A fruitful idea
Having worked in large accounting firms for over a decade, Ben was looking for a change in direction. His move to selling bananas was somewhat unplanned.
In 2005, Ben moved from the UK to Australia to study for an MBA, in order to gain wider knowledge and skills. Towards the end of his MBA course, he undertook an internship at a bank in Sydney that provided fruit to their employees on a daily basis. Ben saw first-hand how workplace fruit benefits both employee and employer.It was while sitting at a desk overlooking Sydney Harbour that the name Fruitdrop landed in his head. He packed his bags and returned to London to establish Fruitdrop – and the rest is history.
From that day, Fruitdrop has seen rapid growth, with over one and a half thousand clients, seventy employees and fifty two vans, and sells well in excess of two million bananas per year. Over the years, Fruitdrop has maximised on the existing client relationships they have to provide other relevant products. They now offer milk, tea, coffee, sugar and bread, as well as Nutribox snack boxes containing a variety of healthy, gluten-free snacks, such as dried fruit, nuts, olives, energy bars and raw chocolate brownies.
From the very start, Ben has seen the importance of engaging with existing and potential clients through various marketing channels, initially through using a team of telephone agents and now through annual email campaigns that target both existing and potential clients to inform them about the growing range of products available for office delivery throughout the UK.
This real life story evidences:
- Data that supports innovation
- Helping create a new marketplace
- Customer engagement alongside business growth
