Poupart started life as T J Poupart, a marketing company for the Poupart family who were market gardeners in the Thames Valley. Records show it trading on Covent Garden Market as far back as the 1850s.
At the turn of the last century the company was purely a national wholesaler and importer, says Laurence Olins, executive chairman. “By the mid 20th century TJP, as it was best known, was the most important wholesale company in the UK, operating in all the main markets and also packing salads in Hertfordshire.”
In 1970 it won its first supermarket contract and by 1987 was supplying all the major multiples. By 2000 the Poupart Group of companies had switched to concentrating on supplying supermarkets and importing produce.
The group has grown rapidly in line with the supermarkets: turnover grew from £30 million in 1988 to £300m in 2011. Poupart is now a holding company for a series of specialist marketing companies both in the UK and on the Continent, including OrchardWorld, BerryWorld, Poupart Citrus, Poupart Imports, Norton Folgate, Citrus First, VBBV Marketing, Fruta del Campo and PrepWorld.
Olins has seen big changes in the industry since he joined it in 1969. “The industry is now a highly sophisticated, IT, technical and marketing-driven part of the UK food industry using category management techniques alongside R&D in both breeding and husbandry,” he says. “The people employed in the industry today are more highly educated, younger, motivated, better trained, better paid and more often female than in 1969! As far as UK horticulture is concerned, it is far more business-focussed and financially successful than in previous years when growers were lifestyle driven rather than businessmen. Growers are more focussed on a tighter range of products such as top fruit, soft fruit, salads or vegetables, rather than being generalists. Investment is far greater in their businesses and they are now reliant on overseas employees both to harvest their crops and manage their businesses.”
Recently, the Poupart Group has expanded in Europe with a series of joint venture companies and has also moved into the ready-to-eat market. Poupart continues to trade heavily with UK producers, with over 30 per cent of its sales coming from UK farms compared to the national average of 10 per cent. This will continue to be the case, says Olins.
Looking ahead to the next decade, Olins forsees more rationalisation of the industry. “Continuing the trend of the last 30 years, there will be fewer operators, greater direct contact between growers and end users and more responsibilities for the business in the middle, namely importers and marketing companies. I see increased importance in IT development, supply-chain efficiencies, logistics, great innovation in breeding and growing, branding of new varieties and hopefully increasing consumption.” -
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