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The Interview - Ginsters - Real Honest Food is still what we're about

Famed for its Cornish pasties and savoury pastries, and recently recognised for its sandwiches, convenience food master brand Ginsters is riding a wave of fresh success in 2006 with a hit campaign, 'Real Honest Food,' and a string of industry awards including Convenience Supplier of The Year and Sandwich Marketeer of The Year. The company has reached the top and remained there through a consistent strategy - looking after the customer and the consumer, and continuing to develop new, quality, innovative products and at the same time, invest in its operations and its consumer marketing. Now, with the appointment of Linda Evans from Grampian Country Food Group as Sales and Marketing Director, Ginsters is set for further growth. Linda spoke to The Grocery Trader. The Grocery Trader - Linda, you join Ginsters with the business on a definite 'high.' Can things get much better from here? Things are certainly going very well. Ginsters is one of the 10 biggest food brands in the UK, and we are the leading savoury pastry brand as well as the UK's number one sandwich brand. We are at the top of our game, but we can only remain there with continued hard work and innovative product development, supported by an integrated marketing campaign. We will continue to deliver a variety of premium wholesome products that respond to consumer demands, provide comprehensive support for our retailers and thus drive sales figures. GT - Ginsters is a big brand, and yours is a big job. What were you doing before this, and how will you bring that experience to bear? I have a strong career background in the food industry and joined Ginsters after two years at Grampian Country Food Group, where I headed up the business unit which is the fourth biggest supplier to Sainsbury. I previously held various sales, marketing and category management positions with St.Ivel and Nestlé, where as head of marketing for the chilled category I relaunched the Munch Bunch and Ski brands. In my new role at Ginsters, I'm responsible for the total commercial framework. I'll also be heading a sales and marketing team of 20 and our award-winning van sales division of 236 people. GT - Your 'Real Honest Food' radio campaign is a joy to listen to. How successful has the campaign been, and what's it done for the Ginsters brand? The radio ads won an Aerial Award for Best Radio campaign in May of this year. They feature a cow, pig and mushroom being subjected to lie detector tests to prove their Cornish origin. By taking a quirky angle, we hope to highlight that Ginsters uses only premium quality local ingredients wherever possible, to counter public concern over the quality of some food on demand products. GT - What activity is in the Ginsters consumer marketing plan for the rest of 2006? How much are you spending in total on marketing in 2006? Ginsters is spending £6.5 million on marketing this year - our biggest spend ever. It includes a fully integrated campaign involving above the line advertising, promotions, PR, sampling and, as you would expect from Ginsters, lots and lots of quirky stuff! GT - How big is Ginsters now in turnover? How fast is the business growing? Where is the growth coming from? Last year Ginsters' turnover reached £225m, and the business is growing fast. One of our most important markets is the food to go sector, where Ginsters has a 93% brand share. Consumers are becoming increasingly time-pushed, and Ginsters is fulfilling the demand for healthy wholesome snacks on the go. We are playing a significant role in driving that impulse market and in the last five years the company has upped its impulse purchases from £49m to 110m - a rise of 124%. GT - What different branded products are in your chilled savoury pastry range? Which are the best sellers? Ginsters sells a wide variety of savoury pastries including slices, pasties, pork pies, sausage rolls. deep fill pies and olive oil bakes. The bestsellers are Original Cornish Pasty, Large Sausage Roll and our Deep Fill Slices. GT - You recently invested in a new bakery extension. What was the story there, and how will it benefit Ginsters? What other investments are you planning in production and other facilities? The extension will increase storage capacity and secure the future of Ginsters' Callington site. The new two floor extension covers 1000 sq. metres and took eight months to complete. Extra capacity for the storage of raw materials was created on the ground floor, while the first floor has released up to 30% more warehousing for finished products. Ginsters' investment has been supported by a comprehensive training programme to increase the technical operators' and bakery staff's skills base. This included intensive training courses to help them understand and operate the new high tech equipment. A further £1.5m will be invested in the packing area later this year, improving the efficiency of the working environment and helping the flow of materials. The EEC Objective One Programme invested £1.3 million in the project, and this assistance has been hugely important for us. GT - When did you launch your branded sandwiches? What flavours are in the range now? What's your best selling sandwich? Since launching into sandwiches ten years ago, Ginsters has now become the UK's leading sandwich brand, and we have a large variety of sandwiches in our range. The top five best selling varieties in the Ginsters range are: Deep Fill Chicken Salad, Deep Fill Bacon Lettuce and Tomato, Prawn Mayonnaise, Deep Fill Egg and Bacon and Deep Fill Chargrilled Chicken. The fastest growing element of our sandwich range is our filled tortilla wraps, with Southern Style Chicken Wrap being the most popular. GT - What are your predictions for the branded chilled sandwich market in retail? A recent report by Mintel suggests the sandwich market is set to grow by 29.6% over the next six years, with a significant opportunity for the development of premium ranges. This positive outlook will be driven by the convenience factor of sandwiches, continued innovation in sandwich developments and increased availability, all of which Ginsters actively promotes. Consumers want top quality sandwiches and a choice of fillings that stretches beyond cheese and pickle and egg mayonnaise. British tastes are expanding, so we are developing products with a decidedly more exotic influence. Our latest launches of the chicken tikka sandwich and oriental chicken wrap are selling particularly well. GT - What impact have health and obesity concerns had on consumer purchasing in the savoury pastry and sandwiches markets - if any? How has the industry reacted to the Government guidelines, in terms of NPD and marketing? Have you had to change your marketing and advertising strategy at all? We have already developed a reputation for good, honest food, made with familiar ingredients that people know and love. Being based in a rural area and using fresh ingredients from local farms creates a lot of trust with the consumer. However, we continue to try out new ways of improving and modernising the range, such as our new Bakes, made with olive oil pastry, and we are gradually lowering the salt content in our key product lines. GT - Ginsters is still based in Cornwall, though your products are sold across the UK. Are all your products made and your ingredients sourced in Cornwall? Do Cornish pasties have to be made in the Duchy to classify as Cornish? Ginsters is a Cornish company through and through, and we are committed to local sourcing. Ginsters recently joined forces with South West farmers to grow 3,000 tonnes of grain for our products, and we have fostered links with farms in Devon and Cornwall. Now nearly all the potatoes and swedes used in Ginsters products are grown locally, with most of the onions, beef and cheese also travelling a short distance to the production line. Ginsters is now forging links with other authentic local producers such as St Austell Brewery, who contribute genuine real ale for our new steak and ale pasty, and we are investigating local pork suppliers as we are expanding our range of sausage rolls. As for our beloved Cornish pasties, they do not have to be made in the Duchy for manufacturers to call them 'Cornish,' but thanks to a package of new EU laws, the Cornish pasty may shortly be given protected geographical indication (PGI.) This means any pasty termed 'Cornish' would have to be made in the county, which is good news for Ginsters. GT - How much do you spend in Cornwall annually? As a major Cornwall-based business, do you do anything to encourage other local businesses? Ginsters spends £9m every year on local ingredients and, as one of Cornwall's largest businesses, we want to encourage commerce in the county. Through our association with Duchy College, we hope to foster home-grown technical and production ability, to ensure we can recruit expertise within Cornwall. We also regularly sponsor local business awards, most recently the Creating Wealth in the Rural Economy Award as part of the Devon and Cornwall Business Challenge Awards. GT - Now you're serving the whole UK, how easy is it to deliver products at their peak to your furthest customers? How long do your products stay fresh for? It's tough keeping our retailers fully stocked with products at their peak. That's why Ginsters is the only company able to deliver twice a day, seven days a week. We can guarantee our products are at the peak of freshness when they are delivered, and therefore have a longer shelf life than most of our competitors' products. One of the keys to success for retailers is maintaining availability throughout the day and keeping the chiller cabinet flushed with bestsellers. Ginsters provides a free flow of stock, with no minimum order, which ensures that consumers' favourite products are always available. We have created our own Electronic Sales Developer system, which carries the sales history by SKU for each individual customer. We use this to forecast the ideal order size for each store, to maximise the sales opportunity while minimising wastage. We also provide merchandising support, so the whole process becomes more efficient and makes the most effective use of the available chiller space. This in turn increases basket size, increases consumer loyalty and improves consumer value-for-money perceptions. GT - Ginsters has won some major awards this year, as we mentioned in the intro. Briefly, what were they, and what effect have these honours had on your business? In addition to the radio award I mentioned earlier, Ginsters has this year been named Top Food Supplier at the Convenience Tracking Programme (CTP) Awards, Convenience Supplier of the Year for 2006 at the Checkout Convenience Awards and Sandwich Marketeer of the Year 2006 at the British Sandwich Association Awards. We were thrilled with these four accolades: they consolidate our position as one of the biggest names in the snacking market and communicate the real quality difference between Ginsters and its competitors. GT - Maintaining the level of quality innovation and consumer interest is critical for high impulse convenience products like yours. What are your latest launches? Can you hint at what's in the pipeline? Ginsters has launched a number of new products in the last few months, most notably the steak and ale and chicken and ham premium pasties, the chicken tikka sandwich and the oriental spiced chicken wrap. One of the next big developments that you can expect from us is a move into the bake off market, an area where we feel consumers are crying out for a nationally recognised brand with the quality credentials we can bring. I think our product innovation and continual monitoring of consumer feedback and market research play an important role in Ginsters' success. Ultimately, we give consumers what they want, which is tasty, wholesome snacks at competitive prices. Consumers are looking for variety in their choice of snacks too and we keep the brand fresh with a constant supply of new Ginsters products. GT - Where do you see the Ginsters brand going from here? There is still massive potential in the brand, so I see it going from strength to strength. There are many opportunities for us to exploit, both in out of home consumption and in home eating. There are some key food categories that we don't currently operate in, where I believe the Ginsters brand values could have a real and lasting impact. So 2007 will see further innovative launches from Ginsters - with a number of real surprises! GT - Finally, what are you most looking forward to doing in your new job? From a commercial perspective, helping to make a step-change in the growth of the brand and take it to the next level. From a personal perspective, working with a great sales and marketing team and our excellent van sales division. You can't ask for much more in a new job! Ginsters Tel: 01579 386200 www.ginsters.co.uk