Multi million pound contract for Kanes Foods

Published by

Nicky Godding

Evesham-based fresh produce firm Kanes Foods has won a valuable new contract with a major supermarket chain in the UK.

Kanes Foods, which currently employs around 1,550 people, has landed the three-year deal to supply stores across the country with ready-to-eat salad bowls from October 2018, in a deal worth over £50 million.

Food-to-go salad bowls are an area of good growth in the UK market and this new business recognises Kanes’ established expertise in this category. Kanes, who already supply a number of UK retailers with salad bags and bowls from their high-tech production facility in Middle Littleton, is investing further in a brand new production line to fulfil this additional business.

Steve Corby, CEO at Kanes Foods said: “We’re delighted to have been awarded this new business and all credit must go to the team who’ve worked very hard to secure a long-term commitment from a major new customer for Kanes.

“The related investment in a new production line, one that will be the fastest and most technologically advanced possible, underscores our recent success and our vision for the future; it’s something we’re very excited about. Here at Kanes we are committed to developing healthy meal solutions for everyone and this offering will give shoppers a wider choice of high quality, great tasting, healthy salad meals.”

Based in the Vale of Evesham, Kanes Foods is a second-generation, family-owned business and is the largest private employer in Worcestershire. Each year Kanes produces around 150 million units of washed and ready-to-eat bags and bowls of salad, fresh stir fry vegetables, noodles and sauces, fresh salad dressings and ready-to-cook prepared vegetables to its grocery and foodservice customers.

The company's headquarters boasts the UK's largest bio-diverse wildflower glass roof which is planted with nearly 90 species of wild flowers.

The building's eco features include the largest hemp clad system in the UK which absorbs carbon dioxide and prevents its release back into the atmosphere. Geothermal heat pump technology controls the heat and helps power computers and refrigeration units, while underground tanks harvest roof rainwater. A sustainable storm management system controls excess water and ponds created provide a home for mallards, grass snkes frogs and newts.

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.