From a produce round to the whole kitchen
We started in Barnsley in 1991, supplying fresh fruit and vegetables to a handful of local caterers.
What changed the business was customers asking. A chef who trusted us with his produce would ask whether we could bring his milk too. Then his tinned tomatoes. Then his blue roll and his gloves. Every time we said yes, we took a delivery, an invoice and a phone call off someone’s plate.
Over the last few years that’s added up to a different business. Today we carry over 1,100 lines — fresh produce, chilled and bakery, frozen, ambient grocery, and everything needed to clean the kitchen afterwards. All of it on one van.
We never let go of the produce
Growing into a full-range wholesaler could easily have meant flattening the range down to what sells in volume. We went the other way.
Our produce list still runs to nearly three hundred lines, including the things most wholesalers won’t carry because they’re slow, fragile or awkward — micro herbs, edible flowers, heritage tomatoes, courgette flowers, wild mushrooms. Chefs doing serious food still ring us for those, and they can now get their chips and their cling film on the same delivery.
That’s the business we’ve ended up with, and we’re glad it’s that one.
A new name for what we’d already become
The old name described a fresh produce company, and we haven’t been only that for some time. The new one says what we actually do. Same company, same family, same people on the same routes — the name has simply caught up.
The only practical change is our email addresses, which now end @kmlfoodservice.com. Your account, your prices, your delivery days and the number you ring all stay exactly as they are.
What we think makes a good supplier
Turn up
A delivery that arrives when it should, with what was ordered on it, is worth more than any promotion.
Be reachable
You should be able to ring your supplier and speak to someone who can help, first time. We’ve deliberately never grown into the kind of business where that stops being possible.
Be straight about it
If something’s short or the quality isn’t right, we’ll tell you before it’s on your van — not after you’ve built a menu around it.
Come and try us
Opening an account takes a few minutes, with no obligation and no minimum spend.