What are your feelings on reaching a 40-year milestone in the produce industry?

Shock and amazement! But when I came into the industry, I knew it would be a long game and I was prepared for that. I knew it wasn’t a case of get rich quick, and I think 40 years is probably par for the course in this industry. There are people who have done a lot longer.

My friendships and relationships with colleagues over the years have been hugely important. I have been lucky and have had experience across all parts of the industry - wholesale, retail supply, packing, foodservice and imports across a very wide range of crops. I have met a lot of different people and amassed many friends and contacts, both in the UK and overseas.

How did you start working in the industry and how did your career progress after that?

In 1969, I joined our family business, Louis Reece Ltd, in Spitalfields Market, having graduated from Leeds University with a degree in commerce. I was a salesman there until 1970, when I moved to Louis Reece (Covent Garden) Ltd, where I was branch director until 1985. In 1979, I became deputy managing director of the whole Louis Reece business.

My career was entirely in wholesaling until 1985, when Louis Reece was taken over by Glass Glover plc. For two years, I was director of London operations, getting involved with the supermarkets, importing and packing, and far less with wholesale markets.

Then in 1987, with my two brothers and my cousin, I concluded a management buy-in of TJ Poupart, which at the time was a failing company, but part of Hillsdown Holdings, a large food conglomerate. What we inherited was a wholesale business with a small supermarket division - although today we are 90 per cent supermarket-focused and 10 per cent suppliers to non-retail outlets. I was managing director of Poupart Ltd from 1987 until 1992, and from 1992 to 1997 I was promoted to chief executive of Hillsdown Produce, which then comprised all the produce elements of Hillsdown, including potato companies MBM and Beesons.

Then in 1997, Hillsdown sold a series of non-core businesses, which included Poupart, to Argent Group Europe, which is when I became solely managing director of Poupart Ltd and subsequently chairman in 2007.

My career has been one of continually managing change. I have worked for pure family businesses and plcs and for the last 12 years in a venture capitalist environment.

I would like to think our models were slightly ahead of what was happening in the wider marketplace. I have always looked to change rather than accept the status quo, as I have thrived in this environment.

What are the biggest changes you have seen to the fresh produce industry in the last 40 years?

In the 1960s, frozen was the most popular form of food, followed by tinned and then fresh. Fresh fruit and vegetables were at the bottom of the pile in terms of fashion and perception. Frozen was the big area because it offered everything for that generation of consumers. The retail channels used to be very different - the freezer and ambient areas of the supermarkets were huge, and fruit and vegetables were the poor relation.

Fresh fruit and vegetable retailing was appalling then, dominated by independent greengrocers who displayed the fruit diabolically. There was no refrigeration and no cool chain and so it deserved to be at the bottom of the pile.

Nowadays, the order is fresh, frozen and tinned. In 40 years, there has been a complete reversal and a widening of the range of fruit and vegetables available. The supermarkets have been vital to that change. When I started in wholesale, the supermarkets were buying in the markets every day. That finished four or five years after I started.

When I started out, there was also precious little out-of-home eating, so those channels were very limited. There is now a relatively new and vibrant industry in the form of foodservice.

People are still important in the industry, but less so than they were 40 years ago. People are the oil that keeps the machine going, but the business is becoming increasingly systems-driven, which is right and proper. The trade is now more disciplined and the use of technology is growing along the supply chain, from production to retailing. There is far more professionalism and application of new business ideas.

The Olins family is well known throughout the produce trade. Is there still a place for family firms in the industry?

I think that in different parts of the chain, there is a role for families. In growing and farming, in particular, all the best suppliers are family-run or owned and are professionally managed businesses. This is the ideal model for a horticultural business. A family firm can take a long-term view over short-term setbacks, which of course there are many of in production. It has been a privilege to see young people coming into their family businesses on the growing side.

As middlemen, we are a family that has been lucky to stick together. I am third generation along with my brothers and cousin, and there are now two members of the fourth generation in the business. I am very pleased that the Olins family has stayed the course and prospered. The fact we are a family in the middle ground means we can offer continuity to the family growers and customers we deal with.

Since 1987, we have had the additional benefit of working with outside investors. I have worked in pure family businesses and they face inherent challenges. But a family-owned business with outside investors can put a lot of discipline on the family members. By chance, I have ended up working in this model, which I believe is the best one for the produce industry.

Is there still a shortage of young talent coming into the industry?

Wholesalers are concerned about where the next generation of talent will come from. The unsocial hours make that a real challenge.

But from where we sit, we are recruiting a lot of graduates and are attracting linguists, business development, management trainees and IT specialists. I think farming and horticulture are more attractive now across the world and we are recruiting some very good candidates. These people are not always English - a lot of the UK farm managers are eastern European, for example.

There is never a shortage of young people wanting to work for the supermarkets and as we are in the middle, we have no problem attracting excellent talent. Now is a particularly good time to recruit given the recession affecting other sectors.

Have the supermarkets been a blessing or a curse for the industry?

The supermarkets have been very positive for the industry - there is no question about that - and they continue to be so. They have given fresh produce a prominence without which the industry would not have reached this level of success.

Being associated with a highly professional business such as a major retail chain is good for a firm and it can go one of two ways - either you can’t keep up or you hitch your wagon to that positive force and succeed. They have been a blessing - demands and pressures have increased but we welcome that, as it is a positive thing. I have seen few negatives in trading with the supermarkets.

What do you think will be the next big trends to affect fresh produce?

There has been a structural change with the consumer recently because of the recession - they have had a financial shock and will be value-driven, when they eat both in and out of the house.

Local produce is on the agenda across all generations because it represents good value and environmental credentials. But I think organic and Fairtrade will struggle because they don’t offer value, and you can get the same positive factors by buying locally.

One thing is guaranteed - things will change. Change has been a consistent factor over the last 40 years and without a doubt, the industry is evolving and will continue to evolve - it has to.

The speed of change is much quicker nowadays. In 1969, my grandfather would have recognised the way I worked as being no different from before the Second World War. But now, change is rapid and you have to be unafraid and ahead of it.