Potatoes in hand

Photo: Aurora Produce

Aurora Produce has announced it has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of leading vegetable supplier Produce World.

The Norfolk-based potato grower announced it would continue as a conventional and organic farming operation, but with the majority of its other trading activity incorporated into Produce World.

The company’s two directors Ian Anderson and Andrew Hayter will both join Produce World, with Anderson becoming head of commercial and Hayter taking up the position of head of procurement at the supplier’s Sutton Bridge site near Spalding.

The pair will remain the principle points of contact at Aurora, keeping the same contact details as before for the time being.

In a letter to customers, growers, suppliers and trade colleagues, Anderson and Hayter wrote: “2017 was a very successful year across all of our activity, from farming and trading to marketing and export, building and strengthening new and existing relationships across conventional and organic crops.

“One of the most important relationships was developed with Produce World Group Ltd, who have given us direct support and taken a commercial interest in Aurora from the outset.”

They added: “We believe that this is a very exciting move and will bring considerable new opportunity to all of our partners, whether growers, suppliers or customers.”