Located in Flax Bourton, near Bristol, the new £750,000 facility is housed within a converted chapel, and focuses on research and testing of the latest concepts in areas such as bakery and confectionery, hot and cold sandwiches, salads, drinks, snacks, smoothies and juices. It is hoped the new facility will help the business become a ‘one-stop shop’ for all elements of a business food offering.
The business already provides produce to Shell UK (deli2go), Dunelm, Thorntons, Tchibo, Debenhams, Insomnia, Esquires, Autogrill and Statoil.
The facility includes a fully equipped development kitchen while a presentation suite will allow the FSC team to present their ideas and new concepts to clients.
Managing director James Simpson explained the importance of creating new products. “Within the food-to-go sector, one of the most important measurements of a company’s competence and success is how well it can innovate and come up with new product ideas. This new centre will be an important visual demonstration, not only of our commitment to, but also our competence in innovation.
“Our development chefs and new product development team will be based full-time at the innovation centre and all customer presentations and development sessions will be held here.”
He added that this new facility will help the business expand even further. “Currently new product development is one of the services we give to our existing clients but now that the innovation centre is up and running opens up further what we can do.
“For example, if a business just wants support with NPD or would just like to use the space for their own customer presentations, then the innovation centre allows us to do just that.”
