Root crop specialist Albert Bartlett has been named the Fresh Produce Consortium’s Packer of the Year at this year’s Re:fresh awards ceremony in London.
Albert Bartlett landed the award after a year in which it added a £13 million packhouse in Jersey to its existing three facilities in Scotland, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire.
The family business is more than 60 years old, and supplies Britain with one in six of its fresh potatoes, carrots, onions and parsnips - a massive 600,000 tonnes of product each year.
It also introduced Rooster, the UK’s first branded fresh potato, which has now extended into chilled and frozen and is sold by the UK’s top nine retailers. It manages Vivaldi and Anya exclusively for one major supermarket chain.
All of its UK packing sites and its European network are British Retail Consortium-accredited and the locations pride themselves on operational and environmental excellence. The building management system at Albert Bartlett’s Airdrie facility, for instance, is 99 per cent self-sufficient in water thanks to an on-site water harvesting and treatment plant - the missing one per cent will be on board by 2010.
All employees are NVQ-trained and are provided with on-site training to enhance communication and understanding of health and safety and environmental issues.
Bartlett’s has built an enviable reputation for product innovation, by addressing key consumer challenges and highlighting provenance. Its technical team works closely with growers and breeders to develop new varieties that value agronomic performance but major on organoleptic desirability. The Jersey packhouse has taken two days out of the supply chain, and a new range of potatoes is being grown and retailed for Bartlett’s in Cornwall, Pembrokeshire and Ayrshire.
An expansive marketing strategy, including TV advertising for Rooster and the support of Michelin-starred chefs Michel Roux and Andrew Fairlie, helped expand the Rooster brand by 45 per cent year on year in the 52 weeks to March.
Second-generation family-owned business Alfred G Pearce and rapidly growing potato specialist QV Foods were also nominated for the award.
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