Adrian Scripps took a measured gamble as it looked to capitalise on a challenging market featuring “aggressive pricing by the multiples”, the company has revealed.
Profits at the Tesco top-fruit supplier fell in the last financial year, but the company claimed the figures were due to moving its sales season significantly.
Pre-tax profits fell from £1.1 million in the year to 30 April 2009 to £138,809 the following year. Turnover fell from £7.3m in 2009 to £6.8m in 2010.
Managing director James Simpson told FPJ the company “took a risk but we saw that changing our marketing strategy was the right decision”.
A large overhang of southern hemisphere product in autumn 2009 meant the firm took the decision to keep its English fruit in storage until the following spring, when it correctly forecasted a deficit in southern hemisphere product.
Simpson said: “It was a smaller profit in the last accounts but we expect the next ones to be much stronger when we will have two crop years in one financial year. At the end of last February we still had half of our UK Gala left when supplies were running out elsewhere and it proved a good decision.”
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