The Greek Farmer secures listings after TV show success
The family-owned meat processor will supply more than 15,000 packs of its cured meat to Aldi stores across the UK after impressing judges and the managing director of buying on ‘Aldi’s Next Big Thing’, due to air later this year. The Greek Farmer sold 70% of its stock within 72 hours of hitting Aldi shelves.
Tony Charalambides, director of The Greek Farmer, said: “After many months and a lot of hard work, we found ourselves pitching at Aldi HQ as part of a TV series that airs later in the year. Our pitch went down a treat and we got through to the finals.
‘Hard work starts now’
“And then, beyond our wildest dreams, our product impressed the buyers and we won! Then the hard work really started, and we had to consider how we would go about slicing and packing 15,000 packs of cured meat to supply Aldi. Investing in new machinery was the only way this would be feasible, but we needed assistance to make this happen.”
The Greek Farmer turned to the Manufacturing Growth Programme (MGP) for grants to help it part-fund new packing machinery and a meat preparation area.
It was through these grants that the manufacturer was able to meet the tight production timescales for the order, as well as building up significant capacity to support the future growth aspirations of the management team. The Greek Farmer has taken on two additional full-time employees, with four temporary staff hired to help with production.
Small firm makes big hit
Amanda Freeland, Manufacturing Growth Manager at MGP, added her support: “It is amazing that this small company, which only began fully trading in December 2021, was able to make such a hit with the managing director of buying at Aldi.
“It’s an incredible achievement, a great success story. I am genuinely delighted that MGP has been able to help it gear up to meet the growth challenge by supporting it with a grant for faster manufacturing equipment.”
The MGP is currently the UK’s largest and leading business support programme for small and medium-sized enterprise manufacturers.
Designed and delivered by Oxford Innovation Advice and funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the scheme has secured more than £13.5m in grants for 4,300 companies over the last three years.
