Two Midlands businesses have collaborated to create a new home for a food wholesaler with ambitious plans for growth.
Waterside Food Services has moved into a newly refurbished warehouse in Branston near Burton-on-Trent, just 15 miles from the company’s three previous sites in Rugeley.
The main interior features of the new facility are two large freezer and chiller units, designed by Melvin Pratt from cold store specialists S Tysoe Installations.
The Leicester-based installers are part of The P & M Group in Gloucester, which acquired S Tysoe in 2021.
Chris Morgan, managing director at Waterside, is now aiming to increase turnover from £7m to £10m by the end of 2027, with £15m the target in five to seven years’ time.
“This new site, cold store and warehouse is a game-changer for us,” he said. “It future proofs the business and streamlines our operations, making us more efficient.
“What it means is that we’ll be able to maintain and even exceed our excellent levels of customer service while increasing our workload and growing the business.
“Those service levels are key – we’ve always believed that customers are everything to us, not just a number – and the directors are focused on delivering controlled growth while not compromising on customer care.
“So we’re all delighted with the new facility. It’s been a real team effort and I’m grateful to Melvin and his colleagues for delivering what we know will be a high performing pair of cold stores. After all they did the installation of our previous cold store at the old site back in 1999, and that’s still working perfectly.”
Waterside Food Services was set up in 2015 by four directors including Chris, his wife Lorraine and his mother and father Sue and Peter. It employs 35 staff including office personnel, drivers and warehouse operatives. Integral to the future of the business is the next generation of the Morgan family – Chris and Lorraine’s children Kieren and Rebecca who work in purchasing and marketing respectively.
The business currently serves some 300 customers – catering and hospitality clients from pubs and garden centres to sports venues and theme parks – largely within a 60 mile radius of the company home. Many of them were at the launch party of the new site.
At 35,000sqft in total, the new cold store units are more than treble the size of Waterside’s previous cold store facilities.
A key feature is thicker than standard panels on the ceilings, to increase efficiency in a warehouse with a roof void and skylights.
“It’s a feature which it became clear would be necessary at design stage,” said Melvin. “The increased thickness will give it a greater U-value and, while slightly increasing the expenditure, it will save significant costs on energy while increasing the lifespan of the facility.
“Both The P & M Group and S Tysoe Installations are companies with a reputation for quality and expertise – we’re delighted to bring this to the benefit of the Morgan family and Waterside Food Services.
“I’ve been involved in the project from start to finish and it’s great to see it up and running. The operatives are working in a brand new facility, the executives are in new offices, and we’ll be here to support as required throughout the ongoing progress of the business.”
The P & M Group also contains composite panel construction specialist ISD Solutions, sister companies PLG Insulations and doors and metal fabricator QuayTherm Manufacturing, as well as a division in Australia.
Comments are closed.