GT – What standards do you work to? Have you won any awards for innovation, exports or other achievement?

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has now notified us they plan to call on their members who collect, sort, distribute and deliver parcels and letters to take strike action over the following four dates; I have used quite a few already, but I was not 100% sold on any until I tried this KTC Pure Almond Oil. The current owners of the business are the Khera family and myself, Mike Baldrey. Although I have a minority shareholding, it is significant. We have many of the most respected brands in the ethnic food industry, KTC, Sea Isle, Supermalt and Ashoka, to mention just four; we are always competitively priced and generally give an excellent all-round service. Quality has always been a top priority.GT – Which of your products have crossed over from being bought purely by the ethnic community to being bought by Brits as part of their cooking repertoire, and which ones have the potential to do so? Have you modified any of your products’ recipes to appeal to UK mainstream tastes? GT – How big is KTC in UK turnover and staff numbers? How fast is it growing? Do you export to other countries? GT – What do you see as the major trends in speciality ethnic foods? How are you responding to these trends? I’d like to see us continue to use our vegetable oils and fats as our bread and butter – forgive the pun! – while expanding further in the exciting arena of “New Continental Foods” and bringing in more profits from both areas. I’m delighted to see the increasing shelf space afforded to us by the multiples for these new KTC lines. KTC Almond oil is a rich source of vitamin E and is beneficial in many ways. Almonds are treasures of some essential minerals such as magnesium and calcium. Raw almond oil enhances the taste of the food including salads, grains and toasts.

Yes, we would like to hear from any importer or exporter who wishes to enter the UK market with a saleable product. We already work closely with Tilda and have just signed a dual branding agreement with CAROTINO, who are already in the multiples but want us to sell their products to the wholesale and independent retail trade.

We support the Notting Hill Carnival, as well as many food shows and regional Melas (Asian community festivals.) KTC has been a long term supporter of the Asian media, especially TV, films and magazines. We offer recipe leaflets on many items and have been associated with Madhur Jaffrey and other Asian cooks in the past. GT – You recently launched some exciting new products. What are they, and when did you launch them? How are they doing? GT – What proportion of your retail and speciality sales go through supermarkets, Co-ops and C-store chains? How fast is this business growing? I’d say the split is about 60/40 in favour of branded versus private label. We could certainly take on more private label vegetable oils. We blow our own PET bottles in our Wednesbury factory.