Nationwide Produce has grown its pre-tax profit on a reduced turnover.
For the year ending 29 may 2015, the vegetable giant's turnover was down this year from £84.9 million to £79.5m. But pre-tax profit went up from £499,000 to £1m.
The accounts were field with Companies House.
The business' MD, Tim O'Malley, said: 'We expected this due to heavy price deflation in our industry, but it's still disappointing as our volumes are up. The supermarket price war is leading the deflation, but this is filtering down to all sectors of the market. The other reason for low prices has been, for the second year running, a general oversupply of produce throughout Europe due to favourable growing conditions.
'On a brighter note our pre-tax profit has more than doubled. We're starting to reap the benefits of our long-term investments in improved efficiency in our supply chain. Over the last couple of years we have invested heavily in our own farming operation in the UK and our own warehouse for cold-storage and pallet-collation in Poeldijk, Holland. Both these operations are starting to show cost savings and have certainly led to an increase in sales.'
Nationwide Produce's latest venture is Vitaal Fruit. This wholly-owned division of Nationwide, based in Kent, will round off the firm's supply portfolio by specialising in the importation of fruit.
Of the move, O'Malley said: 'With careful planning, we have achieved a long-term goal of creating a fruit division from a team of three traders and a freight forwarding and logistics manager with collectively over 80 years' experience in the fruit trade.
'Fruit has for too long been our achilles heel, but early signs are that our patience and perseverance to pull this one together will be rewarded - we have just broken the 100 containers of fruit barrier in less than three months of trading. This new division has hit the ground running and should lead to a major boost in sales for next year.'
Looking forward, O'Malley said that the outlook for the 2015-16 financial year is 'promising'.
He added: 'The early signs are that we will have a more balanced supply-demand position in Europe this year against a burdensome oversupply for the past two years. This all bodes well for a healthy 2015-16, and, indeed, we've had the best start to a season ever with record results for Q1.'
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