Staal Smokehouse is a family business that produces select smoked food products which are delivered directly to individual online customers from their farm in East Yorkshire.
The business has won multiple awards for its produce and has seen a rapid increase in demand for its locally sourced produce from restaurants, delicatessens and farm shops throughout the region and the South of England. Proprietors Justin and Georgina Staal are passionate about providing an exclusive artisan service that guarantees excellent quality and freshness in their range of smoked salmon, trout, mackerel, and poultry.
Solution
As a start up small business in 2011 with an unproven output, Staal Smokehouse needed a smoking kiln that was small enough to accommodate moderate quantities of production as well as test batches for product development, without wasting capacity and resources such as energy consumption, smoke and time. The AFOS mini kiln proved ideal, its 25 kg capacity providing this flexibility along with the versatility of both a hot and cold smoking capability in one machine.
Within a year, rapid rise in consumer demand and a string of prestigious awards for the quality of Staal Smokehouse products, led to the need for a second AFOS kiln and Justin relishes the capability he now has to run hot and cold processes simultaneously and to respond to seasonal peaks and troughs in demand. The AFOS kilns enable him to reduce his time spent in the smokehouse to two days a week, which frees him to develop his business and test new products.
Staal Smokehouse’s investment in AFOS equipment has served the business well. The kilns’ consistent temperatures facilitate the management of complex atmospheric and climate conditions. This helps to deliver a consistency of quality and taste that has secured prestigious clients such as Michelin star The Pipe and Glass Inn in South Dalton, which serves ‘Staal’ smoked salmon with a curried crab croquette, boiled quail eggs, compressed cucumber and coriander.
The stainless steel equipment enables Staal to meet rigorous Environmental Health regulations. The kilns are easy to maintain and clean and Justin appreciates their ease of use and simplicity. “Once you are familiar with the processes, the kilns are relatively idiot proof” he says. AFOS’ fast engineering response is facilitated in his case, by the fact that the engineering company is on his doorstep, which is another bonus of the Staal commitment to using local suppliers wherever possible.