n an industrial estate in a small pocket of Wigan, a tired old sewing machine factory has undergone a significant transformation to become the brand new 50,000sq ft production facility for salad and vegetable preparation specialist, Hazeldene Foods Ltd.
With Hazeldene’s original factory 15 miles away in Tarleton, Preston, the company may not geographically have ventured very far, but strategically, management says, it has moved leaps and bounds. Entering into a new phase of business, it seems that the factory has brought with it a renewed sense of direction.
Starting life as a small-time radish producing company 30 years ago, Hazeldene Foods was founded by entrepreneurial grower Alan McDiarmid, who shrewdly moved from radish production (under the name Mac-Pac) to supplying pre-washed salads to meet the health-conscious, convenience boom of the mid-1990s.
Following consumer trends and capitalising on lucrative market opportunities, the company increased its management to three directors (including McDiarmid) and took an annual turnover of around £15m, but with operations reaching full capacity, the business was due some rejuvenation. Its prayers were answered in the form of a large cash investment from William Jackson & Son (WJS) the group responsible for brands like the Aunt Bessie range and oriental ready-meal company Kwoks. Now owning 52 per cent of the Hazeldene business, the new source of revenue has funded its recent expansion. “Hazeldene had gone as far as it could.” says commercial manager, John Gilmartin. “We are excited about the Jackson’s investment and the backing they have given us is great. They’ve basically given us the tools and opportunity to develop and grow the business.”
Building work at the Wigan site began last February, with the facility becoming fully operational last month, although the finishing touches are still being completed. “To have a fully operational facility in that time is amazing. It was very tight but we just had to keep up the pressure,” says Douglas Bathgate, Hazeldene’s operations manager. “When we walked in there were sewing machines everywhere - it looked like a sweatshop! We looked at a few sites for refurbishment and at building a new site from scratch, but we found this place and decided to rip it all out and build it up from the ground.”
The new facility houses a state-of-the-art machine and takes over the production of bulk-bagging salads. “The factory had to be built around this one machine because it’s 40 metres long from beginning to end,” explains Bathgate. Manufactured by Sormac, it can reach speeds of 100 bags a minute and consists of nine stages, from a pre-wash to a drying phase. Bathgate explains that it is the most advanced machine of its kind in the whole of Europe and increases the company’s productivity through greater accuracy and reducing giveaway. “We know we are almost doubling the size of production so we can either halve the time we are working or double our capacity. That’s the aim of the business - to get more efficient,” Bathgate says.
Not to be left out, the old Tarleton site will have a makeover of its own. Now responsible for Hazeldene’s bowl salad operations and sliced tomato and cucumber for the sandwich industry, plans for refurbishment are underway; machinery is being cleaned and upgraded and some lines are being transferred to the Wigan site for smaller production needs.
Improved sanitisation has also had an important influence on the new operations and the result is an efficient process. “We haven’t scrimped and saved, we’ve said - we’ve got to do this right from the start. We’ve done a really impressive job and any potential customer could audit us at any time - the standards are set.” Gilmartin says. “The factory as a whole is fully operational now, all our customers are very excited about seeing it, and we’re looking forward to taking it to the next level for them. Anyone who wants to be at the forefront of the prepared salads industry wants to have a look around. [The new factory] helps us get to where we want to be, which is a world-class manufacturer. It’s taking us to the next level.”
While the company is building on links with the US, Morocco and France and sources its produce from Spain during the winter months, it also supports local growers. Acquiring 80 per cent its vegetables from two of its dedicated growers in Lancashire as well as others in the south of England, Gilmartin explains that sourcing locally grown produce means vegetables spend less time in the factory: “In the summer months we can cut in the morning, prepare, wash and bag ready for distribution by the late afternoon.”
Supplying prepared produce to a range of caterers and retailers and fast-food outlets, Hazeldene has its fingers in a number of pies and expanding its client base is all part of its plan for the domination of the pre-packed salad world. “Our three biggest customers are Gregg’s and Subway for sandwich ingredients and Redbridge which supplies Iceland for pre-packed salads. We also supply the likes of Spar, Kwik-Save, Co-op, Budgens and a whole host of smaller customers as well,” says Gilmartin. He explains that while the company is very proud of its smaller clients it is nevertheless looking to attract some of the larger industry players as a result of its new investment. “It is a good thing. It’s getting bigger and bigger all the time. There are currently huge growth plans at both Greggs and Subway and we want to continue being a factor in their success.”
The company is also looking to develop its own product range to complement existing lines including a casserole and winter-medley vegetable mix, the Festive Snack Bowl; a Mediterranean-style salad for Christmas, and its Ploughman’s Salad Bowl; a salad/protein combination pack using branded accompaniments such as Babybel cheeses and Branston pickle sachets. “It’s a real winner and it’s just becoming commercially available. At the moment Babybel backs it and we are in talks with quite a lot of other people,” Gilmartin explains.
Hazeldene also produces own-brand gourmet single-serving salad bags under the name ‘Select’ as well as an innovative new healthy salad range Love Yourself, designed to counter the worker’s normal sandwich offering: “There are four different varieties and they’re in heart-shaped punnets with salad on one side and has protein on the other side. They’re very much geared towards health-conscious young women, rather than them choosing a premium sandwich,” says Gilmartin.
It is this kind of product innovation that Hazeldene is banking on to take it to its new business goals. New product development (NPD) has been pivotal in the company’s evolution in the last few months and is simply a reflection of the industry changing to a sector dominated by convenience, explains Bathgate: “People are now more cash-rich than time-rich; they just want to open up a bag and throw it on a plate,” he says. “It’s all about adding value. It’s not just a bag of salad, they want croutons and a dressing or other accompaniments.”
Gilmartin supports this: “People now eat out more than they ever did in the past and are now much more connoisseurs of food, partly driven by celebrity chefs but other things like foreign travel has helped. If it weren’t for prepped salad, people would not eat another lettuce apart from iceberg,” he says. “It’s innovation. People are aware of these things these days. Now there’s a new market for things like micro-leaves and micro-herbs.”
Both managers stress that these kind of new ranges are where they pinpoint Hazeldene’s future, saying that the new facility will enable them to progress in this field. They say that they are hoping the opportunities presented by the arrival of the new outlet will support this creative marketing drive and will see it elevated to the kind of level occupied by the likes of Geest and Florette: “Our way in the market-place is going to depend heavily on new product development and we are trying to come up with new ideas all the time...we see that as a way in,” he says. And WJS are behind them all the way according to Bathgate: “We’ve got the backing from our partner company, so we can grow if the business demands it,” he enthuses.
With such optimism and enthusiasm for their products, the two managers are certainly ambitious when talking about Hazeldene’s future: “[The factory has] now given us the facility to be in the top league of producers and the ability to be a world-class manufacturer,” Gilmartin says. “We did well before, but the new investment has opened up doors for us. We can do so much more than ever before at our new modern premises.” And after seeing the new operations in action, prospective clients might just see that there is more than one Jewell in Wigan.
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