• Herbert Adams Slow Cooked Chunky Beef & Mushroom Pie.
    Herbert Adams Slow Cooked Chunky Beef & Mushroom Pie.
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The company behind the Patties, Four'N Twenty and Herbert Adams meat pie brands is coming out with new product launches that take pies beyond the 'traveller and tradie' market into the snacks and food service space.

CEO Steven Chaur says the company has been really challenging itself to rethink its identity as a pie maker, and this has involved creating consumer products for different people and different occasions.

For example, Four’N Twenty's new bite-sized party pies called Slams are sold in packs of eight through convenience stores nationally and are designed as a snacking product aimed at younger people to eat on-the-go.

Chaur says Slams provide an alternative to chips and other salty snacks.

“You can buy them for a couple of gold coins and share them with your mates as a hearty snack before dinner," he says. “We've received a tremendous response from venues and P&Cs as there's been nothing targeted at teenagers in the savoury category. They're also a really good eat – they are made from good Aussie beef and Aussie flour.”

That thinking, he says, also extends the Herbert Adams-branded premium pie range.

“At the end of the day, retailers are pushing prices in the wrong direction, so our way to combat that is to target consumers who will pay for better pie.”

To this end, the company recently improved its gourmet chicken pies to use chicken supplied from RSPCA-approved farms, and it will be evolving the range even further to include ethical options such as organic and grass-fed chicken. Another plan is to introduce a greater variety of proteins into the mix, like pork, and veal, as well as more exotic flavours.

“We really want to deliver a great eating experience by using quality cuts of meat and different cooking technologies, and apply that to the humble pie,” says Chaur.

The Herbert Adams range, for instance, now includes a Chicken & Chorizo pie and last August it launched an eight-hour slow cooked range, according to Chaur.

“The iconic pie is growing up and we are now taking it into different spaces.”

Chaur notes there will also always be a place for the footy pie and the classic Patties party pie, which it still "sells by the truckload" – Patties is currently the largest pie maker in the country, with 48.9 per cent market share of the frozen savoury sector nationally.

According to Chaur, however, there are even more growth opportunities to tap. The company is looking to beef up its presence in the premium café and catering space, and will target high street bakeries as a supplier of interesting pies and pie components.

With this in mind Patties has been quietly developing the technology to supply high-quality pie fills over the last 12 months, and though this side of the business is still embryonic, the outlook is positive given the strong demand from the food service industry for premium offerings.

“We've invested in production to find new ways of producing pies," Chaur says. "We want to take people on a premium journey of buying a pie that's really good to eat and really satisfying.”

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