Scots paté maker secures funding as it sinks teeth into new market

PATÉ specialist Findlater’s Fine Foods is gearing up for a further surge in growth following a six-figure funding deal and the launch of a division serving mass caterers.

The food service business will run alongside the niche firm’s existing operation of supplying delis, food halls and other retailers with its 20-plus range of hand-made products.

It has now added frozen paté quenelles, piping bags and similar catering products used to create large volumes of starters and canapés. Sales have increased by 40 per cent in each of the last three years, a trend that Findlater’s founder Martin Henderson aims to sustain through the new line of business.

“The food service market has quite a lot of opportunity,” he said. “It’s certainly massive volumes, because these customers are big users.”

The group has added a third site to its base in Linlithgow to accommodate the new operation. The facility – acquired with £360,000 of financial backing from Santander – will serve as Findlater’s distribution centre, with chilled and frozen storage capacity.

“We will also be using some of the funding to focus on our new pop-out quenelles range, which has proven to be highly popular with the foodservice industry,” Henderson added.

Established as a restaurant and delicatessen in 2004, Findlater’s parfait-style paté gained enough of a local reputation for the firm to build an off-site production kitchen supplying other restaurants and delis. The restaurant was sold in 2007, allowing Henderson to concentrate solely on the paté business