New Product Guide Release 2024

Brusco Unveils 2024 Product Guide for Food Industry Customers

Brusco Food Group, a trusted supplier of quality food ingredients to the manufacturing and food service sectors, has released their 2024 Product Guide, designed as a resource for buyers and development teams in the food manufacturing sector to easily source quality food ingredients.

Key highlights of the ingredients Product Guide include:

  • Comprehensive listings of ingredients categorised by type, format and packaging sizes.
  • Useful insights on new ingredients to tackle some of the challenges in the food industry such as allergen management, sodium reduction and production cost control
  • Visibility of the supply chain employed by Brusco to bring quality ingredients to customers

Andrew Ashby, Managing Director of Brusco Food Group, said:

“We are excited to introduce the latest Brusco Product Guide, a crucial document for manufacturers who seek reliable and consistent quality food ingredients.”

“With this comprehensive guide at their fingertips, our customers can make informed decisions about ingredient selection and sourcing, ultimately driving innovation and competitiveness in the food industry. Our team of category managers are also constantly assessing our product range to ensure it remains competitive while delivering the consistent quality our customers expect.”

New to the product range are freeze-dried ingredients, following the hiring of Brusco’s latest Category Manager, Cindy Morrissette.

Cindy Morrissette, Category Manager for Brusco Food Group, said:

“This new freeze-dried range fits in perfectly with Brusco’s products, offering a product that will preserve the natural integrity of ingredients, locking in flavour, aroma and nutrients whilst removing moisture. It results in lightweight, shelf-stable ingredients that maintain their original texture, colour and nutritional value, making them ideal for a wide range of applications from snacking to ready meals and food service.”

For more information about the Ingredients Product Guide and how it can benefit your manufacturing operations, visit the Brusco website and download the full guide today: www.brusco.co.uk

 

 

Brusco Earns Great Place to Work Award

Brusco Food Group has been officially accredited as a Great Place to Work-Certified™ company.

Using validated employee feedback gathered by Great Place to Work® – the global authority on workplace culture, with its rigorous, data-driven For All™ methodology – the accreditation confirms that at least 65% of employees have a consistently positive experience at Brusco. 82% of employees at Brusco said that the company is a great place to work, while the national average at a typical UK based company is 54%.

93% of Brusco employees also stated that they are proud to work for the company.

Andrew Ashby, Managing Director of Brusco Food Group, said: “We’re delighted that Brusco has been formally recognised as a Great Place to Work-Certified™ company. This certification means a huge amount as it is purely based on feedback from the Brusco team about our workplace culture.”

“Our continued success as a trusted ingredients partner is down to our dedicated team. Importantly we have fun, celebrate our successes and recognise everyone’s contribution in living our purpose to set the benchmark for quality, service and integrity. We work hard to be an employer of choice, by building high levels of trust and offering development opportunities.”

Benedict Gautrey, Managing Director of Great Place to Work® UK, added: “We congratulate Brusco Food Group on achieving their Certification™. Organisations which put the employee experience at the heart of their business gain their employees’ trust and, in turn, are truly able to build a great workplace culture that delivers outstanding business results.”

To view the jobs currently available at Brusco, visit the careers page here.

Fuel Surcharge Statement

Dear Customer,

I am sure it has already come to your attention that fuel costs are rapidly and continuously increasing as an effect of the horrifying events in Ukraine on top of the overall inflation that was already having an impact. This week we have received communication from all our hauliers notifying us of increased fuel surcharges on all deliveries effective immediately.

Under normal circumstances our quotes/prices are inclusive of delivery however due to the unprecedented situation we find ourselves in with the fuel surcharges which are being reviewed daily by our hauliers, we have very little control over the level these will reach and therefore we have no option but to pass these on to our customers.

We understand you will be seeing increases from all areas, so where possible we will try our best to absorb the additional expense but where this is not possible, our customer service team will advise you on an order-by-order basis of the fuel surcharge that will be added to your invoice.

We will continue to monitor this situation closely and update you accordingly. If you have further questions, please contact your account manager who will be happy to advise.

We hope that the situation will get resolved soon and prices will begin to stabilise but in the meantime, we thank you for your continued understanding & support during this difficult time.

Kind regards,

The Brusco Food Group Team

Exhibition Update: IFE 2022

The team are excited to announce that we will be attending the IFE Food and Drink Event 2022!

You will find us on stand 3528 along with POPS and Porter Foods.

Exhibition Information:

Exhibition: IFE Food and Drink Event 2022

Date: 21st – 23rd March 2022

Venue: ExCel London

Stand: 3528

What to Expect:

Sampling opportunities: Smart Salt® as a popcorn seasoning and Pimm’s and Bellini Popsicles

Product Launch: Porter Foods ingredients

Team Brusco:

Monday: Andrew Ashby, Steph Skellern, Sophie Williams, Neil Burton, Martin Priestley and Sarah Heath 

Tuesday: Lucy Cooke, Sophie Williams, Neil Burton, Martin Priestley and Sarah Heath 

Wednesday: Andrew Ashby, Jackie Hodson, Martin Priestley and Sarah Heath  

Why not come along!

PRESS RELEASE: Smart Salt®

Brusco Food Group announces exclusive partnership with Smart Salt® bringing patented Sodium Reduction Technology to UK food manufacturers and food service.

Brusco Food Group is excited to announce their exclusive UK partnership with Smart Salt® to help companies meet the new 2024 sodium reduction targets announced in September 2020 by Public Health England.

Smart Salt® is a sodium reduction system based on patented technology from Finland. It enables sodium reduction of up to 60% without compromising on taste or product performance.

“Smart Salt® has a very successful application record in a broad category of food products. Its success can be attributed to its technological functionality that often mirrors regular salt” comments Dr Helen Mitchell, Consulting Director Smart Salt® Oy.

It is clear more action needs to be taken in the UK to reduce sodium in our diets to address many of the health issues associated with high blood pressure. Regularly eating too much salt puts us at an increased risk of developing high blood pressure which is the main risk factor for stroke and a major risk factor for heart attack. Over 16 million people in the UK have high blood pressure.

Available from the 1st of February 2021, Smart Salt® offers perfect taste optimisation with no bitter or metallic aftertaste. Consumer acceptability data indicates a high degree of acceptability at very low sodium levels.

The benefits of using Smart Salt® go much further than just reducing sodium. The formulation also includes high levels of magnesium-balancing minerals for heart health.

Where other sodium reduction systems fail, Smart Salt® excels. Extensive application testing has proven its effectiveness in challenging applications including bread, cheese, meat, ready-to-eat meals, and seasonings. Smart Salt® offers preservative and technological functions reducing the need for extensive product and process development. A flexible composition means Smart Salt® can be easily adapted to meet your requirements from 10-60% sodium reduction.

Andrew Ashby from Brusco Food Group says “We are always looking at innovative products that tackle the major challenges in our food supply chain. While businesses have been addressing sodium reduction for many years, driving further sodium reduction without impacting product functionality and/or taste is becoming harder. We believe the proven capability of Smart Salt® will provide significant opportunities for food companies to meet the new voluntary targets announced in September 2020 by Public Health England which call for further reductions of up to 20% by 2024”.

Later this year Smart Salt® will broaden its reach into the consumer marketplace with a range of gourmet condiment blends designed to help consumers and chefs reduce sodium intake. This will be launched under the Suölo™ brand. More information is available at www.suolo.world

For more information on Smart Salt® and how it can enhance your range, contact the team at info@brusco.co.uk or 01386 761555.

 

Four Companies, One Mission

Company Update

In 2015 we began a journey to transform our business. We aspired to raise the benchmark for quality, service and integrity in food ingredients supply so that our customers and consumers can enjoy our products with confidence.

I am proud to say we are making great progress in our journey, although the dynamic nature of the food industry means our journey will never cease. Over the last five years, we significantly increased the experience and capability of our team, transformed our supply chain to integrate more closely with our manufacturing partners around the world, and worked hard to remain forward-looking at the trends and ingredients that drive consumer demand.

We have completed three acquisitions to broaden our product capabilities adding the highly regarded Porter Foods, Mayfair Foods and POPS – Premium Original Popsicles to our portfolio. Our objective is to be recognised as a top-tier supplier in all the categories of ingredients and food products we supply.

Quality is at the heart of our business. We pride ourselves on rigorously assessing the products we sell to ensure they adhere to our stringent food safety, product quality and legality requirements. Today we import and have products produced for us by over eighty GFSI-accredited factories in 21 countries around the world. We only work with suppliers who share our passion for quality, service and integrity.

More recently we have been working to integrate our group of companies into one coordinated operating unit. I am excited to share that from January 1st 2021, all business activity across all our group companies will move to G Bruce & Co Ltd, trading as Brusco Food Group.

I can personally assure you that while things are changing our service, our passion and dedication to providing the best food products and ingredients remain unchanged.

We greatly appreciate the faith you have placed in us and your continued business. We look forward to many more years of collaboration and will always endeavour to exceed your expectations.

Should you have any queries about these changes or would just like to discuss them in more detail please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Ashby

 

 

Brusco’s Covid-19 Business Statement

Dear valued customer,

I want to provide an update on the steps we are taking in light of the Covid-19 virus.

These are unprecedented times, the likes of which have never been experienced by our generation. While uncertainty is unsettling, we must all keep a level head and ensure we follow the guidance being provided by the government.

Business Steps to Coping with Covid-19

We have taken steps within our business to ensure we can continue to provide our customers with the service and quality products you rely on, including:

Increased our stock holding of core lines (Stock list attached for your reference)

Conduct weekly updates with our manufacturing partners around the globe to identify any potential threats to the supply chain and share any updates with you

Ensure all staff have the IT equipment to enable them to work from home without business interruption should the need arise

Following all the guidance relating to Covid-19 issued by the UK government, BRC and Campden BRI
Staff Well-being and Safety

The health and well-being of our staff, customers and suppliers is our key priority and we have taken measures to protect them where possible. We have initiated a home working policy for our field-based staff until further notice.  We have requested all staff to avoid any unnecessary travel unless it is critical, and any visits planned to our offices have been rescheduled or will be conducted via phone. Our staff are all still working hard and our offices remain open, so we are always available on the telephone and by email for any queries you have.

Stock Care and Quality

In uncertain times we must continue to adhere to our business values of quality, service, innovation and integrity. We are ready to support our customers with any means available to see through this crisis. We do have large stocks of raw materials and we are monitoring our stock positions daily. We would ask all our customers to keep us informed of any anticipated changes in raw material requirements so we can plan accordingly.

Working Together during Covid-19

We will continue to communicate with you all as the situation develops and keep you updated on any further changes we are making. Now is a time for resilience, determination and positivity as we work through this. We must continue to work together with all our partners and remain enthusiastic about the future.

Thank you for your support and understanding in these unique times.

Kind regards

Andrew Ashby, Managing Director