County Durham food and drink firm hits million pound turnover for 2018

Barnard Castle’s Besos Food and Drink has seen turnover go from £22k in its first year to a potential £1.5m in 2018, its third year in business.

The company specialises in a range of products that derive from the ‘tiger nut’ (including liquers and milk), a tuber that is harvested from the roots of the tiger sedge, a plant grown and farmed in Seville, Spain.

With support from enterprise agency NBSL, via the North East Business Support Fund – part financed by the England European Regional Development Fund – the firm has launched its website and a programme of digital marketing to raise awareness of its products.

So positive has been word of mouth, managing director, Peter Smith, is moving the firm into larger premises at Shildon and is working with the Department for International Trade on plans to open Besos bases in New York, New Zealand, Germany and Israel.

He said: “My wife and I had lived in Spain for 22 years and suddenly she suffered a heart attack. She was placed on a strict diet, with regulated alcohol.

“One night she requested a brandy, which I got her, but when she asked for another, I decided to add a little of the Spanish drink “Horchata”, made from the tiger nut. It was delicious and an idea was born.

“I made it for a few people and they all thought it was incredible, so I took it to a huge conglomeration in Spain to try and sell it. The chap I spoke to said I was wasting my time as they get hundreds of people contacting them every day. I convinced him to taste it…that chap works for me now!”

Peter put Besos Food and Drink into production and it made 1,800 bottles of the liqueur “Besos de Oro”, which translates as “Golden Kisses”, in the first year, which equated to a turnover of £22k.

Such was the appetite for the product, that grew to £202k in the second year and should a potential deal prove successful, that will rise to £1.5m this year.

Peter is quick to recognise the role NBSL played in the company’s growth.

He added: “Around 80 per cent of businesses fail in their first year. Of those surviving the first 12 months, 15 per cent fail in the second year and then another three per cent go under in the third.

“In short, very few organisations want to help SMEs until they’re viable and established. NBSL is not like that.

“Without them, we could not have afforded the website and online marketing we undertook over the last couple of years. After we got the firm online, we suddenly took something like £120k in new orders… so thanks NBSL!”

Last week, NBSL launched the new The North East Business Support Fund (NEBSF), which focuses funding on County Durham and is forecast to help 620 businesses, creating around 230 jobs.

This new cash is open to all Durham SMEs until 2020, even those which have already accessed NBSL support in previous funding rounds.