Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2011/January 2012 | Page 121

FOOD

time to continue progressing the
manufacturing side.
“In 1998 my wife Caroline, daughter
of Roger and Jean French, joined
us. She came on board as a sales
representative and soon ended up
running the whole sales side of the
business. In between having baby
Brandon in 2002 her day to day role
now lies with the sales, purchase
and day to day running of the whole
business.
“After Caroline joined, I started
to progress our range of frozen food
that we already sold. This in turn
snowballed and customers were asking
for ambient food products too. Our
difficulty was storage, but we were
lucky enough to acquire a unit next
door.
“In 2006 Lawrie Jenman from New
Forest Ice Cream approached us to
take on his Isle of Wight distribution
and unit. This acquisition went well
and we grew this side of the business
quickly due to the demand for a local
wholesaler. We then acquired another
unit next door, ending up with four
units in a line, and later acquired a

fruit and vegetable wholesale business
to add to our portfolio.”
After years of looking for new
premises, Stephen finally acquired
the former Red Funnel Distribution
depot, and designed the whole
new 28,000 sq ft premises himself.
He added: “We worked with well
known Island builder, John Peck
Construction and have been very
pleased with how it has all turned out.
Now we will be much more efficient
in our day to day operating and have
enough space to expand and supply
our customers’ needs.”

One of the four aisles in the ambient food store

The new sales office

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