A husband and wife team are celebrating after their frozen food business The Northern Dough Co. secures a coveted listing in more than 700 Sainsbury’s stores across the country.
Launched by Preston based couple Chris & Amy Cheadle in August 2011, The Northern Dough Co. began as a kitchen table venture to address a gap in the market for fresh pizza dough.
However, just six years later, Chris and Amy’s frozen pizza dough product is now stocked nationwide in one of the UK’s largest supermarket chains as well as in delis and independent food outlets across the North West and beyond.
The concept for The Northern Dough Co. came after Chris and Amy invited friends over for pizza parties as an alternative to dining out.
“We know people love making their own pizza but that making the dough is time consuming and a lot of effort for a result that isn’t guaranteed so when we realised we could save people time and get them straight to the fun part of making pizza at home by creating a fresh pizza dough using high quality ingredients that just needed defrosting to use, we set about developing something that would fit the bill” says co-founder Amy Cheadle.
When friends started asking to take the dough home to host their own parties, Chris and Amy knew the idea of creating a specific product was worth pursuing so the couple started to take their products to local food markets in Clitheroe and Liverpool.
Chris Cheadle says: “We took enough products to our launch event at Clitheroe to last the day, but had sold out within an hour. At that point we knew there was a clear demand and started to approach individual delis to see if they would stock the range.”
Supermarkets were quick to see the appeal of the unique pizza product, with Booths, Ocado, Waitrose and Wholefoods adding it to their shelves early on.
The pair continued their pursuit to make the products available nationally eventually landing on success when Sainsbury’s confirmed it would be putting the pizza range into more than 700 stores across the country.
Amy adds: “We started the business with a small amount of money but a huge determination that with a strong idea and a lot of passion for great food, we could create a national brand. The fact that retailers such as Sainsbury’s and Waitrose have supported our vision by stocking our range is incredibly exciting and we can’t wait to see how shoppers use it to create fantastic pizza at home.”
The range of frozen pizza dough in Original, Chilli infused, Rosemary infused and Wholemeal (2x 220g dough balls per pack, to make 2x 12” pizzas) uses only natural ingredients and is currently available to purchase at Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Ocado, Booths Wholefoods Markets and farm shops and delis around the country.
