In 1979 Arthur Peaty and Derek Mills, after a combined 65 years of
experience in the City of London, formed Peaty Mills and Co Ltd.
The Company became the sole marketing office for Swaziland Fruit
Canners in 1984 and since that time, has successfully marketed
their entire production. In 1986, Peaty Mills with a staff of
seven, moved to Bridge House and began to expand. Since that time,
the Company complement has grown to sixteen and the product range
runs to several hundred items from a wide range of international
sources.
In the late 80s, a determined effort was made to become
specialists in the emerging supermarket own label sector - Tesco is
now Peaty Mills largest account followed by other major UK
supermarket chains.
In 1990, Peaty Mills and Co Ltd became Peaty
Mills plc following the sad death of Derek Mills.
1998 saw
Richard Ferreira move to the UK and join the board as Operations
Director.
In 1999 the company was appointed as sole marketing
agents for RFF Foods (Pty) Ltd, a major producer of preserved
deciduous fruits in the Cape Province in South Africa.
In October
1999, the Chairman stood down and his son Nick Peaty was elected to
take over this role.
In 2000, Colin Young FCA was appointed
Financial Director. In 2003, Mike Bailey, formerly of Bonduelle
became Sales Director.
In 2004 Bruce Henderson, C.E.O of the Rhodes
Food Group of Cape Town joined the Board, replacing Richard
Ferreira who moved to Perth, Australia to work on other projects.
In 2006, we began to give full service contracts to supermarkets
outside of the UK, in the wider EU. Peaty Mills now supplies all
the top 7 supermarket groups in the UK.