Shropshire Council earlier this year terminated HEFF’s lease of the Shropshire Food Enterprise Centre, which automatically terminated the company’s management contract on its current building.
The regional food group has reached a deal with Shrewsbury College and will relocate its operations, including office staff, its retail store and the TASTE Kitchen from the Shropshire Food Enterprise Centre at Battlefield to London Road.
Several jobs are expected to be created in the coming months as more staff will be required to work at both the shop and in the TASTE Kitchen.
HEART of ENGLAND fine foods, which works with hundreds of businesses across the Midlands to promote local food and drink, will share Shrewsbury College’s restaurant and training kitchens, which were recently revamped as part of a £15 million project.
Chief executive of HEFF, Karen Davies MBE, said: “This is a ground-breaking move for HEFF, as its takes the organisation into a new era of growth, benefiting not only our food producers but also the students at Shrewsbury College.
“Those students already benefit from running the college restaurant and professional kitchen, but will now have the added value of working alongside an industry body such as HEFF and will be able to have hands-on work experience and training in numerous skills from business development and marketing right through to retailing and running a kitchen and restaurant.”
HEFF will share the college’s Origins Restaurant and kitchen as part of the deal, with The TASTE Kitchen at Origins running the restaurant on weekday mornings, evenings Thursday and Friday, as well as all day on Saturday and Sundays and during the academic holidays.
College principal Steve Wain said: “I, and the Board of Governors, felt very strongly that partnering with HEFF in this way would not only ensure HEFF and its wealth of expertise in the food and drink sector stayed in Shropshire, but also would hugely benefit our students as we prepare them for life after college.
“We are in the business of educating the next generation of business people, and having a commercial enterprise on site while also making the most of our redeveloped restaurant facilities seemed too good an opportunity to pass up.
“We approached Karen and her team with a proposal and we are delighted to see that proposal come to fruition.”
Mrs Davies added: “We are extremely excited about this next stage of our business. The town centre location, with a separate entrance to the HEFF offices, free parking and a road-facing site for our retail shop, will mean increased footfall. This, in turn, directly benefits our members, especially as the shop is about three times as big as the one at the food enterprise centre.
“The restaurant is also larger, with more covers, and we will be creating employment via the introduction of a kitchen brigade, including our current chef, Danny Silcock.
“We are disappointed for the tenants at the food enterprise centre who have been incredibly supportive of HEFF and so wanted us to be able to continue managing the Battlefield site. Unfortunately, despite our very best efforts, which included offering the council a number of options which would have seen us stay on at the centre, we were not able to find a solution that suited both parties, and therefore the council did not feel that it could go back on its original decision to terminate the contract. We will, however, continue to support tenants through their membership of HEFF.”
HEFF is expected to start running the TASTE Kitchen at Origins from 1 January 2014, with some promotional ‘taster’ events planned in the lead up to Christmas. Recruitment for two additional chefs and front of house staff has commenced and anyone interested in applying should contact HEFF on 01743 452818.
The organisation is expected to have completed its move from the centre to the college site by 1 March.
Shropshire Live is regulated by