Understanding and Monitoring your Manufacturing Process There are two core issues which are essential for any business:- Produce a consistent, high quality product which meets the consumer’s needs Ensure that operations are functioning within their cost limits and that opportunities for improvement are constantly sought. Every business is under a pressure of one kind or …
Feb 10
Starting a Confectionery Business
There is a new and exciting page on the Website – a lengthy discussion about starting a confectionery business and many of the issues you will need to consider. Above all else a Confectionery Business is a Business and the commercial, marketing and sales issues are as important as the product itself
Feb 08
Project Film
A major American healthcare company wants to extend its range of VMS products into more adult markets I have investigated the buccal and lingual film based products including suppliers and manufacturers on their behalf and recommended potential partners
Apr 04
Cocoa and the Environment
Further Thoughts on Cocoa and the Environment In my previous article, I raised questions about our industry’s continuing devotion to the concept of “100% Cocoa Ingredients”. In this I suggested that as over 80% of cocoa bean is fundamentally used for the production of cocoa butter then the time had come to challenge whether the …
Apr 04
Serious about Sustainability?
Serious about Sustainability? There has been a debate about the sustainability of many aspects of the confectionery business and in particular about Cocoa. However, none of these has actually asked the most significant question – why do we continue to grow large amounts of cocoa for cocoa butter production when technology has for many years …
Jan 16
Where will we be in 5 years time?
Where will be in 5 year’s time? Most small and medium sized confectionery businesses worry about where they will be in one year’s time, let alone crystal gazing for the future However, the future is important because if we do not understand and anticipate future trends then we will be left with a redundant business …
Jan 16
Understanding and Monitoring your Manufacturing Processes
Understanding and Monitoring your Manufacturing Process There are two core issues which are essential for any business:- • Produce a consistent, high quality product which meets the consumer’s needs • Ensure that operations are functioning within their cost limits and that opportunities for improvement are constantly sought. Every business is under a pressure of one …
Feb 13
Innovation – a vital tool for growth
The major businesses in our industry seem to have completely ceased to produce innovative new products – I’m sorry but putting a different biscuit in a chocolate bar or salt in a caramel is not innovation, at best it’s line extension. Effort and resources seem to be devoted solely to reducing costs, possibly to cover …
Feb 13
Aerated Confectionery – an introduction
It is often said (at least by accountants) that the two most important ingredients in confectionery are air and water. Whilst this may appear a trivial comment, it is worth remembering that both play a key role in determining the texture of many products, so perhaps there is some truth in the comment after all! …
Jul 11
Understanding the Flow of Fluids – Part 1
How (and why) liquids flow in the ways they do The liquids we encounter in the food and confectionery industries are some of the most complex and obscure in the ways they flow. Understanding why they behave in the strange ways they do – and being able to quantify it – is useful and can …