Client Portfolio
Cheshire Baskets
Johanna Houghton started her business early in 2009 and now has a range of beautifully wrapped baskets which feature local produce. Working with Jane Casson from the Enterprise Delivery Hub (EDH) they sourced all the produce which now features in their range of luxury hampers. The EDH also signposted Johanna to several marketing and sales opportunities and Cheshire Baskets took a stand at the Northwest Food Lovers Festival at Tatton Park in October. Johanna said of the services offered by EDH – ‘we couldn’t have done it without you.’
Fletcher & Co.
Based near Macclesfield, Cheshire, Fletcher & Co. represent a number of dairy farm enterprises managed through a combination of share farming, contract farming and partnership agreements. Reaseheath have been working with Fletchers on a number of projects, one of which is an agreement to act as a Monitor Farm under the RDPE Livestock Northwest programme delivered by the NWDA (at Clive Hall Farm, Winsford).Over a period of three years the farm will address numerous issues which are affecting the industry. The main focus of this work is looking at adopting Lean Thinking on the dairy farm. Reaseheath College will work closely with DairyCo and Wisemans Dairies in delivering this work to the Monitor farm. Through knowledge sharing and the development of new practices those in the industry will be able to improve profit and performance.
In addition to the Livestock NW programme, Reaseheath Enterprise Delivery Hub is working with Fletchers to identify an effective system for a group-wide share farming system integrated with profit sharing opportunities. The project is moving forward through exploration systems that have been implemented both in the UK and worldwide, together with development of a bespoke system to identify skills and provide formal and informal training to all employees. This brings together the knowledge within the business and the education and research expertise held at the college to add value to the business and the opportunity to disseminate outcomes to a wider audience.
The Ultimate Plum Pudding Company
Earlier this year North West pudding manufacturing, The Ultimate Plum Pudding Company, acquired Demels - a small producer of Sri Lanken inspired chutneys. Ultimate Plum Puddings found that the length of time it took to manufacture the chutneys did not fit in with the logistics of their existing operations.As part of the Innovation Voucher scheme, Reaseheath undertook work to find a way of reducing the manufacturing time whilst maintaining the quality of the products. The processing method and recipes were reviewed and the specification of certain ingredients evaluated. Alternative ingredients were sourced and tested until suitable matches were found.
Reaseheath Enterprise Delivery Hub have been working on a range of chutneys, all of which have been re-developed with the client and full scale trials in the production facilities have been implemented. These products are now at the stage where they can be manufactured.
BurBushs of Penrith
Burbushs of Penrith, manufacturers of a range of meat pies, pâtés and fruit pies, wished to increase distribution to one of their major multiples. To allow them to do this they had to achieve SALSA (Safe and Local Supplier Assurance) accreditation.Reaseheath Enterprise Delivery Hub visited the client and conducted a full review of their premises and operation procedures. Recommendations were made on how the business could make changes in order to comply with the SALSA standard. Burbushs were then able to identify what changes needed to be made prior to an accreditation audit.
