West Sussex firm Prosperity Brownies has started supplying nine Waitrose stores in Sussex with its brownies and flapjacks this month.

Launched in stores on 17 May were two brownie lines: original and dark chocolate and raspberry, and two lines of its recently developed flapjack range Prosperity Jacks, in dark chocolate and ginger, and apricot and sultana varieties.

Paul Hatcher, who runs the business with his wife Jane, said that Waitrose has always been one of its “prize prospects”, and ideally he would like to see these products in “every single Waitrose in the country”. The firm made contact with Waitrose local and regional product manager Tracey Marshall last July, before meeting her at the Speciality & Fine Food Fair in September.

“We sent her samples of the brownies and she loved them, and we just went from there,” he said.

He added that the firm had been toying with the idea of introducing a product like flapjacks in order to increase it’s revenue from existing customers, so when Waitrose asked if it produced anything else, Hatcher said the answer was simple: “We don’t at the moment, but we’re on the verge of it - what would you like?

“We accept a minimum order of a case - 48 units, and Waitrose’s first order was for one case of each line for each of the nine stores,” said Hatcher. “For us, that is a significant order.”

Hatcher said it will be interesting to see how often Waitrose re-order a month, but if that order is repeated twice a month, “it would be a significant shift up for us, and will mean needing to take on at least a couple of extra staff, which would be really good for us”.

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