Cranswick in Spanish charcuterie tie-up

13-Jan-2020 - Last updated on 09-Jul-2020 at 12:32 GMT

The UK continental meats category is worth £285m, according to Cranswick

Cranswick Continental Foods (CCF) has boosted its charcuterie offer after agreeing a supply partnership with Spanish producer Costa Food Group.

CCF said the move would allow it to tap into the £285m continental meats category in the UK, and mean it could offer greater transparency through the supply chain.

Established in 1966, Costa is a vertically integrated pork producer with four feed factories and more than 600 farms. Its turnover is expected to exceed €900m (£771m) this year.

In 2017, the Spanish company acquired Casademont, a fourth-generation family-run Spanish charcuterie producer, and more recently it acquired Villar and La Nuncia.

Costa said the acquisitions enabled it to produce authentic Spanish charcuterie with a fully integrated supply chain, bringing traceability and quality control benefits. Charcuterie now makes up 15% of the total group turnover.

£285m continental meats category

CCF said Spanish charcuterie now accounted for around one-third of the £285m continental meats category in the UK. A division of Cranswick, CCF moved into a new £28m purpose-built processing site in Bury, Greater Manchester, in 2018.

Norman Smith, sales director at CCF, said the UK market was increasingly demanding transparency of continental supply chains and, through working with Costa, “we have a unique proposition that provides a fully integrated solution”.

“Combine this with our new site in Bury and we believe we have a market-leading farm-to-fork solution from both a traceability and an efficiency point of view,” Smith said. “Costa, like Cranswick, is a very well-invested, forward-thinking business that strives to innovate to meet changing consumer needs.

“With our aligned values, we are looking forward to introducing the UK consumer to some of the great products Costa produces.”

Businesses ‘very much aligned’

Josep Buixeda, chief executive of Costa Food Group, added: “Cranswick is a business that is very much aligned to Costa Group. Together, we are committed to delivering the quality standards demanded by the UK market, while always maintaining service, innovation, transparency and commerciality.”

In December, Cranswick acquired outdoor pig farming business Packington Pork in an attempt to show greater transparency and provenance in its supply chain.

A further deal with a continental producer was struck in July 2019, when Cranswick acquired London-based Mediterranean food producer Katsouris Brothers for £43.5m.