We here at Place UK specialise in the growing and processing of fresh and frozen fruits to supermarkets and manufacturers respectively. As the Managing Director, Tim Place is the third generation family member to run the company which was started in 1922. His father, John built the soft fruit enterprise of the business and recollects in 1937 supplying raspberries and strawberries to King George’s garden parties at Buckingham Palace.

Church Farm is situated 12 miles North East of Norwich close to the Norfolk Broads. The company farms on 900 acres and specialises in soft fruit crops of strawberry, raspberry, blackberry and rhubarb. We also work with neighbours to obtain blackcurrants, redcurrants, plums and gooseberries.

The company has a turnover of £9.5million and employs 57 full time local staff and up to 400 seasonal staff and was awarded a prestigious "Best employee facilities" award in 2008 by a major multinational retailer.

Place UK produces around 2 million punnets of fresh strawberries and 1 million punnets of raspberries per annum marketed through Berry Gardens to Marks and Spencer’s, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and the Co-operative.

Jon Lowe Farm manager Place UK: “Berry Gardens are a strength without which we would struggle to both market and sell our yearly crop of fruit, with the support of the agronomy team and the sales account managers we benefit greatly”.

The company also grows fresh bean sprouts through aquaculture techniques and is one of only a handful in the UK.

The success of Place UK is due to the quality of its people and of their produce, which is achieved by accurately monitoring inputs to the plants. The methods used are not only economically beneficial, but also have extremely positive environmental benefits. For example the crops are watered and fed with nutrients through trickle irrigation pipes laid directly beside each plant, so the risk of nutrient and water loss to the soil is greatly diminished.

The company has won two awards for water efficiency from the Environment Agency; one for the amount of water they recycle and secondly for their irrigation monitoring and scheduling, which only adds the optimal amount of water at the correct time to ensure the best yield and quality of fruit.

As well as the fresh offering Place UK also grow specific varieties of soft fruit for freezing and puree (rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries) which is frozen on site through our BRC "A" Grade version 5 accredited specialised freezing tunnels within hours of picking. We supply local and national manufacturing customers and also have our own range of frozen punnets which are distributed nationally. We also freeze a range of pulses and pasta as well as vegetables to an IQF standard.