Berry Gardens

Berry Gardens is the UK’s leading berry and stone fruit production and marketing group with sales of £193m in 2010 alone. Established more than 35 years ago, Berry Gardens owns a market share in excess of 30% in the UK season and supplies all of Britain’s leading retailers. With a genuine passion and pride in its product, matched only by its inexhaustible commitment to quality, Berry Gardens constantly offers the best tasting fruit.

Berry Gardens was founded in the mid 1970s and has experienced a fantastic growth which is down to a great team focused on its core product. However even a multi-million pound company like this could reap the rewards of cost management. Berry Gardens’ proposition is unique as it is wholly owned by UK growers. The company’s Financial Director, Nick Allen, first enlisted Utilitas Solutions’ services in 2005, when he invited Eric to tender for electricity at its cold storage facilities. Nick had been experiencing problems getting responses to his inquiries and needed assistance putting tenders together, but with the help of Eric and his team, he was able to save nearly £70,000 over the next six years on electricity alone. Understandably, Nick was very impressed with Utilitas. 

As such, he invited the company to carry out an audit on Berry Gardens’ stationery, waste, building maintenance and telecommunications expenditure. Savings on all projects totalled more than £100,000. Nick was delighted. Not only with the savings, but with Utilitas’ approach to project management. Eric’s no-nonsense reporting, carried out on a quarterly basis is straightforward, easy to understand and exactly what a company needs to see.