Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, UK: Fresh produce wholesaler Reynolds has offered its distribution depot and vehicles to the government following a 95% drop in business due to the coronavirus.
The family-run business revealed to the Grocer that a lack of demand from restaurants, hotels and caterers had meant that the company has a lot of capacity available. It has launched both home delivery and click & collect services but says it could do more.
Tony Reynolds, managing director, Reynolds, told the Grocer: “We’ve got NHS customers and care home customers that we’re still supporting. We’re making 800 deliveries a day to them. But it’s frustrating – we’ve got all this capacity and no one’s using it.”
Reynolds said that he had tried to reach Boris Johnson on social media in a bid to offer some of the spare capacity.
“There’s a huge opportunity for someone in government to say: ‘Wow, they’ve got the biggest fresh produce depot on the edge of London, they’ve got 300 trucks and they’ve got 95% spare capacity, how can we use that?’”
