News

Following the success of last year's 15th anniversary celebrations at Ascot, Unicorn teams from Germany and the UK came together for 2023's summer party. This year, the Unicorn team went to London together to spend an evening on the Thames. We enjoyed the opportunity to meet face-to-face and catch up on the past year's events as well as discuss our plans for the coming year.

As in December 2021, at Unicorn Ingredients we have continued our support of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) into 2022/3. Instead of gifts and Christmas cards for our business partners, Unicorn donated the money to the CCF to continue supporting its work. This is an update of our donated dog Jenny's progress in 2023.

As in March 2022, Unicorn Ingredients exhibited at IFE Manufacturing again this year. From March 20th to March 22nd, 2023, team members from the UK and the German offices were at our booth to represent the company. During the three days of the fair, exciting discussions were held with customers, suppliers and potential business partners and many interesting contacts were made in order to further promote the growth of Unicorn Ingredients in the coming years.

Unicorn Ingredients sponsored Age Concern Epsom Ewell’s 2022 Christmas party which was attended by twenty local residents, who enjoyed singing Christmas songs and pulling crackers, a Christmas raffle prize and drinks.

A well deserved party after a hard year's work!

Our Germany Office team has have just returned from exhibiting for four days at Südback 2022, in Stuttgart, Germany. For us, it was a great opportunity to meet up with our customers in the bakery and confectionery sectors, and keep on top of upcoming trends and opportunities for the industry – as well as making new contacts.

Hi. My name is Kalamo Flarty. I'm the livestock guarding dog and Small Stock program manager out here, the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia. I'm just putting together this video as a big thank you to everyone at Unicorn Ingredients for the sponsorship towards our program. Since 1994, we've placed 711 of these dogs out on farms, with 167 out there now making a difference in protecting the cheetah. Jenny here, she is going to be part of our breeding program when she reaches two years of age.

This year Unicorn Ingredients reached a milestone of 15 years trading. Our team celebrated the anniversary with a trip to Ascot to see the races. Our Epsom team were joined by colleagues from the Germany and India offices.

This year we are pleased to advise that we have made again arrangements with Oblong Trees (UK) Ltd, to offset the carbon footprint of all our employees worldwide with respect to their working commitments. This means from when they leave home in the morning, to their return and any travel required to conduct their roles for Unicorn Ingredients Ltd. Plus the impact of our offices on carbon emissions. We see this as an important step in our role as a supplier of natural ingredients to the food industry.

In December 2021 Unicorn decided to forego Christmas gifts for customers and instead made a donation to CCF to help save the cheetah from extinction. Frank Horan and his wife Sally lost their 19-year-old daughter Jenny in 2017. Her favourite animal was the cheetah. Because of this, Unicorn knew that Jenny would have loved it if we supported this charitable organisation.

We are pleased to advise that we have made arrangements with Oblong Trees (UK) Ltd, to offset the carbon footprint of all our employees worldwide with respect to their working commitments. This means from when they leave home in the morning, to their return and any travel required to conduct their roles for Unicorn Ingredients Ltd. Plus the impact of our offices on carbon emissions. We see this as an important step in our role as a supplier of natural ingredients to the food industry. We have embarked on a tree planting scheme, which is believed to be one of the best ways to sequester carbon from the atmosphere. Each tree we plant will absorb 1mt of CO2 over a ten year growing cycle.

Jenefer Horan, daughter of Unicorn Ingredients founder Frank Horan, was passionate about protecting the natural world and conservation projects in Africa. In 2017, nineteen-year-old Jenny passed away, having faced many health issues in her short life. Following her loss, Unicorn ran a fundraising competition in her memory to benefit her favourite charity, the UK-based conservation and education charity AfriCat.

India is integral to Unicorn Ingredients, and a market we have operated in for many years. The country is a major source of agricultural ingredients, so it is important that we have a strong presence. The company engaged a representative in India in 2014 and opened office premises in February 2016 and established Unicorn Ingredients Pvt. Ltd, a year later in February 2017. This is a registered company in India set up to look after business operations in the region and is run by Country Manager, Mr Hemant Gupte.

Unicorn Ingredients has always put great customer service at the front and centre of its business, from its launch in 2008 to this day, as it celebrates another year of profitable growth. Customers, typically manufacturers of bakery, cereal, salad and healthier snack products, are treated with simple, old-fashioned courtesy and accounts are handled with a personal touch.

Nigella (also known as Nigella sativa, black caraway, black cumin and kalonji) is an annual flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae, native to south and southwest Asia. Nigella grows to 20–30cm tall, with finely divided, linear leaves. The flowers are delicate, and usually coloured pale blue and white, with five to ten petals. The fruit is a large and inflated capsule composed of three to seven united follicles, each containing numerous black seeds which are used as spice.

Unicorn Ingredients’ customers can rest assured that they are buying the highest standard seeds, it’s official. Unicorn has held the prestigious BRC accreditation for Agents & Brokers since 2015, shortly after the standard was first launched. And in March 2019 it passed its latest annual BRC audit with AA grade — the highest grade this category of business can achieve.

Sesame seeds: In India the Sesame seed crop estimation for 2018 is 178,000 tonnes, cultivated from an area of sowing of 1,324, 256 Hectors with a yield/hector of 134kg. This is a reduction in yield of 44.8% compared to the 2017 crop. Pumpkin seeds: In the 2018 Autumn Crop survey focuses on farms in the Xinjiang and Heilongjiang Provinces who Unicorn Ingredients work.

Unicorn Ingredients will be talking to customers about trends in seeds and grains at trade show IFE in London in March. Seeds specialist Unicorn Ingredients will be on stand N1840 at the international food and drink event, talking to visitors about latest trends in seeds and grains. 17-20 March 2019.

Unicorn Ingredients is navigating its way through a change to the EU inspection regime on organic products, which have hit its shipments of seeds from China. Unicorn is preparing to advise customers of several percentage point price increases on organic seeds, as a new EU inspection regime causes chaos at the ports.

China is one of the world’s largest sources of edible seeds and plays an important role in the seeds and pulses industry. The country is the world’s leading source of Pumpkin and has developed into an exporting powerhouse for this product, along with various Organic seeds.

A happy workplace is a productive workplace and Unicorn Ingredients’ head office in Epsom, Surrey is both those things. Unicorn Ingredients is not a [...]

Unicorn Ingredients has had a strong relationship with Eastern Europe since the company’s conception 10 years ago.  The region is a primary source to [...]

Linseed is the seed from the flax plant (Linum usitatissimum), a member of the Linaceae family. The thin yellow or brown seed is one [...]

The poppy seed is an oilseed obtained from the pods of the poppy plant (Papaver somniferum). The pods contain a large amount of white, [...]

It is full steam ahead for Unicorn Ingredients’ satellite office in central Gujarat, India, which is planning to start importing seeds to India as well as exporting from the sub-continent.

Unicorn Ingredients will be returning this year to Europe’s biggest bakery trade show, IBA, taking place in Munich from 15 to 20 September. UK-based [...]

Australia is an important country to Unicorn due to its large scale production of its native seed, Poppy.  It is also an area of [...]

Unicorn Ingredients manages the complicated logistical demands of its business by keeping focused on three key supply chain priorities. As a business that operates in 34 countries globally and sources a complex range of seasonal products, Unicorn Ingredients must maintain a highly-sophisticated supply chain. And it is a supply chain that must be robust enough to be tested by harvest failures and natural disasters such as the recent devastating volcano in Guatemala.

Unicorn Ingredients’ base in China allows it to build close relationships with suppliers of key products and embrace local opportunities and expertise. As the Chinese market started to take off in 2011, Unicorn Ingredients registered its first overseas office in the country, as part of its global expansion objective. A Chinese office provides a vital communications conduit for UK-based Unicorn, in dealing with its many Chinese suppliers and Chinese customers.

Since the inception of Unicorn Ingredients, the company has looked to work with and develop opportunities and avenues for sustainable business ventures in Africa, one of the largest sesame seed producers in the world, supplying approximately seventy per cent of the world’s natural sesame seeds. This coupled with the increase in seed demand due to various factors, including globalisation, means Africa is becoming a very important region for Unicorn Ingredients.

Sesame seeds, or Sesamum indicum, grow in tropical regions and are native to Africa and India. Cultivated for its edible seeds, which grow in pods, the annual global harvest for sesame seeds is over 6.2 million metric tonnes, with Ethiopia, Sudan and India as the largest producers.

With both BRC and Soil Association accreditation under its belt, Unicorn is constantly striving for total integrity in its sophisticated supply chain. Unicorn Ingredients can offer its customers a gold standard suite of assurances, as it boasts BRC for Agents & Brokers accreditation as well as Soil Association organic certification.

Back in 2016 Unicorn Ingredients decided to open a new office in Germany, staffed by experienced local professionals, to serve its developing customer base [...]

Season's greetings from our favourite football team, the SL Unicorns. A quick update and hello from the SL Unicorns, pictured here at the club's Christmas [...]

We would like to extend our thanks and to all who chose to enter the competition and support our fundraising efforts: so far we have raised over £8,500

Jenny bravely faced many health issues in her short life but never allowed them to restrict how she lived. She loved and cared for our fragile natural world and wanted to make a difference. Now Jenny is no longer with us, I ask you to help make a difference in her absence.

We were proud to attend the event, which recognises local companies which have achieved high levels of sustained growth over a three year period.