Local Heroes - Roberts Foodservice, Weymouth
Above: Angie Roberts & Alan Stockley (l) delivering Dorset goodies...
Ever-resourceful Angie Roberts is the shopkeeper’s shopkeeper – an extraordinary wholesaler on a crusade to make Dorset food and drink easier to source.
Enterprising Angie buys, and then redistributes, a vast variety of Dorset food and drink to catering outlets – pubs, restaurants, shops and specialist traders – all over Dorset.
Roberts Foodservice’s five vans serve 575 caterers from Lyme Regis to Lyndhurst to Yeovil, six days a week. On their travels, they collect supplies from producers and deliver them to customers. Doing both on the same run saves diesel – a most efficient operation with the lowest carbon footprint.
The company has made its name on good, friendly and personal service. In fact, urgent orders are often delivered on the way home at night!
Dairy farmer’s daughter Angie was born at Pentridge, near Sixpenny Handley and the Wiltshire border. Her mother and sister still farm there, the second and third generations. Angie read economics at the University of Hull, gaining a BA honours degree. Becoming a trainee land agent in Salisbury, she was quickly headhunted by Minster Fuels, where she stayed 20 years as Agricultural Manager. Taking over the Dorchester depot brought a welcome return home to the county. Today she lives in idyllic Up Sydling, part of the Sydling Brook estate.
Bigger and Better...
It was in 2000 that the opportunity came to buy Roberts Foodservice, which was founded in 1978. Essentially a wholesale and retail frozen-food shop, the location under Weymouth Town Bridge brought a lot of passing trade. Roberts always sold local eggs, milk and cheese.
When the building was redeveloped as flats in 2002, the company was forced to relocate to the Granby Industrial Estate, with little passing trade. It was time for a rethink, and with brilliant initiative, Angie conceived the concept of ‘Dorset Fine Foods’, which, like all the best ideas, is really quite simple.
Talking to customers, Angie found enormous interest in using Dorset products, but they were difficult to source on an individual basis. With small producers scattered across the county, it was a time-consuming business for caterers to fetch supplies and many simply didn’t have the time – telephoning Roberts with one order would be so much easier than ever it would be to roam the county picking up supplies.
With Angie’s extensive distribution experience, plus a passion for local food and local products, the specialist wholesale operation was born. Their growing catalogue reflects all that’s best about Dorset food and drink, ranging from Portland oysters out of the Fleet to the fine longhorn beef of the Cranborne estate. There’s ice cream, game, cakes, vegetables, crab and goat’s cheese. Clive Sage’s famously succulent lamb comes from Monkton Wyld, in sight of the Devon frontier, and Puddings & Pies near Sherborne – a rare holder of the Royal Warrant – supply both Roberts and the Prince of Wales! The quality Dorset Blue Soups are becoming more popular, another growing cottage industry, now being trialled in some Weymouth pubs, thanks to Angie. And many fine Dorset hotels value Roberts’ friendly and efficient service, such as the prestigious Chewton Glen and Haven Hotels.
Tuesday escapes to London...
Every Tuesday a Roberts’ van leaves for London. Dorset meat, oysters, eggs and salmon are all popular in smart London restaurants like Gordon Ramsay’s La Pétrus at the Berkeley. Covent Garden and Smithfield also take an increasing amount.
Producers greatly appreciate Roberts’ clever logistical expertise of distributing local food, which increases their markets tremendously, relieving them of endless calls for small orders. High praise for Angie also comes from Emily Davies of Dorset Blue Vinny soup and cheese: ‘Distribution is always a nightmare for small producers, but Roberts is so efficient. They’re always very cheery and will come out every day. I buy dry goods from them, so its a two-way relationship. The idea of distributing Dorset products is wonderful and Angie deserves all our thanks.’
A vital part of Roberts’ business is brother-in-law and General Manager Alan Stockley. Poole-born, and now living in Fordingbridge, Alan says that he does everything from sweeping the floor to driving a van, and with a lifetime’s experience in food service throughout the world, he’s a very able first lieutenant to Angie. ‘It is,’ says Angie, ‘Alan who has really built up Dorset Fine Foods.’ Another vital element in the team at the distribution hub in Weymouth is jolly Office Manager Victoria Fletcher, who hails from Portland.
Dorset Fine Foods was launched by a super exhibition in April 2007 at the Langton Arms in Tarrant Monkton. This classy pub, whose licensee is Angie’s sister Barbara, has a reputation for good local food. Attracting a wide range of chefs and journalists, the event featured top Dorset chef Michael Feasey.
Promoting Local Food...
Angie is also part of the Direct from Dorset steering committee, a scheme run by Dorset County Council to promote local food. Members of Parliament may soon be enjoying Dorset produce, too, following a chance meeting by Angie with the executive chef at the House of Commons.
Angie’s initiative and vision has paid off, with turnover quadrupling in three years, and the crowded warehouse on the western edge of Weymouth becoming too small for this fast-moving enterprise. A search is now on for larger premises in the vicinity.
With Weymouth & Portland hosting the sailing Olympics in 2012 Angie, as always, is thinking ahead: ‘I’m looking forward to introducing Dorset food to Olympic sailors and visitors while the county is on the world stage. One of the best counties in the UK, Dorset’s superb food and drink has been much underrated so far – there are so many fantastic Dorset products. There’s no doubt that local food is fresher and better, with a minimum of food miles. We also make a point of supporting producers with good husbandry.’
Roberts Foodservice Ltd., 17 Cambridge Road, Weymouth DT4 9TJ. Tel: 01305 770445. www.robertsfoodservice.co.uk