Fruit and veg grower Fresca Group shrugged off the challenges faced by the produce sector to report a big increase in sales and profits in its latest accounts.
The business, which owns growers including Thanet Earth and Manor Fresh saw turnover increase by 4.7% to £433.1m for the year to 29 April 2022, which was “particularly noteworthy considering the inflationary pressures on all businesses”, said CEO Martyn Fletcher.
Operating profit also rose, by 26.3% to £2.5m, according to the supplier’s annual report and accounts.
The annualisation of previous contract wins and some new business acquistions were the supplier’s key growth drivers, it said. The company added it had also benefited from people staying in the UK for the holidays in the summer of 2021, which helped drive the recovery of its wholesale business.
“We maintained our focus on effective cost and margin management to counter the broader headwinds in the form of energy prices and continued labour and driver shortages in the fresh produce industry,” added Fletcher. “We have worked closely with our customers and growers to mitigate and share the pain of these challenges.”
Alongside its strong financial performance, the company has also continued to decrease its emissions output. Its total gross emissions were down by 15.2% to 4,316 tCO2e.
Fresca Group said this was due to several activities to better manage its energy usage, including the installation of new glycol refrigeration systems which are more energy-efficient. It is also trialling more energy-efficient ripening solutions, continuing to replace conventional lighting with LED solutions across all sites, and recently completed solar panel installations at both its Holbeach and Evesham sites.
On his outlook for 2023, Fletcher remained cautious about the current and ongoing challenges facing the industry and said Fresca would be “spending our time on careful cost management, investing in automation and energy-saving projects. We will reduce our dependency on both labour and utilities which will assist our progress in the years ahead.
“We are extremely pleased with the continued momentum achieved across the Fresca Group, in a very challenging year,” he concluded in a statement. “We have the team, the expertise and ambition to further build upon the very strong results and progress we have made to date.”
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