AN award-winning TexMex restaurant with outlets in Edinburgh and Aberdeen has revealed the important role of packaging in helping to build the rapidly growing brand.
FreshMex is set to have its products stocked in ASDA stores throughout Scotland just seven years after being launched at a farmers’ market by a university graduate with a £500 budget.
Robbie Moult is the brains behind the business, which holds the crown of Deliveroo’s most ordered dishes in both Edinburgh and Aberdeen thanks to its offering of traditional TexMex food – such as burritos and quesadillas – using entirely fresh ingredients, with no microwaves or freezers found on site.
A deal has now been struck for ASDA to stock its range of spice rubs and salsa dip, all of which are packaged in recyclable packs designed by Montrose graphic designer Erik Porter, under his Union Creative brand. Erik is also behind the design of FreshMex Lime Lager, created in collaboration with Brew Toon and stocked in bottles in Morrison’s throughout Aberdeenshire, with Packaging Scotland being given an exclusive look at its soon-to-launch canned version.
Aberdeenshire local Robbie said the use of fresh ingredients is the key enabler in allowing the brand to compete with some of the biggest names in the food and drink sector. He noted packaging as a great means to getting the word out.
“When people order food and it looks delicious, they take a picture for social media,” he explained. “It’s the same with packaging. If it looks good, people will take a picture. If the food is inside a brown box, it’ll still look delicious – but what’s the brand? Where’s the logo?”
FreshMex’s signature lime logo was born out of Robbie’s initial £500 budget after a friend’s graphic designer father kindly offered to draw something up on his lunch break at ‘mate’s rates’. Paying off almost instantly, Robbie recalls a mother pulling into a farmers’ market in Inverurie and telling him her kids had spotted the large green lime and the bold green and red FreshMex text on the brand’s black gazebo and demanded they check it out.
Following its success at farmers’ markets across Aberdeenshire, the brand was offered a kitchen residency at Aberdeen sports bar, The Adams, in 2016. This led to further residencies at the St Machar and Balmoral Bars, before the opening of its first restaurant in Aberdeen in 2018, followed by Edinburgh in 2021.
The move into a proper kitchen and coinciding launch of Deliveroo in Aberdeen, inspired Robbie’s brother and business partner, Chris, to travel to Deliveroo’s London HQ to attend a speech given by Wagamama’s CEO. Much of the speech focused on the time and energy the business had invested in perfecting its takeaway packaging.
“If you have ever had a Wagamama takeaway you’ll know it’s really high-quality packaging – it retains the heat, looks the part, and is premium,” Robbie explained. “We really took note of it and started thinking about packaging a lot more – we got branded bags on the back of it and started using stickers rather than stamps.”
Chip shop-style cardboard boxes will be the next takeaway packaging item released by FreshMex, with Erik transitioning over the bag design onto the boxes. “We launched loaded fries finally on Deliveroo towards the end of last year and they’ve been going really well,” Robbie added. “So, we’ve just started to look at the packaging option for the loaded fries and nachos and thought there could be some improvement made in terms of environmental impact. One small piece of cardboard is better than two metal containers and tinfoil, and it’s cheaper. Our loaded fries and nachos look amazing, but when it’s in a tinfoil bowl it doesn’t photograph the best.”
The design of the new retail offering is also the work of Erik, with Robbie revealing that he has full trust in the network that has been with him throughout the brand’s journey. Initially, the idea to create products to use at home came during lockdown when kitchens were instructed to close – with Robbie, Chris, Johanna Kerge (FreshMex’s head of people), and Alex Laverock (former Aberdeen FreshMex manager and now Edinburgh manager) using the time to bag up FreshMex’s spice mix to sell to customers who wanted to have a crack at replicating FreshMex at home.
Eventually, commercial stockists from afar as England began buying FreshMex’s rubs, which led to Robbie seeking out a manufacturer to take the ‘painstaking’ packing process out of their hands.
Through Opportunity North East, the brand was put in touch with British Pepper and Spice. The partnership allowed FreshMex to ramp up production on its spice mix, whilst still maintaining the same recipe used when hand creating it in the closed restaurant. This is when ASDA became interested.
“We went through a few iterations of the packaging,” Robbie added. “We weren’t quite happy with the sachets – they were plastic-based and ASDA actually commented (on this). They also used to be 45g and ASDA said if we make it 30g they might be interested, as it’s a bit cheaper and affordable for customers, so we made it smaller and teamed up with someone else for the paper sachets – which I think are going to be outstanding and something we’re going to shout about when launching.”
Robbie is confident most of the ingredients and sauces on FreshMex’ award-winning street food menu can be transitioned over to supermarket shelves. Plans are in place for messaging to direct retail consumers to the restaurants and vice-versa. Robbie hopes it will act as a gateway into Glasgow – where ASDA makes its most Scottish sales – with him eyeing up premises in the city centre, west end, or potentially the southside. From there, he then plans to move into Newcastle and continue south.
“My advice to people would be to get your product nailed, that’s the core,” Robbie replied, when asked what his advice would be to anyone looking to launch a food brand but worried about being squashed by household names. “At the first farmers’ market we did, we stayed up literally all night – we didn’t get any sleep – preparing the food. That was terrible and I wouldn’t recommend it, but that’s how much we wanted to make sure it was right, so get the best products, get a good brand that tells that product’s story.
“I managed to get a sit down with Stuart Common, MD of Mackie’s of Scotland, and he said you’ve always got to assume that no one knows your brand, no one knows your business – even at Mackie’s, assume no one knows you and get your story and message out there. That’s what we’re going to have to try and do for the next few months and years, just tell that story.”
