A growing Newtown company has landed another big contract, this time with Tesco.
Hilltop Honey, based at the Dyffryn Industrial Estate, began supplying three more products to 500 Tesco stores this week.
The new order follows 40 per cent sales growth with existing Hilltop Honey products supplied to Tesco in the past year.
“Discerning customers are looking for more choice than the standard, cheap squeezy bottle of clear honey that is regularly seen on the shelves,” said Scott Davies, Hilltop Honey’s managing director. “We are delighted to have been asked to supply Tesco with an extended range of products in the honey and spreads category.
“It’s the first time that Lavender Honey has been seen on the UK shelf and it will hopefully contribute to doubling our jar sales in Tesco. Over the past year, our sales to Tesco have increased by more than 40 per cent which demonstrates that their customers have developed a taste for the Hilltop Honey brand.
“We work with beekeepers all around the world to bring the consumer quality tasting honey for a reasonable price. Once customers try our honey, they realise that there is so much more to the flavour.”
Scott has recently expanded his business into a new 14,000 sq ft production base to accommodate current and future growth plans. The £750,000 expansion project is expected to create eight new jobs – taking the total to 20 - by the end of 2017 as the company grows sales within the UK and in export markets.
“We are an ambitious company with exciting plans for the next five years and our new premises mean that we can increase production and hire more staff,” added Scott. “We are looking to diversify our brand and strengthen our place in the UK honey market.”
A home-grown success story, beekeeper Scott, 29, started the business in his parents’ kitchen with a £5,000 bank overdraft in 2011. Six years later, he is supplying Welsh, British and European honey, comb honey and bee pollen to customers across the UK and overseas
The company is no stranger to success, having won a coveted Golden Fork Award for its Thyme Honey, judged the best ambient food product at last year’s Great Taste Awards, the Oscars of the food world.