Anyone who has ever tasted one of Harrison & Griffiths' cakes knows how good they are... including the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, and son George, who once visited their stall at a food and drink show. Now the couple behind the mouth-watering treats are hoping to take it up a level by getting them onto the shelves of one of the UK's biggest supermarkets.
Arnold couple Paulette Griffiths and Colin Harrison are bidding to become Aldi's Next Big Thing. The Channel 4 TV series is giving small-scale food producers the chance to pitch their ideas for the chance of a lifetime. The duo will feature in the episode on Thursday October 27 in the hope of winning the massive contract to supply all Aldi stores in the UK.
Each week six producers pitch head-to-head. Two are chosen as finalists with just one winning the opportunity to upscale production with a potentially life-changing level of investment. The series kicked off last week with the dinner-time category.
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Aldi's managing director of buying Julie Ashfield put ready meals, sauces and meal kits to the test with the help of award-winning grocer Chris Bavin and TV presenter Anita Rani, of Countryfile and The One Show. Price, packaging, shopper demand, and the ability to scale up are considered before whittling contestants down to just two.
The finalists are then given four weeks weeks to address any feedback, before presenting improved products to Julie who decides which product will appear as a Specialbuy. A chip shop chicken curry pie was declared the winner in the first episode. This week it's the turn of bakers.
Colin and Paulette were selected after a Zoom meeting and invited to pitch in front of the cameras at Aldi's headquarters in Warwickshire. They took along their Jamaican rum cake, Caribbean fruit cake and chilli chocolate loaf - all baked in a professional set-up at their home.
Since 2015, when they combined their talents to create Harrison & Griffiths, they have sold online via their website and in person at food and drink festivals around the country - including one at Sandringham where they served Kate and son George in 2016. Paulette said: "She bought a slice of fruit cake and said 'we'll have that for tea tonight.' I thought we have just sold cake to the future king."
Sworn to secrecy about the outcome of the TV competition, the couple are giving nothing away but Colin said: "Win or lose for everyone it's the publicity none of us could afford to pay for a prime time advert. You've got exposure and online sales will go up for everybody."
Paulette, 59, said: "We travel up and down the country at food and drink shows and you couldn't reach that amount of people in an hour. For us it was an experience. Everything we brought, they tried. They enjoyed all of them. When you have someone of that calibre, in that line of work, who must have tasted thousands of cakes for their career and for them to try our cakes, it was amazing.
"We were nervous about how it would pan out. It's not like Dragon's Den where you have to know your facts, figures and forecasts and your turnover it was more about your product and you, and how you got started. We didn't need to write that down. We made it so it was just natural.
"Everyone was really nice. We were all in the same position, some a bit more established than others, but you didn't feel intimidated in any way. It was really friendly. It didn't feel like we were going into a competition."
The pair can bake up to 500 cakes for a food and drink show and in the run-up to Christmas, the busiest time of the year, they sell thousands but to supply Aldi they would have to seriously scale it up to stock the 970 stores in the UK.
Colin, 69, started baking in 1986, taking his mum Pearl's recipe for a Caribbean black cake, but making it less dense. He said: "It was nice, but it was quite heavy. I wanted a cake that when somebody had a slice, they wanted another so I took three years to develop it. A few years later it was on sale in Harrods."
He went on to do a rum cake, with three varying amounts of alcohol, including full strength that packs such a punch, it's advisable not to drive after eating it. The cakes are sold in a tin, either four inches or seven inches, priced between £10.50 and £32.50.
The keen bakers were introduced by a family friend and discovered they had a share passion for cakes. Colin had been baking to sell at craft shows around the East Midlands in the late 80s since there were no food and drink festivals back them, while Paulette's were enjoyed by friends and family.
Together they progressed from a stall in Matlock to a food and drink festival at Clumber Park attended by thousands. "It just blew us away. We couldn't cope with demand," said Paulette, who went on to quit her job as a cook at a Leonard Cheshire Home in West Bridgford to concentrate on the company.
One of the companies Harrison & Griffiths go head-to-head with on the TV show is Derby-based Project D, which recently opened a concession at Treat Kitchen in Nottingham's Victoria Centre. Max Poynton, 28, and Jake Watts, 29, who founded the company in 2018 with Matthew Bond, will appear.
The trio who share a passion for food were inspired by the USA’s 24-hour doughnut demand. After travelling the world in search of the perfect doughnut, they returned to the UK and began making their own decadent doughnuts, which they sold at small, local markets and events.
The local business has since evolved into a state-of-the-art custom bakery and a 100-strong workforce. Project D has already amassed a large online fan base, with over 142,000 Instagram followers.
Its local support grew massively during the pandemic, when the start-up business had to swiftly adapt to not only home delivery but sourcing its key ingredients of eggs, flour and yeast from local businesses during a national shortage. Best friends and doughnut enthusiasts Max and Jake said of the opportunity: “It’s a bit overwhelming really.”
Aldi's Next Big Thing can be seen on Channel 4 on October 27 at 8pm.
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