Work by an artisan food and drink wholesaler to diversify during lockdown has been enabled with the help of a trio of van industry firms.
Based in Kent, Curd & Cure is an independent food and drink wholesale company and primarily supplies the hospitality and retail sectors. When Covid-19 took hold and its customers were forced to lock their doors, the business lost 20% of its customers overnight.
But this was rapidly followed by a huge surge in orders from a wide spectrum of existing and new customers across the South East, leading the business to require more fridge/freezer vans quick.
Managing director Stuart Grant contacted CoolKit, which had previously supplied four vans, and asked about the possibility of turning two vehicles around quickly.
CoolKit was operating with a skeleton workforce at the time and with many of its supply chain businesses also closed, sales and marketing director Glenn McCulley offered to convert two of its stock vehicles and to assist with connections in both finance and livery to ensure a smooth conversion and delivery service throughout.
PMD Business Finance put together a finance package and managed the whole process while van livery specialist Mediafleet worked closely to provide impactful and distinctive vehicle wrapping, scheduling the work to the required timescales
The vans were converted, liveried and delivered to site within four weeks.
Stuart Grant said: “CoolKit, PMD Business Finance and Mediafleet really did employ incredible teamwork to get the vehicles to us as soon as possible and made it a stress-free process.
“We have since been able to add nine new delivery slots to our schedule, have seen a turnover increase of 60% and employed new staff to fulfil and deliver our orders. We really cannot thank them enough.”
