Award-winning exporter shares its secret ingredients

The winner of the Achievement in Internationalisation Award at the inaugural 2004 Northern Star Business Awards in Aberdeen is hardly a household name, despite possessing an impressive 25-year pedigree of exporting.

Not that Macphie of Glenbervie is likely to lose much sleep over its public profile, however.

With a state-of-the-art food ingredient manufacturing complex tucked away in one of the most secluded (not to mention downright photogenic) North East locations right in the heart of the Mearns, the company quietly gets on with the business of selling over 400 different product lines to food producers all over the UK and in 23 other countries.

It's a classic marketing-based business-to-business operation, anticipating and satisfying fast-changing global taste-bud refinements in 23 different countries, and in the process becoming the UK 's leading family-owned food ingredients manufacturer.

With nearly 300 staff in two manufacturing sites, and an annual turnover in excess of £37 million, Macphie invests a bold £1 million a year on new product development. This funds a prodigiously active NPD team of 25, who launch up to 250 new products a year in support of the notoriously faddish food market.

"Only one in eight new food retail products survives beyond its first twelve weeks on the supermarket shelves, so we're well aware of the risks," says CEO Alastair Macphie.

"But, in an industry dominated by huge multinationals, we have become very adroit niche players, and we have built up a tidy core of regular best-sellers, like crème brûlée. We plan to ship 300 tonnes of crème brûlée every year - and that's a lot of brûlée!"

Export growth

This commitment to innovation and customer responsiveness takes Macphie into many different corners of the food service and manufacturing markets - craft bakers, industrial "bakers", centralised hospital and airline catering kitchens, and many others - supplying a bewildering array of products ranging from ambient bakery mixes and concentrates, icings, glazes and dairy cream alternatives to ambient, frozen and chilled sauces, chilled and frozen soups, stuffings and butters.

The company now exports about 13% of its turnover, primarily to Europe and the Middle East , with export sales having grown also by 13% in the last year. A past winner of the Queen's Award for Export, Macphie is highly regarded both for its quality of products and its strategic focus, and is on course to continue double digit turnover growth in 2005.

The Achievement in Internationalisation Award was sponsored by Aberdeen City Council, and the 2004 Northern Star Business Awards were organized by Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce. Both organisations are partners in Business Gateway International.

After the show, exportlink spent a productive hour with Macphie CEO Alastair Macphie and International Category Marketing Manager Deborah Alexander, who took time off from celebrating their success to share some exporting insights with exportlink users. Click here to access their nuggets of wisdom.