This year’s Re:fresh FPC Packer of the Year award has gone to FW Mansfield & Son.
The Kent-based business has completed an £8.6 million expansion plan, with a brand-new packing facility and 6,500 tonnes of additional storage, as well as a six-bay chilled despatch area.
The company’s growing operations are made up of 20 individual farms across the county, covering more than 1,200 hectares, of which 900ha is top fruit.
Around 95 per cent of the top-fruit orchards have been planted in the last 15 years and the balance consists of cherries, plums and berries.
In the last decade alone, the firm has planted almost one million trees.
The new packing complex is one of the biggest on-farm facilities of its kind in the UK and has been built with environment-conscious features including a water filtration plant that uses a carbon-based system to prolong the life of water used in the grading process from two days to six months.
QV Foods and Fenmarc were also finalists in this category.
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