Ashburton is seeking alpha through recession-friendly consumer buys such as sausages, in its European Equity fund.
Richard Robinson, investment manager says he is taking advantage of consumers' preference to trade down during hard times, swapping steak for sausages, for example.
Consequently, he has bought into Viscofan, the market leader in producing sausage skins to exploit the behavioural shift.
In a similar move, it has invested in retail automotive part chain Halfords, as consumers choose to enhance or repair their aging vehicles instead of buying a new car.
Robinson says the allocation rationale is not driven by the benchmark's sectoral weightings but by perceived investment opportunities which can lead the fund into previously ignored sub-sectors.
While the fund is restricted to investing in European listed equities, 60% of the earnings of its portfolio holdings are earned outside Europe.
The fund has also been investing in areas including infrastructure, rail, outsourcing and efficiency drivers, as governments continue to plough capital into infrastructure projects in an attempt to stimulate the economy and boost the efficiency of more traditional areas of spending.
The fund has a 5.8% weighting in integrated oil as Robinson believes it is a more defensive way to play the sector.
The €47.57m Ashburton European Equity fund has returned -3.83% year to date and is benchmarked against the MSCI Europe ND.
