The Tanfield Food Company has struck gold with its creation of the Look What We Found range of gourmet food. Kate Bowman talks to co-founder Roger McKechnie about the product.

THE Look What We Found brand is expected to be on every supermarket shelf and delicatessen counter across the UK in the next few years, generating a £25m turnover for the Tanfield Food Company, of Consett, County Durham, and creating up to 300 jobs.

Its success story will be the second such tale for founders Keith Gill and Roger McKechnie, who back in 1993 sold their Phileas Fogg brand of snacks for £24m.

Mr McKechnie, 64, says the concept of the Look What We Found ready meals - restaurant-quality food in pouches that can be stored in the cupboard for up to a year without the need for preservatives - is unique to this country and "bigger and better" than anything that has been done in the food industry for a long time.

Yet the finished product has been years in the making, born from his involvement with the region's food and drink group Northumbria Larder and a subsequent holiday in Spain.

He said: "Some of the producers involved with the Northumbria Larder were absolutely brilliant.

"They had million-pound products of their own, but they didn't have a large amount of cash to invest in marketing and growth plans.

"It got me thinking about these great producers and the great food and how, if they joined forces, then they could market themselves better."

At that time, the market for ready-made chilled and frozen meals was taking off, and he knew that a small group of food producers would struggle to find a way in against the big-name companies.

However, a trip to Spain in the 1990s marked a change.

"While I was on holiday, I went to a newsagent's and saw a stand with interesting-looking Spanish meals, which were fresh and yet were not in a chiller cabinet and had a year-long shelf life," he said.

"They were sitting in temperatures of 35 degrees but didn't have any additives or preservatives. So I bought the full range and tried them myself, and they were good.

"That's when I thought 'If we can do this in England, then we might be on to a winner'."

Some time after returning home, he went to a packaging exhibition and, within half an hour, knew he could turn the dream into reality.

"I found out that by cooking the food in a pressure cooker, it would enable the product to sit out in normal temperatures without preservatives," he said.

"It was already being done with tins - for tuna fish, for example - but no one in England was doing it for fresh ready meals. The only way I could see if the process would work was to try it.

"So I found someone in Italy prepared to try it with me and I went out there with a cool box full of venison, kippers, rabbit, cheese and sausages.

"I met up with a university professor out there who was a world expert in heat-treated food and we tested the process of putting the food in the pressure cooker raw and then cooking and cooling it.

"The food was terrific, and when I got home and asked people to try it, they couldn't believe that we'd done nothing more to it.

"At the same time, there was a movement against prepared food in supermarkets because it was getting more and more downmarket, and giggled that people didn't really know what they were eating.

"There was also a move towards buying food from farmers' markets - where people can look the farmer in the eye and know exactly where their food was coming from."

Roger's journey of discovery led to the creation of the Look What We Found range of gourmet food, which is sourced from producers mainly in the North-East, prepared to specific recipes, cooked in a pressure cooker and packaged in pouches with a picture of the farmer's face on the label.

Since its launch in March, the range has already been ordered by Waitrose, US-owned Costco, farm shops and delicatessens.

Mr McKechnie believes it is a matter of time before it is in all leading supermarkets, as well as restaurants, pubs and hotels.

"The product is designed for busy people, who love a good meal but have little time to cook," he said. "The range of food is restaurant quality, and yet can sit in your cupboard for a year, takes just minutes to heat, has no preservatives or additives and tastes superb."

The range includes Mark Robertson's Northumbrian Cheese Soup, Barry Shaw's Cumberland Farmhouse Sausage Cassoulet, Colin Kerr's Alnwick Castle Estate Venison Meatballs, Swallow's of Seahouses Smoked Haddock Pottage with Prawns and Mussels and Richard Woodall's Wabberwaithe Pancetta in Wild Mushroom Sauce.

For more information, visit www.lookwhatwefound.co.uk