Mitchell Potatoes is a third generation family-owned company and is the largest supplier of quality potatoes to the fish and chip trade.
The Mitchell family were Scottish farmers who moved to Bourton-on-Dunsmore near Rugby and started growing potatoes using Scottish seed varieties in 1883.
Procurement director David Mitchell says, “My father did not want to continue farming but his friends were farmers so he set up a marketing operation, leaving my uncle to do the farming. Mitchell Potatoes was formed with three sides, namely seed sales, washed and prepacked potatoes for supermarkets (a business sold about four years ago) and the supply to the fish and chip shops. About 50 years ago, we were selling 10 tonnes per week and now it is over 1000 tonnes per week, delivered direct to the shops. In the last four years, since selling off the packing side, we have doubled the business, through acquisitions and the opening of a second distribution centre in the south west of England.”
From its base in the Midlands, Mitchell Potatoes supply customers using their own lorries over an 80 mile radius. About two years ago, they opened a branch in Bristol to supply south Wales and the south west of England.
David says, “The fish and chip market is not growing and so the only way that we can grow is by gaining more customers. We achieved this through fairly aggressive sales and marketing and our recent acquisitions. The acquisitions have lead to greater economies of scale, which has helped us become more competitive.”
“We have been asked how we are different. The answer is that we offer very consistent quality at lower prices than our competitors. Ninety percent of our purchases are direct from the grower. The saving we make by cutting out the middle man is then passed on to our customers. We always work very hard on levels of service, we run an up to date fleet of vehicles on contract hire, that are professionally and efficiently maintained and serviced by Fraikin, which means our delivery vehicles are never off the road, and in turn our delivery times are rarely out.”
In order to maintain and even improve quality, Mitchell Potatoes work closely with potato seed producers. This means that any new varieties coming on to the market are available to purchase from Mitchell potatoes. Mitchells have worked with Agrico for 10 years, who are the producers of Markies seed. They trialled this for fish and chip shops and it was a huge success. Markies is also a huge variety for the frozen chip market. Today, Markies is the second biggest variety in the UK after Maris Piper. This gave Mitchell Potatoes an edge, as they initially were the only supplier.
The company has just invested in a new factory to produce fresh-cut chips. They view this as a growth sector and a good way to add value to their product. Fish and chip shops are slowly moving over to using pre peeled and cut chips. They are quick and easy, currently fish shops will peel and cut potatoes themselves, this is time consuming and costly. “The product will not only save them time it will also cost the fish and chip shop less.”
David concludes, “Today we employ 45 staff and service 1000 fish and chip shops using our 24 vehicles. We offer our growers and our customers fixed price contracts for a 12-month period. This benefits all involved: the grower is assured of selling us a fixed percentage of his crop and this allows us to have first call if we require more potatoes. For the fish and chip shop it is beneficial as they can set their prices in the knowledge that the cost of their chips is not going to suddenly increase.”
For further information please telephone 01926 633323 or visit www.mitchells-potatoes.co.uk.
