Food manufacturing excellence awards
Charlie Bigham
Charlie Bigham has regularly invested into his ‘posh’ ready meal business to help grow sales and drive innovation in the sector.
His business model is as simple as it is effective: to constantly improve the quality of his products, increase efficiencies and to build the best workforce in the sector to grow his business.
“If you focus on the right things and make progress in those areas then the rest will follow,” he says. “Our brand will grow; our team will grow; we’ll do better as a business and our sales will grow.”
Retail sales have grown by 30% year-on-year to £20M and Bigham’s also sold its one millionth fish pie this year.
The company announced plans to invest £2.5M in production equipment in February to carry forward its business strategy.
The business also invested £120,000 in a new advertising campaign, which it hoped would connect with 30M potential customers. The national outdoor campaign included roadside and tube adverts at 190 locations across the UK.
As well as the more traditional marketing campaigns, Bigham claimed to be constantly looking at new and wacky ways to get the message out about the brand.
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, the firm launched a singling lasagne that helped triple its sales at Waitrose. It has also previously manufactured the world’s most expensive ready meal – a £314 fish pie made from lobster, oysters, caviar, Dom Perignon and gold leaves.
Not one to mince his words, when the food industry was rocked by the horsemeat scandal, Bigham publically stated it had been good for business.
“The horsegate saga was good for our business and businesses like ours,” said Bigham. “Some of the shocking stuff that came out around horsegate had a short-term negative impact. But it made people think, quite rightly, about where their food comes from and what is the true price of really cheap food.”
The firm also received recognition from the British Safety Council (BSC) for both its production facilities, at the BSC’s 2014 International Safety Awards.
For more on Bigham, watch our exclusive video interview.