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East Midlands Fine Foods

East Midlands Fine Foods and convenience store group Budgens have gone into partnership to put more locally sourced foods on the shelves of Budgens stores in the region.

Fourteen specialist producers from the region are supplying ten Budgens stores across the East Midlands with a wide range of food and drink, including meat, pickles, oils, puddings, flour, beer, ice cream and specialist breads.

Formally launched at Budgens’ Northampton store on October 3rd, the partnership will lead to around 60 new local lines featuring on the retailer’s shelves. And all will be sold under the banner of East Midlands Fine Foods.

East Midlands Fine Foods Manager Paul Cullen says: “We are delighted that a major High Street retailer like Budgens is going to stock local and speciality food and drink in its stores in the East Midlands . This will benefit consumers, as well as producers, and is good news for the local economy.

“It will also help to reduce the distance that food travels before it reaches the plate, which helps to cut food miles and is better for the environment.”

Says Jonathon Bayne, who oversees local food sourcing for Budgens:

”Consumers are increasingly wanting to buy locally grown or produced food and at Budgens we have been committed to the concept for a number of years, gradually rolling out local ranges across the country.  East Midlands Fine Foods gives us a vital link with producers in the region and we’re proud that we can offer them a route to a wider market through our Budgens stores.  We’ve chosen the launch date to coincide with British Food Fortnight, which Musgrave Retail Partners GB is sponsoring for the fourth year running.”

The link between Budgens and East Midlands Fine Foods is part of ongoing work by EMFF to boost the profile of local food and speciality products from the region. The organization, which is part of The Food & Drink Forum, is funded by the East Midlands Development Agency (emda) and Food from Britain . 



Budgens also has a commitment to increasing the number of local lines it stocks, and has launched similar partnerships in other regions including East Anglia , Sussex , the West Country and Heart of England.   Musgrave Budgens Londis is  also sponsoring British Food Fortnight  for the third year running. 

Distribution of the East Midlands products is being co-ordinated by Transfresh from its base at Southglade Food Park , Nottingham .

Transfresh Director Clive Hallam says: “It’s often very difficult for small, specialist producers to get their products to retailers, but we have developed a system which overcomes this hurdle. The producers will be making just one weekly trip to our base, and then we will be distributing the products to the ten stores in the East Midlands – making it simpler for both supplier and retailer.”

Further suppliers are likely to get involved in the partnership in the future, leading to additional local lines on Budgens’ shelves.

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