Murray Now

The British are not traditionally renowned for their gourmet cooking, but a couple of young Lancashire lads who have settled in Bunaloo, north of Echuca-Moama are determined to showcase the country’s culinary revolution.

Craving the uniquely British food from their homeland during back-packer adventures in Australia, the concept of producing their own smallgoods and selling it to other expats in Australia seemed a smart business proposition. Ironically the idea was hatched over a typical Australian BBQ and a bottle of wine.

“A polite conversation about the lack of British food in Australia turned into a rant due to the lust for food from our native land,” laughed business founder James Arrowsmith.

“Yes, we British have a reputation for our cooking, and we know all too well what the world thinks of our boil in a bag spam based dishes. But our vision is to produce the very best of British smallgoods, such as the humble pork pie (eaten cold), the misunderstood black pudding and proper thick juicy pork sausages made out of the best shoulder meat coarsely ground, not the scrapings from the boning room floor,” he said.

Mr Arrowsmith had no manufacturing experience, but was armed with a business degree, some pig farming and agricultural engineering experience. His business partner and hometown friend, Peter Tonge was a chef. Together they formed a company Pacdon Park, put a business plan together, and spent many long hours converting a disused dairy into a factory, building a specialist pork pie machine and perfecting their recipes.

The pair produced their range of smallgoods during the week, and at weekends travelled to farmers markets in areas with high British expat population in Melbourne. Their produce was an instant hit. “The sort of people who attend farmers markets are foodies, chefs and people in the food industry, in particular food critics,” Mr Arrowsmith said.

The breakthrough for the business came in December 2009 when Pacdon Park was promoted as one of the best smallgoods manufacturers in the country.

A full page article on the business featured in the Age Epicure, considered one of the most respected food reviews in the country. It was written by one of the nation’s most celebrated food critics, Richard Cornish.

“It was basically a gourmet tick of approval,” Mr Arrowsmith said.

“The phone rang all day and we received an order via email every two minutes. And so began the busiest time of my life. To say we were under prepared is an understatement.”

The business is continuing to grow with distributors covering Sydney, Victoria, South Australia and parts of Queensland. It has won several awards such as a media marketing award to launch NSW Small Business 2009 in Sydney presented by television personality David Koch. James Arrowsmith has also won Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2009 in his local area.

While awards and accolades are well received, most satisfying of all is seeing the lengths their customers go to in search of their produce.

“People drive from Melbourne to Echuca just to purchase our produce at the local farmer’s market,” Mr Arrowsmith said.

“There’s no doubting the persistence of us poms to seek out a fabulous pork pie or a fat tasty sausage prepared in the style of food from our homeland. Our smallgoods are particularly popular at Christmas time when customers want reminders of home. I’m astounded at the amount of expats that are here in Australia and when they spot us at farmers markets they’re quick to talk about their favourite pork pie recipes.”

It seems the restaurant industry is also impressed by the Pacdon Park produce. Their smallgoods are distributed to more than 30 restaurants and clubs weekly, not a bad effort for a couple of British lads who simply yearned for some home grown tucker down under.