What's Going On

Stephens wins Red Tractor status for HAM!

After a long period of development; some significant investment in process and equipment; three site and paper work audits; the waiting is finally over. stephens fresh foods are proud to announce our qualification to declare a ham product with Red Tractor Supplier status! We are the first wholesale / food service company in the South East to be able to supply Red Tractor ham.

The team at stephens fresh foods have been working on this project for nearly a year now and we are delighted to have completed the final part of the process. In order to gain our RED TRACTOR qualification we have first had to attain BRC accreditation. This ensures that the product we are selling is safe. It is the industry standard qualification for food businesses these days and demonstrates our commitment to TOTAL QUALITY. The BRC system carefully measures the performance of your processes and of your buildings, staff and equipment against a strict set of standards. Not so tough for us as we have been BRC certificated  since 2002.

Next we had to present our product for scrutiny to the Charter Ham Scheme as designed by the British Meat Processors Association.  The standards here are very strict to ensure that the product we are making is truly British and that it delivers a product that is of the highest possible standards every time it is made. This ensures that our customers can be certain that the product they buy will hit the same high quality EVERY time. Thanks to some valuable help from our friends at BPEX and particularly from Tony Goodger we were able to satisfy the high standards of the Charter ham scheme.

Now we are a fully registered member of the Red Tractor scheme. It means that our customers can be certain of a British reared, high quality pork product. You can see all the details of what having a RED TRACTOR marked product means by looking at this link:  RED TRACTOR WEBSITE.

In the meantime, if you would like to discuss the Red Tractor products available from stephens fresh foods then give Alan or Malcolm a call on 01634 684148.

Hard Work rewarded part II!

Company Chairman, Steve Leadbitter, was delighted this week to be congratulating some more of our hard working team who have attained NVQ awards. Last year we had our first clutch of successful 'graduates' and we are delighted that this success has been echoed by our second cohort of NVQ students. They have been working away (as well as doing their usual jobs) to qualify in the prestigious scheme which recognises their experience and skill level within the food industry. It has taken over six months to complete the training and Steve was chuffed to share in their success. You can see Steve with the successful participants below. They all received a cash bonus as well as their certificates. The award marks their expertise as food handlers and recognises their transferable skills. Well done from all of us at stephens!

Back Row (L to R) Paul Wakefield, Kevin Ware, Andrew Weller, Stephen Leadbitter, Andrew Treen

Front Row (L to R) Natalie Baker, Nick Luff, Sam Ojo, Danny Abbott, Simon Goodchild

Taste Of Kent

Company Chairman Steve Leadbitter, has been out and about and was spotted recently at Kent's Leeds Castle. It was to present an award to local producers in conjunction with Produced in Kent and their Taste of Kent competition where local producers are judged on their output.  Stephens fresh foods were proud to provide sponsorship for these prestigious awards and encourage fellow local producers.

Beef 

Since we last looked at this information, the price of beef is getting firmer and firmer. The reasons remain the same with increasing pressure on the cereal markets driving up the price of feed. The markets that drive the world price have been particularly hard hit. We have already seen the effect in Argentina where output has been dramatically reduced since last year. The price for the product was favourable last year in Argentina and the cost of feed was increasing month on month so the farmers took the view to slaughter in larger volumes. That means the available output from Argentina is much less this year (2011). It's a similar story all across South America and the disputes between Brazil and the EU haven't helped. USA is a massive beef producer and the price of corn (which is linked closely to the beef price in the USA) continues to rise and therefore so does the beef price. Coupled with this, the terrible natural disasters in Australia (a big supplier of beef to the far East) and the continuing droughts in China and Russia; mean that demand for beef keeps going up. All in all this means the European market price for beef hasn't been so strong for years and inevitably we are having to pay more for our raw material.  We have secured enough raw material to keep our price under control until June, but it looks as though this will be a very difficult year for any products affected by the price of grain.

It has meant that we have had to increase our price on corned beef AGAIN and now for our range of general beef products.

Turkey

In a much more straight-forward way our turkey products will be suffering for all the reasons stated above. The difference is that poultry products usually feel the price rises first (being a shorter lived animal). We have been working incredibly hard with our poultry partner to secure the very best pricing deal and together we have managed to avoid any price rises for our customers through 2010. However, it has had a hard impact on the profits of our supply partner and we cannot avoid the inevitable increase in the raw material price forever. We are proud of the quality of our poultry products and in order to maintain a relationship that secures the long term future of our supply we are expecting to see a price rise in the Spring of 2011.

Red Tractor

Thanks to some help and support from our good friends in BPEX ; we are moving closer and closer to being able to supply our first Red Tractor ham product! The product has been approved in principal and we are finishing off the final paper requirements. We expect to be able to provide this product from the end of April 2011. Give us a call to find out more 01634 684148.

SFF Goes International

Whilst we have always had strong links with Europe (many of our deli lines are imported directly from Spain and Italy) we are now starting to find a more International market for our products. For some time we have been selling our extensive range for export into the Middle East; we have recently forged new links with a customer in Paphos, Cyprus. After returning from a recent "business trip" to the sunny isle; company Chairman Steve Leadbitter was happy to report that we were continuing to go from stregth to strength with "Butcher Boy" Should you find yourself on holiday there this Summer why not pop in - you'll find plenty of British style cuts on deliciously fresh meat as well as a range of home grown deli favourites from us! Including everything from pork pies to hams.



 

 Hard Work rewarded

Company Chairman, Steve Leadbitter, was delighted recently to be congratulating some of the hard working team who have attained NVQ awards. They have been working away (as well as doing their usual jobs) to qualify in the prestigious scheme which recognises their experience and skill level within the food industry. It has taken over six months to complete the training and Steve was chuffed to share in their success. You can see Steve with the succseful participants below. They all received a cash bonus as well as their certificates. The award marks their expertise as food handlers and recognises their transferable skills.

Well done from all of us at stephens!

From left to right (Back row) Leigh Rumble; Viv Weeks; Steve Leadbitter; Sharon Foord (Technical Manager - mentored the award scheme)

(Front Row) Learna Speed; Mick Barry; Gary Luff; Paul Askew

Flying High with sff pastrami

Our sliced pastrami has also now been accepted onto the prestigous "Dorchester afternoon tea" range on first class services from London to the USA with British Airways. Any product that is accepted into this range has to be approved by the Chef's at the Dorchester who told us that they enjoyed our product thoroughly. This outstanding product is amazing value why not give us a call to add it to your range 01634 684148. 

Local Products

News of local products continues to develop at stephens fresh foods following our joining of the local suppliers organisation in our region - Produced in Kent! You can read our entry on the organisations website at www.producedinkent.co.uk. We have now developed regional products for our customers like Kent Honey Baked Ham. These are exciting developments in the company history of always being at the forefront of innovation. Give us a call if you want to hear the good news story around these products - AND more in the pipeline!

You can now find all of our products listed in our latest brochure which you can download from this site, with even more information than ever before! We have listened to feedback from our customers who wanted to see more detailed descriptions and more menu ideas and improved the layout to give a cleaner, fresher, look. 

Most important of all we have improved the information on Country of Origin which is ever more important with end users these days. The brochure is easy as pie to download just click on this download link . When you find the product you are interested in (and there are some mouth watering choices!) just give us a call on 01634 684148 and we·ll ensure you get the top of the range service you·ve come to expect from stephens.

With all the talk in the market place on Country of Origin and product provenence; we at stephens felt it was high time that we made a bit more fuss about the origins of our ham products. We have all seen the stories in the media about imported goods being repacked and labelled as British and we get as upset about that as everyone else!

In our case, we prefer our legs of pork, that go on to become some of the finest hams around (once they have been lovingly cured by Gary and his team); are from English farms. We source from farms in the South and East of England.

We care passionately about the provenance of our product and about the standards of care that our farmers adehere to. We at stephens believe in a naturally reared product manufactured from English legs of pork.

All our meat is from traceable sources.