Charlie Bigham's is a British brand of fresh

ready meal A frozen meal (also called TV dinner (Canada and US), prepackaged meal, ready-made meal, ready meal (UK), frozen dinner, and microwave meal) is a packaged frozen meal that comes portioned for an individual. A frozen meal in the United States an ...

s founded by Charlie Bigham.

History

Charlie Bigham, a former

management consultant Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultants ...

from London, started the business in 1996. The delicatessens of

Selfridges Selfridges, also known as Selfridges & Co., is a chain of high-end department stores in the United Kingdom that is operated by Selfridges Retail Limited, part of the Selfridges Group of department stores. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge ...

and

Harvey Nichols Harvey Nichols is a British luxury department store chain founded in 1831, at its flagship store in Knightsbridge, London. It sells designer fashion collections for men and women, fashion accessories, beauty products, fine wines and luxury f ...

, and later

Waitrose Waitrose & Partners (formally Waitrose Limited) is a brand of British supermarkets, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. It was acquired in 1937 by employee-owned retailer John Lewis Partnership, which still se ...

stocked the meals. In 2012,

Allan Leighton Allan Leighton (born 12 April 1953) is a British businessman, chairman of The Co-operative Group since February 2015, former CEO of Asda, former chief executive of Pandora, and former non-executive chairman of the Royal Mail. He is also the co ...

joined the board of directors. In 2013, Bigham's created "Swish Pie", the world's most expensive ready meal at £314.16, as a

publicity stunt In marketing, a publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized, or set up by amateurs. Such events are frequently utilize ...

. The pie contained lobster, turbot, scallops, smoked salmon and oysters, poached in Dom Pérignon champagne, topped with truffles and a gold leaf crumb, and a side of Beluga caviar. In 2016, Bigham's bought

Dulcote Quarry Dulcote Quarry is a disused limestone quarry at Dulcote, near Wells on the Mendip Hills, Somerset, England. The quarry measures around from West to East and around from North to South, with an area of , which is surrounded by of woodland. ...

, a disused quarry in Somerset, to build a new factory after outgrowing its premises in London. The first phase of the food production campus was designed by

Feilden Fowles Feilden Fowles is an architectural firm based in London. It was formed in 2009 by Fergus Feilden and Edmund Fowles, who first collaborated while studying at the University of Cambridge. The practice has been recipient of several awards includin ...

and completed in 2017. In 2020, Bigham's became a certified

B Corporation In the United States, a benefit corporation (or in several jurisdictions including Delaware, a public-benefit corporation or PBC) is a type of for-profit corporate entity, authorized by 35 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, that include ...

. By August 2020, annual sales had reached £80 million. In 2021, Bigham's launched a £3 million advertising campaign, including radio and podcast adverts voiced by

Richard Osman Richard Thomas Osman (born 28 November 1970) is an English television presenter, producer, novelist and comedian. He is the creator and former co-presenter of the BBC One television quiz show ''Pointless''. He has presented the BBC Two quiz sho ...

Reception

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' restaurant critic

Marina O'Loughlin Marina O'Loughlin is a British journalist, writer and restaurant critic. She was the regular weekly restaurant reviewer in the London ''Metro (British newspaper), Metro'' from 2006 to 2012, before moving to ''The Guardian'', where she took over ...

wrote: "I've never been drawn to this brand – it seemed like a mix of low-rent ready meal and aspirational boujie, invented by someone a bit posh and, um, chinless," but concluded that the

lasagne Lasagna (, also , also known as lasagne, ) is a type of pasta, possibly one of the oldest types, made of very wide, flat sheets. Either term can also refer to an Italian dish made of stacked layers of lasagna alternating with fillings such as ...

was "delicious".

Charlie Bigham

The eponymous Charlie Bigham studied English Literature at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, before working as a management consultant at

Andersen Consulting Accenture plc is an Irish-American professional services company based in Dublin, specializing in information technology (IT) services and consulting. A ''Fortune'' Global 500 company, it reported revenues of $61.6 billion in 2022. Accentur ...

and ABL. He also owns the Derreen Estate in County Kerry, Ireland. In 2013, it was reported that Bigham had

insured Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

his

sense A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the world through the detection of Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. (For example, in the human body, the brain which is part of the cen ...

s of sight, smell, taste and touch for £12 million. Under the terms of the insurance policy, he was required to avoid dangers such as tasting hot chillies, piercing his tongue or looking directly at bright light.

References

{{reflist Certified B Corporations in the Food & Beverage Industry