A quiche of the action
Everyone thinks quiche is boring with just quiche Lorraine and a cheese and onion variety, but it’s actually a bit more sexy than that. We have new innovations like cup quiche – which is a quiche like a cupcake – crustless quiches, vol-au-vents, tarts, quiche wedges and bite-sized pieces.
We’ve also brought in a whole raft of new flavours, such as ricotta, mozzarella, butternut squash, camembert and pesto to target the younger market, and we are hand-placing some of these products on the quiche after baking to give a fresher eat and a fresher look. As the UK has become more European in terms of its flavour choices, we’ve been able to move along with that. Unfortunately, the demographic of quiche is ageing, so we’ve had to ask ourselves how to get the 20–somethings, 30–somethings and young families to eat our products. So, in addition to the different shapes and different flavour profiles, we’ve also worked hard to make them more healthy.
The crustless one, for example, taps into this, because it just has a very thin layer of crust on the base and not on the walls. We also got some very interesting customer insights around this because there are a few people who didn't necessarily like eating the crust anyway and would leave it on the plate, so this is ideal for them too. We take the range for granted, but I'm not sure how many people know how extensive it is. There are about 107 different products at the minute, but the Marks & Spencer (M&S) quiche Lorraine remains our biggest seller by far.
Challenges (Return to top)
Increasing the number of ingredients and products does have its challenges though, because everything we use is fresh. It really annoys me at times that people think everything made in factories has a load of starches in it, or whatever, but we do everything fresh here. Every ingredient is processed fresh every day. We don’t pre-make anything. So, for our caramelised onion and goat's cheese tart, for example, the guys in the factory caramelise the onions – we don't buy them in caramelised.
We are the sole supplier for Asda, M&S and Sainsbury own-label products. We do some frozen products too for Farmfoods, but we are heavily focused on the major multiples.
A lot of people talk about how tough it is out there and how much pressure is being put on manufacturers by the retailers but, let’s face it, there's never been much margin in chilled food.
Everybody in the workplace, in every industry in the UK, is working harder for the same reward, that’s just a fact of the way the world is at the moment. So, yes, it is challenging, but we’re doing well.
We can produce quiches from two inches up to 11 inches, either square, retangular or triangular. I’m a firm believer that factories can do anything. There is nothing worse than hearing people say they can’t do something because it involves a bit of time and effort – anything is possible. My motto is very much: ‘If they can sell it, we’ll make it’.
Driven by retailers (Return to top)
As I mentioned, we’ve had a quite a lot of innovation in the category in the last couple of years, and that has been driven both by us and the retailers. The retailers will often give us a brief that we work to, but we have our own chef and development kitchen, which are making new recipes and coming up with new flavour ideas all the time. We’ll then share them with the retailers and take it from there. We’re also keeping a close eye on the market in the US and in Europe so we can be the first with new ideas in the UK.
This factory was built in 1982 and it has had three extensions since then – in 1992, 1998 and we have recently completed another one. We’ve also invested in new kit but our main priorities here at Riverside are consistency and quality. There is no point being a hero today and a zero tomorrow, so we spend a lot of time making sure we are consistently producing the best items we can. There is nothing worse than someone going to a shop and being wowed by a product one day and disappointed the next time they buy it.
Therefore it is vital we have consistent production practices and everyone knows their role. You can’t take your eye of the ball for one second.
Production process (Return to top)
We get raw ingredients delivered, usually daily, and they are physically inspected, not only to check for foreign bodies, but because we are determined they are of the best possible quality.
We then batch up what we need for that order, including the seasonings, before the ingredients go through to the cook house. They’ll either be blended, roasted, baked or marinated – whatever is required. While the filling is being taken care of, we’re also making the pastry, which is fresh puff, Scottish puff or shortcrust pastry, as well as making the custard.
Then the three come together in the fabrication area before going in the oven, usually for about 30 minutes, then they are cooled and packed. The whole process from start to finish is usually about an hour to an hour–and–a–half, depending on what we are making, but that is without the pre-prep. So, for example, when we are making the caramelised onions, that might take up to two hours to do with another four hours of cooling time on top of that.
There are two ways of making quiche: either the layer approach, where the ingredients are built up, or the one-shot method, where the ingredients are mixed in with the custard and inserted into the pastry in one go and finished off by hand-placing some extra ingredients on top. Both provide a very different texture.
Staff (Return to top)
I am very lucky because I have got members of staff who have been here 31 years, since the doors of this factory first opened, which doesn’t seem to happen too often these days. These people have always made quiche and they really do know what they are doing. They’ve been and done it all, so if you listen to them, they’ve already got the answers to any problems that might crop up.
Take the Happy Egg quiche range we launched a couple of years ago – that came from one of our guys asking us if we’d thought about working with Noble Foods. Then 10 weeks later we had a product out that was the idea of one of our staff working in the factory – not a marketeer.
I came to Pork Farms in 2007 and soon discovered that summer can be manic. When the sun shines, people want to eat quiche. This means it is vital that we have a very good relationship with our labour provider because we often need to find 150 additional workers at the drop of a hat. It is very important that they are made to feel welcome and to be treated like people – so they wear the same uniforms, are known by their first name and get things like Christmas hampers like everyone else.
People are people, not a number on a line. We make sure we pay them that little bit more as well to make sure we get the very best people in the local area.
The interesting thing that people don’t know about quiche is that it is the most volatile pastry product on the market. Now, I’ve made hot pies and ambient goods but the rise in demand here is unbelievable. When the sun is out we can go from making 70,000 units a day to 250,000. It’s a hell of a challenge but, by working together, we always meet the demand.
Listen to our exclusive podcast with Izamis to hear him discuss how he copes with soaring demand when the sun shines and his plans for further growing the category.
Factory facts
Location: Pork Farms, Riverside Bakery, Crossgate Drive, Nottingham
Staff: 330, with an additional 150 temporary staff at peak times
Size: 1,161m2
Products: Quiche and tarts for M&S, Sainsbury and Asda
Output: 45M quiche a year, 13,500t
Personal
Name: Johnny Izamis
AGE: 38
CAREER HIGHLIGHT: There is no single highlight, but I like leaving businesses in better shape than when I found them.
DOMESTICS: Married with two children
Outside work: I’m a keen musician and I play in a Greek band when I get a chance.
