Organic home delivery company Abel & Cole is expanding its business to Kent, opening a new depot in Aylesford to be used as the firm’s main distribution centre for deliveries across Kent, East Sussex and South East London.
With the assistance of investment promotion agency Locate in Kent, Abel & Cole has leased the new depot and plans to create 40 new jobs in the area over the next three years.
The move will see its organic produce delivered to parts of the South East that did not previously benefit from the award-winning delivery service.
Abel & Cole has taken more than 5,000sqft of space at Larkfield Trading Estate, Aylesford, and plans to seek out local farmers to add to its network of over 60 independent growers and producers. All produce is ethically sourced and organic, or from a sustainable source where no organic certification exists.
The ‘greener grocer’, as Abel & Cole is known, was first set up in 1988 and delivers a variety of organic goods including seasonal fruit and veg boxes, cheese, meat, wine and more. With distribution centres already located in Wimbledon, Andover, Ongar, Warrington, Tamworth and Leeds, Abel & Cole delivers to approximately 40,000 consumers across the country each week. This figure is set to increase when the Kent depot opens.
Nicholas Cannell, regional depot manager at Abel & Cole, said: “We have seen substantial growth in demand for our home deliveries over the last three years, and having this delivery base in Kent will mean that a large amount of new customers will benefit from our organic boxes. Whereas most of our deliveries to this part of the South East were coming out of our Wimbledon depot, our new Kentish base will reduce our food miles considerably; something that is extremely important to us.
“Locate in Kent has been an invaluable adviser in helping us to locate the property. Additionally, the organisation’s local knowledge has been a great asset, as it has put us in touch with small producers of organic food,” he added.
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