From Isca Foods to Orchardlea Foods
Before officially re-branding to Orchardlea Foods, our business operated for over 15 years as Isca Foods Ltd, focusing primarily on bulk cheese and meat supply to butchers and the food service sector.
In 2013, everything changed.
When the opportunity arose to acquire Orchardlea Foods, we saw the potential to evolve into something much bigger — a specialist retail food wholesaler focusing on retail-ready products for shops across the South West.
This also meant taking on new customers and increasing our delivery areas, a win win for us!
This marked a major shift in our business model.
Supporting retail shops across the South West
Unlike traditional wholesalers, Orchardlea Foods specialises in:
- Retail-cut and packed cheese and meat which is done all in house in our production rooms
- Products ready for shelves in village shops, farm shops, and convenience stores
- Flexible supply tailored to smaller independent retailers such as village shops that don’t require large quantities of products. Customers can order in single units.
Many of the customers who came with Orchardlea were already in the retail space, and we quickly recognised the growing demand for high-quality, locally sourced products in smaller retail formats.
Having the production facilities already in place it made sense to be able to take this on and build on this.
Just before Covid we actually had an extension done, making one of our production rooms larger which was great timing as for us things got abit crazy here when we realised we would stay open during Covid to supply to our customers.
This was such a relief for us and it was great that we had taken on the retail shops as this allowed us to be supplying the right sector that also were remaining open.
Championing local South West producers
A key part of our growth has been working with exceptional local suppliers, including:
- Chunk of Devon
- Sharpham Dairy
Both Chunk of Devon and Sharpham came with Orchardlea, and are both very popular with our customers.
By partnering with trusted South West producers, we’re able to offer retailers products that customers actively look for — local and high-quality.
We continue to expand our range by seeking out new local producers, to compliment our product offering. We love finding new local produce and introducing new products to our customers.
Why retailers choose Orchardlea Foods
We understand the challenges independent retailers face — from shelf space to customer expectations. That’s why we focus on:
- Consistent quality across all products
- Retail-ready packaging to save time and effort
- Reliable delivery across the South West
- A carefully curated range of cheese, meat, and local goods
- A niche range that isn’t found with competitors, our growing local Butter range is definitely becoming a highlight for us and setting us apart.
- This year we have launched a new online ordering app, this has been a huge step forward for us (and been a long time coming!) it has really opened up ordering options for our customers and for new customers who are looking for easy ordering, regular discounts and the ability to save favourites and place orders 24/7.
Best Selling Retail products
With so many products it’s sometimes hard for customers to choose the best product range to stock, this is our handy guide to our best selling retail products from Cheese to dairy to preserves.
Local Cheese
We stock over 100 different cheese varieties, that’s right over 100! Our local cheese range is definitely our best selling with customers.
Best selling local cheese –
Barnstormer – Strong, crumbly, local cheddar produced in Somerset.
Devon Blue – Creamy and semi hard blue cheese, produced in South Devon by Ticklemore Dairy.
Cornish Yarg
Sharpham Rustic and Chive
Somerset Brie
Curworthy Dartmoor Chilli
Meats
Dairy
Savoury Grab and Go
Ambient
So if you are a business owner/ buyer and are currently looking for a new supplier or some new products to add to your shelves head over to our contact us page to get in touch.
Or give us a call – 01392 661001 and our friendly knowledgeable team will be happy to help.