Case Studies

Anglesey Sea Salt Company - Halen Môn

27/06/2006

The project with Anglesey Sea Salt Company gives you a clear view on how BIC Innovation experts, through the Manufacturing Advisory Service, can help your business.

Halen Môn is 100% natural Welsh Sea Salt, harvested from the fresh Atlantic Waters that surround the Isle of Anglesey. Combining traditional methods with the latest technology, the Anglesey Sea Salt Company has developed new processes to perfect the art of harvesting this traditional product. Halen Môn comprises particularly pure, white crystals and contains no additives. The crystals are a 100% natural food, providing a balance of minerals and trace elements essential to the human body.

Scenario - MAS Wales intervention

Halen Môn BIC to undertake a creativity audit. A wide range of potential new ideas were reviewed and prioritised as expansion products for the Halen Môn brand. The exercise was conducted through the “Creativity Works” team at BIC Innovation.

A small group of these ideas were then selected for further development. All ideas had a combination of work required for further development and required the multi – disciplinary approach characteristic of BIC Innovation’s Technical and Marketing team to assist in getting these products to market. BIC Innovation, who had already supported Halen Môn for this kind of activity in the past, was seen as a key to the success of their development activity.

Project Objectives

The principle objectives were to identify possible routes to market relating to the generated ideas, which included portion packs, dispensing solutions, flavoured salts and extra dry grinder salt.

The company needed to break into the portion pack area of the salt market in natural and flavoured varieties but needed to do this by retaining its unique quality stand point and distinctive brand image.

A variety of innovative dispensing solutions were formulated up to concept stage by Halen Môn and  BIC Innovation’s task was to implement these product developments for the company (often complex pack presentations requiring multi element packaging solutions).

Due to the nature of the product Halen Môn produces, it was often selected for use in grinders but did not perform well. It had too high a moisture content and may have contained some chalk that was naturally present that affected its grinder performance. Trials were needed to solve this problem. Ultimately, some further imaginative work was also needed to be conducted to produce a harder salt.

Approach taken

BIC Innovation supplied technical and specialised services to address the specific objectives of the creativity audit.

Following BIC’s intervention, to complement the original sea salt, Halen Môn are now producing spiced sea salt, using a selection of different organic spices.