New Zealand's Blue Seals
While its origin is probably unknown to some users, equipment sold under the Blue Seal brand chalks up a sizeable mileage to reach UK caterers. The source is Moffat Group Pty, which has its international headquarters in Australia and manufactures in Christchurch, New Zealand. With a turnover of around $AUS60m, the group claims a lion's share of the commercial kitchen equipment market in both countries and has a growing international presence elsewhere, including North America.
The company is nowadays part of A & P, a conglomerate with a wide range of interests, but its origins go back to the 1920s, with the name coming from its association with a Canadian equipment manufacturer. The initial business was in electrically powered domestic cooking equipment, encouraged by New Zealand's plentiful hydro-electric energy. Commercial catering equipment developed later, as did gas powered appliances in the late 70s.
Name change
The UK business, known originally as Moffat Appliances, was established in 1983 as a subsidiary of a Moffat New Zealand. As it grew, so did the potential for confusion with the unconnected Scotland-based manufacturer E & R Moffat. The company decided during the 90s to trade instead as Blue Seal.
Director Colin Speechley, who was closely involved in building the UK business, retired in May 1999, remaining as a consultant.
Martin Allen, who took his place at the helm, attributes much of the success of the UK company to its ability to cherry-pick from the very extensive selection produced by the Moffat Group for the "down under" market.
"It's very easy to bring in a lot of products but we've needed to be selective, both to suit CE approvals and to build our presence in the UK", he comments. Distance inevitably enters the equation with the need to ship container-loads of product from the other side of the world encouraging an efficient stockholding policy. Hence the focus on a carefully chosen range of no-nonsense four and six burner ranges, convection ovens, fryers, grills and food warmers.
Solid build and keen pricing has steadily gained the Blue Seal brand mainstream acceptance, particularly in the free house sector of the pub market. This position has been helped by robust technology such as the exclusive two-speed Turbofan convection oven, sold both stand-alone and as a standard part of competitively priced oven-ranges. Some models have cook-and-hold facilities and latest versions for the bakery and bake-off markets incorporate computer control with 4-stage profile baking.
Another example of Blue Seal technology which has proved attractive to UK caterers is the fast recovery system of infra red burners on the company's single and twin tank Vee Ray fryers. Combi-steamers are as yet missing from the selection, however. Moffat is a major supplier down-under but through a tie-up with Convotherm.
Distributor-led sales
According to Allen, the UK company now has an annual turnover of around £5 million, a sizeable output considering there are just 14 staff at Blue Seal's Birmingham headquarters. The team includes a national accounts manager but, according to Allen, the focus is on getting Blue Seal specified; all sales are channelled through the company's 250-strong UK dealer network. All servicing, meanwhile, is sub-contracted to a Birmingham company which specialises in catering equipment.
Blue Seal's most recent product development - gas-fired tilting bratt pans - hints at aspirations to become a more broadly-based kitchen supplier, with greater input into the institutional sector as well as pub and high street users. "I feel that we are only just scratching the surface of what we could do in the UK," Allen comments.
"The brewing industry here is a tremendous market but we also need to build up a presence with architects and consultants. We have a young team with lots of ideas and are very focused."
Blue Seal
