Tomato grower bags £6m for expansion

A CHESHIRE tomato supplier is expanding on three fronts after agreeing a £6m funding package.

The cash from Yorkshire Bank will see Middlewich-based APS Salads buy a new site in Kent and invest in its growing site at Alderley Edge and production facility.

Family-owned APS is on course to turnover £39m in 2011. It produced 54 million packs of tomatoes last year and is the largest supplier of UK tomatoes to Tesco. Other customers include Iceland Foods and Aldi.

Mark Pearson, managing director of APS Salads, said: “Our Kent acquisition has allowed us to significantly increase production and has given us an additional packaging and processing centre in the south of the UK, greatly improving efficiency across the business.

“This funding package will also allow us to invest in our Cheshire sites as we target further contracts with UK supermarkets and food suppliers.”

Mike Travis and Tony Morris, partners at Chafes Solicitors, assisted APS Salads with both the purchase of the Kent site based at Ash near Canterbury and the organisation of a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) unit.

The CHP unit generates electricity for the site and sells excess energy back to the national grid.

David Hunt, business partner at Yorkshire Bank in Stafford, said: “APS Salads runs a hugely impressive operation and has very clear plans for continued growth.

“This latest expansion will unlock doors to supply other large UK retailers and also gives the business capacity to enlarge its glasshouse footprint.”

APS Salads was founded as A Pearson & Sons in 1949 by Albert and Hilda Pearson and now employs more than 250 people across its three sites.

It has had a growing site at Alderley Edge since 1972, though it began to expand significantly in 2006 after creating a production and packaging facility in Middlewich.