Florette - Fresh from the West Midlands

In just over a decade Florette has become Europe's fastest growing brand of prepared salads. By the end of the 1990s, it was Britain's best-selling brand and, prompted by the need to be closer to its customers, French parent company, SolŽco, began looking for suitable UK sites to build a processing facility. It was the first time that the company had opened a factory outside France.

"As the main area for salad growing in the UK, a region like East Anglia would have been the natural choice, but it didn't meet our distribution criteria," explains Managing Director, Gerald Lacey. "After considering various sites across the UK, the West Midlands emerged as the clear favourite. It is ideally situated at the centre of the country's motorway network and, from here, we can deliver to most of our customers within three hours. With a fresh product like ours, the faster the products reach the consumer, the better. During the season 75% of our raw materials come from the UK and at other times, they come from France, Italy, Spain and even the USA. They arrive by road and sometimes by air freight, via Birmingham International Airport which is just a few miles away, to be cleaned, sorted and packed, and shipped out the same day to all of the UK's major supermarkets. We maintain strict hygiene and quality standards. Ours is a healthy product, produced in healthy conditions in a healthy part of the UK."

Many of the production processes are unique to Florette, developed as a result of years of experience in preparing bagged salads. The state of the art factory in Lichfield cost £12million to build and began with a workforce of 40 people. Today it employs 380. In the last four years production has trebled and Florette is planning to invest a further £10 million expanding its facilities to 10,000 square metres. "Another benefit of this location is that we have plenty of grow-on space," comments Gerald Lacey. "It was always our intention to expand facilities to meet the growing demand for healthy, convenient prepared salads."

With the support of Advantage West Midlands and the Highways Agency, Florette became one of the first companies in the UK to pioneer a Green Transport policy. The aim was to meet its growing employment need while minimising environmental impact. Every day, seven minibuses collect employees from home and transport them to and from work. Parking on site is restricted to just forty spaces and transportation takes place outside peak rush hours.

Florette has no problem filling its ever-increasing number of vacancies. It recruits from a wide catchment area that includes Burton, Lichfield and Tamworth. "Ours is a multinational workforce, with representatives from France, Bulgaria, India, Iraq and Portugal. Virtually every employee is actively involved in some kind of training and we provide French and Spanish lessons for those who want to take them. This is a very young, vibrant environment and we have a stable workforce as a result."

The company now produces 80 different salad mixes, including its flagship Gourmet Collection, with innovative recipes created by some of the world's most famous chefs, such as Raymond Blanc and Jean-Christophe Novelli. As well as supplying the British market, Florette UK airfreights salad to Iceland and Dubai via Birmingham International Airport. Florette has become a household name and, whether they're in Reykjavik or Reading, consumers enjoy its delicious, crispy salads fresh from the West Midlands all year round.

Interview given by Gerald Lacey, Managing Director.

For more information about Florette UK visit www.florette.com