This 137-year-old business is a grower, wholesaler, importer, ripener, packer and logisitics provider, employing over 1,000 people and turning over around
£450 million a year. Founded by Matthew Mack in 1874, Fresca Group is still family run, with Chris Mack now at the helm as executive chairman.
“Over the years there have been so many key changes that our business, in many ways, bears little resemblance to how we began,” recalls Mack. “In the last 60 years we’ve moved with the times to embrace the opportunity that came with the rise of the supermarkets. As a key wholesaler with great supplier relationships and with the entrepreneurial spirit needed to make the most of the opportunity, we took some brave decisions and invested in our future by moving to Paddock Wood, eventually building our own ‘fresh produce centre’ to help facilitate our rapid expansion.”
The company opened the high-tech greenhouse complex Thanet Earth, but it still has links to its original function as a wholesaler, with wholesale branches in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff and Southampton.
Some of the main changes have included the move from rail freight to road and airfreight in the late 1970s, improved refrigeration, packing and ripening technology and product traceability and food safety. “We work within a framework of regulation unlike anything that could have been imagined 60 years ago,” says Mack. “While it’s added much to the administrative and technical overhead, I don’t believe there’s anywhere in the world where consumers can have more trust in their fresh produce than in the UK.”
Mack also says the choice available to consumers is far broader now. “The varieties of many of the products we sell would astound our workers of 60 years ago. The industry has developed so many varieties to enable us to improve the eating experience and to extend seasons right across the board. There are so many more lines on offer for longer, catering to our more diverse modern diet and palate.”
But some things have remained consistent. “There’s a great pride in our length of service to our customers,” says Mack. “We’ve been M&S suppliers since the early 1930s. We still have relationships with growers that we started over 60 years ago. For example, with Martinavarro in Spain - a business partnership that hangs on a handshake between Vicente Dealbert and Donald Mack at Floral Street in 1951. Our principles of business have also stuck fast - quality in products and trust in our people remain key.” -
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