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BRAND PROFILE ‘real food’ Backed by a strong Italian family and a passion for quality, Food Queens intends to rule the “real meal” solutions market. FBy Nicholas Rider. ood Queens’ journey started many years before that identity was even thought of, with the formation of The Cottage, a business that Tina Blain (now owner and Director of Food Queens) launched from her mother’s kitchen in the western Sydney suburb of Hinchinbrook. “Being the daughter of my amazing Italian parents, Mario and Maria, food was always our family passion,” Ms Blain told Retail World. “My parents and my beautiful sister-in- law Jasmine thought it might be an idea to tidy up the shed and share many of mum’s preserved items with the locals. The following Sunday we all trotted off to the local market and sold my mum’s pasta sauce and peaches, and a few other things that mum had preserved in jars. “While at the market, my mum discovered an Italian biscuit cookbook. Quickly flicking through the pages she came across a recipe for Italian crostoli, and then the ideas slowly started to flow, and before you knew it, with the support of Harris Farm Markets, our new little home-based business was created, called The Cottage.” The business began with three lines: 26 RETAIL WORLD JUN, 2020 Italian crostoli, almond toast and almond delights. “We’d make biscuits by day and my father would pack them by night,” Ms Blain said. Quickly, the residential kitchen became too small for The Cottage, and operations began in the nearby suburb of West Hoxton. “We started making and selling all foods that we’d been raised on,” Ms Blain said. “It wasn’t easy. We worked long days, long nights, and Jasmine and I would contact customers and do all our own deliveries. “While we both had young families, all our children worked hard by our sides. They’d come from school in the afternoon and help pack the biscuits. It was hard but it was fun. “As time passed, basically our philosophy was anything that mum could cook, I’d sell.” Over the years, this offering has included a wide variety of prepared meals, including lasagna, frittata, pizza, arancini, prepacked yoghurt, hand- stuffed antipasto, desserts, and hand- cut fruit salad. The Cottage’s relationship with many retailers grew, but especially that with Harris Farm Markets. “The opportunities and belief that Harris Farm Markets \[had\] in my family \[and\] what we could deliver, is a true testament to us today,” Ms Blain said. The Cottage, she says, went from strength to strength. The business was creating what she believed to be what retailers wanted: “real food, real fresh, no artificial flavours or additives”. “The direction we had was specialising in private label branding,” Ms Blain said. “\[But\] I’d felt over time, \[that\] we had no identity and needed something fresh and vibrant to represent us in the market.” Food Queens rises The birth of the Food Queens brand followed a trip to Melbourne, a long night thinking about opportunity and concepts, and a phone call to a friend in the industry. “We quickly developed a quirkiness in the market which differentiated us from our competitors,” Ms Blain said, adding that the brand is all about The Cottage’s ‘real food, real fresh’ philosophy. “Today, Food Queens, with The Cottage as its foundation, specialises in different categories that include food to go, breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert.” Food Queens is said to make its meals in real time, receiving orders from FOOD QUEENS STRIVES FOR