We are under attack from people who should really be our allies. These people make up the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association (MMPPA) of which O'Callaghan is chairman. Its attempt to create, under EC regulations, Protected Geographical Indication status for this product will, if successful, prevent Saxbys from continuing to market our main product, simply because our factory happens to fall outside a new arbitrary and artificial boundary'.
Let me explain. Saxby Bros was founded in Wellingborough in 1904 by my grandfather and his brother, Herbert and Ted Saxby. They were pork butchers, and their bestselling product, the one on which they quickly established their reputation, was the Saxbys Melton Mowbray Pork Pie.
This product has since those early days been pivotal to the company's success. Our extensive archives contain literally hundreds of references to Saxbys Melton Mowbray Pork Pies spread continuously throughout the next 10 decades, including trade advertisements in The Grocer in the 1960s.
During much of this time, especially in the 1960s and 1970s when, it is acknowledged by MMPPA, there was very little in the way of real volume commercial production of Melton Mowbray Pies in the area of Melton Mowbray, we at Saxbys feel that we, and one or two other leading manufacturers, kept the Melton Mowbray brand and tradition alive.
In so doing we made Melton Mowbray Pies available to and appreciated by a wide range of consumers up and down the country. We played an important part in the ongoing Melton Mowbray Pork Pie story.
We have no argument with the description of a Melton Mowbray Pork Pie as defined by MMPPA. It exactly describes the Saxby Pie as produced in Wellingborough for the last 99 years. It is the premium style of pork pies; it is bowed in shape indicating that it has been baked free-standing, not in a hoop or dish; it contains uncured pork (producing a porky, grey-coloured fill when cooked), fairly coarsely cut, with appropriate seasonings.
Where we massively take issue with the MMPPA is the matter of geographical location. Melton Mowbray Pies have been legally and properly produced and marketed over the last hundred years throughout the East Midlands, including Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire (they have also been produced in other parts of the country).
There is no possible justification, in terms of the quality, taste, locally sourced ingredients, method or any other characteristics to say that they can only be produced in a small arbitrarily defined area around Melton Mowbray. If the proposed boundary were extended some 20 miles south, it would include Saxby's factory.
O'Callaghan stated that this campaign was "completely consumer driven". It seems to me that in the world today, there is always a commercial or political slant to people's actions. Commercially, there are huge gains to be made by key members of MMPPA if the sale of Melton Mowbray Pies is restricted to only those made in Melton Mowbray.
For a start, there just is not enough capacity within Melton Mowbray to meet the current demand for Melton Mowbray Pork Pies. We have already established that the Melton Mowbray is the premium pork pie, and is recognised as such (thanks in part to the efforts over the years of companies like Saxbys) by both the retailers' commercial teams and by their customers. The name Melton Mowbray' is synonymous with a quality Pork Pie, and the name is everything. Wellingborough Pork Pies' just does not have the same ring to it somehow.
There are alternatives. The Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association could accept that the area it has identified falls massively short of covering the area where these pies have been legitimately made for a hundred years. It could expand it to include, for example, the whole of the East Midlands.
Or it could amend its application to one of Certificate of Specific Character, whereby the style and production method could be protected, but not the location that the product could be made.
The application as it stands is, in my opinion, unfair and unreasonable.
{{COMMENT - GUEST }}
Let me explain. Saxby Bros was founded in Wellingborough in 1904 by my grandfather and his brother, Herbert and Ted Saxby. They were pork butchers, and their bestselling product, the one on which they quickly established their reputation, was the Saxbys Melton Mowbray Pork Pie.
This product has since those early days been pivotal to the company's success. Our extensive archives contain literally hundreds of references to Saxbys Melton Mowbray Pork Pies spread continuously throughout the next 10 decades, including trade advertisements in The Grocer in the 1960s.
During much of this time, especially in the 1960s and 1970s when, it is acknowledged by MMPPA, there was very little in the way of real volume commercial production of Melton Mowbray Pies in the area of Melton Mowbray, we at Saxbys feel that we, and one or two other leading manufacturers, kept the Melton Mowbray brand and tradition alive.
In so doing we made Melton Mowbray Pies available to and appreciated by a wide range of consumers up and down the country. We played an important part in the ongoing Melton Mowbray Pork Pie story.
We have no argument with the description of a Melton Mowbray Pork Pie as defined by MMPPA. It exactly describes the Saxby Pie as produced in Wellingborough for the last 99 years. It is the premium style of pork pies; it is bowed in shape indicating that it has been baked free-standing, not in a hoop or dish; it contains uncured pork (producing a porky, grey-coloured fill when cooked), fairly coarsely cut, with appropriate seasonings.
Where we massively take issue with the MMPPA is the matter of geographical location. Melton Mowbray Pies have been legally and properly produced and marketed over the last hundred years throughout the East Midlands, including Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire (they have also been produced in other parts of the country).
There is no possible justification, in terms of the quality, taste, locally sourced ingredients, method or any other characteristics to say that they can only be produced in a small arbitrarily defined area around Melton Mowbray. If the proposed boundary were extended some 20 miles south, it would include Saxby's factory.
O'Callaghan stated that this campaign was "completely consumer driven". It seems to me that in the world today, there is always a commercial or political slant to people's actions. Commercially, there are huge gains to be made by key members of MMPPA if the sale of Melton Mowbray Pies is restricted to only those made in Melton Mowbray.
For a start, there just is not enough capacity within Melton Mowbray to meet the current demand for Melton Mowbray Pork Pies. We have already established that the Melton Mowbray is the premium pork pie, and is recognised as such (thanks in part to the efforts over the years of companies like Saxbys) by both the retailers' commercial teams and by their customers. The name Melton Mowbray' is synonymous with a quality Pork Pie, and the name is everything. Wellingborough Pork Pies' just does not have the same ring to it somehow.
There are alternatives. The Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association could accept that the area it has identified falls massively short of covering the area where these pies have been legitimately made for a hundred years. It could expand it to include, for example, the whole of the East Midlands.
Or it could amend its application to one of Certificate of Specific Character, whereby the style and production method could be protected, but not the location that the product could be made.
The application as it stands is, in my opinion, unfair and unreasonable.
{{COMMENT - GUEST }}
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