AGP will take over the running of Nationwide’s onion production site at Long Sutton, Lincs. Both companies will continue to market and grow onions themselves while using AGP as a service-provider to grade and pack for them.

Tim O’Malley, Group MD of Nationwide, commented “This is a good example of collaboration in order to reduce costs and enable efficient whole-crop marketing. QV and Nationwide complement each other with customers in every sector of the trade. Together we currently market just over 80,000 tonnes of onions per annum. We are also both growing onions – by next season we will have a combined growing area of 550 acres which is further strengthened by our Richmond Farms grower group. By sharing this resource we will both commit to a healthy tonnage flowing through the Long Sutton site and to work together to market the whole crop effectively and efficiently.”

Peter Taylor, Head of QV Vegetables, commented “Following an extended period of working together, we both see this as a sensible next step to share supply chain costs to the maximum benefit of our respective customers. We will also reduce investment risks whilst securing vertical integration benefits in the UK onion supply chain . The initiative will bring customers closer to our own growing provenance and deliver quality and service”.