Cooke & Arkwright

Anchor food franchise

19/05/2011

A new franchise for Wiltshire Farm Foods, the UK’s leading meals delivery service which grew by 8% last year, has opened in Anchor Industrial Estate, Cardiff.  The franchisee, Peter McLaren-Kennedy said that the award winning and highly successful franchise business had proved itself to be virtually recession proof.  His confidence in the business led to his decision to invest in his own franchise. 

“My wife Julie used to be a training manager with the parent company Apetito,” he said.  “They manufacture all the food for Wiltshire Farm Foods so we knew the quality was excellent and we knew the personal level of service and special rapport that the company builds with all its customers.”

Jeremy Symons of Cooke & Arkwright, who acted on behalf of the landlord, Glen House Estates Ltd, said, “Anchor Industrial Estate is again proving popular, being in a central position to access both the city centre and other parts of Cardiff.  The estate is now 100% let, with this letting taking place only weeks after the previous occupier had vacated.  Our clients are very pleased to have another enthusiastic entrepreneur whom they have little doubt will trade successfully.”

During its first week of opening in March, the depot had to re-stock mid week as demand for the frozen meals was so high.  “By the Friday we were doing well in excess of 100 deliveries,” said Mr McLaren-Kennedy.  The depot, which services an area from Marshfield to Taffs Well in Cardiff, and to Llantwit Major in the Vale of Glamorgan, opened with one van in March and quickly progressed to three vans and seven staff by the beginning of May.  A 77-cubic-metre freezer with the capacity to store 24,000 meals has been installed in the depot.  Delivery of the food, which caters from budget meals to top of the range, as well as texture modified for those with difficulty in swallowing and digestive problems, is free and the friendly drivers, who are all security and CRB checked, get to know their clients personally.

As well as being popular with the elderly or infirm, the meals are also in demand from many people who simply want to save time and effort in their busy lives.  Meals from 235 product lines are freshly prepared by a team of chefs working closely with expert nutritionists in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.  They are frozen the moment they are cooked and delivered across the UK and Northern Ireland through the network of 70 franchises.  The company produces 15 million meals per year and every day 5,000 samples are sent for lab testing, with meals not being released to the general public until the food is cleared by the lab.

Mr McLaren-Kennedy, who is originally from South Africa and has a background in marketing and communications, said that it was a fantastic franchise to be involved with.  “The business ethos is good, there are no franchise fees, you just invest in the food,” he said.  “At the end of the day, the proof is in the eating – and you can take our customers’ word for that!”
Wiltshire Farm Foods

Pictured l to r: Gareth Baker (delivery driver) and Peter McLaren-Kennedy of Wiltshire Farm Foods, and Jeremy Symons, Cooke & Arkwright

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