Young Friers Get Rare Behind-the-Scenes Experience at Blakemans Factory Tour

Young Friers from across the country visited the City of Stoke for an evening of activities before a detailed tour of Blakeman’s state of the art manufacturing and cooking centre.

Blakemans, established in 1953, are a family business dedicated to supplying the best quality sausage and meat products to the wholesale, catering, and food services sectors, including our fish and chip businesses.

It was clear from a very short time the importance that is placed on their heritage coupled with the development of new products and investing in their teams.

The evening got off to a great start with a selection of activities, great fodder and forming new friendships.

The event was set up by young frier James Ellams and James Morris, Sales director of James T. Blakeman and Co Ltd

James M and his team couldn’t have made the young friers more welcome, although James did try to beat all the young friers on every activity the night before the factory tour! The never been done before tour of the factory was extremely well planned to ensure that the young friers could get the most out of the experience. Some had travelled eight hours to be there, which is incredible on your days off.

The day started with presentations on the history of company, their growth and the exciting acquisition of the company by Cranswick.

Once dressed for the tour, the young friers experienced an in-depth factory walk through from raw ingredients arriving, to the making of the sausages and different casing used, the state of the art freezing  and packing process to the finished products.

Young Frier James said, ‘ It was fascinating to see all the investment and care that goes into making chip shop’s favourite sausages. I particularly liked hearing about the dedicated pigs in blankets facility, which start  production in January each year to meet demand. Bacon is hand rolled on.

Lunch was innovative with ideas for loaded dogs and tips on how to boost profitability from a basic product.

The young friers were given a fantastic lunch which really showcased the Blakeman products first hand.

After lunch, the young friers experienced a cooking masterclass, trouble shooting issues that they may face  when frying sausages and how to rectify.

Charlie James, from Pier point said ‘ It has been well worth the journey its so good to make new friends whilst learning at the same time.”

James Morris said, “ wow we were thrilled to be asked by James, we have thoroughly enjoyed meeting such a great group of young, enthusiastic and dedicated young friers. It was really great to share with the group the great work and investment that Blakemans are doing to provide timeless classics for the fish and chip industry and to share innovative ways to introduce new menu items. I look forward to seeing the progress of these wonderful individuals as they develop further. The future is very bright.”

James finalised the day by thanking James and all the team at Blakemans for putting on such a fantastic two day event, investing their time in the future of young people.