cotswold

You may have read this week about the jailing of the director of an organic food company for fraudulent trading. The so-called “Organic, Natural and Ethical” company called Onefood, was also known as Swaddles Organic. Neil Stansfield bought non-organic pork pies and salmon from sources including Tesco and Waitrose, removed the packaging and re-packaged...
Read More »

Another flagship food hall has gone into liquidation this week – Farmer’s City Market in Richmond. This is concerning for the industry as I know there are other embryonic plans in the industry based on its perceived success. This latest set-back follows the failure of Food Inc in Bayswater at the beginning of the...
Read More »

The headline story on BBC 5 Live on the way to work this Monday morning was: “Government Minister tells people to stop wasting food and ignore best before dates”. Later on in the piece the BBC correspondent showed her ignorance by not knowing the difference between ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates. Even making...
Read More »

I can tell from the increasing numbers of end of term concerts, leaver’s parties, prize-givings and sports days that the end of term is upon us, which means that soon a load of 5-16 year olds will be on school holidays. What difference does this make to those of us running businesses and retail...
Read More »

I am writing this week’s blog in a slight alcoholic haze after celebrating my gourmet food company’s 10th birthday yesterday at Henley Regatta together with around 30 of our top customers. It was a fantastic day, roasting hot, most of them had never been to the Regatta before, so it was a real treat....
Read More »

I have just come back from a weekend away with a friend of mine riding our motorbikes around the mountains and valleys of Mid Wales. Yes you guessed it, I am one of those middle-aged bikers that car drivers are warned about! For those of you who haven’t been to that part of the...
Read More »

Virtually everyone who has had a meeting with me for the last six months at least has asked the same question: “how is the recession affecting you?” My normal reply is that it doesn’t seem to be affecting us much in terms of turnover (our most recent full month was June, which was 20%...
Read More »

  Anyone who has watched any TV ads recently won’t have failed to notice the current emphasis on birthday celebrations for retailers. Both M & S and Sainsbury’s celebrate significant milestones this year and are spending lots of money telling everybody. The underlying message is “We have been around for years, been through good...
Read More »

The “Great Taste Awards” are lauded as the “Oscars of the Food World” – and in many respects they are. I was recently privileged to sit on one of the judging panels at the Great Taste Awards at the Real Food Festival. (All the judges give of their own time completely free of charge...
Read More »

This wasn’t the intended subject for this week, but I was so annoyed by a meeting I had yesterday, I had to write something! A prospective supplier came to see me with a view to our stocking his range of products. They were good products and eminently suitable for our customer base of delicatessens,...
Read More »