New trade orders for Leicestershire coffee supplier Cherizena

East Midlands-based coffee producer Cherizena is celebrating a string of new trade orders after introducing new labelling equipment.

The company has won contracts to supply branded coffee to a number of new clients including a national financial organisation, regional farm shops and independent stores, coffee shops and individual firms across the UK.

The coffee is being bagged in different-sized packs with tailor-made labels for the customers, who are then using them as promotional material, as part of hospitality services or selling them as a branded product.

In addition, Cherizena has recently picked up a new contract caterer customer.

The new business has totalled more than £6,000 over the past six months.

“We are delighted with how much extra business we have generated as a result of investing in our new labelling printer and by increasing our sales efforts, which included exhibiting at the Federation of Small Businesses’ conference in Leicester in March,” said Kate Jones, who runs Cherizena, which is based at Wartnaby near Melton Mowbray.

“The labelling equipment has given us the flexibility to supply all our coffees in our clients’ branded packaging, ranging from 60g sachets up to larger packs.

A lot of companies are looking for something eye-catching and useful that they can give away as a promotional tool at events and so on, and branded coffee fits the bill perfectly.

“Exhibiting at the FSB conference in Leicester really helped us to promote ourselves and the services we offer to companies from across the UK.”

Cherizena, which produces and supplies premium, speciality and flavoured coffees, invested in the new equipment, as well as a new webshop, in the summer of 2012.

It was supported by the Food and Drink iNet, which is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and run by business organisation the Food and Drink Forum.

The iNet provided a match-funded grant of just over £3,000 to help with the innovation.

Since then, Cherizena has embarked on a sales and promotion effort to raise awareness of the company’s products and services.

“We have supplied branded coffees to trade customers for some time but the new equipment has given us much more flexibility and improved the quality of the labels,” said Kate.

“We expect that these latest orders will help us to increase turnover significantly over the next few months.”

One of Cherizena’s latest trade customers is 5* country house accommodation and event venue Vale House Belvoir, near Grantham, which has ordered sachets of ‘Vale House Belvoir’ coffee for its bedrooms and plans to provide personalised coffee for special occasions.

“Guests really appreciate the personalised and individual touches, and we were very pleased to find a local coffee supplier that could provide high quality coffees in Vale House Belvoir branding that we could put in our guest bedrooms and also personalise for special occasions such as birthday parties, weddings or hen parties,” said host Lara Young.

Cherizena sells to consumers, via mail order and at fairs and events, and to trade customers, including retailers, caterers and others in the hospitality trade.

It produces more than 20 flavoured coffees and also offers around 30 single-origin coffees and blends. It can supply coffee as beans or ground, regular or decaffeinated.

For more information about Cherizena contact 01664 820111 or visit www.cherizena.co.uk

Press release issued by Nottingham PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk

Civic Trust Award for Focus Consultants project

Project manager Focus Consultants is celebrating after a scheme the company was involved in scooped a key Civic Trust Award.

SeaCity Museum in Southampton was one of 32 projects across the country to receive one of the awards, which are given to projects that make an outstanding contribution to the quality and appearance of the environment.

Focus, which is based at Phoenix Business Park in Nottingham, and has offices in Holborn, London, Endeavour Park, Boston, Princess Road East, Leicester, and Aubourn, Lincoln, was the project manager for SeaCity in conjunction with Southampton City Council.

The £15 million maritime museum opened in 2012 – 100 years after the ill-fated Titanic set sail from Southampton – and development involved converting the grade II* listed former Magistrates’ Courts adjoining the Civic Centre, Southampton City Art Gallery and the Guildhall. It is the centre piece of a major regeneration of the city’s new Cultural Quarter.

“Focus Consultants is proud to have been part of the team that developed Southampton SeaCity Museum, and we are delighted to hear the news that it has won a prestigious Civic Trust Award,” said Focus Consultants partner Steven Fletcher.

The Civic Trust Awards is the longest standing architectural and built environment awards scheme in Europe, having been established in 1959. Civic Trust Award level schemes must demonstrate excellence in architecture or design, sustainability, inclusive design and make a positive social, cultural, environmental or economic benefit to the local community.

Building constructor for SeaCity was Kier Construction and architect was Wilkinson Eyre Architects, with the exhibitions being designed by Urban Salon and installed by 8Build.

Focus Consultants supported the City Council in development of the Heritage Lottery Fund applications for round 1 and round 2 of the SeaCity project. The company acted as project manager for the whole scheme, including the building and exhibition works, and also contract administrator for the exhibition works.

Focus is a multi-disciplinary company which specialises in creative approaches to securing funding packages and delivering high quality projects across the Midlands and the UK. Focus has secured more than £900 million of grant assistance, and delivered more than £1 billion of projects and programmes since 1994.

For more information about Focus Consultants visit www.focus-consultants.co.uk

Press release issued by Nottingham PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk

Brewery says cheers to the Food and Drink iNet

A Leicestershire brewery is raising a glass to the Food and Drink iNet (Innovation Network) after being given a grant to help with expansion plans.

Langton Brewery Ltd at Thorpe Langton, near Market Harborough, has launched a new service offering personalised bottles of beer following a grant from the iNet, which is run by trade organisation The Food and Drink Forum.

At the same time, the company has also invested in new printing and bottle-labelling machines to make it more efficient.

The brewery, which currently employs four people, hopes the move will boost business and allow it to employ another person.

“The Food and Drink iNet aims to support innovation within the East Midlands food and drink sector, and this is an excellent example of a business looking to introduce new ways of working and new products,” said Richard Worrall, director of the Food and Drink iNet.

Part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the iNet offers business advice to the sector, and aims to build on the tradition of innovation in the food and drink industry in the region by helping to create opportunities to develop knowledge and skills, and to help research, develop and implement new products, markets, services and processes.

The iNet awarded a £2,895 grant to Langton Brewery Ltd towards the investment of just over £7,000 in the expansion project.

“We anticipate that, by being more IT-accessible, by offering this bespoke service, and by having an in-house labelling facility, we will be able to develop a new part of the market, expand and respond quickly to customer needs, improve our efficiency and increase profit margins,” said Langton Brewery director Alistair Chapman.

“We would like to thank the Food and Drink iNet for the support we have received.”

The brewery, which supplies to retail, wholesale, pub, food service and mobile/party bar customers, has now developed its website to take online orders for personalised bespoke bottles of beer.

It will help the company to move into the gift market, which is a new area for the business.

Previously the brewery hand-labelled 30,000 bottles a year with pre-printed labels, but the additional investment in printing and labelling machines will be far more efficient, added Mr Chapman.

The Food and Drink iNet is managed by a consortium, led by the Food and Drink Forum and including Nottingham Trent University, the University of Lincoln, and the University of Nottingham. It is based at Southglade Food Park, Nottingham, with advisors covering the East Midlands region to offer a range of support to small and medium-sized enterprises that work in the sector.  

For more information about The Food and Drink iNet visit www.foodanddrink-inet.org.uk

Press release issued by Nottingham PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk

Food and Drink iNet grant helps apple snack idea to evolve

A Leicestershire company has developed a crunchy new apple snack using fruit that would previously have gone to waste, thanks to a grant from the Food and Drink iNet.

Omniceutica Limited has invented a process which transforms pulp from cider making, as well as surplus, ungraded or bruised fruit, into bite-sized servings.

The firm, based at Asfordby Business Park, near Melton Mowbray, was awarded almost £10,000 from the Food and Drink iNet under a Collaborate to Innovate project to develop the concept.

Part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and run by trade organisation the Food and Drink Forum, the iNet aims to encourage innovation in the East Midlands food and drink sector.

Glen Martyn, director at Omniceutica said: “We are converting a freely available resource that is currently seen as waste from the fruit processing and cider industries into a nutritious and commercially viable snack. The amount of food wasted throughout the food industry is of huge financial and environmental concern so the timing of this innovation is right.”

Jo Murphy, an advisor with the Food and Drink iNet, said that tackling waste and finding alternative uses for by-products in the food and drink sector was a key target for the industry.

“The Food and Drink iNet has funded a number of projects under its Collaborate to Innovate programme which focus on positive ways of reducing waste in the sector,” she said. “Omniceutica has come up with an inventive way of creating a new product using ingredients that would previously have been thrown away.

“The technology will also benefit small and medium-sized enterprises in the East Midlands, such as cider makers and other producers, who could now have a productive outlet for some of their waste products – saving money on disposal costs and creating additional revenue.”

Omniceutica is a specialist product developer and offers other services through its consultancy. One of its specialist areas is in food, offering its research and development services to companies, ranging from start-ups through to larger global organisations.

Omniceutica develops and produces pilot-scale production batches to test ideas and concepts in readiness for commercial scale up.

The iNet grant has funded work to source ingredients and develop a new drying process that is less energy intensive and retains more nutrients than conventional systems.

The work has also involved experts from the University of Nottingham carrying out initial analysis of the snack’s nutrient content.

Omniceutica is exploring patent issues before the product is prepared for marketing and sale through licensing agreements to larger manufacturers.

Since the company was formed in 2010, its staff have collaborated with clients locally, nationally and around the world. It also works with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and has substantial expertise in intellectual property and patents.

The Food and Drink iNet, is managed by a consortium, led by the Food and Drink Forum and including Nottingham Trent University, the University of Lincoln, and The University of Nottingham.

It is based at Southglade Food Park, Nottingham, with advisors covering the East Midlands region to offer a range of support to small and medium-sized enterprises that work in the sector.

For more information about the Food and Drink iNet visit www.foodanddrink-inet.org.uk

Press release issued by Nottingham PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk

National History Museum of Wales role for Focus Consultants

Heritage and museums expert Focus Consultants is playing a key role in the redevelopment of St Fagans: National History Museum in Cardiff.

The company helped the project to secure £11.5 million - the largest ever grant award in Wales by the Heritage Lottery Fund - and has now been appointed project managers and cost managers for the scheme at St Fagans open air museum near Cardiff.

“This is a prestigious development at what is already a great attraction,” said Richard Aston, partner at Focus Consultants, which is based at Phoenix Business Park, Nottingham, and has branches in London, Leicester, Lincoln and in Boston.

“The team at Focus Consultants is delighted to be involved in such a significant and inspirational project.” Established as a museum in 1948, St Fagans was the first open-air museum in the UK. It currently tells the story of how the people of Wales lived, worked and spent their leisure time over the last 500 years.

St Fagans: National History Museum is the second most visited open-air museum in Europe, and Wales’ most visited heritage attraction with more than 600,000 visitors per year.

It is also the largest provider in Wales of learning outside the classroom with 360,000 family visitors and 85,000 formal education visitors.

The Creu Hanes - Making History project aims to create an exciting new visitor experience integrating national collections of archaeology and social history together in an open-air museum for the first time anywhere. It will explore over 200,000 years of Welsh history.

Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales has drawn up a £25 million plan to establish St Fagans as Wales’ National History Museum.

The Welsh Government has already earmarked funding support of £6 million, and now the Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded £11.5 million for the development.

The museum is also launching its own appeal.

Specialists from Focus Consultants’ economic development and funding team drafted the business plan and economic assessment for the Heritage Lottery Fund bid. Detailed designs are now being drawn up for the development, with work expected on site in September 2013. The museum is located in the grounds of the Grade I-listed St Fagans Castle, one of the finest surviving Elizabethan manor houses in Wales.

The museum features more than 40 historic buildings that have been relocated from different parts of Wales; these include a several farmhouses, a terrace of ironworkers’ houses and a Medieval church.
Focus Consultants specialises in creative approaches to securing funding packages and delivering high quality projects across the Midlands and the UK.

Focus has secured more than £900 million of grant assistance, and delivered more than £1 billion of projects and programmes since 1994.

For more information visit www.focus-consultants.co.uk

Press release issued by Nottingham PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk

Spice up Mother’s Day with an Indian cookery class gift voucher from the founder of Anila’s Authentic Sauces

If your mum loves Indian food, why not treat her to a cookery class gift voucher.

Award-winning Anila Vaghela, the founder of Anila’s Authentic Sauces, runs small and friendly cookery lessons at her home in Surrey. During the step-by-step sessions, she shares the secrets of successful vegetarian curries and shows how to prepare Indian starters, desserts and other delights.

Lessons include three-hour taster sessions, four-hour Indian starter classes, six-hour vegetarian thali classes and a four-hour Indian desserts and starters session…with prices from £50.

And there’s currently a special offer on bookings made or gift vouchers bought before May 31st 2013 (Use FRIEND10 promotional code on checkout to receive 10% off your first cookery class).

“I love showing Indian food fans the best ways of using various herbs and spices to create authentic Indian dishes,” said Anila, who is an expert in Indian cuisine and is celebrating 21 years in the business, having sold her first curry sauce at a fair in Surrey in 1992.

Anila’s Authentic Sauces has grown since then and now has a range of eight concentrated curry sauces, which are free from artificial colours, additives and preservatives, are sugar, dairy and gluten free, contain no onion or garlic, and are suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

The firm also produces a wide range of chutneys, pickles and dips which are made with single fruits and vegetables, and natural ingredients.

Anila’s supplies hundreds of outlets that include speciality food halls, garden centres, delis, farm shops, gift shops and also health stores. The firm also sells direct to the public at farmers’ markets and at food shows and festivals as well as online via www.anilassauces.com

Products are on sale at places like Harrods, Selfridges, John Lewis Oxford Street and Bluewater, Chatsworth Farm Shop, and the Wholefoods chain of stores across the UK from Glasgow to Richmond in Surrey.

Visit www.anilassauces.com for more information about gift vouchers and the cookery classes, which are held in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.

Anila’s has won 12 Great Taste Awards, including two *** Gold Awards in 2007 for its curry sauces.

Awards include:

One star Gold Award 2012 – Hot Mango Pickle

Two Star Gold Award 2010 – Goan Green Curry Sauce

Three Star Gold Award 2007 - Spicy Mild Curry Sauce

Three Star Gold Award 2007 - Spicy Korma Curry Sauce

Reserve - Best Speciality from the South East 2007 - Spicy Mild Curry Sauce

Silver Award 2006 - Goan Green Curry Sauce

Gold Award 2005 - Chilli Chutney

Gold Award 2005 - Tindori Pickle Best Speciality from the South East 2005 Award for the Tindori Pickle

Anila’s Goan Green Curry Sauce was a winner at the FreeFrom Food Awards 2012. It was also named Best Vegan Product 2011 in the Veggie Awards run by Cook Vegetarian! magazine. Anila’s Spicy Korma Curry Sauce scooped a FreeFrom Food Award in 2009.

Issued by Nottingham PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk

Food and Drink Forum offers free support to Leicester food and drink sector firms

The Leicester food and drink sector is being given a boost with the launch of a new scheme to provide free business support to manufacturers working in the industry.

Trade organisation The Food and Drink Forum is running the Leicester Food Specialist service, which aims to help eligible firms to grow and develop.

The £94,500 project is being funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which is providing more than 60% of the cost of the scheme, The Food and Drink Forum, and Leicester City Council through the Working Neighbourhood Fund.

The service is offering two free days of support to start-ups, micro businesses and small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in the food and drink sector in the city centre area.

This could cover a range of support from technical advice and packaging services to help with new routes to market or accreditation. The two days of support is for a maximum of 25 companies.

A programme of events for all eligible businesses is also planned, which will focus on offering support to overcome key issues and challenges faced by food manufacturers.

A launch event is being held on Thursday February 28th at the Flamingo Restaurant, Loughborough Road, Leicester, for firms interested in finding out more about the project, which runs until December 2014.

“Leicester’s food and drink sector plays a key role in the local economy and this new service, which is funded by the ERDF, will help to ensure that the industry continues to develop and grow,” said Fiona Anderson, managing director of the Food and Drink Forum, which was established in 1998 and provides support to the sector across the East Midlands and beyond.

“It is hoped that the Leicester Food Specialist service will increase the rate of sustainable manufacturing businesses that are launched in the sector and help those that are already established to expand.”

It aims to support the economy of Leicester by nurturing new start-ups in the sector and helping existing businesses to secure new sales, develop new products, reduce their carbon footprint and overcome barriers to growth.

To register interest in attending the launch event and to find out more about eligibility, email enquiries@foodanddrinkforum.co.uk or call 01159 758810.

Press release issued by Louise Duffield, Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk