THE BUSINESS MODEL
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The Kershaw brothers were trained in their father's produce firm, which grew as an import business until it reached £50m turnover and was sold. The experience they gained undertaking different jobs within the company stood them in good stead —Jonathan studied accountancy and management, Simon operations, and Tim purchasing. The three of them started Burbank, while a fourth brother moved into another part of the industry.
Burbank now has £18m turnover, with 25% of profit coming from wholesale, 65% from imports and direct sales, and 10% from the new transport arm.
If you aren't familiar with the produce markets the best analogy is to think of the buyers as commodities brokers. They are talking to growers all over the world and to wholesalers and retailers and matching them up, doing deals on prices and volumes very quickly. Everything in this business is time-critical because the product is dying as soon as it is picked,' says Jonathan Kershaw.
The delicate nature of the products means Burbank is determined to stay in control of its own distributions schedule. 'lit must be picked up and delivered in one hit" The products rarely stay longer than it takes to reload them.