Page 21 - Charlie Bigham CS

· Maintaining the Bighams culture
· Continuous quest for innovation
· Delivering commercially for his customers

· Focusing on provenance

Charlie Bigham’s meals are still made in small batches, and when big
orders arrive, the team often cooks long into the night.

“ We’d rather make something five or six times than try and cut
corners because then the quality becomes eroded. ”
Charlie Bigham

Bigham’s meals are sold through Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Booths and
online grocer Ocado.

Bigham has successfully grown his business during a time when the
supermarkets have been under mounting pressure. But he has
resisted any pressure to squeeze his margins as a result of the
supermarket wars.

" We stuck to the guns with the supermarkets. If someone asks
you to do something unreasonable and unsustainable, you have to
walk away. "

Company turnover is expected to be over £40m in 2016/17.

A problem with building a business that makes fresh, preservative-free
food, is that it limits your export sales. Currently, the firm is focusing on
growth in the UK. “We represent a tiny percentage of the £1.7bn ready-
meals market in the UK, which means there’s a great opportunity,” he
says.

“We compete on the one hand with people who go to the pub or
a restaurant to have a meal; who order a takeaway; who buy a
product from a large manufacturer at the supermarket, and we
also compete with people who cook from scratch at home - just
as I like to do when I’m not eating my own food!