Tell us about your career in the fresh produce industry.

I joined the family business in 1959. It consisted then of W Beeson & Sons Covent Garden, W Beeson & Sons (London & Dunbar), Dunbar, Scotland, Ingledew & Davenport, Borough Market, and Beesons & Wiskar, 24, Borough High Street, London.

My uncle, Ernest Beeson, a past president of the National Federation of Fruit & Potato Trades, had died in 1936 aged just 44, and two of his sons, Nigel and Maurice Beeson had been killed in the war. My father Jack and his brother Norman were anxious that I should go into the business as soon as I had finished my National Service.

I joined my father at Beesons & Wiskar, who supplied 100,000 tonnes of potatoes a year to Smiths Crisps and contracted the special varieties with farmers. Norman Beeson ran Covent Garden, founded in 1850, and said to me that unless I showed some interest in the market, he would sell it. I therefore started getting up at 3am, and so began my formative years in the old Covent Garden, a time I enjoyed most thoroughly.

What happened next?

My brother Robert joined me in 1963 and we bought George Shuter, Covent Garden, and RC Pratt, Woking, and formed the Beeson Group, comprising seven companies. Smiths Crisps was sold to General Mills in 1968, and decided it wanted its potato suppliers ‘in house’, and I went to work there as potato manager.

In the meantime, Robert was developing our contract-growing side, and at one time we were growing 800 acres of potatoes contracted to processors. During the 1970s, with the advent of the Central Council for Agricultural Co-operation, we developed five growers’ co-operatives, making use of the grants available, and we were storing potatoes under temperature-controlled conditions for most of the processors.

In 1976, I formed a fruit import company, Beesons (London) Ltd, with John Gould, an ex director of JO Sims. In 1986, we sold the group to Hillsdown, and the chairman, Harry Solomon, asked me to run TJ Poupart Group for them, which I did for the next two years.

Robert stayed with the potato business, which became MBM - the ‘B’ standing for Beesons - and I decided I wanted to continue as a fruit importer and founded Tony Beeson Ltd, my customers being Sainsbury’s and Morrisons.

Times were changing, and I needed an accredited packer for Sainsbury’s. That is how I got together with British & Brazilian Produce (B&B). It was the time that supermarkets were looking to cut costs out of the chain, meaning there was no longer room for both a packer and importer; and we were a natural fit.

B&B was essentially a packer, and the packhouse was, to say the least, traditional. Chris Clapham, who I had worked with on importing, asked me to become managing director of B&B, and I outsourced all the packing to a new packhouse at Thrapston, developed by Superior International and managed by Geoff Hudson.

I stayed on as managing director until 2005, when B&B was sold to Produce World, and stayed on the board until January this year, having mentored two managing directors.

What changes have you seen to the produce industry over your long career?

I suppose the biggest change has been the demise of the greengrocer. I never anticipated that the supermarkets would become so adept at selling the full range of fresh produce, and the adverse effect this would have on the wholesale markets.

When I joined the trade, most of the imported fruit was sold through the auction system. Gradually, private treaty sales replaced the auction system, and overseas marketing boards set up panels of salesmen in all markets and paid them a sales commission - safe trading, but it meant we gave away control of our own destiny.

The supermarkets were all buying in Covent Garden, and as they grew, so they began to bypass the markets. Now, even competition amongst importers to supply supermarkets has been neutered with the advent of category management, and I do not believe this will stand the test of free competition regulations.

The wholesale markets still supply the catering industry, which is substantial, and there are the small corner shops and specialist retailers.

However, I cannot see that there is room for the return of the traditional greengrocer, not least because of the rental costs.

However, what the supermarkets do not want to do, and would not be any good at, is to procure fresh produce themselves. They want someone in between to take the flack, and our skills as importers lie in our relationships with our suppliers and the total package we provide: technical, logistical, ethical and commercial. These are our strengths, and what we should be focusing on.

What do you think the future will hold for the industry?

I have probably touched on that, and there is no doubt that we are and should be in a growth business. However, control is in fewer and fewer hands, and we need to see more competition to be healthy. It is difficult for entrepreneurs to build a business of any size, and the retailer is king.

However, there are signs that we are now entering a period when supplies could be short - in other words, a seller’s market. That should offer a wealth of opportunities to those who can get it right.

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