A recipe for a tasty profit
PREMIUM crispbread brand Peter’s Yard is to seek external investment to speed up its growth after sweeping the board with sourdough recipes hailed as the best match for cheese.
Swedish-inspired and left to ferment and bubble for 16 hours before baking, the fibre-rich sourdough and other natural ingredients in the company’s 14 products have led to it being voted tops for taste numerous times since production began nine years ago.
Over that time, output by the north London-based producer has risen to 7,000 kilos a week, with forecast sales of more than £5million next year to speciality stores, grocers, food service and export.
It now has more than 2,000 customers, including Michelin-star restaurants, Fortnum & Mason, Selfridges, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, British Airways and Virgin.
Embraced by foodie-loving Millennials (50 per cent of consumers are aged 20 to 34), Peter’s Yard set out to redefine crispbread as an authentic, delicious alternative to good artisan bread and shake up a staid category more associated with punitive dieting than pleasure, explains co-founder Wendy Wilson Bett.
“Our range is two to three times dearer than mainstream competitors. But we are growing 12 times faster than the category, showing that people recognise value,” she says.
“Yet when we first bounced our idea off industry experts they said people would never pay a premium price, nor could we change perceptions about a product usually associated with slimming.
“Over the past few years however the desire has grown for good food to be delicious and nutritious. Snacking and sharing are far more popular too, all factors in favour of our crispbreads.”
Wilson Bett and co-founder Ian Tencor decided to start their own business while working for Cadbury Schweppes.
They reckoned Wilson Bett’s expertise in management and marketing and Tencor’s in supply chain and finance made a strong combination.
Tencor had lived in Sweden and long-wondered why the iconic large sourdough discs that sustained rural folk over hard, snowy winters there, had not found a market in the UK.
That led to he and Wilson Bett joining Swede Peter Ljungqvist, who was running a bakery café in Edinburgh, where authentic crispbread was going down a treat.
Originally the Peter’s Yard team imported the product from Sweden, but as sales grew, the decision was made to bake in the UK. Another entrepreneur, John Lister, founder of Shipton Mill, which had been supplying flour to the café, had a craft bakery in London. He joined the group and this is where production continues to this day.
But why does sourdough pair so perfectly with cheese?
“The taste is clean with a tang, the texture light and not floury or pasty, so the flavours of each cheese are enhanced,” says Wilson Bett. “Time is the most precious ingredient. We nurture our sourdough.”
Profits have so far provided the majority of funding. “We jumped in at the deep end, but are now at the next stage and we want to establish in the US,” she adds.
● petersyard.com