The UK’s largest fruit port’s main fresh produce specialist, Mainland Market Deliveries (MMD), is back in calm waters after moving into the ownership of Portsmouth City Council (PCC) earlier this year.
MMD was taken over by PCC from Sandpiper CI Limited on February 29 this year, and is being run as a stand-alone, separate entity within the port. Martin Putman, port manager and director of MMD, said: “I believe the company would have gone into administration [if the council had not taken over]. We are all working to the same end now. It is part of the port and owned by the council, but there is a separate board and it is a limited company.
“This year has gone very well. We have changed the management and gone back to a more traditional structure. Productivity of the staff and the response they have given us has been terrific. We have invested in the region of £750,000 in facilities and I think the people who work for MMD can see long-term security and stability now,” he said.
“The customers have also stuck with us. We were talking to them before we moved in there and they obviously were not happy with the level of service they were getting [under the previous management].”
The firm has an annual turnover of around £15 million and employs roughly 200 people. Around 10,000-12,000 tonnes of fruit pass through the facility each week and around 65 per cent of the bananas eaten in the UK have gone through Portsmouth on their way to the consumer.
Harry Eames, a former managing director of MMD, is now a consultant to the company, as well as the Maroc Fruit Board on site. “Since March, we have had a breath of new life,” he said. “We have been through some traumatic times. The first month was difficult as we got everything settled, but the city has not bought this as a game; it has given the company security, and that has been repaid by the people.”
The company’s staff is key to everything it does, Eames added. “In reality, we have nothing to sell, only our staff, right through the company. They are our ambassadors and they are vital as we move forward.”
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