H&C News meets with suppliers regularly to keep up to date with the latest product and service innovations, aiming to get the inside track on what companies offer to the market and how it is delivered. This week, we met with James Painter, Managing Director of Sybaritic at their offices in ‘the beautiful Chilterns’ to gain a better understanding of the business. Sybaritic are a specialist food importer of fine foods with a focus on Fresh Truffles for the hospitality and catering sector.
Hi James. I would like to begin with asking when you started your company and why did you start this kind of business?
I started my company in November 2010 returning to the UK after more than 16 years of living in New Zealand. I was searching for a new business that would allow me to combine my love of food with work.
I have always loved the taste of truffles so I decided to look more closely at these mushrooms, even though I knew very little about them. After much research I contacted several Italian truffle companies and bought some truffle oils and sauces, which were fabulous. I then built a website, ordered some business cards, put together a price list and started contacting delis and small shops. After about eight weeks, I received my first order, eureka!
In May 2011, I bought in the first consignment of fresh summer truffles – 500 g. I went door knocking on many fine-dining restaurants with mixed reactions from chef. Slowly, the orders started to come in now on average we receive orders for 10-20 kg of fresh truffles a week with our best week this summer seeing orders for 100 kg arrive.
What has been the key to your success?
In short, a passion for my product and lots of hard work…visiting lots of restaurants and speaking with lots of chefs, many of whom thankfully share my passion for truffles.
Twitter has been a great marketing tool introducing me to new chefs and I have a database of over 500 restaurants and chefs who receive their weekly Truffle Report by email.
I now supply truffles to restaurants all over the UK and work with many well-known chefs, including James Martin, Sat Bains, Jason Atherton, Daniel Galmiche, Tom Sellers, Jeremy Lee, and Ben Tish, who share my truffle passion.
In March 2012, I approached the Masham Sausages Company in Ripon. I proposed a joint venture to work together to produce a truffle-flavoured sausage. Paul, the owner of Masham Sausages agreed and our new pork, truffle, and mushroom sausage when entered into the National Foodex competition won gold.
Not so long ago we were invited to Waitrose’s head office in Bracknell as they had heard about what we were doing. Now, we sell truffle sausages in 51 Waitrose stores around the UK.
I have also been working on a truffle cheese project. And I have more projects up my sleeve for 2015.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
For the past few months, I have been working on the formation of a truffle association, where we can get together and help improve all our businesses. We are going to have our first meeting in January 2015.
Any closing thoughts?
I feel proud of what I have achieved so far with this business. Although I work long hours, I meet great people, I visit the most amazing restaurants and eat some fabulous food. What can I say? The rewards are now starting to make it all worthwhile.
H & C News comment: It was a real pleasure to sit down and speak with James who just simply loves truffles, his enthusiasm is contagious. The business story is an engaging one that demonstrates how James’ passion for his product is at the heart of his success to date. We will be bring readers much more from James and Sybaritic in the coming months, so watch this space.
For details of our products contact our friendly team…
Tel: 01296 624275
E-mail: info@sybariticfare.co.uk
Website: www.sybariticfare.co.uk