South Lincs at the London Coffee Festival

As part of South Lincs Foodservice’s expanding speciality Coffee and Espresso branch, we undertook a reconnoissance mission to the London Coffee Festival to have a up-close-and-personal look at upcoming coffee trends. As well as some spectacular exhibits from the industry big boys like Starbucks and Costa, the event was primarily exhibiting offerings from smaller, boutique businesses. These small roasters, manufacturers and producers were of particular interest, as their business ethos mirror many of our customers; small, often family-fun, tight margins but a genuine passion for their product and business.

We really enjoyed the day, tasted some amazing coffees and walked away inspired and with many new ideas brewing away in our heads. We have some new cafe themed products we would like to introduce over the next year, and are looking forward to announcing a few of these in the near future. In the meantime, we’re continuing to pursue the perfect Medium Roast blend, service and install customer’s machines, researching chocolate and are looking forward to rubbing shoulders with more of the coffee trade at Caffe Culture at London’s Olympia on May 14-15th.

 

Winners of the Trade Show prize draw

As part of our Trade Show & Exhibition, we included the opportunity to win one of three 42″ HD 3D Flatscreen Cinema Display televisions – and we’re happy to finally announce the winners of the draw!

 

The Great Northern Inn in Newark, Nottinghamshire  /   The White Swan, Dunham on Trent, Nottinghamshire  / The Iron Horse Ranch House, Market Deeping, Lincolnshire

Richard Swinscoe and the crew at The Iron Horse

Elaine from the White Swan with her brand new LG Cinema Display TV

James at the Great Northern Inn with his new LG 3D HD TV

Depot General Manager, John Tomlinson drawing the names….

SLF Trade Show and Exhibition

Our annual Trade Show and Exhibition at Springfields Events Centre on the 19th of March was a fabulous success. We were thrilled to see so many of our customers take time out of their busy days, step away from their busy kitchens to come and visit our show. Suppliers had really gone all-out this year with their stands and the quality and quantity of foods and samples that they brought. At one point, it had become so busy, some rows has become a bit congested with people chatting, sampling, asking questions, comparing prices and generally enjoying themselves. This seemed particularly acute around the dessert and ice cream stands…..happily for all, the natural flow returned swiftly and foot traffic remained steady for most of the day. Exhibitors seemed very pleased with the turn-out and enjoyed the opportunity to get face time with the customers buying their products.

We’re currently logging in all the orders and once completed, we will proceed with the drawing for the three 3D, HD flatscreen TV’s that we’ve been bragging about. Winners will be announced here in addition to being contacted directly.

Good luck, and thank you again for all of those who attended. For those who didn’t; we hope to see you next spring.

-The Team as SLF

Yarde Farm new flavours

Birchall’s Tea

Yarde Farm – Blue Bubblegum Ice Cream

Meadowvale chicken and poultry

Red, White, Rose, Sparkling…

Walls / Carte d’Or

Panesco

Area Sales Manager, Graham having a chat with Unilever reps

Panesco

Sweet Street

selection from the SLF Wine Cellar table

South Lincs Foodservice Coffee + Espresso

Sweet Street

Carte d’Or

Handmade Cake Co

Further wine tasting

customers enjoyed tasting and sampling

Macphie

Carefully perusing the order book

Sweet Street Desserts

Chantilly

Walls / Carte d’Or

Paella

Frobisher’s

Sidoli

Major foods cooking on-site

Lutosa

Quick Fill

Chantilly

Unilever

Classic Desserts

South Lincs Foodservice Fresh Meat

Major

Rich Sauces

South Lincs Foodservice Fresh Meats

South Lincs Foodservice Coffee + Espressp

Arla Dairy

Birchall’s

Quality Cuisine

Yarde Farm

Innovate 21

Wright’s

Chantilly

Cafedirect + Birchall’s

Panesco

Speciality Bread

Banner Foods

Wine tasting at South Lincs Foodservice Wine Cellar

Sales Manager, Shelley from SLF Coffee + Espresso

Beckett’s Bacon

Area Sales Manager, Ron “testing” some of the ice creams

Lee Kum Kee

We have Coffee + Cake

| South Lincs Supports The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning |

Here at South Lincs, there are few things we like more than coffee and cake. At the same time, there is nothing we dislike more than cancer. With many members of our staff having been affected directly or indirectly by this disease, Macmillian Cancer Support’s annual “The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning” is something everyone here can get behind.

Festivities started on Thursday, with members of our team bringing in cakes, breads, quiches, cream, jams and of course coffee to share and help raise funds. We have a few talented professionals and very ambitious amateur chefs and pastry chefs on staff, so the standard was set very high. ( editor’s note: the bloggess’ talents start and end with brewing fresh coffee…no hidden baking talents here ) Here are some examples from the day:

Just a small selection of the goodies on offer

A British classic

Sticky and utterly indulgent Millionarie

Ingenious cake-in-cone with icing and a 99

Some of us really got into the mood…!

Guess the Bean and Who’s Baby Photo

Grapefruit cakes

We also asked customers on both Thursday and Friday to donate just 20p with their orders to go towards our fundraiser, to which many responded positively. In fact many donated significantly higher than that token amount, and to that we say “Thank you”! We raised a total of £354.60 from our customer’s generosity alone.

Our “Guess the Beans” competition was won by Area Sales Manager, Calvin with a prize of £10.00 which he promptly stuffed back into the donations box ( what a star!)

Julie ( in the green wig ) raised £50.00 on the day doing a sponsored “no swearing day”.  Her customers thought it was bliss!

Through feeding our faces on wonderful homemade cakes, a “Guess Who’s Baby Photo” quiz, our accounts member, Phil being charged 20p per cup of coffee drank on Thursday (Ironic, as he was the brainwave to staff being charged for hot drinks in the first place) and peoples generosity a further total of £163.08 from the staff was raised.

 The grand total collected for the two days was:  £582.68

Just to give you an idea of what that sort of money can buy:

• £70 could help run a large Macmillan information and support centre for one hour
• £50 could pay for a Macmillan Grant that buys someone with cancer a microwave,making it easier for them to prepare their food.

A genuine “Thank you” to all our customers who helped support our efforts. 

The Lincolnshire Food Festival

The Lincolnshire Food Festival will be held on the 21st and 22nd September at Meridian Park with over 60 traders, a number of celebrity chefs including Levi Roots and cookery demonstrations through-out both days.

“Lincolnshire is leading the way in living off the land, keeping old traditions and recipes well and truly alive and relevant in the modern society.   The county boasts a plethora of quality food producers skilled in seasonal, sustainable and organic agriculture.

Lincolnshire food finds its way on to many menus across the country and also onto the dinner tables of many homes. Lincolnshire plum bread, marbled Lincoln Red Beef, Lincolnshire Sausages and Lincolnshire Poacher Cheese are to name just a few.

The Lincolnshire Food Festival 2013 will bring an eclectic mix of mouth-watering treats s to suit every taste. It is our aim to ensure that the festival offers the freshest and highest quality produce. It is going to be a fantastic artisan food event as well as an arena that will showcase locally produced arts and crafts.

Hand-picked award winning local producers will come together to bring a selection of the finest award-winning, awe-inspiring foods and quality produce.  The festival will not only showcase what the county of Lincolnshire has to offer – but bring together great examples of food from around the country and across the globe.

The theme for this years festival is ‘Around the World and Home Again’, featuring the freshest and highest quality food producers and traders both local and from across the country – and offering some of the tastiest foods for you to try.

The festival will show people of all ages that cooking good, healthy food need not be difficult, nor expensive, and that there are alternatives to processed food or supermarket ready meals.”

Full schedule of events and list of exhibitors can be found here. Entry appears to be from about £5.50 + fees.

The celebrity Chefs on hand for the weekend are: Nigel Brown, Levi Roots ( from Dragon’s Den fame ) Franck Pontais, Steve Legg, Serge and Duncan and Steven Bennett. Chefs will be giving demonstrations throughout the weekend, check the schedule for exact dates and times.

 

South Lincs Foodservice Trade Show and Exhibition

It’s just about spring ( or so the calendar tells us, as I write this update, beaming sunshine then snow and sleet alternately pound the windows..but we live in hope… ) and along with spring comes our annual Trade Show and Exhibition on March 20th, 2013.

This year we have 63 stands of exhibitors, ranging from multinationals like Unilever, General Mills, Coca-Cola and Nestle to smaller but equally well known companies like; Innovate Foods, Paramount 21, Oakfarm Foods, Banner, Quality Cuisine, Speciality Breads, Ticco-Bindi, Rich Sauces, Classic Desserts, Bottle Green, Sweet Street and Aulds to boutique brands like; Salty Dog, Food Sellers, Belvoir Fruit Farms and Frobishers. Just to name a few….

It’s a well rounded selection covering Chilled, Buffet and Starters, Mains, Meats, Poultry, Seafoods, Bakery and Patisserie, Desserts, Ambient items and Non-Food offerings. We are also proudly exhibiting our new Fresh Meat selection as well as our coffee and espresso offering. To add a little extra spice to the day, we’re also offering two, free, iPad Minis just for attending and placing an order. A random drawing will be held shortly after the show, and our winners will be notified by telephone or post in addition to the website. 

As in years previous, it’s being held at the Springfields Events Centre, in Spalding, Lincolnshire. Situated right next door to the Springfields Outlet Shopping and Festival Gardens, so it’s an ideal to make a day of the event. Come, meet and greet with suppliers, sample new foods and flavours, order your favourites and new menu selections at discount, then take advantage of the outlet shopping and restaurants right next door ( That is, if you can eat any more…) and the possibility of winning an iPad Mini.

Tickets have been sent along with your January-February and March-April Special Offers. If you have misplaced your ticket, please visit the Trade Show page of our website, to download and print one instead. One ticket will suffice for your entire group.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The Very Best of the East Midlands – SLF Sponsors Food & Drink Awards

South Lincs Foodservice was proud to be involved with and sponsor The East Midlands Food and Drink Awards, having been involved with the very first awards in 2011. Last Sunday night, we attended a glittering black tie dinner and awards ceremony at the Greetham Valley Golf Club to cheer on the areas best examples of food and drink – as voted by their customers and readers of the East Midlands Newspapers Group.

The Food and Drink Awards is designed to recognise the quality of food and drink from around the region. From posh nosh to chippies, it’s an event set out to find the best places to eat and drink, and also recognise them for their efforts.

South Lincs sponsored the “Best Gastro Pub” category and our Midlands Managing Director, Dave Hodgson was pleased to award The Windmill at Redmile the honours.

Our congrats to all the nominees and our regards to the Chefs at the Greetham Valley Golf Club for lovely menu which featured perfectly cooked lamb, an achievement in itself for such a quantity of diners.

We look forward to seeing who’s up for the awards in 2013

South Lincs Foodservice Trade Show | We’re still recovering

The 2012 Trade Show is over, but we had a fantastic turnout from both our exhibitors and customers alike, with people still strolling around the exhibition centre at 6:00pm. Clearly, people were enjoying the sample tastings and considering WHICH two items from each stand they wanted to order.

Since then, telesales have been kept double-busy filling orders from your books and arranging the deliveries for the requested dates. The South Lincs Team who were on hand throughout the day have been soaking sore feet ever since. (we’re sure the Company Reps who were on their feet from the early hours of morning to evening are still soaking too.. )

Our sincere thanks to everyone who made the effort and came out to support us and our Exhibitors. We hope the day was worthwhile and secured some great deals for yourselves. We’re looking forward to next year, and thank you for your continued support