Currant Communications is a boutique agency specialising in food, drink and lifestyle PR based in west London
Currant Communications is headed up by Sophie Peel who has over 25 years’ experience of brand building including launches, and reputation or perception changing campaigns for household names such as MFI, Stannah Stairlifts, Galaxy Chocolate, Snickers, Stella Artois, Belvoir Fruit Farms, Doves Farm, Bannister's Yorkshire Family Farm, Almondy, London Pride ale and British Watercress farmers.
Sophie offers a breadth of experience across a number of different sectors ranging from food & drink, retail, leisure, luxury and healthcare, working on consumer, business to business and corporate communications. She has worked in-house and for some of the UK’s largest and smallest consultancies before setting up Currant Communications in 2014. Her career experience means she has a rounded knowledge of what it’s like being both client and consultancy side.
Sophie is a member of industry bodies the PRCA and the Food & Drink Federation and holds professional qualifications in marketing, the CAM Certificate and the Higher Certificate from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust.
Our Services
Our Philosophy
We know you want results, and that’s what we want for you too, but to do this we need to work as a team to really get under the skin of your business to develop as good an understanding of your brand as you have. Like friends, we will talk honestly with you to give genuine, reasoned advice, even when it may not be what you want to hear, and we’ll work together to achieve the best possible results for you. But, most of all, we want our relationship to be fun!
What we can do for you
Development of strategic, headline grabbing PR campaigns that help raise your brand profile; change existing perceptions or even launch it onto an unsuspecting public!
Tactics regularly used with great success include:
- Well written, appealing press releases
- Innovative press mailings
- Media visits
- Recipe development and photography
- Event management
- Media and social media competitions
- Celebrity endorsement negotiation and management
- Proactive and reactive press office
- Social media support
- Influencer collaborations
- Show support
- Video production
- Feature copy for key trade media
- Crisis management
All underscored by excellent media relations and great contacts
Contact Us
15 Millside Place, Isleworth, TW7 6BU
+44 (203) 638 0323
+44 7752 451264
sophie.peel@currantcommunications.co.uk
Currant Clients
The UK’s largest grower of watercress with British farms in Hampshire and Dorset but also in Spain and Florida to supplement UK supplies. It is a driven, independent business keen to promote the health benefits of watercress, its history and unique growing methods and its versatility through recipe development and chef collaborations. All of these elements are highlighted at the annual Alresford Watercress Festival to which over 15,000 people come.
Over the years The Watercress Company has invested in peer reviewed scientific research to examine possible links between eating watercress and cancer prevention and is currently exploring ways to make nutritious watercress soup available to all hospital trusts for patients.
In every campaign, PR is key.
Compassion in Food Business is a particular division of the Charity that since 2007 has pioneered a unique programme of engagement with the world’s leading food businesses. They work in partnership to put farm animal welfare at the heart of the industry and to raise the baseline standards of welfare in food production systems. Currant Communications helps to promote their work in the key trade media
www.compassioinfoodbusiness.com
The only grower of wasabi in the UK, with farms in Dorset and Hampshire. They use disused Victorian watercress beds with natural spring water flowing through to mimic the mountainsides of Japan where the plant is native.
The company supplies most of the UK’s and Europe’s best Japanese restaurants with fresh English wasabi and over time, as chefs have requested other Japanese ingredients and products, The Wasabi Company has become one of the biggest suppliers of Japanese goods for hospitality, including the creation of an own label range of wasabi based condiments including mayonnaise, mustard and even vodka.
With the arrival of COVID-19, 94% of the company’s business came to an end overnight with the closure of all hospitality. Since that first lockdown, The Wasabi Company has been focussing on its online business and selling direct to consumers, a business shift in which PR has been vital.
GoodLife Foods make a range of delicious vegetarian and vegan frozen products which aren’t designed to mimic meat but just let vegetables do what they do best – taste fantastic! Their products are made simply from vegetables, herbs and spices and nothing artificial. They make delicious bases for any vegan meal whether you’re a longstanding convert or someone just giving Veganuary a try.
Holy Lama Spice Drops® is a unique range of highly concentrated extracts of herbs and spices. Just one or two drops can transform a dish in an instant without the need for peeling, chopping, grating or grinding and best of all there is no waste.
Holy Lama Spice Drop are ethically sourced and ethically produced; the products are handmade in the factory in Kerala which is a women’s enterprise employing mainly disadvantaged women.
www.holylama.co.uk
Cheeky Food Co and its range of handmade chutneys, pickles and sprinkles are made at home in small batches using traditional North Indian recipes providing an authentic taste of the Land of Spice. All products in the range are vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, sugar free, and contain no preservatives or additives.
Cheeky Food Co was established in 2015 by Swati Biwal who swapped her life as a mathematician and engineer for one in the kitchen where she recreated recipes, passed down from her grandma, determined to rediscover the distinctive flavours of her youth and which she had never been able to find in other chutneys and pickles. She succeeded!
Honey Heaven was established in 2015 by brother and sister team, Robert & Silvia Mocsari who were keen to share the incomparable honeys of their Hungarian homeland. Exclusively sourcing small, artisanal Hungarian beekeepers to provide their Organic honeys, the siblings share their knowledge of the medicinal benefits of honey, herbs and spices passed down the generations, to create a range of 10 honeys that feature blends of herbs and spices to give a health and taste impact second to none, as well as three honey wines. Their interest in natural remedies has extended to include CBD products including the strongest CBD oil on the UK market.
www.honeyheaven.co.uk
Holy Lama Naturals is an award winning natural body care range made using the ancient principles of Ayurveda. All the products are vegan-friendly and free from both SLS and paraben. Extra virgin coconut oil is the base of all the products, and the delicious fragrances across the range are distilled from a combination of superior essential oils known to help balance mind, body and soul.
Holy Lama Naturals are ethically sourced and ethically produced; the products are handmade in the factory in Kerala which is a women’s enterprise employing mainly disadvantaged women.
www.holylama.co.uk
Art House London offers vegan friendly, natural home scents and body care, including premium luxury candles in three sizes and in six fragrances, oil diffusers and moisturising hand wash and nourishing body lotion in three scents. All the products use either 100% essential oils or the highest quality fragrance oils which contain no harsh chemicals.
Art House London is the brainchild of Australian, Rosemarie McGrath who has lived in England for over 25 years. She owns a boutique hair salon chain and a career spent in beauty, together with her experience working on luxury cruise liners inspired her diversification into the home scents market.
Case Studies
Belvoir Fruit Farms regularly update their range with new products – a PR’s dream – and for which we achieved high levels of national, regional and trade coverage. However, there is an annual event on which Belvoir needed us to focus and achieve coverage.
A key period for Belvoir is the six week elderflower harvest that, due to weather dependency, takes place anytime from the middle of May to the middle of July. Elderflower Cordial was Belvoir’s first product and remains the most popular product and so for that brief six week period Belvoir likes to ‘own’ elderflower. I am proud that in the 10 years that we have worked with Belvoir we have achieved phenomenal coverage every year in a vast range of publications and broadcase media including in Saga, The Simple Things, Landlove, Sainsbury’s Magazine, Independent, Waitrose Kitchen, delicious, Sunday Telegraph and the BBC One Show to name a few.
Coverage achieved in 2015 alone:
- 11 pieces of national coverage including The Times, Daily Mail, The Lady, Country Living, delicious, Great British Food, Daily Telegraph, Hello! and Waitrose Kitchen
- 13 pieces of regional coverage encouraging local people to come and help pick the elderflowers in the press, local radio and local TV
- 1 National TV Spot Channel 4’s Food Unwrapped
This quality and volume of coverage was achieved every year, reinventing the same story each time to do so.
Due to NLA licensing requirements we cannot show you the press coverage itself, but please contact Sophie Peel if you would like to see them.
Relaunch of Bannisters’ Farm frozen jacket potatoes following a new national listing. Coverage was generated through a press release and mailer focusing on the Britishness of the potatoes and the family business that developed them, together with the convenience and taste of the product.
Coverage achieved:
- 26 consumer – including Daily Mail, Telegraph Magazine, Woman’s own, Choice, Best
- 4 regional
- 4 website & blogs
Due to NLA licensing requirements we cannot show you the press coverage itself, but please contact Sophie Peel if you would like to see them.
Kanes Foods is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of fresh prepared foods, including washed and ready to eat salads, prepared vegetables and stir fry vegetable mixes, as well as fresh salad dressings and stir fry sauces. We were approached by Kanes Foods in 2012 to support the opening of the UK’s largest eco-friendly salad packing factory. Instead of arranging the typical plaque unveiling we invited ethno-botanist and TV presenter James Wong to lay the final turf on the living roof. We invited national, regional, trade and broadcast media to the event, hosting a team from BBC Midlands and a journalist from FPJ on the day and organised a photographer for the event selling the image into the national press
Coverage achieved:
- half page branded features in the Daily Mail, The Sun, bbc.co.uk and dailymail.co.uk
- 1 TV spot on BBC Midlands
- 2 radio interviews with local radio stations
- 4 regional press
- Feature in FPJ (Fresh Produce Journal)
Due to NLA licensing requirements we cannot show you the press coverage itself, but please contact Sophie Peel if you would like to see them.
Almondy in the UK was mainly known through its links with Ikea but they were also available through major supermarkets such as Tesco. The launch of new Toblerone Almondy meant that we were able to ‘launch’ Almondy to the media through press visits and tastings.
Coverage achieved:
- 7 pieces of national press coverage including the Mirror, Woman & Home, Woman and Woman’s Own
- 7 pieces of trade coverage including the Grocer, Publican and Morning Advertiser
Due to NLA licensing requirements we cannot show you the press coverage itself, but please contact Sophie Peel if you would like to see them.
Anecdotal evidence suggested that eating watercress is good for the skin so we decided to prove it. We enlisted the help of some volunteers who enrolled in a four week diet developed and overseen by nutritionist Dr Sarah Schenker, that involved eating a high proportion of watercress. Special photography was taken of the skin before and after the four week period which measured the decrease in wrinkles and general improvement of the skin’s appearance.
Coverage achieved:
- 9 pieces of national coverage including Daily Mail, the Sun, Daily Express, Metro, Daily Mirror, Good Housekeeping
Due to NLA licensing requirements we cannot show you the press coverage itself, but please contact Sophie Peel if you would like to see them.
Mrs Moon is a small on line business run by two sisters who decided to get out of the rat race, after having children and not go back to their previous high flying, but demanding, careers in the City and PR. Instead they took up an old childhood hobby - knitting and crocheting – and made a successful business from it that gives them a much better work-life balance. Majoring on this ‘change in career’ angle has appealed to the womens’ press with two features on the sisters having come out already and others in the pipeline.
Coverage achieved:
- 2 national pieces of coverage in Woman & Home and Woman
- 2 regional pieces of coverage
Due to NLA licensing requirements we cannot show you the press coverage itself, but please contact Sophie Peel if you would like to see them
Currant clients we've crushed it for in the past
Testimonials
We think we do a pretty good job, but don't just take our word for it - see what some satisfied customers have to say.
Alternatively, email sophie.peel@currantcommunications.co.uk to ask for a copy of our credentials document or call 0203 638 0323 for a chat.
"Sophie at Currant Communications has been a highly inventive and results-driven PR manager for us at Belvoir Fruit Farms. She has been successful in regularly exceeding her targets with a series of original, entertaining and attention-grabbing PR initiatives all of which have borne fruit and she gets surprising amounts of random TV coverage too. She knows the Food & Drink press pack very well and is a pleasure to work with."
Pev Manners, MD of Belvoir Fruit Farms
"I have worked with Sophie for over 5 years and found her a hard-working and committed PR professional. She brings both experience and enthusiasm to each assignment and has helped Almondy with a number of significant retail product launches. I can thoroughly recommend her work."
Andrew Ely - UK MD, Almondy
“Sophie has been the key element in helping me to produce a number of highly specific articles that have performed particularly well with our readers. A key quotation, interview or photograph have always been quickly supplied – and followed up to ensure that it has satisfies what I need. This makes my role so much easier, and has helped to bring something extra to our readership that might otherwise have been lacking.”
Mark Clements – Editor, Poultry International
“Sophie was excellent and fun to work with. She understood our business requirements really well and got us a lot of fantastic coverage, particularly in some of the large national women`s magazines which had an immediate beneficial effect on our business.”
Susan Ritchie – Partner, Mrs Moon
"Sophie has been a great asset to our team for our media outreach work. She is very enthusiastic about our business goals and proactive at identifying opportunities for placing statements, issuing press releases and planning feature articles.
Apart from continually identifying opportunities, one of her key strengths is really getting to grips with our business and particularly our messaging which makes creating media content very easy for us.
She can turn things around very quickly, has an excellent writing style and constantly delivers. She has enabled us to dramatically improve our media coverage and raise our profile year on year.
On a personal level, she is a lovely person and a complete joy to work with."
Jo Cooper – Marketing and Communications Manager, Compassion in World Farming
"I worked with Sophie on both trade and consumer PR campaigns for Greenvale AP and found her very personable and professional. She demonstrated a great understanding for our business and always delivered high quality work. Sophie’s proactive nature made a significant difference raising the visibility and profile of our company and I would certainly recommend."
Tracey Mattock -Marketing Manager, Greenvale AP
“I have worked with Sophie for many years now and she has always done a fantastic job for us. Her enthusiasm and genuine interest in our brand translate into well thought-out, solid and results focused PR campaigns. I would highly recommend Sophie to anyone looking for a PR agency that offers the personal touch and achieves great results through creative ideas always within budget.”
Becky McCaul – Marketing Manager, GoodLife Foods
“Sophie has extensive experience, as the dedicated director for the Watercress Alliance account she brought a new dimension to our PR campaign. She has a very keen eye for detail, highly motivated, and could be relied upon to extract the maximum coverage for all our activities from the media and the public alike. All her press releases were extremely well composed, blending her enthusiasm and determination to ensure a successful outcome; this was no more evident than at the Alresford Watercress Festival – now one of the major food festivals in this country – where not only would Sophie write all the PR material, she would spend the entire day making sure the operation ran smoothly. I would be more than happy to recommend Sophie as a first class PR professional.”
Charles Barter - Director, Watercress Planning and Development, The Watercress Company