We often use this blog to bring you trends, ideas and special events in the food industry, but this month we’re getting more personal and we’d like to give you a sneaky peek into the workings of the Quattro Foods office in Portsmouth. So, what’s happening at Quattro HQ?
New products
We recently submitted final samples for a tender for a Norwegian waffle batter. We love waffles! Experimenting with our new waffle iron has been great fun this summer, and we’ve especially enjoyed all the samples we’ve had to test!
As always, our NPD department is bustling with excitement over some brilliant new products in the pipeline, many inspired by Sam’s Italian adventure last month.
What we’re working on right now:
- Pasta e fagioli soup
- Wild boar pasta sauce
- Venison, pulled beef and Chianti sauce
- Swedish meatballs
- Iberico pulled pork ragu
It’s all about the people
Great products don’t come out of nowhere – they’re designed and made by an amazing group of people. Our team is continuing to evolve and in our recent recruitment drive we introduced four new team members. And bringing new people on board is just the start. We’re committed to ensuring that everyone is working well, is happy at work, and producing great products. All junior managers and team leaders have been trained to audit the business, so we’ll be carrying out lots more internal audits over the next few months to ensure we stay on top form in terms of compliance, as well as highlighting areas for improvement.
Personal celebrations
Production Operative Til and his wife are expecting their first baby in October, which is exciting!
Laura (Head of Finance and HR) passed her final exam and is now a fully ACCA qualified accountant. Congrats Laura!
It’s all getting greener at Quattro
We’ve increased our food waste recycling, which is now being used for creating bio-fuel and we have some new recyclable food pouches being trialled.
Energy reduction initiatives
At Quattro Foods the climate crisis is always front of mind and we’re always working on reducing waste and energy consumption in as many areas of the business as possible.
Dairy tank refurb
We’ve refurbished our old farm dairy tanks and fitted them with glycol chilling and aeration, making the chilling and cleaning of pouches more efficient. This means we don’t have to use our blast freezers overnight, saving energy and reducing overall chill times, so we can produce goods in larger pack sizes, which also reduces utility cost and handling time.
Thinking green at Quattro Foods
We used some grant funding to overhaul our costly extraction system, by rethinking the whole design which has resulted in a smaller footprint, less maintenance and lower electrical usage. We’ve reduced CO2 emissions by a huge amount, and we’ve also downsized our generator toreduce our long-term diesel usage.
Supporting the army
We’ve pledged our support for the Armed Forces Covenant, which we will be signing in the admiral’s cabin on the HMS Victory shortly, countersigned by the Naval commanding officer. It will be a memorable day for us all!
Future plans
Plans have been drawn up for a newly designed development kitchen at Quattro HQ, which we hope to start building when funds allow – watch this space!