Company description
Established as Bernard O’Malley & Co in 1975, Nationwide started life as a Lancashire produce merchant based in Southport; today, it is one of the largest produce companies in the UK. The opening of the Spalding office in 1988 coincided with a change of name to Nationwide Produce PLC and the establishment of Richmond Farms. The objectives of Richmond Farms were to focus on brand marketing to the catering and food-service sectors.
In 1999 Nationwide established a joint-venture procurement and sales company based in Rotterdam. The success of this joint-venture led us to open our own procurement, storage and trans-shipping operation in 2004 called Vitaal, based in Poeldijk near Rotterdam.
Richmond Farms formed a Grower Group in 2006 which now has 23 members and 37,000 tonnes of dedicated crops – our own 340 acre farming operation is part of this group.
In 2007 Nationwide established an exotics division to serve the growing demand for exotic produce in the food-service and catering sectors. This division is based at another hub of the produce industry – Evesham.
2009 was a busy year. The Group’s reach was extended to Southern Europe when Nationwide España was established on 1st January 2009. Nationwide España is based near El Ejido in the fertile growing province of Almeria, Spain. The main focus for this division of Nationwide is to export from Spain to the UK and continental Europe. In March 2009 we opened a new office in Belfast to specialise in potatoes which has bolstered our annual potato volume by around 25,000 tonnes. The Belfast office has considerably increased our bag chipping and bulk potato business into Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. On 1st February 2009, the Group extended its presence in the Netherlands with a new office in Emmen near the German border. The aim of this venture is specifically exports – to increase sales to Europe, Scandinavia and the Baltic States.
In 2011 we established Solan Europe and Solvit Handling as separate divisions of the company. Solan Europe specialises in supplying the retail/packing sectors of the market, offering the full range of fresh produce but in particular pre-packed peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers. The main activity of Solan Europe is to buy ungraded raw material in plastic trays direct from growers – this product is then sized & quality graded and pre-packed at Solvit Handling. Solvit Handling is our own cold-storage, pre-packing and order-picking factory in Poeldijk, NL. We have a large warehouse with 6 loading docks and 4 cold-stores on one of the biggest fresh produce industrial estates in NL. We are fully BRC Grade A (Issue 6) certified.
The next logical progression to our Richmond Farms own growing operation and grower group was to have our own production facility. So, in September 2013 we made a £3m investment and started grading and packing onions at a 40,000 sq ft factory on 8 acres at Long Sutton, Lincs, UK. A year later we transferred this production facility into Anglia Growing Partnership Ltd – a joint-venture between Nationwide and QV Foods.
Through continuous growth and development, the Nationwide Group has been able to record an increase in turnover from €2.5m in 1988 to €110m currently. Along the way the Group has won many accolades including the Independent newspaper award three years running as one of the fastest growing companies in the UK and the Sunday Times export award two years running.
Today Nationwide is one of the largest and most diverse produce companies in the Europe with interests in all sectors of the fresh produce industry. The company continues to expand its operations and is constantly looking for new opportunities and further growth.
