Company Profile

Market

According to Conrad Nelstrop, the company's biggest change over the past decade has been the need to create closer working relationships with its customers and to be proactive, rather than reactive, to market changes. New ideas are continually being tried out by bakers in Nelstrops' test bakery. An important example of this philosophy has been the development of PeriTec flours to produce premium white breads for the top end of the market..

Another example includes anticipating the increased interest in high-specification wholemeal suitable for soft-sliced pan bread, which started to become popular in the context of healthy eating.The company also anticipated the increasing demand for organic bread by making the necessary changes to achieve organic status and accreditation by the Soil Association.

Yet another successful development, as the market for pizza booms, has been Pizza Lily flour, which is now being sold nationally through wholesalers. "We believe, keeping in close contact with our customers and exchanging ideas breeds some loyalties and commitment on both sides", Conrad Nelstrop said. "It's a question of 'think customer' all the time". Wheat is sourced mainly from eastern England, with a proportion coming from Canada, the United States and continental Europe.

Nelstrops produces 50 different types of flour and 120 products. The products are sold through wholesalers, as well as going direct to larger customers, as far afield as the Midlands and Scotland. The main customers being independent bakers, in-store bakeries, brand names and pre-packed own label. Demand for ethnic products of all kinds is increasing.

Investment

To sustain and develop their market position, Nelstrops maintain their policy of continuous improvement through investment. In addition to the need to meet customer specifications, investment is necessary to meet increasingly stringent food standards and environmental and health & safety requirements and there is rarely a period without contractors on site, either replacing or installing additional plant. Nelstrops are currently replacing their grain intake facility, upgrading the No.1 mill with additional PeriTec equipment and have recently commissioned a Disc milling plant to supplement the No.2 soft wheat mill.

The original mill building of 1894, on the crest of Lancashire Hill, is an iconic landmark in the town. It was designed and supplied by Henry Simon to house a plant incorporating the newly developed rollermilling system. Such have been the technological advances over the last century, that the current plant housed within the same original building has a capacity of ten times that of the original.

When the test bakery facilities and office accommodation were upgraded and extended in 1991 Christopher Nelstrop, an architect member of the family, was engaged to ensure that the new extension housing modern and functional facilities is in a style that alludes to the classic mill architecture of the region and thus remains in harmony with the classic 1894 mill building.