Kwoks has ready meals market "Thai-ed" up

Kwoks Foods, a leading UK supplier of oriental chilled ready meals to the multiples, has pulled out all the stops to produce the latest range of ready meals for one of the UK's largest supermarkets

Kwoks Foods, a leading UK supplier of oriental chilled ready meals to the multiples, has pulled out all the stops to produce the latest range of ready meals for one of the UK's largest supermarkets.

And the delicious new Asda range of Thai food, developed in just ten weeks, has already launched in one trial store, with another planned in December.

Once the concept is proven Asda plan a nationwide roll out in 2004.

When Asda decided to launch a new range of Thai "food to go" they were in no doubt that Kwoks, who already supply Asda with a variety of oriental food, would produce a range of ready meals of the finest quality.

To meet the brief within the ten week deadline Kwoks immediately contacted a number of favoured suppliers in Thailand and asked them to source high quality authentic snacks and meal accompaniments, whilst Gary Scott, leading the home-based development team came up with a range of sauces, noodles and rice.

Together with other choice ingredients, they offer the discerning customer the total Thai eating experience - to a quality normally only found in restaurants - in the comfort of their own homes.

And the meals, which include green Thai chicken curry, yellow Thai vegetable curry, sweet and sour king prawns with shitake mushrooms, and hot and sweet chicken, as well as a variety of snacks and dips, can be served with the minimum of fuss.

To get the Asda project off the ground, equipment had to be found which could not only cope with the initial batch sizes required to begin a series of trials but could also handle the company's wok style of production.

Once decisions had been made on what was needed, a brief was issued to BCH Ltd of Whitworth, Lancashire.

The equipment was installed in the Grimsby factory within three weeks, a time which managing director Ian Rosindale believes is something of a record.

And this rapid pace allowed Kwoks to meet the Asda ten week deadline.

Asda has become the top Kwoks customer, so much so that the company's 120 strong workforce spends 80 per cent of its time fulfilling the supermarket chain's orders.

But this does not mean Kwoks is not ready to seek new challenges.

Kwoks managing director Ian Rosindale says: ''The ethnic chilled ready meal market is growing and segmenting at such a pace that you cannot help but be drawn into the momentum.

At Kwoks we relish a challenge and are delighted that we were able to meet Asda's very tight deadlines.

But more than that, we feel the meals and snacks offered are bespoke products of a quality to be proud of.

We are certain that customers will be as happy as we are with the range on offer at Asda''.

The Grimsby based company, now a manufacturing division of William Jackson and Son, has flourished since its foundation by chef Paul Kwok and retailer Wayne Rowlatt in 2000.

Its growing success is founded on its ability to develop restaurant style oriental food with distinctive regional recipes in response to the market's demand for increased quality and choice.

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