‘We had to up our game’ say lockdown champions

HOW 135-YEAR-OLD FAMILY FIRM ADAPTED TO THE CHALLENGES OF COVID-19

THE story begins in 1885 when Richard and Sarah Kerry had a stall selling geese and hens in Nottingham’s Old Market Square.

Fast forward to 2020 and the family business – now in its fifth generation – has become a lockdown champion.

Over the last 135 years the business has evolved, adapted and gone from strength to strength, most recently responding to thousands of requests for fresh produce and groceries from across three counties during the pandemic.

Gillian Kerry, who runs Kerry’s Fresh with her husband Dean and son Aidan, said: “It is fair to say the first three weeks of lockdown were crazy.

“With many people in self-isolation, queues for supermarkets and no online delivery options available with any of the larger supermarket chains, our website blew up. Within those first three weeks we received thousands of orders.

“As a small team we made the decision that we wanted to be the company there for our community, we wanted to be able to get fresh produce out to the many vulnerable customers now relying on us. We had to up our game.”

Faced with 20 times the usual number of orders, the firm recruited more staff, including many out of work due to the pandemic, and invested in more delivery vans – all in the space of a few weeks.

Already delivering across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, they expanded into Leicestershire.

The business is no stranger to moving with the times, though, ever since that first poultry stall in Old Market Square.

Since then the business has had shops in Carlton Road and the first fruit shop in Clifton.

Richard and Sarah’s youngest child, Harold, carried on selling fresh produce until 1962.

Harold’s son, also named Harold, took over the business, running busy markets in Nottingham and Loughborough as well as a stall in Nottingham’s old Central Market.

Dean, Richard’s great-grandson, took over the reins more 30 years ago, and runs the business today with his Gillian and their 27-yearold son Aidan.

Gillian said: “We are constantly striving to keep up with 21st century demands. Aidan is the fifth generation Kerry and, as he is what you may term a ‘millennial,’ he has played an instrumental role in our business adapting to the modern times.”

Wholesalers to the restaurant industry and running an outlet in Cotgrave for customers, they took the plunge nearly four years ago, from a market trading background to launch an online delivery service within Nottinghamshire.

Interest was “steady” and their boxes of fresh produce attracted subscriptions from regular customers. Soon they expanded into Derbyshire.

As well as home deliveries, they supplied businesses. A signature office fruit box proved to be a winner.

When lockdown happened, they responded rapidly.

“Then the world changed. Restaurants and cafes closed their doors. Businesses shut their offices. People were told to stay home. We sat back for a moment and panicked. Our main avenues of revenue had disappeared overnight,” said Gillian.

“As quickly as aspects of our business had been taken from us, orders came in online.

“Over the past 30 years we have evolved to keep up with high street and cus- tomer shopping habits changing. Our move into online provision became the next stage of evolving into the modern world.

This leap, little did we know, would provide us with a basis to continue the business at a time when world seemed to stand still.

“Our small outlet, originally set up a couple of years ago to serve local demand became incredibly busy too.

“We offered and are still offering a safe and controlled shopping experience which is still very popular.”

The business has always worked closely with local farmers, growers and producers so stepping up to demand has also helped local businesses stay busy too.

As well as fruit and vegetables, the home delivery service includes meat, coffee, wine, bread, dairy and spices.

There’s coffee from 200 Degrees, berries and juices from Starkey’s near Southwell and pizza kits from the Rustic Crust – three of Notts’ top independent businesses.

From across the East Midlands, comes bread from Hambleton’s Bakery in Rutland, dairy from Manor Farm Yoghurts in Leicestershire and vino from Hourlier Wines in Derby.

Gillian added: “We feel incredibly proud to have been able to quickly adapt our processes to enable many people to eat healthily while staying safe at home.

“We have been met with fabulous feedback from our customers, many exclaiming that they wish to continue to use us far into the future. We only hope that as a country, we can all learn to shop local and support small businesses as an outcome of this pandemic. “Some of these businesses, ours included, have been able to happily provide services many larger businesses couldn’t at the height of lockdown. 2020 is definitely a year to remember.”

It is fair to say the first three weeks of lockdown were crazy

Gillian Kerry