Food maker extends its range of products in high street giant M&S
A Cheshire food company has seen its largest range of products taken by high street giant Marks & Spencer.
Crewe-based Wrights Food Group has placed its products in the store chain ahead of the important Christmas trading period.
It was only two years ago that M&S began stocking the firm’s Christmas food on its shelves.
Among the products now in the M&S freezer cabinets is a selection of year-round and seasonal dishes including a Three Cheese & Potato Pie alongside a new Christmas-only addition to the instore bakery, the Panettonut, a Panettone-inspired doughnut.
Making its first appearance and now included in the M&S premium ‘Collection’ range is the British Beef Bourguignon & Dauphinoise Pie which features slow cooked beef in a red wine and mushroom sauce encased in all butter puff pastry and topped with creamy, garlicky potatoes.
The range of year-round pies now listed with M&S includes the Ratatouille Galette and a frozen Chicken, Ham Hock and Leek Pie featuring British chicken, shredded ham hock and sliced leeks in a creamy white wine sauce in puff pastry, topped with breadcrumbs and herbs, while Christmas sees the introduction of the Layered Christmas Turkey Pie – tender turkey, layered with cranberry sauce, pork, leek and sage stuffing and a rich turkey gravy.
Pippa Masters, buyer for frozen foods at M&S, said: “We’ve seen a growing demand for luxury dinner centrepieces that can be easily cooked from frozen as customers continue to prioritise easy at-home entertaining, and these indulgent mains really do make it as easy as pie to host friends and family at short notice.”
Wrights Food Group is a third-generation family business started in the North West by husband and wife team Jack and Lizzie Wright in 1926.
Operating today as part of the Compleat Food Group, the company operates with a team of 600 across three sites in Crewe, specialising in the manufacture and distribution of confectionery, savoury bakery products and ready meals into the hospitality and retail sectors.
Wrights Food Group M&S pie collection
Commercial director, Helen Bowyer, said: “Every year we expand our lines into Marks & Spencer and are creating more and more specialist and indulgent items – particularly for the celebratory Christmas season.
“Hearty, home-style food is the very foundation of our creativity here at Wrights and we are delighted that our team’s own passion for innovating and creating exceptional food continues to be recognised and embraced by Marks & Spencer – a truly iconic, quality British food brand.”
Wrights Food Group’s £30m manufacturing facility in Crewe produces more than three million savoury products per week including gastro pub pies and ready meals for the retail and hospitality sector.
Its vegan range includes a Vegan Peppered Steak Slice, a Vegan Steak Pie, Vegan Chicken and Mushroom Pie, a Vegan Pasty and a Vegan six-inch Sausage Roll, complementing the brand’s existing vegan offering and wider savoury range.
