Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
With over two-thirds of Lakeland customers wanting to know exactly what they are consuming, ‘home-made is best’ continues to be a key trend at the specialist chain.
“Over the last few years we’ve seen our customers move towards more scratch cooking, baking and preserving. Having refined their skills in these areas, they’re now showing a desire to develop them further,” the housewares retailer said.
“With this in mind, we’re introducing a new concept this autumn – soft cheese making – through a recipe book written for us by chef, food writer and broadcaster Gerard Baker. Cheese making at home is so easy – all you need is the right stuff and some of the white stuff!”
‘How To Make Soft Cheese’ is a spiral-bound 20-page book exclusive to Lakeland that comprises seven step-by-step basic recipes by the BBC Good Food columnist, with tips on ingredients, equipment and techniques.
Also new are Lakeland’s own conical and basket-shaped soft cheese moulds, for holding home-made soft cheese while the whey drains away, and Langdale Essence of Rennet.
Lakeland is launching sausage-making kits this Autumn as well, which it describes as “again, incredibly easy to use”. The Lakeland Make-Your-Own Sausage Kits (for Cumberland, Farmhouse, and Lincolnshire varieties) create approximately 20 piped sausages. The user needs 1.5kg of minced meat; inside each kit there is 150g of seasoning mix, approx. 4m of sausage casing, instructions and a grippy piping bag.
Meanwhile, Lakeland has revealed that for its customers, “having mastered baking, cake decorating appears to be the next big development”. Sales in this area have risen by 42% this year, with 115,000 icing sets and over 3,500,000 disposable piping bags sold to date.
Lakeland has a nationwide high street presence from Aberdeen to Truro. The latest branch to open is Gateshead Metrocentre, which began trading at the end of May. Lakeland’s 59th and 60th stores, in Brighton and Enniskillen, are due to open their doors in late July and late August respectively.
