Profile: A slice of the action
WHO ATE all the pies? The customers of the Mill Inn, in Mungrisdale, Cumbria, apparently.
Licensees Jim and Margaret Hodge have made a feature of pies at their freehouse since 2001, selling 12,000 to customers every year, and more in off-sales.
Along the way, the Mill Inn has won numerous awards for its pies, including the title of English Beef and Lamb Executive (EBLEX) National Steak Pie Champion, and has splashed out £120,000 on the Pie Mill, a factory to meet demand.
With Jim on the judging panel for EBLEX's latest Steak Pie Competition, it was high time to find out how the Hodges have achieved such success with this traditional pub favourite.
In early 2001 the disastrous outbreak of foot and mouth brought trade in rural areas, including Cumbria, to a standstill.
With few customers coming through the doors, Jim and Margaret had a forced hiatus, and decided they needed some kind of new offer to kick-start trade once the agricultural scare passed.
"We had gone to Lancashire and stopped in a pub for lunch," explains Jim. "This homemade pie was on the menu. It came out and it was awful. But the idea was right."
Inspired, he and daughter Amanda set about experimenting with pastry upon their return - for, as Jim says, "pastry is half the pie". They came up with a variation on traditional short crust pastry that they were able to freeze without deterioration.
They then sourced the meat, wanting to guarantee its quality, local provenance, and justifiably name their pies after local landmarks. Most of the Mill's meat is now bought from one farm and processed through one slaughterhouse in South Cumbria.
Their first pie festival, a weekend-long charity event staged in a marquee was held in November 2002. Around 700 pies have sold at the festival each year since.
The Pie Mill, a 10-minute drive from the pub, opened its oven doors in May 2005. All the pies are now produced there, frozen and brought to the pub to be heated and served as required.
The pies' quality is such that they are not just bought as a takeaway by happy customers after a visit to the Mill Inn, but by retailers including supermarket chain Booths, local farm shops and through the internet.It is a story of uncompromising quality, of sound business sense and steady expansion, and of how troublesome business conditions can spark a pub to reinvent itself.
With trading conditions nationwide currently causing many licensees to feel the pinch, perhaps it can act as a lesson.
