The company was on track to achieve £21M in its latest full-year results, md Mike Forrester told FoodManufacture.co.uk, but stressed: “We see ourselves at £30M in three to four years.”
The business had experienced significant growth in the past few years, driven by the success of key customers in the casual dining sector, he said. Its acquisition of Daventry-based Food Ingredients International (FII) on April 16 this year would build on that, he added.
Investment plans
And Orchard Valley had further investment plans beyond that, said Forrester. “We are investing several hundred thousand pounds to improve efficiency and throughput over the next three to four months.
“We are increasing office space threefold and we have a whole programme of capital investment in our packing facilities.”
As part of these latest developments, the firm was creating a new area for product applications and demonstrations to help attract new business, said Forrester.
‘50-60 new customers’
The acquisition of FII had strengthened its product offering and brought “a net increase of 50-60 new customers, including some international clients we didn’t have,” he said. “We took their ingredients portfolio into Orchard Valley and we’re seeing a bit of traction with that.”
In particular, FII would help grow Orchard Valley’s existing overseas customer base in Europe, North America and Australia, he said. “We have identified these as an important opportunity for export.”
However, he stressed export sales were still a relatively small part of the business – roughly 5-6%.
Orchard Valley Foods is based in Tenbury Valley, Worcestershire, employs 54 people and supplies food mixes and industrial blends for a wide variety of applications, such as soups, sauces, gravies, infant formulations and cereal bars.
It supplies home baking products for consumers and supplies wholesalers, retailers, manufacturers and foodservice customers.