Sainsbury's Case Study

With a rich family heritage in the herb business it’s no wonder Victoria Starke is so passionate about her range of delicious fresh herb pestos.

How it all started

Victoria Starke comes from four generations of herb growers, and by her early twenties had already gained tons of experience in the herb and food industry. It was in 2000 that she decided she was ready to combine her passion for food and desire to start her own business and create Stark Naked Foods. By throwing all that she and her husband had into the business, including their house, they devoted eight years investing into building a factory and developing their product, their passion and most of all, the brand.

About the pesto

Victoria has spent many hours meticulously planning and researching the very best blends of herbs to make wonderfully flavoured English pestos. To create the freshest possible pesto it is necessary to use freshly cut herbs, some of which are grown on her farm. The herbs are harvested and taken straight into the factory, sometimes within 15 minutes of being cut. The herbs are then washed, chopped and blended with other natural ingredients as quickly as possible to capture all the delicious flavours and produce yummy 100% natural fresh English pestos.

Although there are hundreds of pestos on the market, Victoria spotted a clear opportunity for freshly chilled blends. She has created both traditional and modern flavour combinations designed to appeal to all types of people. In an added twist, buyers can freeze their pesto and scoop it out just like ice cream!

Working with Sainsbury's

In 2006, Sainsbury’s set up the Supply something new scheme, and Stark Naked Foods was one of the very first companies to apply. After taking part in a supplier forum and chatting through the business plan with our Own Brand director, the company was selected to join the programme and get its pestos into our stores.

Sainsbury’s and Starke worked together to get the factory ready to cope with the technical and commercial aspects of working with one of the country’s biggest retailers. At first, the pestos were stocked in a selected number of stores. However, as they became more and more popular, they went into nearly 200 stores. That figure continues to grow today.

Working together to keep bringing customers new and exciting products has allowed both Sainsbury’s and Starke to learn and share their knowledge and enthusiasm, resulting in lots of fantastic tasty products for our customers.

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