Cranswick enters into charcuterie partnership with Costa Food Group

14-Jan-2020 - Last updated on 14-Jan-2020 at 12:12 GMT

UK pork processor Cranswick has signed a partnership deal with Spanish processor Costa Food Group through its Continental Foods division to supply the British market.

According to Cranswick, Spanish charcuterie now accounts for around one third of the £285m UK continental meats category and this exclusive deal has been agreed in order for Costa Food Group to access this market.

Cranswick Continental Foods sales director Norman Smith said: “The UK market is increasingly demanding transparency of continental supply chains and through working with Costa we have a unique proposition that provides a fully integrated solution. Combine this with our new site in Bury and we believe we have a market leading farm to fork solution from both a traceability and an efficiency point of view.

“Costa Food Group, like Cranswick, is a very well invested, forward thinking business that strives to innovate to meet changing consumer needs. With our aligned values we are looking forward to introducing the UK consumer to some of the great products Costa produce.”

Costa Food Group is a fully vertically integrated pork producer with more than 600 farms and four feed factories and a turnover that is expected to exceed €900m this year.

In 2017 Costa acquired Casademont, a fourth generation family run Spanish charcuterie producer, and more recently acquired Villar and La Nuncia. These acquisitions enabled Costa to produce authentic Spanish charcuterie with a fully integrated supply chain bringing benefits of both traceability and quality control; charcuterie now makes up 15% of the total group turnover.

Costa Food Group CEO Josep Buixeda added: “Cranswick is a business that is very much aligned to Costa Group. Together we are committed to delivering the quality standards demanded by the UK market whilst always maintaining service, innovation, transparency and commerciality.”

Earlier this month, US charcuterie business Daniele International completed a merger with premium operator Creminelli Fine Meats. In December, Cranswick acquired premium pig farming business Packington Pork Limited in a bid to gain more control over its supply chain.