Wealmoor begins to pick up pieces

Wealmoor, the fresh produce supplier thrust unwittingly into the nation’s conscience by a fatal fire at its Warwickshire packhouse three weeks ago, is beginning to put the pieces together that will ensure the future of both its business and its employees.

“Each day continues to throw us a new challenge,” said Wealmoor commercial director Avnish Malde this week. “We are battling on several fronts, while coping with the ongoing investigation into the fire and its causes. But we will get through it.

“We are back up on our feet, and we have a lot of support. Now we have to find the right way to stand alone. Of course, we need to try and restructure and reinstate the business in such a way that we can maintain as much of the business and as many of the employees as possible. But we don’t know exactly where we are going to go at this point in time, and all of the options available to us have to be weighed up before we make any decisions.”

The 160,000sqft Atherstone-on-Stour site is almost certainly a write-off, bar one older packing shed at its rear, which withstood the fire, but will need rigorous structural checks before any decision is made on its viability for future use.

“In terms of trade, we have managed to get back close to the pre-fire service levels,” said Malde. above. “We had moved 70-80 per cent of our packing to our Atherstone packhouse prior to the fire, and the plan was to have moved 100 per cent there by early in the New Year. But fortunately we had not completely wound down our Hayes site and, combined with our Greenford site, we have 120,000sqft that has taken on the volume.” The use of those sites, third-party packers and the assistance of other suppliers has allowed Wealmoor to maintain orders.

The 200-plus Warwickshire workforce has largely been redeployed by Wealmoor, either to third-party packers in the region, or to one of the two functioning Wealmoor sites.

“We have been bussing staff down to Hayes, which is obviously not sustainable, but it is giving them some continuity while we sort ourselves out,” said Malde. “There has inevitably been some shrinkage, but we have made sure our door is open to any employees who want to ask us anything. They are fully engaged in this process.”