Higgidy is a fresh food manufacturer based in Shoreham-by-Sea,

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

, England. The company produces a range of pies, quiches, tortillas and rolls. It was co-founded by Camilla Stephens and James Foottit in 2003. The name of the company originates from an early description of the uneven appearance of their pies by a visiting child.

History

Camilla Stephens started baking her own pies in her kitchen at home. After supplying local events and independent retailers, the company approached the café chain, EAT, which then became Higgidy's first major customer in 2004. As a small supplier, Higgidy gained momentum when it was selected to supply

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company ...

supermarkets as part of the "Supply Something New" scheme in 2007. Success grew from there and Higgidy went on to achieve a turnover of £3.2 million with a workforce of 50 employees. It was in the ''Sunday Times'' Fast Track 100 fastest growing companies in the UK for two years running in 2009 and 2010 and then, in 2011, Higgidy was chosen as the regional winner for the South of England in the HSBC Business Thinking initiative. The first Higgidy manufacturing site was in Southwick, West Sussex. In 2007, the business moved to premises at Dolphin Road in

Shoreham-by-Sea Shoreham-by-Sea (often shortened to Shoreham) is a coastal town and port in West Sussex, England. The town is bordered to its north by the South Downs, to its west by the Adur Valley and to its south by the River Adur and Shoreham Beach on th ...

which, in 2020, employed about 300 staff. Founder Camilla Stephens published two cookbooks. ''Higgidy: The Cookbook'' (2007) contained 100 recipes for pies and more. ''Higgidy: The Veggie Cookbook'' (2019) featured 120 vegetarian recipes. A long-standing supporter of

FareShare FareShare is a charity network aimed at relieving food poverty and reducing food waste in the UK, which has been running since 1994. It does this by obtaining good quality surplus food from the food industry that would otherwise have gone to wast ...

and FareShare Sussex, Higgidy donates surplus stock on a weekly basis, supporting those suffering from hunger in the UK via community kitchens and local food banks. In 2019,

Samworth Brothers Samworth Brothers is a British food manufacturer which produces a range of chilled and ambient foods, both own-label and branded. It is the owner of Cornish pasty maker Ginsters and malt loaf manufacturer Soreen, and is also known as a make ...

, which owns a portfolio of other pie-makers such as

Ginsters Ginsters is a company based in Callington in Cornwall, in the south-west of England. The largest pasty maker in the UK in turnover, it specialises in making mass-produced pasties, sausage rolls, sandwiches, pasta bowls and other savoury snacks ...

, purchased a minority stake in Higgidy with an option to increase their shareholding. There were no plans for a merger of production but the partnership was expected to provide operational opportunities.

Products

The Higgidy Family Kitchen produced just under 13 million individual products in 2019. The range now offers pies (individual and little pies), quiches (large, little and snack quiches), tortillas, rolls (sausage, veggie and vegan) and a snacking and sharing range (including dinky rolls, pastry swirls and savoury muffins). Higgidy products can be purchased in

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and some Londis and Budgens stores. Its products are also stocked in some wholesalers, such as Cotswold Fayre.

References

External links

* {{British pies Food manufacturers of the United Kingdom Privately held companies of the United Kingdom British pie brands Companies based in West Sussex