They are a brilliant example of South East businesses’ sustainable growth ambitions, with everything produced in the orchards and fields surrounding their family farm. Co-founder and co-director of Freddie’s Farm, Laurie Fermor, takes Grocery Gazette behind the scenes of the prime time show and shares what happened after the cameras stopped rolling. Last night was the turn of healthy and wholesome food and drink producers and Freddie’s Farm fought off tough competition from manufacturers of fava bean snacks, kimchi, and even camel milk, to secure a space on Aldi’s shelves.

A Kent-based manufacturer and retailer of children’s snacks is setting its sights on rapid growth with support from Lloyds Bank after landing a contract with a major national supermarket. Multiple Retailer of the Year [1], Aldi, is slashing the cost of its best-selling Costellore Prosecco Spumante DOC (75cl), just in time for Halloween celebrations. All products are also currently produced at the farm, and the business’ sustainability credentials go beyond it keeping its carbon footprint to a minimum. You may also receive invitations to our events and please do get in touch with us to let us know what type of content you like best. Subscribe to receive a regular copy of Business Leader magazine delivered to your door or to access our digital edition.

If you’ve missed it, Channel 4’s latest reality TV show‘Aldi’s Next Big Thing’ has been championing a wide range of new food and drink brands over recent weeks.

Charlie Fermor is a fourth-generation, multi-British Farming Awards-winning farmer, and his patented process of preserving the bond between natural sugar and fibre in preparing the products is key to them providing children with the best possible nutrition. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Being on the show has hugely increased our visibility on the market, so we’re not complaining at all!The training courses act as a learning opportunity for people new to sheep or wishing to manage their flock in a more efficient way to get together and share experiences. All produce is grown, dried and packed on the couple’s farm, which meant that Freddie’s Farm low carbon footprint also appealed to Aldi, which has tough sustainability targets and has been a carbon-neutral business since 2019. Actually during the show we’d convinced ourselves we hadn’t won, but when Julie announced our name it was crazy. We have dogs of all ages and experience which will often work for anyone as well as having different sheep in different environments.

With the judges following a very rigorous scoring criteria, Laurie – along with her husband and co-founder Charlie – impressed them from the start with the taste of the fruit snacks, eco-friendly paper packaging and health credentials. When Freddie was little, we were looking at the other snacks that were out there and available for kids and they just weren’t good enough,” said Laurie, talking about how the business started. One of these lucky brands is Freddie’s Farm, which officially hit Aldi shelves earlier this month after being awarded an exclusive contract with the UK’s fourth-largest supermarket and beating hundreds of other competitors.I think because we had a site already that could scale up, they just left that entirely up to us to complete. The Freddie’s Farm business is based at Bramley Mount Farm where the couple live with their son Freddie, 6, who the snacks are named after, and his younger sister, Ottie, 3. With everything grown, dried and packed within metres of the couple’s home, the carbon footprint also appealed to Aldi, which has tough sustainability targets and has been a carbon neutral business since 2019.

Then with the pandemic happening just as business was taking off, at one point we thought we’d never get here. We need to look at ways to make everything more efficient – and to meet our ever-increasing demand,” she said.Everybody’s products were amazing and deserved a place on the shelves, and we had totally convinced ourselves that we had lost,” said Laurie, adding that they were up against some “seriously stiff competition”. Charlie and Laurie impressed from the off with the taste of their snacks, paper packaging, as well as health credentials. As a result, we have lower free sugars, which help prevent kids getting sugar highs and crashes, which we certainly like to avoid with our two at all costs. As the couple are making all their produce from their farm in Kent, the ongoing cost-of-living and energy crisis is making it increasingly expensive to keep operations up and running. The training is 1-2-1 but we encourage people to come with a companion or partner to enhance the experience and take photos of the day.