A Fife food company is branching out into retail after launching a new range at supermarket giant Morrisons.
Sephra, based in Kirkcaldy, will sell its cake mix, chocolate and popcorn in a number of stores in Scotland.
If successful, the company hopes the venture could add £3-4 million in revenue every year.
Evolving from a garage in Fife, they started as a chocolate fountain supplier for large events.
Popcorn and chocolate
A new focus on retailing means more items are expected to fill supermarket shelves, should the trial be successful.
That is according to sales and business development manager Callum Bond, who spoke of his excitement of the trial run.
“Sephra is a food service supplier, mainly in sweet treats; waffles, crepes, doughnuts, etc.” he said.
“It started as a chocolate company and added on bits and pieces throughout the years.
“We do large format food service packs, primarily, but in 2015 we landed an equipment supply deal with Asda.
“They had a desire to put some ‘theatre’ in their in-store bakeries, with the idea of putting pop corn dispensers in.
“Off the back of that, we got the supply of pop corn itself, and over the years it has evolved into a pre-packaged, cardboard tub.
“If you’ve seen the pin-striped cardboard tubs in shops, that’s us.
“That was the only retail product we had, but what we wanted to do was leverage our experience with retail to develop our own consumer brand.
“We have these great restaurant-quality ingredients, all we needed was a consumer pack and someone to take a punt on it.”
Pitching to supermarkets
The company started to develop its own range of foods, looking to sell them in supermarkets for general sale.
But after tasting success with pop corn, it appears the range could go further, Callum adds.
“For the last year we have been pitching this idea and it has turned into our current trial in 13 Morrisons Scottish stores.
“Off the back of that, hopefully it can become something that is much bigger.
“It has sold incredibly well already, and above expectation.
“Based on that, it could get listed through all 60 stores.
“From there it could potentially work its way back to the UK buyer in Bradford — which could be worth £2-3 million per year.
“The trial is smaller scale at this stage, if it stays in the current number of stores over the next six months it could be worth around £60,000, we anticipate.
“But if it could go nationwide across all Scottish stores, we are in the region of £300,000 per year of added revenue.”
Fife food in Morrisons
The popcorn and cake mixes are available in Kirkcaldy and Perth, and supermarkets on the west coast.
Iain McCallum, buying manager for Morrisons, said: “We are always keen to support Scottish suppliers and the launch of Sephra lines across a selection of our stores has already brought great feedback from our customers and colleagues alike.
“We look forward to continuing to grow our relationship with the team at Sephra and bring their exciting range to a wider audience.”
