Pukka
Keith Cottrell has extensive work experience in the food industry. Keith started their career at Samworth Brothers as a Technical Administrator and then worked as a Technical Assistant and Quality Assurance Technologist. Keith later became the Quality Assurance Manager at Saladworks, where they successfully introduced M&S as a new customer and achieved BRC Grade A. Keith then joined Premier Foods as a Site Technical Manager, where they led the Technical function and achieved several accomplishments such as getting the first BRC Accreditation for the site and reducing complaints by 50%. Keith is currently the Head of Technical at PUKKA PIES LIMITED, responsible for creating the strategic technical direction for the company.
Keith Cottrell's education history began with their completion of GCSEs at St Ivo School from 1991 to 1996. Keith then pursued A LEVELS at the same institution from 1996 to 1998, focusing on Chemistry, Geography, and Biology. In 1998, Keith enrolled at the University of Liverpool, where they earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology, General in 2001. Building on their undergraduate education, Keith attended the University of Nottingham from 2002 to 2005, obtaining a Doctor of Philosophy - PhD in Plant Pathology/Phytopathology.
Pukka
Way back in 1960s Leicestershire, husband and wife team Trevor and Valerie Storer started making pies. In 1963, Trevor Storer’s Homemade Pies baked their very first pies. Understandably word of a good pie spreads fast, and the entrepreneurial pair sold over a thousand pies in the first week. As the couple’s little bakery continued to grow, it came time for a new name – something that would reflect their deliciously hearty pies and their friendly, close-knit company. That’s how the Storers’ Homemade Pies became Pukka, a fun and fashionable Hindi-derived word for all things genuinely, properly good. With more than 50 years spent making pies, we’ve become quite the experts. These days our 350-strong team sells around 60 million pies a year in the UK and even abroad. But while we may have grown, we’re still based in Leicestershire just a stone’s throw from where it all began, baking all of our pies on site using many of Trevor and Valerie’s original recipes. We’re proud to make pies that are distinctively Pukka, and with our tasty, honest, feel-good food, we put smiles on faces at dinner tables, football games and local chippies.