in 2008, produce company Fresh Approach - of which Martin is also a director - was set up to market the products outside the potato sector. All brassicas, legumes and alliums grown on the farm are covered by this enterprise, which includes a multi-million pound fruit juice business.
Martin maintains that the aim is to keep the Worth Group one step ahead of its competitors. “QV Foods now has growing and packing sites throughout the UK, from Dundee to Bedford,” he says. “We believe in provenance and in the great food that comes out of Lincolnshire, but you cannot put all your eggs in one basket. You have got to have a continuous supply.
“In Lincolnshire, we have the most fertile soils in the country, however, and it is the place to be. It is our focus and will always be. We are aggressive about how we grow; we have long-term grower relationships in place, but we also grow the produce. We are very passionate about it. We have not shouted about it until now, but it is our time to shine.”
The Inspire range, endorsed by MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace, originally launched with eight lines, which are prepared and packed in the company’s facility in Spalding, which has an output of 500,000 packs a week. “With Inspire, we are happy to be radical and we are now looking for other products,” says Martin.
“It is important for us to not only sell the produce, but add something to the shopper’s basket. We want our products to make an impression and affect the customer.”
BEAUTIFUL BROCCOLI
Well-established brassica grower and supplier Marshalls has recently launched a new broccoli variety under the brand Bellaverde.
Established in 1929, the Boston-based company started life supplying the wholesale market and after World War II began to supply brining vegetable ingredients to Crosse & Blackwell for its famous Branston Pickle.
But at the end of the 1950s, Marshalls started to work for Marks & Spencer and has not looked back since. “We have grown with the rise of the multiples,” says farming director Phillip Effingham. “We now have a sales turnover of £81 million and became part of the Produce World group in November 2007.
“We joined the broccoli market in 1982 as a very small grower of the product, with three acres under cover. The main product was still cauliflower, but the next year we increased the broccoli acreage, despite reservations, to 19a. In the early 1990s, the large-headed variety Marathon came on the scene and the popularity of the brassica shot up. We now grow 2,300a of broccoli in Lincolnshire and about the same in Spain to supply throughout the year. It is the most popular of the brassicas in the UK.”
And now Marshalls has launched a new sweet-tasting, long-stemmed broccoli called Bellaverde that it grows mostly in Lincolnshire and, in addition, in Spain. “We have been driven towards this part of the market by consumer demand,” says Marshalls’ divisional commercial director Tony Padoan. “We have been innovative about the different varieties we use, the planting, the harvesting and the whole supply chain.”
The company is growing a substantial amount of Bellaverde for the multiples -having started with Sainsbury’s - and will roll the product out to other retailers over the rest of the summer.
Marshalls grows and packs the new broccoli offer in Lincolnshire from June to November, due to consumer demand for British produce, and conducted research into what consumers look for in a broccoli variety before investing in the brand. It found that UK consumers had a preference for sweetness and that children particularly liked sweeter broccoli.
Some 60 per cent of the brassicas that Marshalls grows are produced in Lincolnshire. Effingham maintains that it is the type of reclaimed marshland with alkaline soils that makes all the difference, as well as the cool, easterly sea breeze. With this in mind, Marshalls launched regional brand From My Farm last year, which markets produce that is grown, sold and packed within Lincolnshire. “This brand is about finding other ways of working together with businesses in the region and along with this, hopefully we can push forward the Select Lincolnshire brand,” says Catriona Mowbray, Marshalls’ marketing manager. “Our consumer research has highlighted that the demand for regional produce is growing. As a result, we compiled From My Farm. It follows seasonality and the range is all grown and packed in the region. We are also working with the public sector to take the produce into hospitals, care homes and the like. We have a great following for our food because it is high quality and fresh.
“Because the brand is part of Produce World’s Growing Trust, it means that 1p from every pack of produce sold goes back into the region for good causes, like sending vegetable boxes to all the care homes at Christmas. We are trying to give something back to the region that we are growing and selling produce in. People say it is nice to have things as they used to be; no strawberries are available at Christmas, and so on.”
Produce World has now started to open From My Farm hubs throughout the UK. “Because of the nature of fresh produce, we need a national spread,” explains Mowbray. “And because we source from around the UK, we have various footholds. We are now setting up consolidation hubs in a measured way. We are making sure From My Farm is a sustainable, robust model for the future and to leave a legacy.”
A LITTLE OUT OF THE ORDINARY
Jack Buck Growers, part of the Fresca Group, has made a success of growing something a little out of the ordinary in Lincolnshire. Its main line is salad chicory, which it grows in dark, hydroponic forcing rooms at its base in Spalding. The firm also processes and packs celeriac, pak choi and Jerusalem artichokes.
Supplier to most of the major retailers, Jack Buck Growers produces 80 tonnes a week of chicory, growing the roots of the plant outside for six months in order to obtain cold units and then transferring them to the dark rooms to grow, which takes up to three weeks. The company also grows and packs 7-10t of fennel a week and is at the start of this season.
“The season, as always, will depend on the weather,” says Jack Buck Growers’ operations manager David Barham. “Production will last until late November or maybe early December, depending on when we have the first frost. But so far, so good. The English season lasts around four months and then we switch to Italian and Spanish supply in order to offer fennel year round. We obviously prefer local because the product is not dehydrated from the long journey.
“Our chicory is a 52-weeks-a-year operation and demand has continued to increase. There has been a panic this year and a belief that consumers will go back to the staple salad lines, but TV chefs have particularly helped with the popularity of lines like chicory, celeriac and fennel.”
THE KEY TO THE FUTURE
Key’s of Lincolnshire’s mission is clear: to be as forward thinking as possible. Even through the current economic turbulence, the company is making sure niche lines are making their way through to the retailers, local and nationwide alike.
Undoubtedly, the grower’s pink onion is its latest success and, at the time of FPJ’s visit to the Sleaford site, the company was on the verge of launching the product into one of the top five UK retailers. This in itself is a great achievement during the recession but what’s more, the pink onion will be packaged in its own Key’s of Lincolnshire packaging, bearing the Select Lincolnshire logo.
“This is a new breed of onion, which is more palatable than a red onion and treated as a replacement to the Bombay onion that is grown in India,” says the company’s managing director Fraser Key. “It really is a fantastic onion; it has a mild and sweeter taste than a red onion and it is a cheaper alternativeto the shallot, as it retains the same cooking characteristic.
“Ethnic outlets are very pleased with it and now a major multiple has agreed to promote the pink onion.”
Key believes that provenance should be pushed forward and wants to see Lincolnshire produce recognised throughout the UK. “I have made a huge commitment to Select Lincolnshire and have invested a substantial amount on rebranding the Key’s of Lincolnshire brand to accommodate Select Lincolnshire. It is very worthwhile and has been instrumental in getting the pink onion off the ground.”
Key’s of Lincolnshire grows, prepares and supplies a range of fruit and vegetables from its 700-hectare farm for retailers, with potatoes, onions and squash being its staple lines. But more than anything, innovation for the future comes first.
“Some 10 years ago, we thought there would be a demand in the marketplace for Lincolnshire produce and that to supply this in future we would need a fully integrated supply chain,” shares Key. “As a farming business, we no longer need huge tiers of infrastructure in place to get food to our customers and therefore tick the boxes when it comes to food miles and the environment. Like the Select Lincolnshire brand, our seal of approval gives products provenance. We don’t need the middlemen so we cut the supply chain down, making our food more cost-effective andbringing us closer to the customer.
This means that we can react to customer demand very quickly, hence the local trend now. People want to see where food comes from and we can offer that information and actually show them the field in which that product was grown.”
Key’s of Lincolnshire claims to have been the first to commercially grow and sell butternut squash in the UK, introducing a range of mixed squash into Asda 12 years ago, and is one of a handful of garlic growers in England.
The company now grows 1,000 tonnes of squash a year, but Key says that the crop was difficult to produce at the start and has become easier due to the learning curve that the company has been on and the change in the Lincolnshire climate. It is for this reason, he believes, that it will be easier to grow more exotic fruit and vegetables in the future, as the climate changes further.
“The climatic conditions in Lincolnshire have altered for the better,” he explains. “We are seeing the start of a much more Mediterranean climate. In Lincolnshire, we have a fantastic food-producing climate and we have the right type of land for cropping.
“The first ‘out of the ordinary’ crop we started to grow was garlic, which was also hard at first, but this year has been an absolutely fantastic season. Its eating quality has been great, the yield is up and we are harvesting for longer. It is doing well in the UK because it has longer daylight hours than traditional growing areas. It grows slower because of the cool climate, which means it has more flavour. This is good news for us because the whole garlic market is set to radically alter, as China looks like it will reduce its output by 30-40 per cent because of the mass migration of farmers to the city.
“We believe that the climate is going to get one to two degrees hotter in the future and we are gearing up our product range to take advantage of that. We are already growing apricots and aromacots, and hope that in 10-20 years’ time, we will be specialising in the UK crop.”
The company believes that as a Lincolnshire business, it should change and adapt to customer demand as well as the changing climate.
“We are uniquely placed in Lincolnshire, but we have to work with the land,” says Key. “We are not an organic farm, but we do use organic ideas. We use honeybees to pollinate the crops and produce Lincolnshire honey in the summer months as a result. We have also planted six-metre margins of grass and wild flowers that attract beneficialinsects, and which have increased the owl population fourfold.”
FROM A DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW
When grower Nick Loweth and his wife moved from Peterborough to Boston 23 years ago to produce crops on 530 acres of Class I silt soil, little did they know that asparagus was going to lead to their own farm shop and restaurant.
Originally a grower of sugarbeet, peas, potatoes and linseed, Loweth took asparagus into the mix to try something new 20 years ago and has since built the crop to 30a.
“We started to supply the wholesale markets in London and sell some at the farm,” explains Loweth, owner of Abbey Parks Farm Shop. “But demand was so great that we opened a shop. Now we grow all kinds of produce for the shop and the restaurant attached, as well as supplying the foodservice sector.”
Loweth is still not afraid to try something different and if there is a demand for some product, he will endeavour to grow it. He has recently enjoyed a great deal of success with courgette flowers and he maintains that restaurants are very keen on different herbs and edible flowers.
“Apart from our core lines, we grow rosemary, pumpkins, yellow courgettes and courgette flowers, as well as parsley and coriander in polytunnels,” continues Loweth. “At the moment, I am looking for a strong rocket, which is very much in demand. Our customers need a supply on a daily basis, so we have to take that into account.
“We pick courgette flowers to order and it is a very quick process because they wilt after four hours. We also sell the courgettes with the flowers still on in the shop, which attracts the customers. We have also had interest in rosemary flowers, chive flowers and nettles from the foodservice sector.”
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