Robinson's Fresh Foods

Robinsons is a family business established over 100 years ago. During this time there has always been a need for change, but never more so than over the past 10 years where the pace of change has accelerated. Over this more recent period:

Specific to the Isle of Man Robinsons have also faced fierce competition from Tesco, Marks and Spencer, and Morrison’s. An additional handicap is these major competitors spread central costs throughout the UK and centrally absorb freight costs which alone cost Robinsons almost £1 million. Indeed Morrison’s concluded they were not making a sufficient return in this difficult market and have withdrawn.

Robinsons today employs 170 people and has enjoyed average growth of 8% annually over the past 10 years. The challenge has been to generate sufficient income to attract and reward a loyal workforce, reinvest and in certain areas reinvent our company.

Fruit and vegetables is now a commodity which major competitors often sell at a loss. This factor, combined with the buying power of the major supermarket groups, has created deflation in certain products - for example bananas, the largest single selling product, sold at 69p lb ten years ago now sells at 40p lb and for six months this year sold at 30p lb. A Mars bar costs 55p! Grocer magazine reports fruit and vegetables are now 17% cheaper than 1st January 2005.

Robinsons have survived these challenging times by readdressing our entire product offer and restructuring our company:

Diversifying and entering new markets eg supplying catering customers
Widening product range
Manufacturing fresh prepared foods unable to be sourced
Employing technology where possible to create a competitive advantage
Rigorous cost control has led to many functions being brought “in house”
Most importantly attracting, retaining and motivating a loyal workforce in a difficult employment market

The Island has virtually zero unemployment and a high salary finance industry competing for staff. Our human resources response to this situation has been:

To delegate responsibilities where possible and make clearly accountable sections of our business
To reward managers via profit sharing or bonus schemes with full management information made available
To promote from within where possible
To commit to a training programme particularly with young, enthusiastic employees
To reward staff appropriately (we have changed from being a low pay company to one which pays above average for our industry)

We now have a senior management team of fifteen with four directors from outside the family, two of whom joined the company from school.

We have recognised that growth of turnover in the Isle of Man is essential to spread costs. In our particular industry the retail market is saturated and our retail market share is mature. Consequently some 10 years ago we took the decision to enter the catering market which has now grown to 55% of our turnover. We are now the largest catering supplier on the island making over 500 deliveries daily.

In order to sell competitively, we have to buy well and our decision to join NISA, the largest independent buying group in the UK, allows us bulk purchasing power to compete with the multiple supermarkets.

We have struggled to source prepared foods for the Isle of Man retail market, because producers in this market are geared up to supply the big 5 retailers. Some five years ago we took the decision to build our own production facility for prepared foods.

We have invested heavily in machinery to reduce labour content and ensure the products are price-competitive against Tesco and Marks & Spencer. Prepared foods have provided an opportunity to add value” and improve margins compared to bulk produce which is now commodity priced.

One of the major difficulties we had to overcome at construction stage of the prepared produce unit was drainage and starch in residual water after vegetables were prepared. Also with more people working on the site we were having increasing issues with our sewage treatment not being in a position to connect to mains sewerage at Ballapaddag.

Our innovative solution has to build seven belts of reed beds on land below Ballapaddag which filter water and waste. The resultant waste water is further reduced by passing through a specially planted willow meadow. The entire process has been encouraged and endorsed by the conservation and wildlife bodies as a working example of an intelligent environmentally-friendly solution to a waste issue.

Recent years has seen a change to the make-up of the population of the Island with many races now represented. We recognised this as a market opportunity with the Chinese community as the obvious starting point. We set up a department of the business to focus on ethnic foods to sell a wide range of specialist Chinese, Thai, Indian, Turkish, Polish and South African foods in both the retail and catering markets. Many of these goods can now be bought over the internet, but we compete with on-line retailers on freshness and convenience.

Twenty years ago we understand Robinsons was one of the first companies in the British Isles to use bar codes for fruit and vegetables. This enabled us to operate a franchise within Shoprite stores rather than a stand alone concession operating outside the check-out tills with a resultant increase in sales as a consequence of a customer not having to queue and pay twice in the same store.

on-line ordering for flowers
special offers by e-mail
self service scales in shops on which prices and products are changed remotely from head office at Ballapaddag
information systems which log performance by customer, product and route
a company intra-net for staff and management
in-house production of labels with sell-by dates, ingredients, country of origin and even recipes
micro-permeable lettuce bags which allow lettuce to breathe
soups, vegetables and prepared meals in micro-wave packs for retail customers, nursing homes and shipping lines

We regularly visit trade fairs both in the UK and the United States to review advances in technology relevant to our industry with the intention of improving our products, service delivery and cost-reduction.

There is little doubt the island is an expensive place in which to do business. We have long recognised it is critical to review each cost heading to further drive down costs. Recent examples of our cost-saving initiatives include:

Robinsons are continually re-inventing the business, offering new services and using technology to monitor and improve performance. Our business has grown because we survey and listen to customers, and aim to exceed their expectations. Most importantly we value our staff and listen to the feed back they give us their needs to enable them to perform better and satisfy the customer.

Mr.Steve McGowan (Fortis Intertrust) presents John Horsthuis (M.D., Robinson's Fresh Foods) with the award for Innovation and Independent Thinking