As it consolidates its position in the berry category, Fresca Group Ltd has this morning sealed a new arrangement by which it has assisted with a management buy-out at Wallings Nursery Ltd.
Wallings, in Manningtree, Essex, is one of the UK’s largest growers of glasshouse strawberries and is an established supplier of early and late season English strawberries to UK multiple retailers. The company has 29,400 square metres of glasshouse, and a further 20,000sqm is used for polytunnel tabletop production of strawberries.
The necessary arrangements have been completed to give Fresca a 40 per cent stake in Wallings Nursery. The majority of the shares are owned by Wallings’ management team of Christopher Batchelor and Will Fell. Mack, which is part of Fresca, will be taking over responsibility for the marketing of Wallings’ production with effect from April 15.
A statement said the new venture “provides Fresca with a great opportunity to build volume and ensure consistent British supply and quality to service the berry business we’ve begun at Mack Multiples over the last year”.
And Chris Mack, executive chairman of Fresca Group, added: “I’m particularly pleased about this new partnership with Wallings. It’s very hard to come into the UK berry market as a new player without a contracted supply base, and we’ve had such strong early success with securing retailer orders that we very swiftly concluded that we wanted to consolidate our place in a partnership with a grower. We very much look forward to working with Wallings to drive both businesses forward.”
Batchelor, md of Wallings Nurseries, said: “This is a wonderful opportunity for us to develop our business, we have tremendous expertise within the company and this alliance with Fresca will enhance our development. We would like to wish the former owners David and Thea Dunn a happy and much deserved retirement.”
