One of Australia’s largest national fresh fruit and vegetable wholesalers is setting itself up for growth, after transitioning to new ownership late last year.
In2Food Managing Director Brett Jackson says it intends to consolidate and expand on its current network of growers and grow its traceable supply chain. He explains that he wants to put a strong focus on the personal relationships with his clients going forward.
"A lot of our networks are out in the produce and growing community, and everyone that I have spoken to has been very supportive of us," he said. "We want to provide our customers with the things that are important to them; such as the cool chain which is vitally important, so we will continually be improving that. What we are also going to focus on is partnering with our customer base to give them solutions. COVID-19 has been tough on every sector and every business, so finding ways to offer value to them and work closely with them to provide solutions, that's what we will be focussing on in the short term. We have a great team throughout the national network, they went through the administration process, and most are still a part of the team. So that speaks volumes of the foundation of the company and gives us a great base to grow off."
The business marked the beginning of a new phase in December; it was bought in October 2021 by Produce Republic shortly after it went into administration in August. In2Food has branches in every capital city in Australia, excluding Hobart, and Mr Jackson says that work is being done to the facilities to cater for the planned future growth.
He added that the last month or two has been an up and down period, driven by pandemic trends.
"Coming out of lockdowns was certainly helpful for the business," he said. "The two largest branches in our business; Victoria and New South Wales both came out of lockdown, which was very handy for us because of our exposure in the foodservice industry. The latest Omicron wave has dented some of the confidence, especially in the HORECA space, as people minimised their movements however as we come out the other side we are seeing business return to our pre-Christmas levels. For us, the immediate focus is to settle a few things down and try and get some confidence back in in the industry; we are here to grow and here to stay."
Formed in 2018, In2Food supplies fresh fruit and vegetables, which it purchases from small farms and producers to a range of customers both large and small and includes supermarkets, cafes, restaurants, aged care facilities, governments, airlines, and schools.
"What we offer is something that fits in well with a lot of growers retail strategies," Mr Jackson said. "We are looking for a different specification to the retail grade of fruit, so it’s a different value proposition for most of the growers, so it works well. Often growers grow a certain volume of fruit and veg of all specifications. We offer an outlet for that product that doesn't meet the supermarket spec. Not just in our In2Food business, but also in our Aussie Frozen Fruit business, we work with growers on that as well."
Mr Jackson says the wholesale industry has not been immune to other challenges this season, that include the weather and staffing shortages, largely brought on by the pandemic.
"It all depends on what sector you supply," he said. "But most of it has been around the quality and availability of a lot of the products. Not only has the produce community been dealing with La Nina weather events, so the weather has been difficult to handle, but there's also been all of the issues around staffing and finding people is difficult across the country to the point where it's been disruptive."
Another one of the core values of In2Food is sustainability, and the business has formed a strategic alliance with CHEP to help lead the removal of cardboard from the foodservice industry.
"We have been using crates, more than most businesses would, throughout the foodservice industry," Mr Jackson explained. "We are trying to minimize packaging as much as possible. That has been really successful with some customers, who really put a value on that. We all have a responsibility to do what we can to protect the environment."
For more information
Brett Jackson
In2Food
Phone: 1300 462 366
customer.service@in2food.com.au
www.in2food.com.au
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