A frozen Belgian adventure
On Monday 17th July, two of our buying team colleagues took a trip over to Belgium to visit a couple of our frozen produce suppliers.
Organised by Caterforce, the buying and marketing group to which we belong, the trip was an educational one so we can gain a greater understanding about production, supply and relationships between our businesses.
Charlotte Walker, Buying Manager, and Emelia Stewart, Junior Buyer were invited to visit the fields and factories of d’Arta and Clarebout, both producers of our own brand high quality frozen foods.
The first day involved a visit to d’Arta.
This producer supplies our Chefs Selection range of frozen vegetables: from peas to cauliflower and asparagus.
D’Arta’s experienced farmers and agronomists (experts in agriculture) work closely together to ensure sustainable working practices and positive relationships are cultivated. (excuse the pun!) Together they toured the fields and then the group visited the factory to witness the massive scale of production and processes in place.
Pictured above are Charlotte and Emelia.
Charlotte said: “The visit was really well planned and organised. Both of our suppliers were great hosts and made us most welcome. As I manage our purchasing of frozen produce and work very closely with both d’Arta and Clarebout, it’s amazing see all the hard work, commitment and passion that goes into producing the very best quality produce at first hand.
Visits help us build strong working relationships, understand the hard work our suppliers and their farmers undertake and we can really work together to provide our customers with a great product at the best price.”
A visit to chip producer, Clarebout, took place on the second day of the trip. Clarebout is the quality supplier of our Chefs Selections chips.
The party was shown how the potatoes were sorted, washed and transformed into delicious fries.
The visit finished with the team tucking into some excellent chips!
Both visits gave our colleagues an insight into produce quality, how the highest standards of processes are in place to maintain natural flavour and the passion behind the innovation.
From field to fork is a much used adage, however, we do take this seriously and we carefully choose our suppliers to provide tasty, wholesome produce.
Understanding farmer and supplier relationships, where produce is cultivated and how it’s produced and supplied not only helps us in our roles, but helps us forge productive communication channels with our key partners in order to best serve our customers.