One of the UK’s most established specialist producers of potted herbs for the kitchen is planning to celebrate a new decade with a change of name.
Swedeponic UK, which currently supplies around half of all the potted culinary herbs sold nationwide, will now be known as Lincolnshire Herbs.
Managing director Patrick Bastow, who helped to set up the company in 1998 and returned as md last year, said the old name has been the cause of some confusion in the past, leading people to think the company was a grower of swedes - whereas the reference is actually to do with the origins of the business in Sweden.
Bastow said: “We are still Swedish-owned but we have been producing herbs here in Bourne for over 11 years, so our product is from Lincolnshire and the core of our staff are from this area. We are very much a Lincolnshire business, and the new name will more clearly reflect that.
“The group policy has always been to supply local markets with local produce, and our name change will reflect this policy, as well as indicating what we actually grow”.
He added that, with the issue of local food supply becoming so important in the minds of consumers, the name change couldn’t be more timely.
He said: “As we’re standing at the threshold of a brand new decade, we feel it’s time for a fresh new approach - but one that still encompasses the same values and the same quality on which we have built our solid reputation.”
The new name, and associated re-branding, comes at a time of continuing expansion for the company, which has become the UK’s largest specialist supplier of home-produced, pesticide-free herbs in the last decade, supplying supermarkets and restaurants.
With a view to further development, the company has just gained planning permission to build an additional three acres of production, which will take the site to a total of 9a. In addition, it has recently purchased enough land to develop a 24a site in the longer-term future.
The Swedeponic Group, of which Lincolnshire Herbs is a subsidiary, is also going from strength to strength. A new joint venture, Aromaticas Vivas Lda, based in Portugal has just started supplying growing herbs to the Portuguese and Spanish markets.
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