Niche

Did anyone hear BBC Radio Four’s The Food Programme at 4 p.m. on Monday? It featured British food products on display at the New York food festival. Imagine the surprise in hearing Rufus Carter on the programme, son of the founder of Rhuthun’s Patchwork Traditional Foods. They’re apparently big in the States it seems and, although the American food’s manufactured in Pennsylvania, its profits apparently come back to Cymru/Wales, or so Carter said.

Not everything is dominated by Tesco and its ilk. Patchwork is a good example of how to compete in the tight and low margin food industry, by majoring on quality. They make handcrafted, award winning pâté and other similar products of such quality that they don’t need multiples to sell their wares. Indeed, doing that would be counter-productive. Buy Patchwork at Leonardo’s and W & G Jones, both of Well Street in Rhuthun town centre.