20 years of slicing and dicing at Parripak Foods
 

In 1987, two brothers, James and Nick Parrish, were looking for a diversification enterprise to their family farm business, which specialised in growing and pre-packing onions and shallots. During a fact-finding trip to Hungary, they came across on old onion peeler in a disused factory. They took the machine back to the family farm, and began peeling outgrade onions in an old outbuilding. Parripak Foods was born!

At that time, ready meals were still in their infancy and recipes were mainly safe and traditional and packaged in cardboard sleeves. However, there was a growing demand for supply from a ready meals company and a pizza manufacturer. This was the turning point in the company's fortunes and to service this business they built a dedicated factory on the site next to the farm.

Commercial director and founding brother, James Parrish explained: "We were putting all our faith in the fact that the change in consumer demand was about to take off. We commissioned a 23,00sqft building, leased a few lorries and expanded our range of products in readiness for the new phenomenon, which was ready meals and cook at home products. "

Their faith was well placed and the order book rapidly increased. Parrish continued: "20 years ago the trend was towards potato topped or sauce covered meals. Today, vegetables provide the colour and impact of the dish, and now we provide hundreds of different product variations. Originally we could only supply 20 tonnes a week in the old factory, but now our normal output is up to 90 tonnes a week of finished product."

20 years on and Parripak are now one of the leading fresh vegetable preparation specialists in the country, serving food manufacturers and food service companies. In 2006 they become part of the William Jacksons group, and currently operate from a 52,000 sq ft purpose built factory on the same site providing a wide range of freshly processed-to-order vegetables, with many of them still grown on the 700 acres of vegetable farmland surrounding the factory.

A dedicated garlic processing unit has been established on site which supplies pureed, whole peeled, chopped and diced garlic to ready meal, pizza, soup and ethnic cuisine customers. It also has a segregated high-care facility to cater for customers who produce dips and sauces and require low micro levels. Parripak have also received various accreditations including EFSIS, organic accreditation through the Soil Association and Investors in People.