Brandragon serves up food brand

Hungry commuters in Winchester are being tempted by gourmet takeaway brand Fech, created by Brandragon, which aims to offer restaurant-quality food in a frozen, ready-to-go format.

The brainchild of start-up entrepreneurs Paul and Kate Barry, Fech is an anagram of chef and pronounced ‘fetch’. It opened at the weekend and one of its main targets will be ‘cash rich, time poor’ consumers, on the homeward leg of their commute from work.

Brandragon has designed the entire brand model – from identity to packaging and retail interiors to menus and marketing materials. According to group director Chris Ellis, Fech is a concept with no directly analogous competition.

‘Nobody’s doing [upmarket takeaway food] on this level,’ he says. ‘The founders were going to use a number of supplies [to prepare the food], but we steered them into having their own chef. Freezing the food straight from the pan is best way of delivering quality in this format.’

While competitor brand Leaping Salmon developed the idea of gourmet meal-kits on-line and latterly through outlets at railway stations and a link-up with Threshers, Fech is exclusively a high-street concept at present, Ellis adds.

He sees significant potential for growth, possibly through franchises and, in later stages, on-line via home delivery.

‘We toyed with the idea of an exclamation mark at the beginning of the name, rather as someone would shout “Chef!”,’ Ellis adds. ‘And, of course, the way you say the brand is a play on the action of getting the food.’

The consultancy was appointed without a pitch in June.

Brandragon senior designer Mike Nash was the principal creative on the project.