Helen Swan has been named commercial director of Enfield, Middlesex, England-based Snowbird Foods Ltd. She will serve with joint managing directors Albert McGovern and Philip Paul on a three-person board.
Helen SwanSwan joined the company in 2003, having previously functioned as its national accounts manager. In addition to sales, she is responsible for managing the proactive ideas team which works in the new product development department, and enhancing marketing efforts.
“Helen’s appointment gives us a perfectly balanced senior management team which will drive Snowbird foods forward on a series of exciting new product and business development adventures,” said McGovern.
The company was established in 1999 to manufacture cooked sausages and other comminuted meat products for foodservice accounts and ready meals makers. The business began to grow when industrial clients fully appreciated that it was cheaper and more convenient to source sausages, meatballs and the like from a supplier which could guarantee on-time delivery and consistently meet demanding quality and price specifications. Such outsourcing proved to be a cost effective alternative to utilizing their own factory capacity to make, cook, freeze, pack and then store these components.
Over the years, Snowbird’s multi million pound business has spread across almost every major retail private label and a surprising number of manufacturer brands. Seventy percent of output goes to the frozen ready meals sector, with the remaining 30% absorbed by the chilled market.
Sausages account for the bulk of sales and products in the company’s Gourmet Plus range can have a meat content more than 90%. Whole sausages go with mash, in Cumberland sausage pies and casseroles, and as a base for a selection of breakfast ideas. Sausage coins appear in soups (a new and fast growing snack meal segment), as components of both pasta and pizza meals, and in hand held snack pots.
Meatballs and Koftes provide variety, with a range of recipes for the former representing cuisine of the world including traditional English, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Mexican, Chinese and Indian fare.
These products are also utilized in party platters and children’s meals, where mini meatballs and tiny meat bites for sprinkling are popular.
In the hand-held area, both length-split sausages and coin cuts feature in hot and cold sandwiches, while balls and koftes add interest to wraps.
