Starting a food and drink business is hard work – and even more so when you build a factory with your own hands.
That is what Nick Egan (pictured above) opted to do when he launched the Cornwall Pasta Co, a supplier of organic pasta and a recent winner of a Gold at the 2025 Farm Shop & Deli Product Awards.
Egan is a chef with a career spanning 28 years in catering, hospitality and recipe development. He had been working in Monaco when he made the decision to settle in Cornwall, a place he had fallen in love with as a boy.
The decision to launch Cornwall Pasta Co came in 2020, “when Britain ran out of pasta in the lockdown”, he says. His vision was to create and sell organic pasta made using the best British ingredients.
Its main flour supplier is Cotswolds-based Shipton Mill, which specialises in organic flour produced using regenerative farming techniques.
“We chose Shipton Mill for security and continuity in the supply chain, although we use a handful of smaller British suppliers for some of our lines,” explains Egan.
The business works closely with The Soil Association to identify producers of organic ingredients as required. Other suppliers include a Portuguese producer that ships the ingredients on an old wooden tea clipper directly into Cornwall Pasta Co’s home port of Mylor, Cornwall.
It was on a farm near this picturesque village that Egan built the factory – with help from friends – to produce his organic pasta.
“We have a great relationship with a local farming family who allowed us to transform their old milking parlour into a pasta parlour,” he says. “The milking parlour used to service some 380 cows at peak so the footprint – or hoof print – was large enough for what we required for the build.”
Funding for the project came solely from personal investment, and was undertaken over six months in the evening, at weekends and on days off.
“At the time locals thought I was crazy to begin such an undertaking in what was then an incredibly uncertain time for the country,” says Egan.
The decision to build a factory, rather than outsource production, was driven by the nature of the products. Extruded using traditional bronze dies to create a porous surface that helps the pasta absorb more sauce, Cornwall Pasta Co products contain no additives or preservatives, and no nitrates or harmful chemicals are used in any part of the supply chain.
“Some of the pasta made at the site is only produced and available from Cornwall Pasta Co so it was unlikely we could source the skills and manufacturing from another company,” Egan says. “It also gives myself and the team full control of the process, and the facility can support new product development work.”
The brand made its debut in local stores in Cornwall and has grown steadily as word spread about the products.
“We used to do a small delivery round once a week mostly on a Friday afternoon after other work had finished for the week,” Egan explains. “When this became too much, we started working with distributors.”
Cornwall Pasta is now stocked in retailers including Selfridges and Devon farm shop Darts Farm. It is also used in the restaurants in The Eden Project in Bodelva, Cornwall. The brand recently secured its first grocery listing, rolling out to Booths at the start of this year.
“Since the launch we have grown from strength to strength,” says Egan. “We make a wide variety, including some specialised products that you won’t find anywhere else, which puts us in a strong position here in the UK and overseas.”
The brand’s range now comprises 16 products, including Organic Truffle Macaroni, which won a Gold at the 2025 Farm Shop & Deli Product Awards.
“Winning Gold has really helped people stop and notice what we do as a business and what we are all about,” says Egan. “We do things correctly here. We use the finest ingredients of the highest purity and make pastas that are packed full of flavour that really are the star of the show.”
Sustainability is another priority for the business. The packaging for Organic Truffle Macaroni uses cardboard produced in the UK. The window on the front is made from a sustainable wood composite.
“This makes it fully home compostable and makes Cornwall Pasta Co the first company in Britain to supply this tech through grocery,” says Egan.
Looking ahead, he is keen to grow the brand in the UK and overseas while bringing new products to the grocery and foodservice channels. The latest of these is fermented black garlic radiatori, a pasta shape named for its resemblance to a radiator.
“With our product lines changing and developing all the time we can continue to produce interesting and new products that add value to any portfolio”.
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