“If you think you’re in control - you’re not moving fast enough,” says Hannes Martin (pictured left/right), to explain his approach to the fast-paced nature of the sector into which MTEX has plunged itself in the last six months.
At the beginning of this year, MTEX UK took a policy decision to seek out new avenues to market, to spread its expertise into different business areas and supplement its established trade with the supermarket and wholesale market sectors. When a recruitment agency came knocking with a proposition, in April, the company found the key it had been looking for to the door to the foodservice arena.
South African Hannes Martin was the subject of that call, having spent five years in fresh produce and the past two of those managing Capespan’s UK foodservice team. He joined MTEX on June 1 and the new division expects to achieve a turnover of between £4.5 million and £5m in its first financial year.
“MTEX UK Foodservice was formed on the back of an already-established business with a world-recognised brand - Jaffa,” says Dov Warmen, pictured far left with Martin. “With our own grower base and diverse dedicated growers around the world, it’s our intention to position ourselves to contribute and benefit from the 13 per cent annual growth currently being experienced within the foodservice sector.
“By 2020, it is forecast that for every pound spent in retail, the equivalent will be spent in foodservice. It is a very fragmented industry, but at least 80 per cent of the fresh produce going into the foodservice sector is passing through the hands of no more than six large companies.”
Martin says his initial focus has being on creating a business model that stands out for its “simplicity”. He explains: “We see ourselves pioneering service levels and product-supply within this sector, combining this with an extreme hands-on approach. We are 100 per cent market driven and offer a true one-stop-shop solution for our customers. Rather than telling our customers what we have available for them to purchase, we procure exactly what is needed by each individual customer per product line.
“It’s a competitive industry and it is our philosophy to procure directly from source to eliminate a middleman margin. Ideally we work on six-month, fixed-price contracts with our growers and there is no speculative purchasing or batch allocation involved. That works for all parties. It takes out all of the risk and at times the average returns attainable in the foodservice sector are better than in retail. Our growers know exactly who our customers are as we encourage the enhancing of our grower’s foodservice market-intelligence. This ensures that we can stay light on our feet with quick market access and staying flexible with our choice of sources and varieties.
“We keep stockholding to a minimum to ensure the freshest product is supplied to our customers at all times” says Martin. “Carrying out all of the procurement ourselves allows us to have an open and completely transparent relationship with growers.”
The retail supply chain is often held up as the prime example of quality control, but Martin says that the company’s third party facility, near Maidstone, Kent, actually takes QC a step further. “The main difference between supplying foodservice companies and multiple retailers is that the former requires product-unit QC checks and the latter accepts certain percentages of defects. All product gets QC’d per pallet on arrival, according to specification received from customers - in order to provide immediate feedback to our respective growers. QC-checks are done on a per-pallet basis, to ensure total traceability and the validity of returns to growers at origin. Our QC and stock-control team also monitors product during coldstorage to ensure efficient stock rotation, and - again - all information is fed back to the grower,” he says.
“Backward integration in educating and informing our growers is of the utmost importance. The more informed our growers are, the better the product will be that will arrive at our coldstore, the less the product needs to be handled, which ensures more lifespan for display purposes.
“At the other end of the chain, it is vital that we supply every piece of fruit 100 per cent within the specification to serve as a showcase on display, prior to consumption. Where the consumer purchases fruit in the multiple sphere based upon price and special offerings, consumers in foodservice need to be enticed to consume a specific piece of fruit. This is accomplished by showcasing the aesthetics of the product.”
Although the new division has benefited from the strengths of the MTEX network, it has already added new strings to the company’s bow. MTEX UK Foodservice is supplying the processing sector as well as foodservice. “We specialise in the supply of citrus, grapes and topfruit. Shortly, we will be looking to expand our basket-offering to our customers, to include exotic fruit and certain vegetable/salad lines,” says Warmen.
“Understanding the requirements of our customers and the capabilities of our growers, we feel we have the know-how to ascertain a strategic fit between supply and demand in this sector. While fulfilling our customer’s needs at all times, we realise the importance of looking after our growers as well in order to provide continuity to our business model. Hence, each grower knows exactly which client they pack for and to what required specification.”
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