Sarah set up taste of the Moorlands Ltd in 2005, after working in Kosovo for 4 years as an Environmental Protection Officer for the United Nations. On her return to the UK, she decided to become a rural artisan baker, continuing a family tradition started 90 years ago by her Grandfather. With no formal training Sarah quickly started producing high quality products for customers to enjoy.
Taste of the Moorlands is a rural artisan bakery specialising in tarts and biscuits. The bakery has already gained two Gold ‘Great Taste’ awards for its Oatty Oatty biscuits and tea loaf and was chosen, from a long list of producers, to include two products in the ‘Taste of Staffordshire’ hamper presented to HM The Queen.
Sarah is keen to develop the business by focusing on her biscuit range and expand her customer base from local farmers’ markets and small retailers, to capitalise on the demand for rural artisan bakers, to supply wholesalers and larger retailers nationally.
For the past four and a half years Sarah has worked long hours developing Taste of the Moorlands and with only friends and family to help out, Sarah has pretty much single-handedly built up a successful small rural business. At the beginning of 2009 Sarah decided to spend time focusing on new business, based on the encouraging sales of her biscuit range. She was also approached by both a regional and national food producer to bake biscuits for their own label.
As production was handmade, she needed to make changes to her business to satisfy increased demand and growth. And new, bigger customers demanded greater assurance of the quality of her products, through tough customer checks and surveys to being able to clearly demonstrate compliance with HACCP and SALSA. She therefore needed an easy solution to record all the checks needed to be done on a daily, weekly and monthly basis at the bakery, and preferably one which eliminated the piles of bakery-soiled paperwork building up in the business and that allowed her to analyse data at the touch of a button.
Increased production was resolved by some timely assistance from the local Food & Drink Forum and the resulting purchase of a new biscuit making machine, courtesy of a grant from the East Midlands New Technology Initiative. When Sarah heard about the Principles Quality Manager System she thought she had found the ideal solution to eliminate paperwork from the bakery and a tool to aid SALSA compliance, which would ultimately help her gain and maintain new business and drive the growth and profitability of the business. But, at that time, the Principles Quality Manager system was designed to be used in large food companies, where numerous and multiple quality checks were required and compliance and traceability were more complex, it was also out of her price-range.
It was a problem MD of Applied Principles JJ Kotze was keen to resolve. “We knew we could help Sarah and other smaller food businesses and quickly appreciated that requirements were different and that price was a factor. We listened to what Sarah’s business needed and realised we could take all of the benefits of the Principles Quality Manager but adapt it for smaller businesses where only one person needed to do the checks and interpret the resulting data and there was no need for the installation of a wireless network. Hence Gerald was born…the paperless Quality Manager System for small food businesses.” Sarah has been delighted with the results of using Gerald and now views it as a key ingredient in the running and success of her business.
“The investment in Gerald has already been worthwhile; it’s totally transformed my business. As well as the expected results of going paperless, I have been able to increase productivity by 25%. I’m no longer leaving paperwork for my free time because Gerald allows and demands that I do my quality checks there and then…so there’s no build up of paperwork and tasks. For example, I can check fridge temperatures at the same time as baking another batch of biscuits, which means at the end of the day I’ve not only baked more biscuits but have time to ride my horse and see my family.”
The simple to use system has quickly become part of Sarah’s daily routine and has provided an un-tampered record of all elements of her business from the condition of in-coming raw materials to batch monitoring, packaging, despatch, glass and hygiene audits. “My new ability to thoroughly monitor in-coming goods from suppliers has been an unexpected bonus. As I am able to take a photograph and temperature reading of goods supplied, I can quickly prove quality not only on a daily basis but also build up a record over time. This gives me new insight into which suppliers I should be working with in the future. I wish all of my suppliers were using Gerald so we could work to the same quality standards. I now have all of my records in one place, which means I’m not only able to access them easily and quickly but use the information to build up a picture of my business on a daily basis and over time.”Efficiency and wastage across the business has also improved.
“Gerald enables you to look at and see your business in a new way. For example I knew I was burning the odd biscuit but using Gerald has enabled me to accurately record the level of wastage. And because Gerald checks in real time it forces you to do something about it there and then rather than let the problem build up. This has led to cost savings, greater efficiency and increased productivity which has ultimately increased profitability.” New business and, especially, breaking into bigger wholesalers and retailers is of paramount importance to Sarah. Her product quality has always been high and her business success so far attests to this. But with so much competition in the market and so many regulations governing food in the UK, Sarah’s need to be able to prove quality, comply with SALSA and HACCP has increased with every new potential customer she talks to.
“I now have systems (and the records) in place via Gerald which means I can easily demonstrate and prove the quality of my products. I can also demonstrate supplier checks which I’ve been asked to do by several potential customers. It’s great to be so prepared. I know that Taste of the Moorlands products wouldn’t stand a chance of distribution if I didn’t have professional evidence of my quality assessments. I’ve even taken my laptop to new business meetings to show customers my Gerald data. Everyone has been really impressed.” Sarah’s ultimate aim with the business is to supply one of the leading multiples with her artisan biscuits. Being able to demonstrate SALSA compliance is vital and Gerald makes this easy as it’s already audit compliant.
“Gerald has given me the confidence to take the growth of my business seriously. I’m prepared for anything that potential customers throw at me. My investment in Gerald demonstrates a strong commitment to quality, giving me an edge over my competitors and gives customers the feeling that they can be confident in my products and business.”
“Gerald has become my business’s best friend. It’s helping create a leaner, more productive, profitable business where quality assessment is available for all to see, from auditors and suppliers to potential customers. The business is more effective in its current markets and is poised and ready to move into new areas. I can now supply the quantity of biscuits I need, with the reporting ability of the big boys! It’s a very exciting time for Taste of the Moorlands. And the best bit? I can leave my new best friend Gerald at the bakery every night!”