How and why did Reynolds transform into the national business it is today?

My dad always said he did not want me to go into the family fresh produce business straight from school and instead wanted me to make my own way in the world.

I played in the youth team at Crystal Palace football club for a short period, but after failing to make it into the first team, I then embarked upon a career in banking.

But shortly after, I decided to join my dad. Reynolds, of which I am the third generation, started life at Ridley Road street market in Hackney, London. I worked on that site for a year, during which I always used to go to Old Spitalfields market with my father to buy produce. At that time, I noticed a lot of other companies based there were really growing in foodservice, and beginning to do an impressive amount of business. I was very respectful of this sector, so said to my dad that I wanted to grow Reynolds in the same way.

I guess that the traditional move for a company wanting to expand in those days was to open a chain of shops, but I could see even back then that supermarkets were starting to dominate the high street and greengrocers’ shops were not the future. I therefore felt there was more potential in the foodservice category. So, in 1989, with my dad’s backing, we established a foodservice business at Old Spitalfields, starting out with just one transit van for deliveries.

Eventually we moved to a larger site at New Spitalfields, and in September 2005 we relocated to our current base in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire. We were struggling to find a site in east London because of the 2012 Olympics and the planned redevelopment of the area, but were very lucky to find the site where we are now, conveniently located at a very focal position on the M25.

We now have a fleet of 170 lorries, and four other sites across the country, in the Midlands, Manchester, Grangemouth in Scotland and Bristol.

What role has Reynolds tried to carve for itself in the foodservice sector?

We work on a very simple basis really - supplying fresh produce and other chilled products with a short shelf life on a day one for day two turnaround, at a national level. It is vital for us to be able to move product very quickly through the supply chain to the end user, and to do so at our level requires a high degree of maintenance, discipline and investment.

We have been very fortunate in getting to where we are today, with the help of some very important and loyal clients. We have a broad mix of customers - from five star hotels and restaurants down to more commercial businesses - and can offer different solutions to meet their ranging needs, allowing us the opportunity to maximise our assets and help our growers find the right price for the right product.

Taking as much of a grower’s production as possible is the ultimate score for us, and matching growers and the right percentage of their product with the right customer is something we aim to do better than other foodservice companies.

Everyone who works at Reynolds is very passionate about produce. There are a lot of greengrocers in the company, which means we all have very firm, and often differing, opinions about things! Our common goal, however, is all about finding the right customers with whom to form successful trading partnerships over the course of many years.

This year, you landed the deal as sole strawberry supplier to Wimbledon. What kind of value does Reynolds place on one-off deals like this?

It is lovely to be associated with all the big events. Landing contracts like this one all comes down to delivering a high level of consistency and ensuring we beat the expectations of the customer, who needs a supply chain that can react efficiently to both volume and climate change.

We worked closely with the chefs at Wimbledon to ensure we did not overstock, and measured supplies accurately according to need. We also had to liaise closely with the grower to ensure what their capabilities are, and to make changes on a day-to-day basis. Deals like this can be a tricky and require a massive amount of discipline; but they are well worth it.

What are the biggest issues facing today’s foodservice industry, and what is Reynolds doing to overcome these?

We are very conscious of our carbon footprint, and have to find more cost-effective ways of managing our supply chain.

Reynolds has operated a returnable plastic crate system for some time now, but the success rate of managing and accounting for crates can be disastrous, and we have lost thousands in the past because of the demands of coping with different customers.

Therefore, we recently added a tracking device to each crate, and established our very own crate-tracking department, so we can inform our customers exactly how many crates they have and can cut out any margin for error.

This is a very unique system that offers a sustainable solution to our customers, who no longer have to try and dispose of waste packaging. Of course, they still have the option of using cardboard packaging if they feel they can’t manage a returnable crate system; but it does offer them the opportunity for significant savings in terms of wastage and reducing their carbon footprint.

One of the independent restaurants we supply has calculated it will save £25,000 a year by using this system, showing there is a clear benefit to us and also to our customers.

Reynolds is also trialling biofuels, and looking to use electric trucks for deliveries, especially around London. These trucks can work a normal shift like our traditional vehicles can, but offering this environmentally friendly option to our customers is a massive advantage both for them and for us. Most restaurants and hotels are monitoring the carbon footprint issue, and we have all got to think about our fossil fuel usage. The food sector’s environmental impact is currently subject to close scrutiny, so anything we can do to reduce this by showing that there are good solutions has got to be positive.

There seems to be a real sense of optimism in the UK foodservice sector at the moment. What does Reynolds make of the industry as it stands today?

I really share this optimism; the sector is very lucky at the moment. We are riding on the back of a tremendous wave of public interest in eating, with consumers demanding more and more fresh product. Schemes like 5 A DAY have certainly not done us any harm with respect to boosting sales.

Our customers want the fresher option, and provenance is a key issue. They want to know where something has come from and how it has been grown, and in many cases also demand to meet the farmers themselves. Consumer concern over food miles has generated demand for far more locally sourced, fresh items.

At the moment, we are undoubtedly riding the crest of a wave, and if we are sensible, there is longevity in that wave. People are not into fast food so much now - just witness the way McDonald’s has been forced to alter its public image by selling salads and fruit.

What does the future have in store for Reynolds?

The first 12 months after we moved to Waltham Cross were a massive learning curve, as we had never before operated at an infrastructure level like that. We have now come to terms with the changes we were obliged to make, and are looking to build a long-term strategy for the next few years.

Our goal is firstly to continue working with our loyal customers, some of whom we have been supplying for the last 10 to 15 years and many of whom are large, international businesses in their own right. We want to keep growing with them, offering them unique points of difference and combining our grower expertise and technological investments to keep them happy.

However, some of our best success stories come from working with smaller, newer companies who are setting out to build up a solid business. Our second key goal for the foreseeable future is hence to find the next wave of customers looking to establish a long-term development plan, using the expertise of a company like Reynolds to carve themselves a secure market position.