Russell & Atwell, a Birmingham based chocolate company who secured investment from entrepreneurs Steven Bartlett and Peter Jones on BBC1 show Dragons’ Den, is the latest food brand to experience the development kitchens on offer at The Food WorksSW, the food and drink innovation centre in North Somerset.
Russell & Atwell’s creators Steve Russell and Giles Atwell have been using The Food WorksSW’s ‘unique’ commercial kitchen in Weston-super-Mare to experiment with new flavours and create micro batches of their fresh chocolates that celebrate the ‘very best in British produce’.
The kitchen is home to specialist industry equipment including a chocolate tempering machine, and will be a regular booking for the duo as they look to continue to produce and trial micro batches of fresh chocolates, like their recent Honey & Walnut, Strawberries & Cream and vegan chocolate truffles that use a plant-based alternative to double cream.
Steve Russell from Russell & Atwell commented: “The scale of the kitchen at The Food WorksSW is just perfect for us to produce micro batches of our fresh chocolates. We are very happy that we’ve discovered the centre as we can experiment with new flavours there and then test the market with them.
“Their commercial kitchen is cool in temperature so it’s ideal for working with chocolate. We’re very excited to try out more British produce in our fresh chocolates as we continue to create more micro batches each month at The Food WorksSW.”
Zoe Plant, New Product Development and Innovation Manager from The Food WorksSW added: “We’re thrilled that Russell & Atwell have made a regular booking in our commercial kitchen to further their business.
“Its size and specialist equipment is the best match for their needs when creating micro batches of their fresh chocolates. We’re looking forward to accommodating them over the next year and of course, trying some of their delicious chocolates!”
The only centre of its kind in the south west, The Food WorksSW is based in the heart of the Weston-super-Mare Enterprise Area, less than 30 minutes from Bristol, and is close to Junction 21 of the M5 motorway.
It has ‘state-of-the-art’ facilities including five product development kitchens which are available for flexible short-term contract hire for food and drink businesses of all sizes to test, develop and manufacture their products.
Technical support packages are also now available at the centre. A team of food industry experts, provide technical support to businesses navigating their way through a range of food disciplines, from new product development, and quality assurance hygiene, to food safety and efficiency.
By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily
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