Farm shop frozen food business Fieldfare is targeting forecourts as part of its plans to diversify into urban locations with its range of loose pick-your-own meal components, pastries and desserts.
The Kent-based supplier, which started out 47 years ago with branded chest freezers in rural locations, says that it has already signed up major forecourt operators including MFG, Pricewatch Group, and Sterling Petroleum as part of a push for wider distribution this year.
The premium brand, which was relaunched in April 2021 and has a presence at 450 shops in the UK, suits locations with an elderly or professional customer base, with customers able to select individual unwrapped items, to purchase in compostable bags and to heat at home.
Meal components include Yorkshire puddings, potato gratins, roast potatoes and hash browns. There are snacks, including mac & cheese bites, and mozzarella bites. Meal items include chicken kiev, salmon en croute and jumbo fish fingers. And for the sweet-toothed, there are cinnamon swirls, pecan plaits, and desserts such as chocolate fondant and Sicilian lemon tart.
Fieldfare managing director Matt Whelan says that the concept works well on an island of cabinets including other upmarket brands such as Cook, By Ruby or Praveen Kumar meals.
The Pricewatch Group, which has introduced a Fieldfare freezer at its Selmeston site in East Sussex alongside Cook and Praveen Kumar cabinets, says that it is turning over £200 of sales from the loose products a week, with an average margin of 33%.
“It’s very popular with the older customers as they can buy single items, and it is often purchased with another frozen meal from the Cook or Kumar range, so it adds to the overall sales,” says Pricewatch Group’s general manager Tom Buckley. Top sellers for the Sussex forecourt operator are mac & cheese bites, and pastries. The business says it would consider introducing the freezers at other sites.
Fieldfare says that retailers benefit from profit margins of 35-40% depending on the products. It delivers direct to forecourts, typically every three or four weeks, with a minimum order of 25 cases a time.
As well as appealing to people who are trying to cut down on purchases with plastic packaging, Fieldfare also fits with today’s lifestyles with many households of two people or fewer, meaning that often shoppers do not want to purchase family packs of food, says Fieldfare’s Matt Whelan.
“We know that people like to choose the right amount of food for their needs, as opposed to what comes ready pre-packed,” he says. “And also we know that people sitting down together for a meal like to eat different things. Fieldfare is great for all of this,” he adds.
Whelan is optimistic that by July next year he will have 50 forecourt sites on board. “We have been surprised at how Fieldfare has developed from a standing start in forecourts,” he says. “We have extensive distribution in the UK having grown in farm shops, but not in urban locations, and a lot of people living in towns are asking us where they can get our products,” he adds.
