The software company Linkfresh has moved exclusively into fresh produce, as they seek to consolidate their market leading role in ERP innovation.
When CEO Andy Makeham, took the helm at Linkfresh in 2016, he said he wanted to spearhead the creation of ‘innovative and relevant software’, for a market increasingly concerned with traceability and transparency.
Originally the company worked with meat and protein supply chains, but since his arrival, Makeham says he has narrowed their focus to produce a better product.
The 25 year-old firm develops software for technology that can track and trace fresh produce at every stage of the supply chain, as well as improve farmering methods in the field.
“The company had an ethos where it was very proud of its software and many of the people in the company felt the software could do many things, thinking this market is not dissimilar to the protein market,” he said.
“It found itself being distracted into similar markets that were similar but not quite the same.”
He continued: “The problem with that is it waters down your efforts trying to develop systems that are not actually quite right for the market.
“This is a business that is really good at fresh produce so what we should do is just stick to fresh produce. So I just reined in the aspirations a little bit and made it a little bit more focused.”
Makeham said that the strategy is paying dividends as people are sitting up and taking note of his company’s services.
“There are 300 potential customers in the UK. There are 3000 in the US, there’s another 3000 in Europe and the rest of the world,” he said.
'Well that's about 10,000 potential customers, and we've got about 100 so far, so I have got quite a big market before I have to worry about falling out of fresh produce.
“I don’t think there’s anybody doing it purely for fresh produce. People see what we have done with other companies and say ‘we want some of that please.”
