Snacks focus: Home grown

Being in the right place at the right time isn't always just a matter of luck. Alex Albone is perfectly happy to agree that the Pipers Crisp brand, which he established in 2004, has benefited from growth in consumer interest in authenticity and provenance.

However, he likes to think he saw the trend coming and was ready with the right product. "There was definitely a resurgence in interest in 'real' food and that's what we specialise in - real flavours for real people," he says.

While Alex's family has been farming for many generations, he worked for five years as a commodity futures broker in his early twenties before returning to the family business.

Working with two friends from local farming families, Alex established Pipers in Brigg, North Lincolnshire, in April 2004. The crisps use the local potato crop, and are cooked in sunflower oil.

The aim was to find flavours by working with other farmers who share the same passion for great food. That meant spreading the net for suppliers a little wider.

While North Lincolnshire produces an exceptionally fine spud, Alex admits his home turf doesn't have the same breadth of fine local produce as some other parts of the rural landscape.

So, suppliers working with Pipers include Lye Cross cheddar cheese, made by the Alvis family in Somerset, and David and Alison Lea Wilson, who use sea water from the Menai Straits to produce sea salt on Anglesey in Wales.

The brand's Biggleswade sweet chilli flavour typifies its approach to sourcing. "We were keen to develop a spicy flavour, but using ingredients only sourced from England. Luckily for us, we found Filippo Genovese, based in Biggleswade in Bedfordshire, whose Sicilian background inspires his fruiting methods.

"Not only does he produce the finest firilla and cayenne chillis in his greenhouse, he even has a fruiting lemon tree outside his house," says Alex.

Passion is as important as geography, believes Alex. Indian black pepper is sourced from the Faiz family, who own a coffee and pepper plantation in Bangalore - a province in India. "The harvesting and sorting is carried out by hand and the berries are dried by the sun on huge patios," Alex says.

Pipers is committed to preserving its independence, with none of the range available in any of the major supermarkets. "Pubs are the ideal place for the brand," says Alex. "There are still plenty of occasions when the customer is just looking for a snack, and our crisps go exceptionally well with a pint of cask beer."

That's a view echoed by brewer Tom Wood, who stocks Pipers in his four Lincolnshire pubs, all of which focus unashamedly on cask beer and three of which offer no 'proper' food at all. "We're unusual for a pub group," says Tom.

The Pipers range fits right into the ethos - "they're good quality, well packaged and are popular with customers."

London brewer Fuller's is also among Pipers' customers, as are the Globe Theatre, Harvey Nichols, the Royal Albert Hall and Twickenham Stadium, all in London.

Alex says: "If we are going to have vibrant rural communities we must find ways of supporting and managing the local economy. The challenge has been to turn local potatoes into a snack for the true gourmet. Through a total commitment to quality, both in terms of the process and the taste of the final product, I believe we've managed to achieve this."