Wigan curry company win international business with food fit for a Queen

Family firm Pasco Spices & Herbs, who produce a range of sauces, curry pastes, chutneys and pickles from their purpose built premises in Wigan, have won new business in Portugal after serving up a feast fit for the Queen at the British Ambassador's residence in Lisbon.

Seema Khade and daughters Nina and Neeta, were invited by Richard Turner, UKTI's Director for Trade & Investment in Portugal, to cater for the Ambassador's annual Queen's Birthday Party, attended by hundreds of the British Embassy's key contacts.

Their feast of chicken jalfrezi, chicken balti and chick pea and potato dopiaza went down so well with the assembled guests that two Portuguese supermarket chains have decided to stock their products and they now have a new distributor in the country.

The Ambassador's party is the latest event in a long collaboration with UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), which has resulted in a rapidly expanding worldwide customer base.

Pasco Spices & Herbs was set up 16 years ago by entrepreneur Maggan Khade to supply grocery retailers with their high quality sauces and condiments. They grow and grind ingredients that are difficult to find in the UK on their own plantations in India, then import them for their production line. Other ingredients such as cream and vegetables are sourced locally in the Greater Manchester / Lancashire region to support local producers and reduce their carbon footprint.

The company have always catered for the export market, with business in Europe and Australia, but had previously just handled orders as they came rather than dealing with a major distributor. Three years ago they signed up for Passport to Export, UKTI's flagship programme for new and inexperienced exporters which offers training, funding and ongoing support for companies, and since then have worked with International Trade Adviser Carol Wilson to expand into North America, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

As well as Portugal, they have attended and exhibited at several prestigious trade shows with help from UKTI and the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA), including SIAL, Paris; the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York and the PLMA Trade Show in Amsterdam. They have also been on a trade development visit to India and are hoping to return to SIAL, Paris, in October this year.

Nina Khade, Sales and Marketing Director for Pasco, says,

"We have found the support received from UKTI invaluable, and it has helped us grow our business in several new markets. We are still quite a small family firm and it was very helpful to have our International Trade Adviser, Carol Wilson. Carol has been a great support and is always on hand to offer us advice, and we have found that working with a respected international trade organisation such as UKTI has helped us to meet prestigious buyers and distributors worldwide.

"Catering at the Queen's Birthday Party was a wonderful occasion for us - and the food certainly went down well, we received a lot of compliments. We didn't go out to Lisbon with the intention of looking for new business, but we have received contracts and met a new distributor as a result of our cooking that day, and now we are planning more development overseas and hope to increase our production capacity in order to expand further."

Richard Turner, UKTI Director for Trade in Portugal, says,

"We have been working closely with Pasco Spices over the last couple of years. When we first met in the Algarve we discussed the possibility of them participating in the annual Queen's Birthday Party at the Ambassador's residence in Lisbon, an event which always draws a large crowd and helps us to promote British business to the Embassy's key contacts.

"Pasco Spices participation was the first company ever to come out and prepare their own food, and their dishes went down extremely well. We are delighted to hear that they have secured business in Portugal as a result and hope to continue our association with them in the future.

Carol Wilson, International Trade Adviser to the Food and Drink sector for UK Trade & Investment North West, says,

"Food and drink is a priority sector in the North West and is one of the most productive in the region. We are fortunate enough to have a thriving industry here, worth over £9.5 billion to the region's economy, and the North West also boasts more local food manufacturing enterprises than any other UK region.

"UKTI offer plenty of help for businesses in this sector, working closely with Food Northwest, the region's leading agency for the food and drink industry, to provide a wide range of support from market research to trade missions and networking events, as well as providing popular UKTI services such as the Passport to Export programme.

"Pasco Spices & Herbs have been working with us for several years now to build on their success, and are slowly achieving global market penetration with their quality range of foods.

"Their catering at the British Ambassador's residence was a roaring success and they were delighted to be able to further their business as a result of their popularity at the event.

"We now hope to continue working with Pasco as they continue their expansion overseas, and we would encourage other businesses in the sector hoping to achieve similar international ambitions to contact us for help and advice."

For further information on UK Trade & Investment services, contact the North West International Trade Team Tel: 0845 603 7053 E-mail: info@uktinorthwest.co.uk