Soft-fruit plant specialist Hargreaves Plants has relocated from its old nursery site to a modern facility near Long Sutton, Lincs.
'We had outgrown our old main site and were operating from too many sub-locations,' said chief executive Paul Taylor. 'We are now able to operate far more efficiently in terms of grading and dispatch. Even more important our cold stores are in one place. The team is flying now.' The site has 21,000sq ft of covered space, including 4,000 sq ft of cold stores. Some five acres are planned to go into polytunnel high-grade plant propagation. An adjacent 13 acres is to be used for can and bush fruit development.
The company has withdrawn from other activities in arable, soft fruit production and hardy nursery stock propagation to concentrate on soft-fruit plants. The move has paid off and Hargreaves won Business Initiative of the Year at the Grower of the Year awards in 2001 for the development of its SuperViga plant.
Future plans include the development of its Cross Keys Site near Sutton Bridge where it already has five acres of glass and tunnels for the production of misted-tip everbearers and tray plants.
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