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“ The first couple of customers included Marks & Spencer’ s for high-value milk products. There was a subsequent relationship with an Australian company, So Good, making a soy milk that was the brand leader in the UK at the time. That was very successful for a few years, spurring Framptons to focus on contract packing as an exciting and potentially lucrative business. From 2005 through to 2015, there was a lot of growth in this area, and the business started packing for brands like Innocent, Shaken Udder and Delamere.
“ In 2019, the company transitioned again, this time reducing its reliance on juices and smoothies to focus instead on UHT plantbased drinks, predominantly soy, coconut, and oat. The last five or six years have seen a huge growth in oat drinks, and plant-based drinks now represent around three-quarters of our business, with the remainder comprising milk drinks, spring water, and, most recently, readyto-drink coffee. Framptons is always evolving, and the industry is also fast paced; this makes it quite a dynamic environment, which can be exciting but also scary at times, not knowing what is around the corner.”
Today, Framptons provides products for branded co packing, retailer own label, foodservice own label, and tertiary brands. The company has a unique approach which allows it to offer its customers a highly competitive price point for oat drinks. James explains the strategy:“ How we achieve this is quite simple: we are vertically integrated, which means that we have access to our own oats, grown within a 50-mile radius of our factory. This means we have very low transport costs and fewer emissions. This gives us the ability to make oat drinks less expensive than companies making them elsewhere in Europe. Being close to the crop means we can process it quickly and easily without worrying about fluctuations in the market or different contracts we might have.”
Locally grown ingredients
Quality is also a critical aspect of Framptons’ oat business. In 2021, Framptons commissioned a state-of-the-art oat extraction plant at its site in Somerset and this facility is where it makes the oat base. James goes on to describe Framptons’ strategy for growth and explains why a new facility plays an important role.“ Historically, oat drink products in the marketplace have been made in different ways, typically using oat syrup or oat flour, whereas we make an oat base that can be used as the key ingredient in oat drinks,” he says.“ The first component in achieving our targets is to persuade more customers to use our oat base and to switch from other methods, while also
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