Gateshead wholesaler JR Holland is expanding its business despite supermarket competition on fresh produce and flowers.
John Holland’s group of companies now trades as far south as Sheffield and as far north as Strathallan and has just expanded its fleet of 7.5 tonne trucks with the addition of three new vehicles to cope with increased business.
The ebullient managing director now owns JR Holland & Son, JR Holland Food Services, JR Holland Flowers, H2H(Flowers and Produce) and H2H Leeds Ltd and employs 200 staff.
Holland said: “We’re now the biggest wholesaler of Fresh Produce and Flowers in the North of England - our food services division has extensive catering contracts to supply fresh fruit and vegetable to local North Eastern schools, and we’ve definitely been helped by Jamie Oliver’s input.”
The head office is still based at the North East Wholesale Fruit & Vegetable Company in Gateshead where it has 53 of the 168 units at the market that are all owned by the traders themselves.
“My organisation has grown dramatically over the last 14 years and I like to think that part of this is due to the many long standing business relationships that we have developed,” said Holland. “For instance Bell Truck Sales has been with us from the start and we’re now driving a fleet of 50 of their Mercedes trucks. They help us to deliver the JR Holland promise.”
Holland took over the business from his father in 1991 when it was purely involved in wholesale and employed just 12 people.
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