UK Foodhall has a new home in Shrewsbury
A Shropshire company that supplies British foods for thousands of school dinners is moving into a new home in Shrewsbury as it expands its staff for the first time.
UK Foodhall supplies around 12,000 schools' dinners every day, with meat and fish products made in factories based on UK shores.
The company was set up six years ago by Karen McQuade and Robert Clark, who both left jobs elsewhere in the food industry to set it up, and now works with more than 50 local authorities, and generates turnover of almost £7 million.
Yesterday, one of its major customers – Shropshire Council's school dinners supplier Shire Services – cut the ribbon on its new home on Shrewsbury's Oxon Business Park, allowing the firm to look to expand both its range and the number of authorities and schools it works with.
Mr Clark said: "For a number of years there was only Karen and myself, and an office manager.
"Last August we needed to move offices, and located the Oxon Business Park, and with that we have expanded and recruited two national account managers, one to look after the south of the country, and one for the north.
"We are maintaining our rapid growth, and we needed to move to larger premises to grow and evolve even further. We supply 55 to 60 local authorities, and there's about the same amount again that we can grow into."
Shire Services is one of the most noteworthy local services to have picked up the service, which outsources its food production to factories around the UK.
The company uses suppliers in Welshpool for sausages which it sends out to schools across the UK, and uses a plant in Grimsby for its fish.
When the firm was first established, around 90 per cent of meat in school meals was imported.
"Karen's buyers were saying they wanted British food, but there was no British product in the marketplace to procure," Mr Clark added.
"People were buying imported products from far-flung places, and it gave a great opportunity. We launched the company on two products, and now we do around 75. We haven't looked back."
Among the councils supplied by UK Foodhall are a number around London, as well as in the West Midlands.
