Accent on quality helps supplier double turnover

Mar 26 2008 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

A MEAT supplier has almost doubled its annual turnover to £15m by snapping up a nearby firm and is now close to signing a £2m-a-year deal with supermarket group Asda.

Darlington’s Country Valley Foods has bought the Billingham division of Cocked Hat Farm Foods, helping it grow from an £8m to a £15m-a-year company. Country Valley will take on about 20 staff who work at Cocked Hat’s wholesale site in Billingham’s Leeholme Road.

Meanwhile, the firm is also in the early stages of negotiations to buy a second Tees Valley food company.

Chairman and founder Stewart Munro said: “The acquisition gives us badly needed space and increases our storage capacity dramatically. We have concentrated on locally-sourced produce and remain at the quality end of the market.”

He said he expected to finalise a £2m-a-year contract to supply pork, beef and lamb products to Asda in the next two months.

He said if that deal went ahead, it could significantly increase the group’s workforce which currently stands at about 120.

The 37-year-old firm, which is run by Mr Munro and his two sons, has been building business by both broadening the product range and buying other well established businesses.

In February last year, Country Valley acquired Henry Newbould, a chain of 12 butcher shops in Middlesbrough which was established in 1856. Last summer, the County Durham company also landed a contract worth £50,000 to supply 30,000 sausages a year to 10 Asda stores.

Two years ago, the business was awarded a substantial supply chain grant by the English Beef and Lamb Executive (Eblex) for the development of Grand Reserve “quality matured beef from the North of England”.

This has enabled Country Valley to roll out the Grand Reserve brand of premium quality meat in recent years and develop its supply chain to take in farms all over the North East.