A Derbyshire fruit and vegetable supplier has scored a hat-trick of new contracts after winning educational deals.
Supported by The Food and Drink Forum, John Palin Ltd gained the British Retail Consortium accreditation last year and subsequently won three new contracts to supply fruit and vegetables to hundreds of schools in Derbyshire, Derby, and Staffordshire, as well as to the Chatsworth Estate.
It means John Palin Ltd can take on four new staff and invest in four extra vehicles, and illustrates one way that firms can help themselves to expand and flourish in difficult economic times by taking expert, sector-specific advice.
The contracts for the schools and social care units alone will represent approximately £600,000 increase in turnover a year for the company.
“The value of gaining BRC accreditation to industry-recognised standards can be immense for a business, and I’m delighted to hear that the work The Food and Drink Forum carried out with John Palin Ltd towards accreditation has helped the company to gain new contracts and expand,” said Food and Drink Forum technical manager Richard Wigley.
John Palin finance manager Ann Newton, who is one of the owners of the company along with her husband David, and Neil and Karina Norman, said: “BRC accreditation was something that we needed to do. All our competitors had BRC accreditation so we knew it was the way forward. Richard Wigley’s knowledge and expertise was invaluable. We are so pleased that we have won new contracts on the back of gaining BRC and that we have been able to take on new staff.”
The firm, based at Tansley near Matlock, has been supplying fruit and vegetables in Derbyshire and beyond for more than 150 years. It supplies to semi-wholesalers, shops, caterers, pubs and restaurants, sandwich manufacturers, prisons and schools within a 150-mile radius, going into counties such as Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire and Cheshire.
The company won the Chatsworth contract last year, to supply the estate and the farm shop. Earlier this year the firm won a contract to supply fresh fruit and vegetables, prepared vegetables and eggs to around 90 Staffordshire schools in the Tamworth and Burton-on-Trent areas.
Now John Palin has learnt that it has been successful in tendering to supply to 235 schools and social care units in Derbyshire and about 100 in Derby city. The firm previously supplied some Derbyshire schools but the new contract marks a significant increase in numbers.
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