Basingstoke & Vitacress

A Thriving, Global, Agri-Business

“For an agri-business with international operations, our location near Basingstoke couldn’t be bettered.”
Mike Rushworth, Operations Director, Vitacress

An International Agri-business

The chances are that anyone who has eaten a salad will have tasted a Vitacress product at some time. An international grower of salad leaves, the company supplies retailers in the UK, Spain and Portugal along with the food service sector, food manufacturers and the wholesale markets. In fact, Vitacress is Europe’s largest producer of watercress.

Something of a local institution, the company has been located in St Mary Bourne near Basingstoke for several decades. It is a major employer outside of the borough’s urban area with 650 UK-based staff on the payroll during the peak production months in summer.

A truly international business, Vitacress works on a ‘follow the sun’ production philosophy, operating across 20 sites located in three continents – Europe, North America and Africa. This enables consistent salad leaf production and a reduced need for fertilisers and pesticides.

With international operations controlled from the head office in St Mary Bourne, the easily accessible communications network makes business travel to London, the rest of the UK and abroad both quick and convenient. In addition to comprehensive road and rail networks, Heathrow and Gatwick airports are within easy reach, as well as regional airports such as Southampton. Coupled with the borough’s productive farming conditions, this makes the Basingstoke area an ideal location for a global agri-business.

A Progressive Business Environment

Vitacress Operations Director Mike Rushworth also sees a genuine drive for excellence within the local community, with the borough council, educational establishments and businesses, sharing knowledge, developing ideas and tackling issues collectively. Vitacress, for instance, collaborates with Basingstoke College of Technology (BCoT), to provide a training element for the college’s manufacturing apprenticeship scheme.

A progressive attitude is at the core of Vitacress’s success, with the business taking its responsibility for environmental and sustainability issues seriously. This is reflected in its environmental policy which engages with issues from reducing energy, waste and water usage to increasing soil fertility and biodiversity. Vitacress began organic farming practices in 2000 which are now used over 12 of its 20 sites, and achieved compliance with ISO 14001 (voluntary environmental management standards) in 2005.

As a global business flourishing in the fertile local environment, Vitacress’s excellence has been recognised through a number of awards, including best Large Business (Sustainable Business Awards, 2007), the Business Award for Sustainable Business – Environment (South East England Development Agency, 2008) and the Mayor’s Award to Industry.

Quality of Life

For Vitacress employees, the borough offers the best of urban and rural life. It is easy to live in the countryside with the best of the town right on the doorstep, or vice versa – according to Mike Rushworth, the borough offers “all things for all people.”

Visit the Vitacress website.