The Oakley Group is made up of three divisions: Oakley Farms, which produces and supplies UK supermarkets with courgettes, broccoli and pumpkins on a total of 1,200 acres in Outwell, near Wisbech; Oakley Nurseries, which supplies bedding plants and flowers to retailers and garden centres around the UK from its nursery site in Outwell; and the recently formed OGS, which sources UK and overseas produce for the wholesale and foodservice sector, in addition to supplying Oakley Farms’ own-grown products from both the Cambridgeshire base and an office in Australia.
OGS is an equal partnership between Ashley Baldry, who joined the Oakley Group three years ago, Lance Cornell and the group’s founder and farmer by trade David Brown, and has been founded on the trio’s joint experience and enthusiasm.
“Lance and I go back a long way; we both worked for separate marketing businesses with growers, but stayed in touch through inter-trading,” explains Baldry. “Lance moved to Australia and I started to work for the Oakley Group on the development side in 2005. A couple of years later, Lance started to get involved with the business, as he has a lot of good contacts in the southern hemisphere, and in February 2006 we established the principle of what the two of us, along with David Brown, had been discussing for a while: a marketing business for the sourcing and distribution of good-quality fresh produce to the wholesale and foodservice sector.”
With a full range of experience behind them, Cornell, Baldry and Brown felt that they were well placed to take this challenge on. Cornell provides marketing experience in sourcing from growers and exporters, and Baldry has a similar background in marketing, as well as being involved in the growing side; couple this with Brown’s 26 years’ farming experience and you have a strong team.
“Oakley Farms brings strength to OGS with its reputation for growing good-quality, sustainable, accredited produce,” says Cornell. “The farm has achieved the British Retail Consortium’s highest level and Nature’s Choice Gold Standard; it has the highest accreditations a producer can get.”
It is upon these solid foundations that OGS set out to become a provider of the finest fresh produce. OGS wants to be a “breath of fresh air” to the wholesale sector, and provide the same standard of produce that supermarkets receive.
“We add value to our produce, which we source from Tasmania, Spain, Belgium and Egypt, as well as the UK, by making sure it is the best on offer at the most sustainable price, and I think our customers value that,” says Cornell.
“Oakley Farms grows produce for OGS’ wholesale clients, using the same standards as it does for the supermarket customers. There is no market for sub-standard produce.”
Oakley Farms has just started to harvest its broccoli and courgette crops, with cutting starting on June 2 and June 13, respectively. The farm produces an average of 2,000 tonnes of courgettes and 1,700t of broccoli a year, with the aid of 120 eastern European students, who the company houses on site.
“We harvest and pack everything in the field,” reveals Baldry. “And nothing is cut from the field that is not needed, which means a very low amount gets wasted and the small amount of excess is ploughed back into the land.”
Another advantage of coming under the Oakley Group umbrella is the technical support and storage facilities that are already in place at the farm. Although for nine months of the year Cornell operates from the group’s Australian office, contact is made between him and the Outwell base on a daily basis. “We are very fortunate in being attached to Oakley Farms and David,” says Baldry. “We have several technical support teams here, and we know what is going on with the crops because they are continually monitored.”
“Normally a farm organisation supplying multiples would look to other supermarkets for further business,” explains Cornell. “This is exciting for all of us, as this is a unique possibility to tap into the technical information at our fingertips, as well as a direct supply of vegetables from Oakley Farms.
“This kind of support has enhanced our business, and we can offer clients the information they need about the products they buy. We can supply crop predictions that other marketing organisations cannot if they are based away from their product. Clients now want to rely on their suppliers and be confident that they have got it right for them - this is where the industry has taken a huge step forward.”
The crops at Oakley Farms look like they will yield good quality this year, according to Baldry. “The courgette and broccoli crops are very healthy, but it is a little too early to say about the pumpkin crop, which is mostly for supermarket jack o’lantern sales.”
Good connections with Australian and Belgian growers and suppliers have given OGS the edge when importing onions, carrots, pears, apples and strawberries, says Cornell. OGS can supply its customers with a year-round source of onions, as well as broccoli, with imports from Spain. “The Oakley Group provides great facilities to import product into from around the world,” he says.
OGS is expanding its lines by looking to Spain and Egypt for a citrus fruit offer. “They are key lines, and we have the facilities to offer them to our customers,” says Cornell. “We have excellent storage facilities at our site in Outwell, which allows us to handle a diverse range of products.”
After a period away from the UK fresh produce industry, Cornell was pleasantly surprised to find that wholesale markets had come on leaps and bounds in terms of quality and customer service. “The wholesale sector has really upgraded itself,” he says. “Some of our major wholesale customers deliver up to 70 per cent of their produce to their customers now, taking away the need for their customers to visit the market. It is therefore important that we ensure that the produce we supply our customers is of the optimum quality. The markets are turning into food centres - it is a really exciting turn of events.
“Due to the high standard of quality requirements from supermarkets all our production has benefited, which enables us to deliver a better quality of product to all of our customers.”
Baldry agrees, and believes it is a good thing for the industry and OGS. “All of our produce, whether it is sourced from the farm, within the UK or abroad, has full traceability and everything comes with accreditations,” he explains. “We want to be specialised and know that our customer can be reassured by us and trust us.”
When OGS was set up, it aimed to ensure that all produce for the wholesale industry within Oakley Farms went through the division, as a total in-house operation, and to increase the standard of produce that goes to its wholesale clients, as well as enhance their sustainability at a time of high competition.
Baldry and Cornell are both quietly confident that their goals have been achieved so far. “The marketplace has become stronger and we have adapted to supplying a stronger market,” says Cornell. “We concentrate on giving our growers and clients a sustainable return. We are trying to maintain the price, and we actively encourage wholesalers to come to the farm to experience for themselves the effort and cost that goes into growing the produce; but I do think that customers are beginning to realise that now.
“We want to secure repeat business by being honest with our clients, and I believe we are.”
Cornell and Baldry believe the experience behind OGS has meant that it has fared the last couple of years’ economic slowdown better than most. “No one knew costs would be so high,” admits Cornell. “There are costs like fuel and wages that are non-negotiable and all production costs are going up. It hasn’t been all plain sailing, but it is easier to avoid the pitfalls when you are experienced in the business. It is not like starting from scratch; we have 30 years of relationships with the fresh produce business behind us.”
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