Stewart & Co Fine Foods is local and proud

May 22 2009 By Alastair Gilmour, The Journal

RESTAURANTS AND CAFES ARE HAVING A TOUGH TIME AT THE MOMENT – BUT NOT ALL OF THEM. ALASTAIR GILMOUR FINDS OUT THAT THINKING NORTH EAST FIRST CAN REALLY PAY OFF

THE University of Life appeals more to some people than its redbrick cousin. It’s a hard school, but rather than measuring success by degrees, the lessons learned can be character forming.

A prime example is Mark Stewart, a Newcastle-based entrepreneur in organic and fine foods, who eventually managed to convince his parents that quitting full-time education wasn’t the end of the world.

When he arrived home in a new company BMW, his father conceded that he was doing well and stopped the uni-pestering. Mark had decided that Interbrew, one of the world’s biggest brewing groups with brands such as Stella Artois and Carling, was an opportune entry into fast-moving consumer goods which required fast-moving brainwork.

“When you’ve got a dentist for a dad and a teacher for a mother and most of the family has two degrees, it’s a bit of a shock when you drop out of university after one term,” he says. “You can imagine that didn’t go down too well.

“I think it’s important to learn business from ground level and not just do marketing or some bollocks course at university. They should go back to the old polytechnic system where people learned to cook and did joinery courses and actually made things. The first year I was in business I learned so much.”

Mark has also sold gas and electricity “round the doors” in the North East and Glasgow and worked for Gallo Winery in London before moving around the country with Interbrew and to eventually take voluntary redundancy and set up Stewart & Co Fine Foods in Brentwood Avenue, Jesmond, Newcastle, in 2006. The business took off so fast it was awarded top place in the Countryside Alliance’s Best Retailer competition after only five months of trading. It has now developed into a butchery, delicatessen and cafe and while there’s now less of an organic focus there’s now even more emphasis on locally-sourced foodstuffs.

Further developments will see Stewart & Co openings at the new City Library in Newcastle next month as well as a restaurant at Meldon Park in Gosforth.

“Sorry about the noise,” he says, above some not very loud knocking in the Jesmond premises. “We’re building a new kitchen downstairs. It’s a preparation area for the shop and for buffets which we’re getting asked to do more and more.”

The cafe is a busy thoroughfare but manages to simultaneously retain an air of serenity. A couple, having finished lunch, walk out clutching a loaf and a box of eggs.