Barfoots of Botley: innovation from the ground up
Passionate about produce, Barfoots of Botley (Barfoots) is ‘cultivating excellence’ one crop at a time. From butternuts to beans, pumpkins to sweet potatoes, Barfoots’ expansive portfolio provides all the vegetables needed to keep mealtimes hearty, healthy and delicious. The company was founded in 1976 by Peter Barfoot, a dedicated fifth-generation farmer whose journey began with a single crop in the Hampshire Basin.
Now, Barfoots continues to expand upon Peter’s legacy, upholding its unwavering dedication to freshness and flavor. “He started with 21 acres of tenanted land on the back of a very hot summer,” begins Keston Williams, Chief Operating Officer at Barfoots. “Fast forward to today, Barfoots farms over 10,000 acres across the South Coast, with additional farms in Spain, Senegal and South America, together with over 350 farming partnerships in 28 countries across four continents. Peter still owns 100 percent of Barfoots, so it’s still a fully family-owned, private business. It’s very much a British success story.” 
Services to sustainable farming
Presently, Barfoots supplies its products to the majority of major UK supermarkets and food service suppliers, with some further customers across Europe. The company specializes in exotic and semi-exotic vegetables, including sweetcorn, asparagus, sweet potatoes, Tenderstem® broccoli, chilies, courgettes, and squash. Each vegetable is carefully cultivated, and grown sustainably with care, so much so that nothing goes to waste. Barfoots also offers a wide range of prepared products, from classic vegetable medleys to exciting innovations, such as sweetcorn ribs, courgette spaghetti and butternut squash noodles. Aside from offering an exciting twist on Britain’s favorite vegetables, these unique products have a great impact on both sustainability and the wider farming industry.
“These prepared products allow us to use the whole crop, including vegetables that are too big or wonky; we turn them into the easy-to-cook, prepared packs that you see in the supermarkets,” Keston explains. “Whenever you see those products on the shelves, you can feel completely relaxed about buying them because they’re made from excess or wonky vegetables, so you’re doing good to both the farmer and the industry by reducing waste.”
Waste reduction and the environment are both extremely important to Barfoots. The company is widely recognized for its ongoing emphasis on sustainability, with Peter Barfoot being awarded a CBE for Services to Sustainable Farming. The business is keen to create a positive impact on its customers, farmers and the environment alike. With strong emphasis on reducing food waste, Barfoots has launched an exciting innovation: Freshlock®.
“Freshlock® is a new process that we have been developing with a Swedish company to help solve some of the problems associated with fresh produce,” Keston shares. “Fresh produce, by its nature, has a short shelf life. It also takes time to prepare and cook. Freshlock® solves these issues in the following ways. Firstly, we fully prepare the vegetables, so the consumer or caterer doesn’t have too. The process gently pasteurizes rather than sterilizes the vegetables and therefore they retain the fresh flavor and nutrients right to the end of their shelf life and up to 50 days. Freshlock® can not only save on preparation time but can also potentially eliminate food waste.
“Because the Freshlock® products are already cooked and ready to eat cold or hot, they can save significant amounts of energy. All of the energy used in the Freshlock® manufacturing process comes from renewable sources, mostly from our AD plant that generates energy from the very vegetable trimmings that are going in the Freshlock® packs. There’s nothing at all like that out there – it is a proper innovation – but it’s taken a long time, a lot of testing, and a lot of failures to get to this point. But we now have a fully invested manufacturing process that’s been tested and is available out there right now.”
Barfoots first implemented Freshlock® into its sweetcorn products following the introduction of its new kernelling operation last year. Initially launched in the hospitality sector, Freshlock® has been a tremendous hit amongst a number of high street restaurants, and Barfoots is enthusiastic about bringing this experience to the home, announcing its upcoming retail debut.
“We have focused Freshlock® into food service. You can already buy Freshlock® products in a number of high street restaurants, particularly those selling sweetcorn products. However, we wanted to bring this innovation directly to the consumer at home,” Keston reveals. “Freshlock® sweetcorn will be launched for the first time in Ocado in a few weeks’ time. It’s our first launch into the world of retail with this product and works really, really well.”
Cultivating excellence
Additionally, Barfoots has significantly invested in its infrastructure to further bolster its sustainability efforts. Last year, it was proud to collaborate with leading clean energy solutions provider, Plug Me In, on a large-scale solar energy system across its two Sussex facilities. This took the form of a two-year solar installation project, with Plug Me In managing the design, planning, network approval, and handrail installation. Combining Barfoots’ exemplary engineering team and Plug Me In’s wealth of expertise, the project was a great success and remains one of the largest solar installations in the UK. Whilst assisting Barfoots in its mission to be self-sufficient in energy, the solar system will have a monumental impact on the surrounding environment, generating around 2240 MW of energy annually, saving around 399 tons of CO2 emissions.
Looking ahead, the sun is shining bright on Barfoots as it heads towards a prosperous future. Despite the ongoing economic challenges, the business is eyeing further expansion across mainland Europe, with plans to incorporate new technologies and automation to increase productivity to accommodate higher demand. However, at the heart of it all, Keston is keen for the business to keep advocating for a healthier nation enriched with vegetable goodness.
“The future looks exciting,” Keston enthuses. “We continue to see a greater focus on eating more vegetables, which is a good thing. Of course we would say that, but there’s a lot of stuff in the press; it’s certainly ignited understanding about the need to eat more vegetables and fresh produce, to have a simple but wholesome diet. I think we’re in a great position to help the public make healthier choices by providing great vegetables that taste fantastic. It’s something that we need to make sure that the public can have access to at a cost that is acceptable and accessible for everybody.”
All in all, it’s clear that Barfoots will always have a seat at the table, continuing to revolutionize dinnertime with its delicious products and nutritious delights.