Fruit For The Office has been crowned the leader of innovation at the Havering Business Awards.

The company picked up the award for innovation at the prestigious ceremony hosted by Jon Culshaw.

Fruit For The Office was commended for its success in transforming a traditional East London trade into a thriving nationwide business. The Ox family “managed to take their 100-year-old barrow based family business and rolled it into the 21st century to create an enviable office fruit delivery service”, the firm said.

The company said its back office system, built and designed by company founder Daniel Ox, allows for optimum communication among all members of the team. If certain fruit is not available due to seasonality or poor harvest, the buyers in the markets can inform the customer service team in the office in just a few clicks.

Daniel Ox said: “It’s great to know that our efforts have been noticed and rewarded. Creating the online back office did take some time, but I knew the benefits to having it were paramount. If the business was going to be a success, I needed to find a way to pack up the knowledge and customer service you get from a market fruit stall and put it onto an online platform.

“I know from my time working on fruit stalls that product availability can change on a daily basis. The system I created allows us to keep our customers up to date at all times. Whether a customer calls to speak to a member of our team, or logs on to our website they can get up to date information on what is available and at what price.”

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