Andrew Jones, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport and MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, visited Reed Boardall Group’s 55 acre cold storage and transport operation in Boroughbridge, on Friday 7 August.
One of the largest temperature controlled food distribution businesses in the UK, Reed Boardall stores and delivers frozen food from manufacturers across Britain, Europe and further afield to all of the UK’s best-known supermarkets.
Mr Jones was welcomed by Keith Boardall, chief executive of Reed Boardall Group, and his son Marcus, deputy chief executive. He was taken on a tour of the company’s newest cold store by Andrew Baldwin, managing director of the group’s cold storage division. The operation comprises 158km of rack space and provides 142,000 pallet capacity in total.
Mr Jones also joined Howard Gill, managing director of the transport division, to view some of the newest trucks in Reed Boardall’s 180-strong fleet. The group recently invested in another 50 Volvo tractors, complete with the latest safety technology. Reed Boardall operates 24/7 – it delivers an average of 12,000 pallets a day and stores around £100m worth of products on behalf of its customers.
Group chief executive Keith Boardall said:
With more than 20 years’ experience serving many of the best known names in the frozen food industry, we are very proud to have built up such a successful business here and we are delighted to welcome Mr Jones.
Mr Jones said:
It was good to see first hand the facilities of Reed Boardall – a significant employer and business in the Harrogate district. Having the largest single site cold store and distribution facility in Europe, it is not surprising that the company has become a leading player in this sector. It is a boon to North Yorkshire to have such an important business and employer based here and I am sure that the company will see continuing success with the new facilities I have seen today.
