A fast-growing food service company has reached the £1.5m turnover mark after trading less than a year.
Trio Foodservice supplies food products to businesses across Teesside and North Yorkshire from pubs, restaurants and coffee shops to schools and hospitals.
It was founded by friends Neil Short, Martin Wheatley and Richard Stainthorpe - who between them had clocked up a combined 60 years at a large food supply firm.
They decided to go it alone. Now their business on Middlesbrough’s Nelson Industrial Estate has 10 staff, three vans - and a 300-strong customer base, which is growing all the time.
Martin said: “We all worked for the same company, and it was becoming too corporate.
“I’d lost my passion with it, there was more pressure, more demands.
“We said ‘let’s do something for ourselves’ and it went from there.
“I’d just completed 20 years service, Richard had been in the industry for 28 years and Neil 14.
“There was a gap in the market, we didn’t just want to be a normal food wholesale company, we wanted to offer something different, local products.
“We have found a lot of independents don’t particularly want to deal with the big boys, they value the more personal touch that we can offer them.”
Martin’s wife Karen, who also works for the business, said: “We carry around 500 lines now, and try to keep our suppliers local as we want to have as much of an impact as possible on the local economy.
“Because we’re a family-run business, our customers matter to us.
“If someone forgets an order, we’re able to get to them at short notice.
“It was a big risk for the three of them to leave their jobs, as they were the main breadwinners for their families and had no financial backing.
“But things are going very well.”
Next year the company is targeting steady growth and a turnover of more than £2m - with plans to extend delivery to the rest of the North-east.
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