200 JOBS TO GO AT BARCLAYS
20-PAGE BUSINESS IN WALES PULLOUT
THE company behind one of Wales’ most iconic food products, the Peter’s Pie, has launched a new range of products with 50% less fat – and it is attracting strong supermarket interest as well as from schools and hospitals.
Peter’s Food Services said its move into a far more healthier range will have particular appeal with “on-thego millennials”.
And while it will continue to produce its traditional higher-fat savoury products like pies and pasties at its factory in Bedwas, it hopes its new line will eventually grow to generate £20m of new revenues.
Two years in development, at an investment of around £1.5m, its new Nurish hot filled bake products contain less than 400 calories.
The initial batch includes BBQ pulled pork, spinach, cheddar and sun-dried tomato and all-day breakfast flavoured versions. A further six products will be available shortly. It is also developing a new low-fat pie range which will be ready to enter the market in September.
Managing director Mike Grimwood said the investment was about future-proofing the business in a sector where margins remain tight and a depreciation in sterling has exacerbated the issue with higher importation costs.
Earlier this year Peter’s Food Services announced 90 redundancies in what Mr Grimwood said was a painful but necessary decision to move out of less-profitable own-label customer contracts.
The £80m-turnover business has a total workforce of 870, of whom 720 are based in Bedwas in south Wales.
The new Nurish range, with its own distinct bright packaging, is currently being trialled by Tesco, but there are plans for it to become available across a wide range of major supermarket chains.
It is also currently being trialled by the NHS in Wales as well as in schools, due to the lower fat content.
Mr Grimwood said: “Going back two years, it was unbelievable that people were bringing in the sugar tax and we sat back as a business and starting thinking, ‘How long before a fat tax?’ So we thought, ‘There is always going to be an issue with savoury pastry and people talking about nutritionals and a balanced diet’.
“So we then met up with a chap called Simon Waite, who has worked with a number of big organisations and pretty serious kitchens and chefs.
“We then hired Simon and looked at how we could find ourselves a different market and world and almost future-proof Peter’s, and set about trying to make what is inherently unhealthy, healthy.”
As a result, it has developed a pastry with 50% less fat, which Mr Grimwood says still tastes great.
He added: “The key issue with nearly all healthy food is that when you bite into it, it tastes healthy, which so often means it is a little bit bland.
“So we had to keep all the great flavours and tastes for savoury pastry but without the sins and the pain.”
However, Peter’s will be continuing to provide its savoury products with a higher fat content.
Mr Grimwood said: “Of course, traditional people will say, ‘I want what I have always had’. But you also want to say to people, ‘There is actually an alternative here that has got half the fat’.
“What we set about doing was creating products with great-tasting fills whilst at the same time being much better for you.”
He said the decision was taken to create a new brand and not to roll it out under the established Peter’s labelling.
Mr Grimwood said: “What we didn’t want to do was confuse people, as Peter’s is a heritage traditional product. So we thought we would bring a different brand to the marketplace.”
On the trial with Tesco, Mr Grimwood said: “The rate of sale is beyond our expectations.
“We have also launched and deployed into schools and people are now buying. We have also just started a big piece of work with the NHS in Wales.”
He said there was also potential for Nurish to be taken up by airlines.
He said that Peter’s has moved into the new marketplace ahead of its competitors.
He added: “If your historic market is tough, where are you going to be going forward?
“So where we have seen ourselves as perhaps transitioning to these sorts of products over a three- to four-year timeframe, all of a sudden we have just had to press the accelerator and reduce the impact of the current market and the pain on jobs and try and accelerate this development through.
“We have assumed £5m of growth in the forthcoming year, but that could be potentially exceeded.”
But in the longer term, as more products in the Nurish range are introduced, he added: “I hope to get this up to £20m-plus.”
On the recent redundancy round, he said: “Because we believe if we want people to be committed to us, we have got to be committed to them, everybody is on that payroll, while a lot of companies just say they don’t need agency workers anymore.
“So when you downsize, it is particularly tough. And when you are effectively a community employer, as we are a big employer here, that hurts a lot of our colleagues.
“So that pain and hurt is just amplified all around. But I have to say everybody here has been understanding.”
And with the impact of the new Nurish range, whose packaging has been designed by Cardiff-based creative consultancy Tidy Design, he is hopeful that the lost jobs can be made up with new roles.