Member Article

Goodfellows launches consumer arm

Peterlee-based luxury tableware business Goodfellows has launched an online community backed by a top team of celebrity and Michelin-starred chefs, to meet demand from serious home cooks for its previously trade-only range of exclusive tableware and kitchen equipment.

Goodfellows was launched in 2012 by North East-born food and hospitality entrepreneurs Valda and Paul Goodfellow and hit a £2 million turnover in its first 18 months of trading. The business employs a team of 18 people at its Peterlee distribution centre and luxury London showroom on Baker Street, supplying a long list of top restaurants, hotels and sporting venues across the UK.

Its new ‘For Cooks’ website at www.forcooks.co.uk aims to bridge the gap between professionals and amateurs, offering consumers high status product brands from around the world, many of them exclusive to Goodfellows, and all chosen to give serious home cooks access to professional level kitchen equipment.

A panel of top chefs including James Close at the Raby Hunt in County Durham, the North East’s only Michelin-starred restaurant, Aiden Byrne, Kenny Atkinson and Nigel Haworth are spearheading the community by providing exclusive content, tips and tutorials, plus links to products designed specifically for them. For Cooks also has an online shop, so people can buy what they see, whether that is a beautiful designer plate or a professional water bath.

The second stage of the business will see a speciality food producer list added to the site via recommendations from the chefs involved, where shoppers will be able to find where to buy the top quality ingredients they recommend.

Managing director Valda Goodfellow explains: “TV cookery shows and a general interest in food and its provenance have sparked an explosive growth in the number of people taking a serious interest in cooking, and in sourcing professional level gadgets and equipment that are used by the top chefs.

“Cooking is now the new competitive sport among young professional men, with many of them spending thousands on equipping their kitchens. There is nothing like this out there for them, and we have unashamedly designed the For Cooks community as the ultimate resource for that audience.

“It’s not aimed at what we call the casual everyday cook, but at those who want to tap into the secrets of how the top chefs achieve such amazing results with their food, whether that is through techniques or the tools they use.

“When we launched Goodfellows two years ago it was to give five star hotels and restaurants plus great independent operators access to the best brands in kitchenware that they could not buy from anyone else, and customer demand has seen that grow to a point where we are now almost a £3m business.

“Taking our products out to consumers via an online community seemed the next logical step. Market testing plus the number of well respected names in the industry who were keen to be involved has reinforced our instinct that the demand is there.

“Our new community will operate on the same principles of quality, innovation and customer service that have seen us grow our trade products business into such a successful operation.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Richard Crulley .