This week saw the launch of a new look for Leampak herbs which is an established brand of herbs from Blackdown Growers. The company has been supplying herbs to UK caterers for 50 years, their main speciality being in growing baby leaf salad.
“We have been using the Leampak brand for over 40 years, so it was time for a refresh,” explains Simon Calder, General Manager at Blackdown Growers. “During these challenging times now is a good time to brighten things up with a new brand. Feedback from our customers told us that they wanted a barcode on the actual packaging, so it was also a low-cost solution to this."
Most of the company’s herbs go to the catering sector and for those customers the most important thing is the quality inside the bags. This new branding makes it stand out from the other herbs in the wholesale markets and has already generated interest from new customers and other markets.
“We have sent out some trial packs to potential clients and are getting very good feedback. The new look really makes the product pop, gives it a more up market appearance, but most importantly the quality is as good as always.”
Simon says changes are afoot since the food service industry has been impacted by COVID 19. “What we have noticed is that demand is changing, and we are now selling more smaller packs. This could be that they are going into veg boxes, but also that restaurants and hotels are being much more cautious with buying as we don’t know what will happen around any restrictions to hospitality going forward’’
The company’s main product is baby leaf salad which is perhaps easier to manage as they grow it themselves whereas most of the herbs are imported.
“The key for both baby leaf and herbs is quality and packing fresh product every day in the UK. Funnily enough one of the best-selling products during lock down was 200g packs of spinach and this continues to remain one of our strongest sellers’’
‘’Despite the challenges around Covid 19 We remain confident for the future of our business especially with the capacity we have to increase our UK production over the next 3-5 years reducing our demand on imported produce’’.
For more information:
Simon Calder
Blackdown Growers
Tel: +44(0)1926 614 244
simoncalder@blackdowngrowers.co.uk
blackdowngrowers.co.uk