Destination Produce was established in November 2023 by Paul Tomlinson and Mark Wright, with the vision to serve the wide and diverse fresh produce industry. The ethos is to 'connect the dots in the most efficient manner' as well as to reduce waste while increasing margins for the growers, and to provide a top service with a personal touch.
"We want to help growers find alternative markets and thus give growers better returns. We looked at new export markets, but that didn't transpire," explains Paul. However, "What we have done has worked with growers and created new lines/formats and markets for their produce, reducing waste and carbon footprints. We are doing what we intended to do, but differently; a lot of it goes unnoticed, but we are creating a following."
© Destination Produce
The Destination Produce team at the SHDC Business Awards. Missing from the team were Lisa Wardle, Łukasz Gorczyca, Nicola Banks, and Christine Banks
"Instead of re-exporting, we concentrated on the UK market," said Mark. "We provide a unique service to growers and Key Category Managers, looking after problems. It can be at times of oversupply or when there is a shortage of product or problematic containers. Some companies have their own service desks, but many have no one dedicated to helping. We have daily dialogue with our contacts, helping to proactively manage stock levels and saving the arguably most important commodity – their time, as a lot of procurement roles result in firefighting problems with limited staff to do so.
"In terms of the wholesale, strategically we have partnered with like-minded individuals in selected markets to provide a dedicated and focused service for class II produce; we are in nine different wholesale markets, it is all about giving the best price back to growers, and the communication, which I found was missed. We position ourselves between the importer and the grower. We have connections with a lot of different packers, which gives us a whole range of products and a lot of traction in the market. This gives us the opportunity to give value to the product so it is not just going for animal feed or a low-price sale."
We can connect directly with the grower to solve the problem, which frees time and cost for the importer," said Paul. "We can also talk to the overseas growers at source, to see what can be done if they have issues. Sometimes the product is too small, has low brix, etc, and won't meet the expected market standards."
"With some of this produce, we can have it packed in a format which looks appealing, but is still a value range. We can utilise redundant packing at the source, which helps with general waste. The consumer is looking for a value product, not a brand."
"People have packhouse machines ready to go, so we can ask them to cost the packing for us. It is really fantastic to find solutions to problems. It's about having a dedicated market for this produce and not just selling it as an afterthought. We have also started working with smaller growers who are looking for help getting new and innovative products into the UK market."
In two years, Destination Produce has gone from being just Paul and Mark to now employing eight additional staff who are all motivated to add value and give sustainability to our industry. The company was nominated for the Business of the Year at the SHDC Business Awards.
For more information:
Paul Tomlinson
[email protected]
Mark Wright
[email protected]
