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The IFE Manufacturing team were recently over the moon to spend a day with Pecan Deluxe, gaining an insider’s look at the challenges and opportunities faced by a global confectionery supplier.

From navigating complex international regulations and language barriers to responding to diverse consumer dietary needs, the Pecan Deluxe team shared valuable insights into how they develop innovative products that appeal to taste buds around the world.

Between trying a range of delicious products, the team sat down with Senior Development Technologist Richard Fox to learn more about how the business operates.

What are some of the challenges & opporuntities that come with being a global confectionary supplier?

Each country might have their own legal requirements for raw materials that they want they need to use, or nutritional levels. For instance, some countries might use fortified flour or some might not. So we have to learn and understand what requirements an individual country or continent need in order for us to develop recipes that fulfill that area. Language and communication can be a problem, getting clear messages across in translation and just finding and reaching new customers on an international basis, you've got to overcome language barriers.

So if we're talking about how to make sure our website is found by customers and NPD professionals, for example, there's a little bit of a challenge there. Making sure that if someone does a Google search in Poland as opposed to the UK, how do we get that picked up. Packaging and our labeling in different languages to their requirements as well so that is quite complicated.

Plus since we've hit Brexit, getting samples out and products through customs and EU regular continues to be a challenge we face on a daily basis, really, and that is difficult for us, because a lot of hard work, goes into developing products, putting samples together and we need customers to try them, in order for them to put them into application and give feedback. The amount of paperwork and export charges that have come our way has been a real massive challenge, and that's starting to ease off a bit now, but that's made it really difficult actually trying to get products into customers.

Trying to get two pallets of product can cost potentially 1000s of pounds. Working globally across Asia, Africa, Europe, Scandinavia, they all have different tastes, flavours and textures that they've grown up with so a lot of that needs to be understood. We need to understand that so we can adapt our development towards particular countries e.g. extra salt in Scandanavia. So when we get briefs in, we always, always work on where we are supplying taking into account from the raw materials that we're selecting to the flavor profiles that we're presenting, to the colors to the textures, everything is geared towards who we're dealing with in the world. At any one time, we may have 20 briefs that are going through development, and that might be for 10 different countries, so it comes with experience to learn about the different customers and the different products.

Also as we're engrossed in those needs we can then share it with other parts of the world as well, which can then become a trend, which is a satisfying thing to do and a unique position we're in to be able to do that. So it's kind of like passing the baton. Trade shows are a great way of reaching international customers and get into the menu or a product launch and start off from one country to be rolled out to other countries. From social media perspective as well, that international foods and drinks and restaurants, there's so much exposure. At all different kinds of menu ideas. People see them, and it means we're in a really good position to be able to hop on those and adapt them and bring them out to customers, to a worldwide audience.

How important is it to develop products for different consumer dietary requirements?

So we're very conscious about the sugar levels that we use, the salt levels we use where we get our raw materials from, whether things are gluten free, have added no added egg or dairy. We've, we've become very adept at creating products, not just in development, but through our process, creating allergen controlled, applicable products. Our products are normally a component making up only 2% of the ultimate product, it may not be necessary for us to accommodate that request. Probably 60% of our development has been working on no added egg or dairy.

People do want those allergen control, but we still have to make them to the same level that you would expect so it's never easy as this stuff, but the more we do it, the more the better we've got. And because of that, now I'd say that we were kind of experts in the field of producing these kind of components with these kind of requirements. Protein has a big been a big part over the last few years, so it's always keeping up to date what the current dietary requirements is at that particular time.

How do you work with raw materials?

When we're approaching looking for new raw materials its about communication with the customer and their requirements including fair trade, RSPO, Rainforest Alliance, accredited halal, kosher, plus it must be  GFSI and BRCGS accredited. Raw materials always be have to be thought about in terms of how they perform in the end product, and they will drastically change over time. We always have to think ahead about what might happen to these flavors and the risk assessment and certifications that might be needed.

We also have to make sure that they're safe to use and applicable to use within Europe and the further field. We work very close with our suppliers. building a relationship so we know them, but more importantly, they know us because we want them to be able to understand if we come to them with a request, they know the type of products that we're going to be working with, our processing requirements and the end products that is likely to go in. So it's a training thing on both sides.

What is the secret to effective creative collaboration with your clients?

Clear communication to be able to gather interest, share information, to brainstorm, to spark new ideas. It can't be done one way or the other. You have to build up a relationship, trust, you know, and work together as a greater team. So pecan isn't just a team within its own business. It's a team within our suppliers, our customers, everybody. Everything that we do is a two way street, so communication is the key to everything that we do.

We do work differently to a lot of NPD teams, because we're quite a small team, and we do have a lot of different customers from a lot of different areas. Also helps is that we're quite flexible in our approach. Because we're a relatively small factory it means, if a new trend or an idea comes along, we can, we can adapt and produce something for relatively quickly, which helps in the whole creative side of things and we can gain interest, drive things forward, but mainly to satisfy the customer's requirements and needs.

Which products or flavours have been particulary popular lately, and why do you think that is?

Recently we've experienced a lot of customers looking for churros and donut style pieces. People want not just flavours but a combination of things so blended like flavors, textures, colors, and then that extra special thing that could be added to it, so like mouth feel like popping candy that gives that extra sort of dynamic. People are branching out more and being a little bit more experimental snf more left field than they have done recently.

Obviously, the Dubai chocolate has been something that's been of interest recently. Bubble gum and sourz is something that always does very well- we had a successful launch with a sour apple type product. A lot of flavors come from us as wellm it's our responsibility to go out to the market and put things in front of their faces as well, not just wait for them to come to us. So we work on a lot of ideas, brainstorming innovation in order to put flavor combinations together, of interest, different textures together, different color blends, different everything coming together. Then we take that out to the outside world and see how it goes down.

How do you stay on top of new trends in product development?

We work very closely with our suppliers and our customers, being in communications to discover and discuss any new developments, new trends that we might see in the market. We're very much in touch with our sources throughout the globe who can feedback any new trends that might be coming our way. We stay in such very in close contact with our American side as well, so we can hear what they're working on, what's happening over in the states and what might be relevant for us over here.

It doesn't matter what your role is to look at and source things of interest they might see. might see in the marketplace, so the shops when they go to shopping when they're on holiday. On the internet, on Instagram, anything like ours so the sources can come from anywhere. It's just assessing them and talking into them and seeing what's relevant for us.