Direct Produce Supplies puts its success down to conducting a business that “lives the values of ‘honesty, trust and loyalty’ in all its commercial dealings, encouraging close working relationships with growers, exporters and customers.”
The company was established in 1979 to source fruit and vegetables for the newly-emerging British supermarkets. In 1998, it focused its business on offering a year-round global supply solution, primarily on stonefruit.
It has also invested in innovation, and claims this is key to its continued success, and has been trialling new varieties, along with developments in storage, packaging and transportation of product.
DPS engages in customer insight, including using market data from Kantar Worldpanel, electronic point of sale data (EPOS) and information from retailer-specific loyalty card schemes. It also commissions qualitative and quantitative research, among other work.
This year, in a joint venture with Bardsley Farms, the firm supplied its first commercial volumes of UK apricots. A spokesperson says: “Independent customer benchmarking supported our belief that the varieties planted deliver a significantly better eat than some of the more traditional British varieties, and with more fruit in the ground and yields set to grow in the coming years we are positive that the future of UK stonefruit looks bright.”
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