LOCAL food wholesaler Lovejoys held a big party to celebrate its 20th birthday last month, and the family business has gone from strength to strength since starting in 1995.
Lovejoys Wholesale is based on Commerce Way and owned by Neil and Tina Mortimer. It delivers locally sourced fruit, vegetables, bread and dairy to kitchens and farm shops across the county.
Neil said, “Sadly, retail has declined in most towns due to the arrival of so many supermarkets in the last 20 years – Melksham certainly has its share!
“We started delivering to pubs and restaurants locally while we still had the shop; since then the business has gone from strength to strength and we now supply much of Wiltshire and the Bath area.
“Our big highlight was moving to our brand new warehouse in Semington – at the time it seemed so big! The toughest struggle was managing wholesale orders in a very small area at the back of the shop before the move.
“We pride ourselves on our excellent relationships with our chefs, they can talk to us about anything at any time and we will always pop out and see them.
“There aren’t a lot of changes lined up for the business, but we took a second warehouse last year and joined it to the first one, so now we have a huge space.
“We will be promoting our prep room more, which prepares vegetables to order for our restaurants, especially at this busy time of year and those that do a lot of weddings and functions.”
The company only supplies kitchens and shops within a one-hour radius of the base in Melksham. Most of its vegetables are grown locally in Bromham, and all dairy products come from suppliers in Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset and Devon.
For more information go to www.lovejoyswholesale.co.uk
