UK: A fruitful new era for globe-trotting farmer Clive

It's no surprise that globe-trotting apple juice maker Clive Williamson is able to create a rapport with top London chefs. As he heads off to find new markets in the capital for his award-winning range of Maynard House Orchards apple juices, he is armed with a remarkable knowledge of a sizeable chunk of the world, having lived and worked abroad for some years. “I have met so many people of different cultures and you meet a vast arena of nationalities, and that does give you an opportunity to talk to all sorts of people,” says the 42-year-old, whose fruit juice business is based at the family fruit farm at Bradfield Combust, near Bury St Edmunds. “I have kayaked in 52 countries in the world. I have been to over 60, probably 70 countries of the world. I will always get by in hellos and goodbyes everywhere I go. I don’t, unfortunately, do much more than that.” As well as scooping a two-star Gold Award at the Great Taste Awards 2011 for its Cox & Bramley apple juice, Maynard House has also lifted six first prizes at the National Fruit Show over the last few years. Also in its range is Apple & Elderflower, Apple & Raspberry, and single varietals Discovery and Russet.

Clive’s family has been growing apples since 1934. A neighbour at Bradfield Combust, Chris Hardingham, also a fruit grower, started making apple juice in 1992 under the Maynard House label. When Chris decided he wanted to step down from running the business, he reached a deal with Clive to take it over. As well as making its own juice, the business also does a lot of apple pressing for other growers – third party pressing or co-packing right the way down to 150kg from a garden. It presses for about 10 other farming companies and half-a-dozen private individuals. “That gives us quite a lot of diverse business. We are obviously pushing our sales and our brand, which is why I’m focusing on London because if you go in East Anglia the market is reasonably saturated,” he says. The big bottle market is also “pretty much saturated”, but small bottles sell well to pubs, hotels and conference venues, and he sees potential for enormous growth in that area. Clive has been keen to build on the work Chris did. He had marketed the product to farmshops, bed and breakfasts and hotels, and has taken that a stage beyond. It was Frederick Williamson, Clive’s grandfather, who brought back the first Kidds Orange Red apples from New Zealand in 1932 and introduced them to the UK market. They were bred by a Mr Kidd from a Cox’s Orange Pippin and Red Delicious.

Source: eadt.co.uk