Cherizena serves up new branded coffee packs

Speciality coffee producer Cherizena has launched a new service providing sachets of branded coffee for boutique hotels and guest houses.

The Leicestershire-based firm, which supplies premium, flavoured and speciality coffees to a wide range of trade customers, has begun serving up the new 60g sachets after investing in new labelling equipment.

The new equipment allows the company to be much more flexible with its bespoke labels for branded products, said Kate Jones, who runs Cherizena.

Among the products the firm is now offering are branded sachets of coffee, which are ideal for hospitality facilities in guest bedrooms. The 60g sachet provides around eight cups of coffee and is perfect for use in small cafetieres…providing enough coffee for a number of servings.

Cherizena is also providing small personalised coffee packs for special occasions such as weddings, milestone birthdays and wedding anniversary celebrations.

The company can feature all sorts of designs on its labels, and then package any of its coffees into the branded packs.

One of the first outlets to take advantage of the new service launched by Cherizena is 5* bed and breakfast and event venue Vale House Belvoir, near Grantham.

Host Lara Young said: “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 use when we host special occasions, such as weddings.” 

Cherizena’s breakfast blend and Italian roast coffees are proving to be the most popular coffees chosen for the branded packs, but the firm can pack any of its range of more than 20 flavoured coffees and 30 single-origin coffees and blends into branded sachets.

“Offering individual labelled products helps a boutique hotel or guest house to stand out from the crowd, and provides added value to guests,” said Kate Jones. “We are delighted that we can now offer this service for our coffee.”

As well as supplying 60g sachets, Cherizena can also offer much larger branded packs of coffee.

Cherizena is a family-run firm based at Wartnaby near Melton Mowbray, and supplies coffee as beans or ground, regular or decaffeinated.

It invested in the new labelling with support from 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, which also included a new e-commerce website.

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

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

70th anniversary of the Dam Busters raid brings back memories at Lindhurst Innovation Engineering

Not many people can talk about what it’s like to build a bouncing bomb. But the team at Lindhurst Innovation Engineering can.

Eight years ago, the Sutton-in-Ashfield company built a replica bouncing bomb.

The bombs were invented by Barnes Wallis and used seventy years ago by the RAF in one of the most ingenious and daring air raids of the Second World War.

The replica is now housed in a museum located in the west tower of Derwent Dam in Derbyshire - in the section dedicated to the 617 “Dam Buster” Squadron and its crews.

A service takes place on May 16th at 10.45am at the museum to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Dam Busters raid, with an unofficial fly past expected by spitfires, tornadoes and other aircraft.

Lindhurst happened to be carrying out work for Severn Trent Water at Derwent Dam in Derbyshire in 2005 when Lindhurst project engineer Les Abbs, now retired, spotted that the existing replica bomb at the museum was made of wood.

“He tapped it, which everyone does, realised it was made of wood and then Lindhurst offered to make a replica bouncing bomb in metal,” recalls Vic Hallam, who runs the museum.

Lindhurst managing director Martin Rigley explains: “The museum had all the old paper technical drawings. We turned the original pencil drawings into electronic drawings using AutoCAD.

“Obviously we were manufacturing the unit – not a complete bomb – so we had to use a bit of poetic licence and we applied a few modern techniques to make it look like the original.

“The museum’s a charity and we were proud to create a replica bouncing bomb and donate it to them. Since we handed it over, it’s been seen by thousands of visitors to the museum.”

An apprentice fabricator and welder at Lindhurst at the time and aged 18, Karim Mahamdi was given the task of producing the bouncing bomb unit, under fabricator George Asbury, also now retired.

Karim recalls: “At the time, I knew about what had happened with the Derwent Dam and the history behind it. As we were putting the replica bomb together I remember thinking ‘when they were building this all those years ago, what was going through their minds?’

“It was quite special to be involved in putting some history back into the country. All in all it wasn’t too bad to build. I can’t remember any challenges that we came across that weren’t sorted.”

Karim, now 26, who lives in Sutton-in-Ashfield, and who is now mechanical project manager at Lindhurst, recalls how the team worked out the bend of the metal, and how the steel plates were rolled into the shape of the bomb.

“We made it in sections and then put it all together,” he adds. “It was certainly a very different project…a one-off.”

Lindhurst specialises in one-off engineering projects and no request is too off-the-wall – from light-weight lifting platforms for the heavy metal group Iron Maiden’s stage shows to large-scale engineering for landmark projects such as London’s Canary Wharf Underground Station and anaerobic digestion technology to generate power from food and farm waste.

The full-scale replica bouncing bomb is one of the most unusual items that the firms has ever made, however.

The exhibit has been very popular with visitors to the museum, which is open Sundays and bank holiday Mondays.

Vic adds: “It’s the one thing that people are photographed standing against. It’s photographed nearly as much as the dam is. It’s treasured and always will be.”

 www.lindhurstinnovation.co.uk

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Lindhurst Innovation Engineering MD inspires youngsters with cow pat lesson

Managing director Martin Rigley went back to the classroom as part of a nationwide campaign to inspire youngsters to realise their dreams and aspirations.

The MD of Sutton-in-Ashfield company Lindhurst Innovation Engineering joined celebrities, business leaders, councillors and a range of other figures across the country taking part in the Every Child Can campaign.

Organised by education charity Teach First, the week-long campaign aimed to shine a light on the inequality in education that exists in the UK and the role that a great teacher can play in supporting every young person to develop a brighter future.

Martin gave a maths lesson to year nine students at The Manor Academy, Mansfield Woodhouse…..focusing on cow pats!

His subject matter was the value of ‘poop power’, since Lindhurst Innovation Engineering is involved in developing pioneering technology which turns cattle waste into energy.

“The maths lesson was based around our microbial fuel cell technology, which is turning waste material from cattle and the food industry into electricity and bio-gas through the process of anaerobic digestion,” said Martin. “We worked out that the poop value of the waste from all the cows in the UK is £2 billion worth of energy every year, if you could release the energy of it all.

“The students seemed very interested in the concept, and all got the correct calculations in the end. I was delighted to be invited to give a lesson as part of the Every Child Can campaign, which highlights how important it is to inspire our young people.”

Martin, who attended Brunts School, Mansfield, before doing a degree at Trent Polytechnic – now Nottingham Trent University – is also vice chairman of the East Midlands Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing and a skills champion for the CBI in the East Midlands.

Lindhurst, based in Midland Road, Sutton-in-Ashfield, was founded in 1985 and initially served the UK mining market. The company has continued to innovate and diversify, and offers a range of engineering services. Lindhurst specialises in one-off engineering projects and no request is too off-the-wall – from light-weight lifting platforms for the heavy metal group Iron Maiden’s stage shows to large-scale engineering for landmark projects such as London’s Canary Wharf.

Last year the company was named the Campden BRI Innovation Champion at the Food and Drink iNet Innovation Awards 2012 for the development of ground-breaking technology to turn waste into renewable energy.

Manor Academy teacher Matt Sneller said he thought pupils would gain a number of useful things from the experience of Martin giving a lesson.

“Firstly aspiration in terms of taking someone who is from Mansfield themselves and has then gone on to do a number of things, things he’s passionate about and things that have had an impact… The second thing is actually thinking about how what they learn in the classroom will have an impact later down the line, whether it’s the science or the maths, that what they learn in the here and now is important,” he said.

Among those giving a lesson as part of the Every Child Can campaign at schools across the country were London Mayor Boris Johnson, TV presenter and writer Dan Snow, and Guardian journalist Polly Toynbee.

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Croots Farm Shop tastes success at the British Pie Awards

A pie made by Derbyshire farm shop Croots has been rated as one of the best pies in the country at the British Pie Awards 2013.

The game pie produced by Croots came second in the Speciality Pie section of the annual awards, which celebrate the UK’s best pies.

Hosted and organised by the British Pork Pie Association in Melton Mowbray, the awards attracted almost 1,000 pies this year across 20 different classes.

Croots Farm Shop owner Steve Croot said: “We are thrilled that our game pie was rated so highly in the speciality pies category.

“We narrowly missed out on taking the champion slot but we were up against some amazing pie makers and pies from across the UK, so to be a runner up and come second is absolutely brilliant. The feedback we get from customers about our pies is great, but to have it recognised by the judges at the British Pie Awards is excellent and a real coup for the team at Croots.”

The game pie is one of a number of sweet and savoury pies made by deputy manager Margaret Robinson at Croots Farm Shop, which is based at Farnah House Farm, Wirksworth Road, Duffield.

The game pie features venison, pheasant and rabbit, with ingredients varying throughout the year depending on what’s in season.

Croots has won several accolades at the British Pie Awards previously. Last year it won five silver or bronze awards, and the previous year it scooped four gold, silver or bonze awards.

More than 130 producers from across the UK entered their pies into the awards. Some 106 judges were recruited to munch their way through the entries, including TV chef and food campaigner Rachel Green, food writers and journalists, and cricket broadcaster Jonathan Agnew.

Croots Farm Shop has won more than 60 awards for its sausages, pies and home-made items since opening in 2008, and has built up a strong reputation for the quality of its butchers’ counter. Croots also sells a range of food and drink produced locally, regionally and from further afield. It stocks products from up to 40 producers from within a 50-mile radius of the shop

Next month it is due to open its extended restaurant area, which is being built in response to customer demand.

Croots Farm Shop is open Sundays from 10am to 4pm, and from Tuesday to Saturday from 9am to 5pm. It is closed on Mondays.

For more information visit www.croots.co.uk

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Food and Drink Forum appoints new commercial manager

Business support organisation The Food and Drink Forum has appointed a new commercial manager.

Andrew Collinson has joined the organisation in the new role and will be responsible for promoting The Food and Drink Forum skills and services, and for developing the business through private and public opportunities.

The Food and Drink Forum, which is based at the Business Centre at Southglade Food Park, Nottingham, operates across the East Midlands and beyond, and is a not-for-profit, membership-led organisation. It was founded in 1998 to stimulate and support the sustainable growth and development of the food and drink industry in the region.

It provides a range of support for firms working in the sector in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Rutland, including technical services, accreditation, packaging and shelf-life advice, compliance, and marketing.

Since its launch, The Forum has forged strong, strategic links with a range of organisations and authorities to help develop the food and drink sector in the region, and has a track record of applying for funds on behalf of the industry. Andrew aims to build on this by developing current links and creating new partnerships and funding opportunities to benefit the food and drink sector across the East Midlands.

The Forum is also the lead partner of the Food and Drink iNet, which is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and provides innovation support to food and drink producers in the East Midlands.

A former sector development executive at Yorkshire Forward, Andrew said: “I am very pleased to have joined The Forum and I look forward to building on the reputation that the organisation has achieved within the industry as a key sector support body.

“The Forum has been helping companies to grow and develop for many years, and I relish the opportunity to raise awareness and promote the skills and services that it offers and to develop strategic links with public organisations.”

Andrew, who has an MBA in business management from the University of Hull, has more than ten years’ experience in creating and implementing business development projects across various disciplines to support business growth.

Food and Drink Forum managing director Fiona Anderson said: “Andrew has wide experience within the sector and we welcome him as part of the team.”

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Success for Carlton Fire Station delights Focus Consultants and BSP Consulting

Two Nottingham companies are celebrating after a local fire station received an award for being the most sustainable new fire station in the country.

Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service’s new £3.2m fire station at Carlton picked up the accolade at the BREEAM 2013 Building Awards.

The award was presented to the team including Focus Consultants, based at Phoenix Business Park, Nottingham, who designed and project managed the development in Manor Road.

Civil and structural engineer BSP Consulting, whose head office is in Oxford Street, Nottingham, was also part of the development team involved in demolishing the former fire station and creating a new purpose-built station featuring three appliance bays, a fire kit room, a laundry, unisex changing pods, offices, a gym, a quiet room, kitchen and dining area and an e-learning suite. The site also has a new five-storey tower with two-storey training building to enable realistic training to be undertaken.

The fire station was awarded a BREEAM excellent rating for its environmental credentials, and has now been named as one of 17 winning buildings at the BREEAM Awards, which were presented at this year’s Ecobuild Conference in London.

Its green credentials include timber cladding, stone blocks and a ‘green’ sedum roof. It also has energy efficient heating and cooling, low flush toilets and restricted flow rate taps, plus a water treatment and recirculation system in the vehicle wash area to both minimise water usage and the potential for watercourse pollution.

High levels of insulation to the building, coupled with energy efficient heating and cooling, has resulted in a community building delivering key services but with lower operational running costs.

Other ‘green’ features of the development included a travel plan to limit car usage and encourage cycling, with bike spaces and cyclist facilities provided and careful consideration to scheme planting working with an ecologist to maximize wildlife support. A robust site waste management plan was implemented during construction, to keep waste to a minimum through procedures to reduce and recycle, and at least 80% of the waste generated was diverted from landfill.

Focus Consultants associate and BREEAM assessor Jason Redfearn said: “We are extremely pleased that Carlton Fire Station has been rewarded for its sustainability and has been identified under the BREEAM assessment process as the ‘greenest’ new fire station built within the last year.

“BREEAM is the world's foremost environmental assessment method and rating system for buildings. It sets the standard for best practice in sustainable building design, construction and operation, and has become one of the most comprehensive and widely recognised measures of a building's environmental performance.

“BREEAM Awards are made annually to the highest scoring building assessments certified under BREEAM Schemes in the preceding calendar year, and it’s a feather in the cap for the whole team that Carlton Fire Station received this accolade in the fire station category.”

Focus was involved throughout the project, providing a multi-disciplinary role, which included architectural design and employer’s agent as well as BREEAM and Energy Assessor services. BSP Consulting provided structural design, including pile and ground beam design, remediation of a heavily contaminated site, produced a flood risk assessment and carried out civil infrastructure design and drainage work.

BSP managing director David Sumner said: “BSP Consulting is delighted to hear of the success of the Carlton Fire Station project in the BREEAM Awards.”

Contractor for the scheme was Bowmer & Kirkland Building Services.

Ian Pritchard, head of procurement and estates for Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “Achieving BREEAM for Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service demonstrates our continuing commitment to minimise our impact on the environment. This is a community fire station with the express intention to integrate into the local community and in doing so lead by example.”

Ecobuild is the world’s biggest event for sustainable design, construction and the built environment and brings together communities to learn, share, experience and discover the future of sustainable building and construction.  

For more information visit www.focus-consultants.co.uk or www.bsp-consulting.co.uk

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

Fine food area joins Thoresby Market

Visitors to Thoresby Market in north Nottinghamshire later this month are being treated to a tasty new fine food attraction.

The market on Sunday 28th April will include a special area dedicated to fine food and drink.

Run by East Midlands Fine Foods on behalf of the market organisers, the area will feature a selection of stalls selling a range of specialist produce such as Mexican food, jams and chutneys, curry pastes, smoothies, local and exotic meats, olive oils and potted beef.

It is the first time the fine food area is being staged, but it could become part of the market’s calendar of events.

Thoresby Market, held at Thoresby Park in Sherwood Forest, is the largest outdoor Sunday market within the East Midlands and attracts visitors from Nottinghamshire, Sheffield and south Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Derbyshire.

It has been running for more than 25 years, and features over 100 stalls offering a range of products from household items, jewellery, craft items, to clothing and much more.

The fine food area will sit amongst the regular market, which runs from 8am to 3pm.

The pilot project is expected to attract up to 20 specialist food and drink retailers. Any food and drink producers interested in taking part are being urged to contact the organisers on 0115 9758810 as soon as possible to check stall availability.

East Midlands Fine Foods is operated by trade organisation The Food and Drink Forum, which is a not-for-profit organisation launched in 1998 to champion the growth and sustainability of the food and drink industry in the region.

Car parking at Thoresby Market is £1.50, with blue badge holders admitted free of charge.
For more information visit www.thoresbysundaymarket.co.uk

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