Nationwide Produce wins Sunday Times Award
Nationwide Produce, has been recognised as one of the fastest growing international companies in the UK for the second year running. The company featured at 71 in the 2012 Sunday Times International Track 200 published Sunday 8th July.
Nationwide Produce prides itself on being one of the most diverse fresh produce companies in the industry. It grows, grades, packs, buys and sells fresh produce. It has around 600 customers worldwide covering every sector of the market including retail, food-service, wholesale and processing.
Group Managing Director Tim O’Malley said: “This is recognition of the fantastic growth we have achieved in international sales in the past two years which grew from £7.5m in 2009 to nearly £18m in 2011 which averages a 55% increase per annum. As a business we adopted a strategy to develop our European business in sales and procurement, and that planning has really paid dividends.”
The company was founded in 1975 by Tim’s father Bernard and mother Joan who are both from local Lancashire farming families. Nationwide started life as Bernard O’Malley & Co from a small room in the family home in Southport, Lancashire. Bernard said “it was a bit of a squeeze back then as we had four young kids but fortunately it wasn’t long before we moved into proper offices. It amazes me that from that one small office we now have five in England, one in Belfast, two in Holland and one in Spain.”
Patrick O’Malley, Group Director, says he believes that the opening of wholly-owned overseas branches has made a real difference. “Our branches in Rotterdam and Almeria were originally set up solely to improve our procurement in these areas. However, having a wholly-owned presence in these markets led to us generating sales as well. The establishment of the Belfast and Emmen branches has also been a major factor in driving overseas sales growth. When we opened our first overseas office in Rotterdam in 2004, international sales were £667,000. Last year this figure was £17.8m which is a 27 fold increase in 8 years.”
Notes
The Sunday Times International Track 200 is a league table ranking Britain’s private companies with the fastest growing international sales, measured over the latest two years of available accounts. It is compiled by Fast Track and published by The Sunday Times in May.
