Approved Food’s new site likely to create 20 jobs
Dan Cluderay, founder of Approved Food, told FoodManufacture.co.uk: “We have seen our business grow and grow because we offer people value for money,” he said. “Having outgrown the 20m2 premises we were in, we had to move to remain efficient because inefficiencies were slipping in.
“By the end of the year we are likely to have created 20 new jobs at the site.”
Forecasting growth
The firm – which sells close to, and past best-before date food and drink – is forecasting growth of around 20% for 2014. This will be driven by sales to a growing customer base in both the UK and abroad.
Last year Approved Food dispatched over 110,000 orders containing nearly 9M items to cost conscious customers.
It is the firm’s fourth move in just six years, each site being three times as large as the last.
Its new home—the former Booker Cash & Carry unit—is close to major duel carriageway Sheffield Parkway and is easily accessible for Approved’s click and collect element of the business, the firm claimed.
This new site would allow Approved Food to supply more goods to its customers, Cluderay said.
“We purchase large quantities of short-dated or past its best-before date food and drink and pass considerable savings on to consumers looking for the right food, at the right price,” Cluderay said.
‘High demand’
“This expansion will allow us to stock more of these bargain items, and also develop some new strands to the business. We know that there is a high-demand for our offering and we intend to serve more customers, more items, more often.”
The company currently employs over 50 members of staff, who are all relocating from the previous site in North Anston, Yorkshire.
The firm’s company director, Andy Needham, said the new site would help the business develop new product offerings and launch new websites.
“For what is essentially a simple cheap food and drink business, we have some mind blowing technology just under the surface which we can incorporate into additional business streams as we move forward,” he added.
