Cambridge Cluster

Image via WikipediaDriving down to stay with my cousins, owners of Doble Quality Foods – suppliers to the Catering Trade in Cornwall and South Devon – I always look forward to my first pasty from the St Agnes bakery.  Tasty, very tasty as they say and so are their butter buns.

Whilst St Agnes Bakery supplies the locals in St Agnes, Rowe’s of Penryn has been baking since 1949 and supply Doble Quality Foods and many others with a range of products.  Rowe’s has a good website and tells of how the the miners used to hold the pastie by the crust side so not to put their dirty hands on their lunch.  The problem office workers have with pasties is the crumbs getting into the computer’s keyboard – no shaking get them out!

“But the growth really began after Bill’s marriage to Phyllis Wallace in 1963.The combination of his baking and her selling skills and drive led to many more shops in neighbouring towns during the 1960s and 70s.”  But if Phyllis was so important to the growth of the business why is there only an obituary about Bill on the website?  It is all a bit like the Cambridge Cluster with the emphasis on the technology and not the key skill of selling!

I wonder if Phyllis owned any shares in the business or was a director?  The world has changed a bit since those days but fortunately for us the Cornish pastie is still the best food for a bracing day on the Cornish coast and thank goodness we do not have to go down the mines to enjoy one!  They did not have a business plan resource in those days.

With happy memories of a wonderful family Christmas with the proprietors of Doble Quality Foods, Suppliers to the Catering Trade in Cornwall and South Devon, I am enthused to look at some of their suppliers.

This cluster of food manufacturers is quite different from companies in the Cambridge Cluster.  They are family run and controlled companies and many in their second and earlier generations.  It is interesting to think about the equity structures of each business as they pass down the generations.  All the companies are closely linked to the farming world which has similar problems of passing down ownership of the business.

Whilst Cambridge Cluster companies have ideas which they hope to sell to the world, the products of the Cornish Cluster companies are mainly for local consumption and rely on the customers coming to the South West of England.  Transport links have improved over the years but avoid travel on change-over Saturdays in the very busy summer school holidays.  The development of Newquay Airport (remember to pay the local tax or you cannot get out) has made it more accessible.  You can always take the Cornish Riviera and sleep on the way down in your bunk.  It is better for returning to London as you do not have to worry about getting off at your station.

There is a market for the people from the South West who are now scattered round the world and want a Taste of the West for a celebration when the cost of the goods is dwarfed by the cost of transport – but who cares for a precious moment!  Logistics can be difficult as it is not good for perishable food to be stuck or lost in transit for a few days.

Cornwall needs to develop other industries and to do so will require a business plan resource.

Of course, the ego of Rich Stein will insist that he put Cornwall on the gormet map and it was just gormand before him.  At least you can be sure of a warm and generous welcome from the members of Taste of the West whereas Jasper Gerard, writing in his Your Table is Ready on “Padstein”, comments about the “accusation of arrogance that sniffs the air”.  Gerard also comments that Stein “fired the first shot in the Cornish food revolution” – not sure if the people of Kernow agree with that.

Image via WikipediaThe last couple of weeks has been one of much drinking and eating, walking and kite flying.  The top of the food chain so to speak must be the tasty smoked salmon supplied by Cornish Cuisine to Doble Quality Foods, suppliers to the catering trade in Cornwall and South Devon.

I tried the half-price smoked salmon from the very helpful staff at Sainsburys but it paled, literally, by comparison to the best from Cornish Cuisine.  The latter was so good that my son and his beau were presented with a pack to return to the big smoke on London.  I just wish I could take some home but a side of salmon is even too much for me to eat even on tasty cob bread from the St Agnes Bakery