The Traditional Welsh Sausage Company is the brainchild of the well-known Edwards of Conwy, an award-winning master butcher located in Conwy, North Wales. After running the successful butchers since the 1980s, they established the sister company some 15 years ago for production of their meat products to sell directly to retailers.
Now with two food production sites, one in Bangor and the other in Conwy, the Traditional Welsh Sausage Company supplies sausages, burgers, bacon, gammon steak and more to various retailers across Wales. Having purchased the second production site in 2017 the company needed to expand their workforce in order to help with the demands of the new site.
In October 2018, the company spoke with Food Technology Centre who recommended the Project HELIX Knowledge Transfer Programme, and through this they were able to recruit a graduate. The graduate was quickly able to lead on key areas helping them achieve a BRCGS certification within six months and Red Tractor certification shortly after.
Benefits of the support
With the guidance of the Food Technology Centre and the mentoring of a trainee graduate, the company have been able to grow from strength to strength and over the last two years have obtained their BRCGS certifications, along with meeting project and company outputs and increasing turnover. The production sites have also retained their high standards with Bangor a Grade A and Conwy Grade AA.
Kevin Murphy, Technical Manager at the Traditional Welsh Sausage Company (Edwards of Conwy) said:
“The support we have received has been invaluable. It has been a real success from start to finish. They have guided us through the recruitment process for our knowledge transfer programme, organised and held training, and then helped us to mentor. What Yasmin has achieved and the impact on the growth of the business has been invaluable.”
Before I began with the company they only had the standard SALSA certification at their bacon site, but to grow the business it was decided with the technical support from the Food Technology Centre to aim higher. We have therefore been able to improve our systems and gain BRCGS and Red Tractor certifications. It has been a lot of hard work but worth it. The support and advice has been great and they have been instrumental in enabling us to achieve this.”