Garden
Isle (Fruit and Vegetables ) Ltd became an
associated company of the Lyons Group on 1
April 1968. It was formed in 1967 out of
the old Potato Sales Department in
conjunction with Smith and Holbourne Ltd,
fruit and potato processors/merchants who
owned farms in Cambridgeshire. For many
years Lyons had a business relationship
with Smith and Holbourne who supplied
Lyons with a variety of products including
strawberry puree used in some ice-cream
products.
Their
business was the supply of prepared fruit
and vegetables to the catering trade -
including hospitals schools and commercial
organisations - which were referred to as
''convenience foods'. One of the best
selling lines were partly cook chips
(French fries) which the trade referred to
as oil-blanched. They were fresh, not
frozen, and thus retained a better flavour
when cooked. Caterers could cook them in
90 seconds which ensured a speedy meal
service. Daily deliveries meant that the
minimum of refrigerated storage space was
required. The potatoes in their various
forms were packed in polythene heat-sealed
bags devised with the help of Central
Laboratories.
Garden
Isle were the largest producer of fresh
oil-blanched chips in the UK and they used
this dominant position to market its
growing fruit and vegetable products. In
July 1967, a new production plant, the
only one of its kind in the country at
that time, came on stream to produce 200
tons of raw and partly cooked chipped
potatoes a week.
The
Managing Director was Robert Smith, of
Smith and Holbourne, and their registered
office was in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. As
well as Wisbech, an order and sales office
was situated at 145 Hammersmith Road,
London, to handle the large trade in the
London area. Louis Lowenthal, who headed
the former Potato Sales Department, was
the Sales Director.
The
factory in Wisbech occupied a five-acre
site with its own deep freeze and cool
rooms which were run with a staff of 70.
Their main customer for diced apples was
Lyons Bakery. To enable the company to
meet the demand of caterers for this
convenience food a fast road distribution
network was established. It was claimed
that potatoes could be in the fields one
day and on the dinner plate the next. The
railway network, which had an enviable
reputation at that time, was also used to
deliver to Scotland and Wales within 24
hours.
In the
summer of 1968 a new Frigoscandia
Flo-Freeze unit was installed to improve
the keeping quality of the oil-blanched
chips and to enable the company to enter
the frozen chip market which ultimately
dominated. Percy White, formerly of Lyons,
was consultant engineer in overall charge
of this installation.
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