Award-winning fresh produce specialist JR Holland Food Services has reported a ‘strong relationship’ with their logistics partners Bell Truck and Van.

The JR Holland Group of five companies, which also includes a division supplying flowers and the produce broker H2H, runs a combined fleet of 36 trucks. Most are fitted with refrigerated bodies and with just four exceptions all wear Mercedes-Benz three-pointed stars.

Although it also has a business in Leeds, JR Holland Food Services is based at the North East Fruit and Vegetable Market on Gateshead’s Team Valley Trading Estate, where it operates a successful cash & carry and where Mercedes dealer Bells also has a dealership.

Managing director John Holland, who founded the business with his father in 1983, said: “Our own brand image is one of crisp, clean quality and this is underpinned by our use of Mercedes trucks and the values associated with that famous three-pointed star.

“The vehicles themselves are supremely reliable and have become much more user-friendly since we made the switch to Mercedes-Benz in the early 1990s.”

The trucks are employed on multi-drop delivery rounds that take them up into the Scottish borders and as far south as Sheffield. As well as supplying fresh fruit and vegetables to a host of independent retailers, convenience stories, secondary wholesalers and catering suppliers, JR Holland has contracts with local education authorities and social services departments across the region.

In 2007 the company saw off competition from the likes of Tesco, Waitrose, Iceland and Somerfield to win coveted national ‘re-fresh’ awards for Overall Produce Trader of the Year and Wholesaler of the Year.

“We are very proud of the established and loyal customer base we have built up across the Tyne-Tees region and although we do necessarily import produce from Europe and beyond, we make a major effort to source as much as possible locally.

“We also value highly the tremendously strong relationship we have developed over the last 15 years with Bell Truck and Van. The dealer’s service is prompt and efficient and we have come to appreciate the fact that when Bells promise something, they always deliver,” said Holland.

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