Dina Foods set to mark 30th anniversary at UK’s IFE event
UK-based Mediterranean food supplier Dina Foods is in celebratory mood as it celebrates its 30th anniversary showcasing its ranges including authentic breads, savouries and confectionery at the International Food and Drink Event, IFE, in March, writes Neill Barston.
Among its ranges, the company will be displaying its premium layered Filo pastry Baklawa, as well as its traditional artisanal flatbreads, ranging from Pitta to its signature Paninette wraps and Lavash bread.
The IFE event takes place between 21-23 March, 2022 at the ExCeL centre in London, and will be showcasing a broad range of food and drink developments, including within the confectionery and snacks sector.
As Dina noted, it’s come a long way since the family brought Lebanese food to the UK in the 1970s, says Wilda Haddad, Assistant General Manager. The brothers Fadi, Samir, and Wilda’s father Suheil Haddad, (the Managing Director of Dina Foods) and the fourth brother, the highly talented chef Amin Haddad, who has sadly since passed away, initially set up one of the first Lebanese restaurants in the country, Fakhreldine, in London’s Mayfair in the 1980s.
The brothers’ original 220-cover Fakhreldine soon became a destination restaurant in London, with queues for tables every night. A second site was then opened, the seafood-specialist venue Lucullus. It was from here that Dina Foods was born in 1992, originally launching in Hackney, before moving to the Park Royal area in north west London twenty years ago, when it outgrew the original site.
From the start the company was the leading supplier of Mediterranean flatbreads in the UK. In fact, Dina Foods launched the UK’s first Lebanese flatbread with a major high street retailer.
The company is now BRC AA+ certified with a multimillion-pound turnover supplying foodservice businesses and national and international retailers, and employs some 160 people.
Mr. Suheil Haddad and brothers Fadi and Samir Haddad
It has been full steam ahead since then. As Dina Foods celebrates its 30th birthday at IFE, the scale may have changed, but the family values and focus on quality, service and integrity never will.
Dina Foods is focused on building its firm foundations, meeting new customers, working towards its latest goal of a zero-carbon footprint by 2030 and sharing its authentic Mediterranean products with an ever-wider audience. London-based Dina Foods can be found on stand 3561.
