More than 20 years after Marks & Spencer pioneered the ready meal, a small company based on a West London industrial estate is moving the concept on for a generation of food-aware consumers.
Bigham's produces the kind of food that someone with a reasonable knowledge of cooking could create in their own kitchen if they had the time. There are absolutely no artificial additives. All 250 fresh ingredients delivered each morning to the kitchen - founder Charlie Bigham avoids the word 'factory' - are made up into meals that day, ready for lorries to pick them up and distribute to retailers overnight for sale the following day. The happy side-effect of this formula is that it satisfies retailers' desire for 'just in time' stock.
We're standing in the delivery zone. Bigham grabs a handful of herbs that have just been dropped off and are waiting to be taken through to a storage area. 'Look at that,' he says. 'All fresh, and they'll be used in meals in a few hours. And see this chorizo? We had to search really hard to find chorizo with no muck in it. We have to get it from Spain.'
When he started the business with no experience of commercial food production, Bigham was told fresh herbs would prove far too expensive to use. But his research found that there was a market for products containing fresh, quality ingredients, and that consumers were willing to pay £5 for them - about £2 more than standard ready meals for two.
A tour of the kitchens mid-morning finds about 30 employees busily chopping, stirring and assembling that day's meals, mostly kebabs. The homespun ethos of the brand is reflected in the lack of mechanisation in the facility.
Almost everything is done by hand. The only concession to food production technology is a contraption resembling a giant spin dryer that mixes chopped meat with small vegetable pieces.
Bigham, 37, is a former management consultant - a background that has bestowed him with more confidence than the average small business owner.
He is also a big believer in market research, and in the early days spent a lot of time cooking food in stores that stocked his products, such as Cullens, and asking for immediate customer feedback.
He discovered that although consumers want good food they can prepare quickly, those who are prepared to pay the premium price that fresh ingredients dictate will already have rice, potatoes and a few carrots in the cupboard, and will know what to do with them.
So Bigham's meals consist of marinated meat or fish, sometimes mixed with vegetables and a separate sauce. Consumers are required to perform a modest amount of frying or grilling to cook the meat or fish and supply their own rice or potatoes to go with the meal. This is what distinguishes the Bigham's idea from the now defunct meal kits Rocket and leapingsalmon.
'Consumers told us that they wanted us to come up with the recipe ideas and marinate the meat or fish,' says the founder. 'But they wanted a bit of freedom about what they serve with it.'
This preoccupation with customer feedback is clear upstairs in the office, which is crammed with 16 staff. On one wall, a selection of customer letters are pinned up. The company receives about 25 a week; the vast majority are highly complimentary, but, says Bigham, 'If we're messing up, they tell us.'
After research revealed consumers were confused by the Steamers micro-waveable line launched in 2002 under the Bigham's name as it didn't fit with a top-quality food brand, the Bigham's branding was removed from the range.
In terms of growth, the success of Ocado, the Waitrose online venture that Bigham's supplies with branded and own-label meals, has proved particularly helpful. The company has averaged expansion of 120% over recent years, and Bigham, ever the professional manager, has plans to treble turnover and staffing over the next three years.
'We're still a minnow at the moment,' he reflects. 'It's not that I aspire to run a £1bn business, but I am reasonably ambitious - as long as we can keep to our mission to produce fantastic food.'
TIMELINE
1995: Charlie Bigham tires of the world of big business and starts thinking of ideas for his own enterprise. He buys a camper van and sets off for India. The trip gives him the inspiration to set up Bigham's on his return.
1996: The first Bigham's meals are produced on Charlie's kitchen table. Ten banks turn him down for financing. In the end, his local Business Link office comes up with funding, to which Bigham adds £25,000 of his savings.
1997: Bigham's wins BBC Good Food's award for Best New Branded Food. Waitrose begins making orders, prompting the company to expand from eight to 33 staff.
1998: Bigham's begins own-label production for Waitrose.
2000: The company moves to an industrial estate in Acton. The range consists of 12 dishes.
2004: Bigham finds a new kitchen facility, three times bigger than the current one, which will be used from next year. With 70 dishes now in the range, turnover hits £8m.
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