Martin, seated, with business partner van Schoor

Martin, seated, with business partner van Schoor

MVS Foodservices (UK) Ltd, the Sittingbourne-based fruit supplier to the foodservice industry, has expanded its reach into Greece and Russia as a first step in establishing a global foodservice-model. MVS Europe Ltd will be looking after the non-UK foodservice-division and the office will be based at the existing premises.

The company, run by Hannes Martin and Melt van Schoor, was set up earlier this year to supply grapes and citrus into the UK foodservice sector only. But it has already broken into the international marketplace, specifically with Chilean grape and Argentinian citrus.

Martin told FPJ that MVS is now looking for personnel to man its new office in order to provide the “MVS-focus” to their European-customers.

“Our Greek client is supplying fruit year-round to the cruise liner industry in the Greek islands and our Russian customer is involved in the distribution of fresh produce in the rapidly expanding Eastern European foodservice-market” he said.

“The UK market is only so big and we already supply two of the top five. But there are obviously many opportunities outside the parameters of the UK. The new office will be looking to secure new customers in other countries and regions, such as the Far East and Middle East. This has happened more quickly than we expected, but we are very excited by the potential.”

Martin said: “We want to apply our UK business philosophy to our European business model. The calibre of our suppliers and the quality of our product combined with our foodservice expertise provides the cornerstone for our expansion into Europe.

“We believe that the European foodservice sector can benefit from our dedicated supply channels - packing specifically for the foodservices market. The fruit will be delivered in MVS cartons - which elevate the MVS-brand to an international level.”