JDM Food Group’s Lincolnshire base could well be a modern take on Willy Wonka’s factory. What it lacks in Gene Wilder, however, it makes up for in kettles, grills, smokers, ovens and ‘dizzies’. As its commercial director Darren Bevan emphasises, the firm is not so much about products, but more about “capabilities”.
So accomplished is JDM that you are likely to have eaten its products on numerous occasions. “If you walked down any major supermarket food aisle, you would find our products somewhere on shelf,” Bevan says. With a cache of over 3,000 SKUs, JDM has become one of the most versatile and progressive suppliers of fresh produce and value-added products to retailers and food manufacturers in the UK. From dips and dressings to caramelised onions and smoked garlic, JDM has cast its net wide.
It’s a feat the company could barely have anticipated when it started out in 1999. “Back then we were called Jardins du Midi,” recalls Bevan. “Following a name change and an acquisition in 2003 the business grew rapidly, establishing itself as a leading supplier in the UK food manufacturing sector.
“I joined the business in 2008, and it was around that time that we received an opportunity with a major UK retailer for the direct supply of wholehead garlic and ginger along with sweet potatoes and butternut squash.
“From a manufacturing perspective we started with the supply of garlic, ginger, chilli and onion ingredient products, evolving into smoking and then blending to offer bespoke solutions to a growing customer base.”
JDM’s turnover rose rapidly over the next ten years, from £5.9 million in 2007 to £45m in 2017. Key to this growth has been a readiness to expand the repertoire, to meet the increase in demand for convenience and prepared food options from consumers.
In 2010 the business relocated to a 440,000 sq ft site in the heart of Lincolnshire’s food manufacturing sector. From this site JDM has effectively combined four strategic production regimes: wholehead, low risk, high care and high risk.
“Our factory is unique. Normally, businesses will set themselves up to specialise in one or maybe two areas, concentrating on larger runs and maximising efficiencies, but we think there’s a different way and consider ourselves to be more of a boutique-style operation. From an operational perspective, we focus on delivering innovation through capabilities, and that strategy has been a key element in our continued growth.”
JDM’s wholehead operations have certainly not taken a backseat compared to the processing side of the business. Around 48 per cent of the business is wholehead which, alongside a processing element, allows JDM to take virtually entire crops from growers, a strategy that has helped the business build strong and sustainable relationships with its grower base.
“It’s been an integral part of our competitive advantage over the years,” explains procurement director Paul Tracey. “Working with our grower base to maximise their crop usage has meant that we have developed longstanding, trustworthy relationships – a key ingredient in maintaining continuous supply for our diverse customer base, particularly during times of uncertainty.”
The past year has been a real challenge though: “Some elements of supply have been incredibly difficult because of such things as the weather, with the ‘Beast from the East’ as well as the impacts of the extreme summer temperatures. Hurricane Florence in North Carolina, for example, caused a huge amount of crop damage, but because we have those relationships right, we didn’t have any gaps in supply.”
The weather was only one challenge for JDM in 2018, with currency fluctuations, labour and the ‘B’ word cited by Bevan as being just some of the other issues facing the business. Situated just a few miles away from Britain’s largest Brexit-voting constituency of Boston, JDM has adopted a largely positive approach to the situation.
“There are some massive challenges to overcome, but we’re trying our best to see Brexit as an opportunity,” says Bevan. “We are working with customers and suppliers alike to minimise any negative impacts of whatever Brexit deal we end up with, while not ignoring the fact that change is often accompanied by opportunity.”
The mere matter of leaving the world’s largest trading bloc has not put any brakes on JDM’s growth plans, however, as the company has just embarked on a multi-million pound facility expansion which will almost double current production capabilities.
“We are in the early stages of our latest facility-expansion programme, which will take at least two years to complete. In addition to infrastructure, we are working hard to recruit, train and develop our most valuable resource, our outstanding people.
“Food manufacturing in general is facing significant challenges in recruitment. As a result, we are being proactive at a grass roots level, developing long-term partnerships with local educational establishments as part of an ongoing talent identification and management initiative.”
NPD director Richard Shipston was recently brought in to help drive innovation as the business continues its growth trajectory: “The fact is we’re getting further and further into processing: sauces, soup bases, dips and dressings, the sexy end of the market – the stuff of alchemists. I have worked in the retail supply chain for a number of years and having a facility like this one is a gift. We can do so many innovative things, we can excite our customers and ultimately our end consumers too. The number of ingredients we have on site is mind-boggling.”
Shipston concludes aptly, in line with the company ethos of flexibility: “A lot of suppliers say they are diverse, but we are truly diverse in what we are prepared to look at and can do successfully. There are so many things in our armoury.”
