Liverpool city region grower, importer and exporter of fresh produce Nationwide Produce sees sales soar 23% to a record £177m. Tony McDonough reports

Sales have hit a record £177m at Southport-based grower, importer and exporter of fresh food Nationwide Produce.

According to the firm’s annual accounts just posted on Companies House, the firm also reported a pre-tax profit of more than £2.1m for the 12 months to June 2, 2023, up from almost £1.7m in 2022.

Family-owned Nationwide, which started out as Bernard O’Malley & Sons almost 50 years ago, is based in Southport town centre. Bernard and his three sons are all directors and remain actively involved in the running of the company.

It works across the entire fresh food supply chain – growing, grading, packing, trading, importing, and exporting fresh produce, including vegetables and fruits, from around the world.

In May, LBN revealed the business had secured a £3.5m loan from Lloyds Bank to expand its warehouse capacity by 75%. It operates from storage and distribution depots in Evesham in the West Midlands, Kent, Belfast, Rotterdam and Almeria in Spain.

Employing 165 people, it also farms 550 acres of land in East Anglia, producing root crops. The new funding has enabled it to expand its warehouse in Evesham by 75% from 32,000 sq ft to 56,000 sq ft, allowing much more stock to be stored.

And, as part of its net zero ambitions, the business has also used the funding to build five temperature-controlled chambers. They offer greater cooling efficiency and therefore emit fewer greenhouse gases.

Earlier in the year managing director Tim O’Malley said that in 40 years in the business he had not seen spot prices as high among such a broad range of products for such a prolonged period of time.

In the annual report Tim added: “And that sums up the year really. It was one of exceptional weather, exceptionally short supply and exceptionally high prices.

“Our humble industry even made headlines this year for rationing of produce by the retailers back in February and March.

“In my last directors report I reported ‘turnover in the financial year 2022/23 looks set to break £160m’. Despite this being a year of incredibly short supply our sales volumes increased as we continue to take on more traders and grow our customer base.”

Nationwide has paid dividends totalling £200,000 for the financial year, this is lower than the £250,000 paid out last year. Directors’ remuneration, including pension contributions, totalled more than £2.83m. The highest paid director received £347,681.

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Tim added: “This year will also see an exciting diversification into frozen veg with the launch of a new range from our partners, Albert Bartlett, and endorsed by the TV chef James Martin.

“It’s a major move into a new market for us and one of us again requires investment so we continue to remain confident about the future. We continue to diversify and expand our offering and we continue to invest.”