A frozen food wholesale operation born from a chain of shops selling clearance stock has secured its first 100 retailer customers.
Frozen food chain Oops was launched during the pandemic in 2020 and grew to nine stores in the north of England, specialising in sourcing stock surplus to other outlets’ requirements thanks to overproduction or packaging errors.
Founder and CEO Noel Davis last year went on to launch a sister wholesale operation – KP Frozen Foods – as the stores floundered amid soaring energy bills, with all but one closing by September.
KPFF had now opened more than 100 accounts, Davis told The Grocer this week, with customers including convenience stores, farm shops, butcher shops and mobile butcher vans.
“The 150-strong range covers all categories in frozen at prices that will enable customers to compete with discounters,” he said.
KPFF’s customers include Nisa and Spar retailers, north of England convenience chain Thrifty’s, variety discounter Quality Discounts and independent butcher shops.
Small independents are KPFF’s main target, thanks to the reduced exposure they bring to the loss of any one customer, according to Davis. He said he aimed to appeal to them with a user-friendly online ordering system for delivery to their shop. KPFF can also provide freezers to buy or rent.
“The ordering system is simple to use and shows images, prices and stock availability,” said Davis.
“As we offer the full package including daily store deliveries to anywhere in the country, there is no need for our customers to hold stock or invest in temperature-controlled distribution.”
Orders are fulfilled from a 75,000 sq ft warehouse in Birkenhead with cold storage, manufacturing and packaging facilities.
KPFF’s accounts for the year to 31 December 2022, filed at Companies House last week, said: “The group is now totally focused on manufacturing and distribution of frozen food into independents. Presently in the UK there are over 5,000 butchers, 45,000 convenience stores, 1,000 farm shops, 2,500 independent discount stores, plus many markets and mobile butcher vans, all of which are ideal customers for our model.
“We have the infrastructure and capacity to supply up to 1,000 outlets from our current facility with no additional capital investment.”
The business’s turnover was £8.2m, down from £10.4m, with an operating loss of £2.7m, up from £1.5m.
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