The single heaviest investment in the English top-fruit industry for a generation was revealed this week, with the announcement that a £6 million automated storage, packing and distribution centre is being built in Kent.
As of April 1, Fruit First Ltd, a new independent venture, will bring together the top-fruit packing businesses of Fruit First, Gaskains, Worldwide Fruit and Richard Hochfeld to create one centre of excellence at Western Link, Faversham.
Fruit First has been storing, packing and distributing top fruit to UK multiples from operations at Marden and Coxheath for more than 20 years, marketing both English and imported fruit through Worldwide Fruit and imported fruit through Richard Hochfeld.
Gaskains has stored, packed and distributed apples and pears to the supermarket sector for more than 30 years from its Selling site and has marketed both UK and imported fruit through Worldwide Fruit.
As a result of the consolidation, Charles Gaskain will join Richard Day as an operating director of Fruit First Ltd. Day, Gaskain and his son Mark Gaskain have told more than 60 growers in recent presentations that on-farm packing is fast becoming impractical and un-commercial, as customer requirements increase and technology improves.
“The time is right for the UK industry to strengthen and consolidate,” said Charles Gaskain. “The industry has been coming up against a multitude of problems such as decreasing net returns, rising supply chain costs, ineffective packhouses with deficient reporting systems, environmental issues and global competition.”
Day added: “We have reached the turning point for the UK industry. The way to keep costs at an affordable level is through cost savings that can only be achieved through economies of scale. By merging, we have been able to invest in the sort of technology that will allow us to provide an excellent service and keep costs down. Ultimately, this will pass on savings and benefits to both our growers and the retailers we supply. We also hope that growers from across the wider industry will take advantage of the service and gain the benefits that our facility will offer.”
To complement the packing and distribution facilities, Fruit First (Storage) Ltd will lease a further 35,000 bins of CA storage capacity available on site. This will be accessible to UK growers during their season, as well as providing additional space for imported fruit.
Day and Mark Gaskain will also head up a new and separate company; Fruit First (Select) Ltd, which has developed a second £1.7m fully automated facility on the site to consolidate storage, packing and distribution of Richard Hochfeld’s grape, stonefruit and kiwifruit.
The grape business is scheduled to start at the end of March, imported apples at the beginning of May and the company will be fully operational at the beginning of August - ready for the 2007-08 English season.
Day said: “Consolidating volumes has meant we can use the most up-to-date technology to achieve a better quality service and end product. The merging of UK and imported volumes will reduce overheads and maintain current cost structures. Both Worldwide Fruit and Richard Hochfeld are showing great commitment, and there has been excellent support from retailers. Centralising also means our impact on the environment is far less through a massive reduction of lorry traffic in and around the countryside.”
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