Almost five years ago I made the call to expand beyond Rubies in the Rubble’s heritage range of humble (but mighty) chutney. We tried our hand at more mainstream condiments, having come to the realisation that, if we were going to “end food waste one dollop at a time”, we needed to make a product that was consumed daily rather than annually.
Ketchup – the condiment in most Brits’ fridges – was the obvious starting point. After a struggle to find a UK manufacturer using a local fruit supply, our search took us overseas to Portugal, one of Europe’s largest tomato suppliers.
Moving production off UK soil felt a huge decision for us, but the food waste fight is a global one and while it’s obviously great to support local when possible, transportation is rarely the major part of a food’s carbon footprint. When you compare a tomato grown in Portugal in an open field with ample heat and sunlight versus a controlled polytunnel in the UK, the footprint is a lot less than a British one.
So with that knowledge, and after a long and arduous search, we found our manufacturing partner. This is the most important partnership a brand has. I believe the perfect one needs to share a vision and culture, enabling a long-term relationship that grows with the brand.
For Rubies, we knew our manufacturer was a great fit from the start. They actively introduced us to local producers with potential pipelines of surplus to utilise within our recipes and willingly explored blowing recycled PET bottles when we moved into squeezy bottles.
Since then, our partnership has grown as we learn from each other and work together on regenerative farming practices and sustainable food programmes. More recently, we are excited to have formalised our partnership, with them taking a minority stake in Rubies and deepening our work relationship to combine sales team support and marketing. This is the culmination of an already thriving relationship and further helps us spread sustainable, food waste fighting products far and wide. We both realised that together our impact would be far greater.
I couldn’t feel more fortunate to have such a strong partnership – it is essential for business longevity. For me, it confirms that the right people within your team are what makes a company great.
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