Satisfying increasingly wider demand for natural botanical products across a number of sectors both in the UK and overseas is driving the business of a specialist wholesale supplier who has signed a new five year lease on premises in Peterborough, according to commercial property agency, Barker Storey Matthews who acted on behalf of the landlord in the transaction.
Joseph Flach & Sons (JFS) is a long established company that has been supplying botanicals – plant matter, herbs, gums and spices – to a number of core markets for over 135 years. Anthony Benton purchased the company in November 2015 – the first time it had been out of family ownership since its foundation in 1882.
Now, JFS will be moving to a new base in Peterborough – a 10,000 sq ft industrial warehouse unit at 22 Maxwell Road.
The new premises are more than treble the size of the company’s current facility on the same industrial estate where it has been trading since 1988 after it moved from London to the Cambridgeshire city.
The move from the existing 3,000 sq ft premises at 8 Maxwell Road to the substantially larger warehouse nearby marks another key milestone in the import and export business’s growth.
Anthony Benton, Managing Director of JFS explains, “In buying the company nearly two years ago, we saw great potential for its expansion.
“The business has grown in the short time since we bought it but there is huge opportunity for growth across our markets, including overseas, where we see an exciting opportunity for expansion.
“Our existing building was restricting what we could handle and the new facility will transform the levels of business we can handle.
“Going from a 3,000 sq ft to a 10,000 sq ft unit affords the opportunity to recruit to add to our current headcount of eight and to ensure fulfilment of our growing overseas and domestic wholesale order book.
“Some businesses would, understandably, be reticent about investing in future growth given the uncertainty created by the current economic and political chaos but we see significant growth potential and feel we should push on, regardless, to fill that potential.
“JFS has weathered many economic climates in its 135 years of trading and it has prevailed.”
