How culinary force Charlie Bigham’s revolutionised the ready-meal scene with Point74 by seamlessly integrating recipes, packaging and regulations to fuel sustained success.
From their award-winning kitchens, Charlie Bigham’s has been hand-preparing meals in small batches for more than 25 years. The ready-meal brand has shaken up a tired category, bringing restaurant-quality, delicious meals to supermarket shelves. Their passion for consistently producing the highest-quality foods is relentless and is likely one of the reasons for their extraordinary success. Their desire to constantly strive to improve their recipes is why Point74’s software has found itself at the heart of Charlie Bigham’s team.
With success came expansion, and the struggle to manage recipe and ingredient information, packaging details, and regulatory requirements became increasingly overwhelming. They recognised that the absence of a comprehensive system had led to fragmented processes, with crucial data scattered across departments. From finance to recipe development, collaboration and efficiency were suffering, highlighting the pivotal role integrated solutions play in navigating the complexities of a thriving business.
Charlie Bigham’s found a solution to their growing pains by partnering with Point74. Serving as the central recipe system, Point74’s software houses crucial information, seamlessly connecting ingredients and packaging details to meet regulatory requirements. Its simplicity in use and visibility of changes has enabled the team to develop and manage recipes effectively and efficiently across the business.
According to James Fox, Process Manager at Charlie Bigham’s,
“Point74 is the lifeblood of the business”. He adds, “If we need to make any changes for ingredients or because the supply changes, it’s done through Point74. It’s a really simple system to use. You just change the recipe and that percolates through all the variations of that dish. We use it every day”.
Clare Gibbs, Charlie Bigham’s Deputy Head of Food and Sustainability Programme Manager, says,
“If a change has happened to an ingredient or a process or a piece of packaging, it updates instantly, so that every different team can see. If we didn’t have Point74, we would be spending a lot of time doing admin.”
Beth Gretton, Process Technologist, at Charlie Bigham’s agrees,
“It definitely saves a lot of time. It’s got the history log and you can see different versions, so it’s also got the traceability of all the recipes as well. With Point74 everyone is on the same page and it’s easy to get everything translated across to everyone”.
“Point74 is our one source of truth. Every business in the food industry is really fast paced. So, you’re constantly having to work with the latest information, whether you’re going through NPD stuff and a new product’s coming along the way, you’re going to want to make sure you’re using the latest ingredient prices or latest, recipe yields. We know all of those bits of data can come from Point74. I pretty much couldn’t do any of my work without Point74”.
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