Beefing up the Lakeland brand

Pioneer sales representative Maxine Fairley with Lakeland Lamb

Lakeland Beef is rapidly gaining recognition as a premier regional meat establishing the foundations for it to become a nationally sought-after brand. In a partnership with Harrison & Hetherington, Pioneer Food Service has made a significant commitment to source as much beef as possible through the Lakeland label.

Now large numbers of cattle from the Lakeland area - farms in Cumbria with CA and LA postcodes - are being processed through the scheme, either being procured with Harrison & Hetherington direct from the farm or through the sale ring. In June an average of 100 head of cattle were being processed per week.

The partnership, which now includes abattoir firm Rose County Foods, of Sawley, was initially slow to establish the project due to its untimely launch in 2001 in advance of the unforeseen foot and mouth epidemic. However, in recent months the Lakeland scheme has seen a number of boosts, which included a re-launch and fact finding day at Borderway Mart for 650 of the region's chefs and caterers in conjunction with Pioneer's regular two-day foood trade fair earlier this year. And from July, in a complementary venture which has been piloted for the last two years, significant numbers of lamb for the Lakeland brand will be sourced as the spring lamb trade begins in earnest.

"Our trade show in February was a spring-board for what we have achieved with Lakeland Beef this year. We have signed up a large number of caterers to Lakeland Beef since the beginning of March," said Graham Jenkins, managing director of Pioneer Food Service which has more than 100 years' experience of the food trade.

Local caterers check out Borderway, left to right, Nick Pinnell, of the Crown, Broadfield Joanne Cartwright of the Pelican Group, Chris Austin, head chef at David's Restaurant, Carlisle and Kenneti Hogg, of Fantails, Wetheral.

The trade show had the benefit of support from the English Beef and Lamb Executive (EBLEX) who brought celebrity chefs to prepare Lakeland Beef and Lamb dishes. Pioneer's commercial director Barry Garrett added: "The re-launch has been on the back of a huge change in how we procure the stock with the help and guidance of Harrison & Hetherington. "Pioneer now takes ownership of the whole carcase which after being at Rose County Foods comes back to us for further processing. We are now able to supply all our sales team with names and addresses and quantities from the different farms which has proved a tremendous selling point. "There are more and more farmers wanting to take part in the food supply chain and there is a lot of talk about the brand out in the industry."

As well as the brand gathering momentum through its own success and development through Pioneer's own sales team headed by sales director David Jenkins, regional advertising campaigns have also been raising its profile. The Lakeland scheme is regularly being referred to by EBLEX in its own publications which are distributed country-wide. It also has the kudos of being specifically mentioned for its branding of the origin of the meat by Quality Meat Scotland, which represents the Scottish red meat industry, in the organisation's best practice guidelines leaflet on menu transparency. Restaurants and other catering establishments readily pick up on the Lakeland brand and use it in their menus. Now Lakeland beef can be seen on menus across the north of England and the south of Scotland.

Celebrity chef Richard Hughes, of The Lavender House, Norwich, cooks up a Lakeland Beef dish

As well as it being sold through food service into restaurants and pubs, it is being used in schools and other establishments and it is sold direct to the public in Pioneer's retail sales outlets in Carlisle, west Cumbria and the north east. Mr Garrett added: "The industry has been through tremendous change in the last five or ten years. Consumers now understand and respect the quality of their food and they want to know its passage from farm gate to plate. "While price does matter, quality and service come first and this has shown through with this scheme." Carcase specifications for Lakeland Beef are deliberately wide to make the beef available to all parts of the food service industry.

Adding to the range of Lakeland Beef available has been the successful launch in May of a high quality beef burger which is gluten-free providing an additional selling point. Pioneer has always enjoyed a close relationship with the Harrison & Hetherington and the region's farmers and the development of the Lakeland scheme has further cemented this with both sides understanding more about each others' businesses and encouraging more organic growth.

Contact in the future is likely to be encouraged also through producer meetings and possibly clubs. This relationship is being built upon with the development of Lakeland Lamb following its successful trial period. "The trial has been encouraging and it got to the point where we were sourcing more and more Lakeland Lamb through Harrison & Hetherington," said Mr Garrett.

Prize guy: Robert Dickinson with his champion on Lakeland Beef day at Borderway

"Now our intention is to expand on that dramatically over the next six months. We know where we want to be now as far as specification and quantity are concerned and this will be the first year we will make significant purchases. "We started to buy in June with our weekly usage at about 500 lambs a week from when the main sales of spring lamb start in July. "Because of our facilities on site we will be able to take stock of lamb at this time of year and into the autumn when we will be purchasing large quantities and put it into cold storage to enable a supply of locally reared lamb 52 weeks of the year." He added: "Cumbria has a lot to offer the industry not only in the beef, lamb and pork it produces. This is a sure fire way of introducing it to a wide spectrum of clients in a huge area. "Once we are satisfied that the scheme is successful on a regional basis we will then push it out nationally. There is no reason why Lakeland Beef and Lamb cannot be recognised alongside other premium brands in the UK."

<<back