Two of Cornwall’s oldest family firms have joined forces in a keep-it-local boost for the county’s catering industry.
St Agnes-based Doble Quality Foods, Cornwall’s largest independent wholesale distributor of frozen and chilled food, has until now sourced all its bread from out of the county.
Following recent major investment, The Chough Bakery at Padstow has struck up its first trading relationship with the company and will supply three bespoke bread products for Dobles to deliver to its customers in Cornwall and south Devon.
For The Chough, the deal is a break-out from its previous bread sales territory – with its core catchment area of ten miles.
For Dobles, which is now in its 62nd year of trading, it is another milestone in its continuing policy of sourcing more and more products locally and ends a long search for a Cornish supplier of frozen bread.
The Chough, probably best known until recently for its Cornish Pasties, now produces over 100 bakery products following the opening of a new manufacturing unit on Padstow’s Trecerus Industrial Estate.
Those products include the three to be supplied to Dobles – sliced granary and white bloomer loaves and focaccia Italian-style bread.
The recipes for these have been created with the help of additional bakery experts expressly drafted in for the purpose.
“One of the results is that this bread will be every bit as good quality as fresh bread, which is not normally possible with frozen bread,” said Chough senior partner Elaine Ead.
“With our greatly expanded capacity, we are actively pursuing opportunities to develop other bespoke products for supply over a much wider area than we have covered to date. In the present difficult economic climate, the Dobles deal is also a very welcome aid to preserving our staff levels.”
Dobles managing director Ian Doble commented: “We are delighted to link up in this way with The Chough – which is precisely the sort of bakery we have been seeking for many years.
“We believe that both from the economic and environmental viewpoints it is now more important than ever to source locally wherever possible and our range of Cornish products will continue to grow.”
The three products supplied to Dobles by The Chough will have an early boost when they are showcased at the Cornwall Catering Excellence exhibition at Kingsley Village on February 24 and the Expowest event at the Royal Cornwall Showground, Wadebridge, from March 3-5.
Dobles employs 24 people and The Chough, whose roots stretch back to 1952, employs the same number in the summer and 12 in winter.
