Ready meal firm Charlie Bigham’s boasts £26M sales

There would be investment to the tune of £750,000 within the next 12 months to ensure the business was in a strong position to react to further growth, said founder Charlie Bigham.

The £750,000 investment would be in addition to the £2.5M Bigham announced earlier this year to increase capacity and improve efficiency​, he said.

Charlie Bigham’s had also doubled its investment in marketing this year to £3M and would release its first television ad campaign soon.

Rose to £26M​

Retail sales for the company, which has listings with Waitrose, Budgens, Sainsbury, Booths and Ocado, rose to £26M this year and is said to be one of the fastest growing brands.

Bigham said he was an optimistic man and expected sales to continue to grow next year, following the launch of new lines this October.

“I’m an optimistic person, but I’m not complacent either,” ​he told FoodManufacture.co.uk.

“The retail food market is a tough environment at the moment and there’s been a turn of the screw over the past few months ​[the supermarket price wars], which has made it a tougher market.” ​

However, a toughening market would allow Bigham’s to play to its strengths, he added.

“My view is that consumers are interested in value for money. Price is a big part of value for money, but they are more sophisticated than that and want something that’s high quality too.”​

High quality ready meals​

Consumers wanted high quality ready meals that were good value for money, which he believed his company supplied.

As well as launching new recipes this year, the company would plan to launch a “strong pipeline” ​of new dishes next year, he said.

“We’ve got a few new recipes coming out, which we’re talking to our customers about, so we’re not ready to reveal those just yet.” ​

New product launches, along with business growth, would inevitably lead to new jobs, he added.

“But I couldn’t say how many that would be; we will create more jobs as the business grows,” ​said Bigham.