Your Office Fruit Delivery Journey

Ever wondered just what we go through to get that delicious box of fruit to your office? Here's how we do it, from 8pm at night when all the packing gets underway til' noon when all our deliveries are done.


8pm

Remember those swaps and changes you rung in or emailed our office with? Our packing team start preparing the boxes by reading your specific instructions, making sure we have exactly what you ordered for delivery next day.

The boxes are then made snug and comfy, ensuring every piece of fruit we pack will be treated like a star (fruit) and will arrive to you as natural looking as it was when it was picked.

9pm

Our expert fruit buying team then go out and purchase all the fruit, fresh from the market. There's no storage in our unit so you can be assured that it's picked, purchased then packed - ready for you to enjoy delicious fruit - the way nature intended.

However, we do have a fancy warming room for our bananas to bring on the certain stages of ripeness that our customers prefer.



10pm

The fruit is then packed ready for distribution!



2am onwards

The fruit is loaded onto one of our special Fruit for the Office vans in order of the delivery route.


You can rest assure that even if your box is last on our route that all our fruit is refrigerated in the van until delivery!


The fruit is being delivered to floors, areas, security boxes, loading bays, receptions and every other type of premises you can think of - and that you've chosen!


We always note the earliest time for access to the customers office – we try to get there for when they’re open, predetermining a drivers route from depot to your office in order of earliest access.


Most customers open at 9:00am so it’s hard to be everywhere at once – but we don’t get many calls for lateness so those drivers are definitely doing it right!


Other than instances with unforeseen circumstances such as road traffic instances, road closures or major events – we’re usually finished by mid day if not before.


9am

This is when our other dream team arrives at our offices in Essex. So if you do find you have a problem with delivery our office is ready to take your calls and emails from 09:00am and will be able to contact the drivers.

Noon

Time for lunch we think! Or if you're a driver, time for a sleep..

Tweet us @office_fruit or leave a comment below and let us know how you think we're doing as a company!

A Day in the Life of... Office Manager @ FFTO

Sometimes it feels weird to be ordering (or thinking of ordering) from a company and not knowing anything about them. I mean, do the employees have Casual Friday, do they prefer tea or coffee, are they fruit ordering robots or people...?

So, we felt the best way to let you get to know our family-owned office fruit delivery company a bit better was by asking employees what they do on an average day - whether it's at our admin office in Greater London or at our fruit packing warehouse in Central London.

Callie, our office manager, works at our Essex office and spends her day doing every job under the sun - from making sure that office fruit orders are taken, to dealing with customer queries and even running the social media! So here's her (busy!) day in the life:

What is your title at work? 

Office manager

What gets you out of bed in the morning for work? (A song, a pet, amazing food, looking forward to something at work?) 

Generally knowing that there is so much to be done at the office. The phone starts ringing before the office opens at 09:00am so I have to be prompt when arriving!

What do you eat for breakfast and do you have it at home or work?

 I prefer not to eat first thing in the morning as I’m normally rushing around (oops) so it’s usually a banana on the way to work, or when I arrive a nice cup of tea and some berries.

Do you get made and dressed up for work or does it depend on what’s happening that day? 

We’re quite causal here at FFTO so unless I have meetings or we’re heading out after work it’s jeans and a tee!

How do you get into work? 

We’re a local family run business so many of us travel in by car.

What do you do as soon as you get into work? 

Kettle on, and answer the phone meanwhile. Normally crack a joke with accounts that start MEGA early, to start the day off right.

You’ve turned on your computer, what’s the first thing you do? 

We get a lot of enquiries about our services so I like to get back to those emails straight away! We communicate with our night time staff via email so I like to check that all deliveries are going out okay and if I need to contact any of our drivers or clients first thing.

Any meetings you have to attend? 

At present we’re interviewing for a few positions in the office, so it’s great meeting so many new people who are so interested in what we’re doing here. Lovely to get great feedback from individuals who may not have heard of the unique service we offer! Sometimes I attend new client meets to reassure our customers we’re regular ol’ humans organising their fruit deliveries, and that we know our stuff ;)

It’s time for elevenses, what do you grab for?

An apple! Fitting in the new scheme of 7-a-day means that I’m eating so much fruit, so regularly!

What work do you need to get done today?

I’m currently rearranging our office to accustom for the new starters. We’re growing so quickly we need new desks! I'm usually pestering our Directors about something, and it's great working for a small company in that they're so heavily involved and available. Today I need to ask our Head Buyer, Tom, if we can add a few new products to the website!

Is there much office banter or is it normally just rounds of tea, biscuits and pleasantries?

The tea flows all day, one of us is usually making! We’re all ladies here so it’s pretty polite… most of the time. We do have a hula hoop for a mad half hour; which tends to happen quite regularly when our nutty director, Lesley, is in the office!

Lunch at the desk or lunch out?

Lunch out! Working in a small office means that you never escape the ring of the telephone. A nice brisk walk helps refresh the brain, especially in the current sunshine! 

Do you have fruit in your office & do you find it improves staff health & productivity?

Yes! We prefer chopped fruit packs as it can take time to prepare when you're busy, although everybody gets excited in the summer when we have melon or pineapple to cut up. We eat a lot of fruit here as we have to lead by example! We do have treats in the office, but when you’re constantly talking about fruit it does make you crave a banana or an apple.

We hope you enjoyed finding out more about Fruit for the Office and what goes on behind that delicious box of fruit you get delivered to your office.

If you want to see more of these 'A Day in the Life of...' blogs, tweet us @office_fruit or leave a comment down below to let us know.

And, as always, give us a ring or an email if you're interested in an office fruit delivery or fruit gift basket in the London area and you might even get a response from the office manager herself - you lucky thing!

Fruit for the Office's Daniel Ox wins Dragon Support

Photo Credit: Tony Dawe - The Times

Simon Woodroffe, ex-Dragon's Den investor and founder of Yo! Sushi, will give a month of one-to-one mentoring to our Fruit for the Office Director.

Daniel Ox is one of only five winners of the coveted business prize, Power in Partnerships, which is backed by The Times and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.

Daniel fought off hundreds of other entrants from all over the UK to win the business-savvy knowledge of Simon who will use his wealth of experience to advise Daniel on how to help the 12-year-old London office fruit delivery business get even better.

The Power in Partnerships panel were notably impressed with how Daniel had taken the generations-long Ox family costermonger business and pinpointed that offices were some of their biggest and best customers - leading to the conception of Fruit for the Office in 2001 to deliver the fruit direct to offices in and around London.

Woodroffe himself believes "that Daniel's business has the potential to become something really special" and he really "respects the courage he has shown in putting his business forward" for the Power in Partnerships scheme. 

Daniel's stepfather, Tommy Miles, has 30 years of experience and is the buyer of fruit and vegetables but as Daniel is a profound digital enthusiast, he helped to overhaul Fruit for the Office - as well as it's website - and now directs the company.

Daniel is certain that "bigger and better things" are on the cards for Fruit for the Office and Simon Woodroffe may just be the key to those things.





You can see Daniel working his business magic in action below in this montage of clips from the finalist's pitches.

Be sure to tweet us @office_fruit and let us know what you think or if you want to send Daniel any congratulations!

Leftovers

I know it’s seems odd to talk leftovers before Christmas day, but on this occasion we’re talking Fruit For The Office leftovers. Chances are there may be a few bits and bobs rolling around in your office fruit bowl at the end of the day as everyone opts for choccies over apples. So scoop up the remaining fruit, take it home and get creative. These goodies will also make great last minute Christmas presents too!

Clove Oranges

Grab an orange, grab some cloves and begin to push them into the orange, be as organised or as random with the pattern as you wish.

These are great for decorating the home; left at room temperature they will release a beautiful aroma.

Apples Slices

This works for any type of apple and they can be strung up into garlands once finished

• Core the apples
• Slice them into 1cm thick slices so the core hole is in the centre
• Soak in lemon juice then pat dry and brush with a little allspice
• Bake them in he oven on the lowest setting for around 5 hours
• Flip them every hour

Orange Slices

These will make lovely fragrant decorations for the tree

• Cut oranges into slices around 1cm thick
• Bake in the oven on a tray at the lowest temperature setting for around 4 hours
• Flip them every hour
• Take them out when they are almost completely dry
• Poke a hole in the top, thread some string through and hang them on your tree

Sugared Nuts

This recipe works for any kind of nut – so if there are any floating around from your last fruit delivery this is the thing to do with them. The recipe works per 100g of nuts

• 100g almonds, pecans or walnuts etc.
• 2 medium egg whites
• 1bs soft brown sugar
• 1tsp of all spice

Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl, places onto a baking sheet (preferable non stick) and cook on 200C for 5 minutes.

Merry Christmas!

Picture Credits

1 2 3 4

Thanksgiving Fruit Gobble

Tomorrow, Americans across the land will be celebrating Thanksgiving. They will be dusting off their turkey baster and preparing to cook up a feast no doubt full of sweet, sugary fatty delicious goodies. Mmmmmm.

In an attempt for find a healthy offering for a Thanksgiving celebration, we stumbled across this cool Fruit Gobbler.

If you’re not celebrating Thanksgiving this year, you can pretty much do the same thing for Christmas.

We’ve fiddled with the recipe slightly to make it even more fruit friendly, however you can find the original HERE.

To create the FFTO Fruit Gobbler, here is what you will need

• Pear – for the head
• Melon – for the body
• Raisins – for the eyes
• Grapes – for tail feathers
• Cheese cubes – for the beak and tail feathers
• Slice green and red apples – for the side feathers and feet
• Wooden skewers and toothpicks – for attaching

Directions

1. Start off by cutting a slice from the side of the melon to create a steady base for it to stand
2. Take the pear and attach it to the front of the melon using a section of a skewer
3. Attach the raisins and cheese with sections of toothpick to form the eyes and mouth. Use a slice of red apple to make the classic turkey gobble
4. Create some tail feathers by alternating cheese cubes and grapes along skewers. Place these across the back of the melon body as pictured
5. For the side feathers attached slices of red and green apple to the side of the body
6. Create some feet using some slices of red apple

Stand back, admire your work, then let the masses indulge!

Happy Thanksgiving from FFTO

The 'King' Of Fruits

I use the word ‘king’ very loosely here. Across South East Asia, there exists a peculiar fruit called the Durian which goes by the largely inappropriate nickname ‘King Of Fruits.’ The Durian is a large round fruit with a thick green spiky outer husk cocooning a soft yellow flesh inside.

I bet you’re imaging something sweet, rich, full of flavour and oozing with an aroma that would make you want to eat more and more. Something regal, fit for a queen. Something delicious.

Well let me stop you right there, for the King Of Fruits is none of the above. In fact, the King Of Fruits is something that is regularly banned from hotels across Asia and would no doubt be banned from your office fruit delivery too. Not sounding so regal anymore is it?

The Durian fruit has such a repugnant smell, that you can find yourself slapped with a fine just for allowing it cross the threshold of a hotel in Malaysia, Thailand or Indonesia. Odour comparisons for this majestic offering have included vomit, gym socks, sewage and rotten onions. We assume the ‘King’ part of the nickname comes from the look of the fruit as it surely can not be for the smell!

Many people say that once you tuck into the flesh, it actually tastes delicious. I for one could not get past the smell so never did quite make it to the delicious part. I think I’ll just take their word for it.

Have a Heart to Heart With a Kiwi

Here on the FFTO blog, we’ve looked into many superfruits or ‘hidden gems’ as we like to call them. This week we stumbled across another one.

We’ve always thought that kiwi’s were special, but it turns out that the luminous green fruits have more to offer than delicious flesh that is joyfully devoured with a spoon. Kiwis are the latest fruit to join the superfruit club due to their heart related benefits, so are definitely something that should be added to your regular fruit delivery.

In a recent study in Taiwan, 13 men and 30 women took part in an experiment to test the health benefits of eating kiwis. Each of the participants had high cholesterol and were instructed to eat 2 kiwis every day for 8 weeks.

Blood tests were taken at the beginning and the end of the experiment and scientists found the following results in the subjects.

·         There was an increase in good cholesterol

·         There was a decrease in bad cholesterol

·         There was a boost in vitamin C and E levels

Another study in Norway found that eating kiwis regularly could help to improve the health of your heart. Scientists found that eating 2-3 kiwis a day lowered triglyceride (bad fatty acids) levels by 15%

Kiwis also contain lutein which is a brilliant antioxidant and is thought to help lower blood pressure – something that we all need if we want to maintain a healthy heart.

Obviously eating a couple of kiwis isn’t going to cure all heart related ails, however along with exercise and a good diet, they may help to prevent them in the future.

Are you working in the healthiest industry?

Since the birth of Fruit For The Office, we’ve always served clients from a wide range of industry backgrounds. Our fruit is enjoyed by everyone from shop workers to office workers, teachers and tech guys.

But we wanted to see which industry (if any) was more behind the Office Fruit cause than others. So, over at Fruit HQ we decided to look into our top 300 customers to find out exactly that.

We discovered that a whopping 24% of all orders came from clients in the creative industry.

The 300 clients came from 19 different industries all together including banking, non-profit and retail. Clients in the creative industry order 4 times the average amount of our fruit than clients from the other top industries.

If you’ve read our blog before, you’ll know how passionate we are about fruit and we really believe in all the benefits that providing office fruit can have. We spoke to one of our Fruit Ambassadors to see how our fruit benefitted them.

The Office Manager of Media Equals says ‘Our team looks forward to our delivery of fresh, chilled fruit for the office every Monday morning. They offer an extremely reliable and prompt service. We have changed our habits since getting our Fruit For The Office delivery and we are happier and healthier getting at least one of our 5 a day!’

Fruit for the Office deliveries also help to reduce the amount of sugary snacks that staff members consume. Sugary snacks often lead to a sugar crash and a noted slump in office productivity. Looking after employees’ health and well being is a benefit to employers as it can help to reduce sick days and improve over all motivation.

People in the creative industry have clearly cottoned on to this, and are treating their workers to a regular supply of delicious fresh fruit from Fruit for the Office. 

Notes 

• The 300 customers used for this study are the top grossing regular customers who have ordered fruit from Fruit for the Office in the last two weeks.
• Clients in the creative industry include media companies, advertising companies, communication companies and publishing companies.

LimeLight

Fruit For The Office have been featured on a great websiteonce again. 30 Days of Food and Drink is a month long celebration of all goodthings to eat and drink. Hosted by the National Magazine Company – the peoplethat bring you Cosmopolitan, Zest and Prima- 30 Days Of Food is back with abang this November.

This year FFTO are getting involved by giving away 10 Fresh10 boxes with deluxe berry upgrades. Visit the website and enter yourdetails if you fancy a chance of winning.

New Fruit On The Block

We've covered a few interesting fruit discoveries over the recent weeks. We’ve seen cotton candy flavoured grapes and mammoth oversized satsumas, aptly names SATSUMOS! This week another fruity hybrid has been released – the Grapple.

As you’ve probably guessed, the Grapple is cross between a grape and an apple. The Washington based company state on their website that you get the ‘sweet distinctive flavor of Concord grapes combined with the crispness of a fresh, juicy Washington Extra Fancy apple.’

However unlike the other fruits that we’ve covered, the grapple is not the result of a cross pollination made in heaven. Instead this fruity marriage has been somewhat forced. The Grapple is created by soaking either a Fiji or Gala apple in complex liquid solution that includes concentrated grape flavouring and water.

The company insists that the process does no cause the apple to take on any extra sugar or calories, nor is it ‘genetically altered any way.’ 

The company feel that combining two fruits in one will help to encourage people to eat more fresh produce. Hmmmm, personally, I think I prefer my apples and grapes straight up.

Confused Fruits

Don’t worry, we’re not announcing a new range of icky fruit soups. We’re merely using the picture to highlight the purpose of this blog post. Today, we’re looking at confused fruits. Now this may seem like a ridiculous question, but I will ask it anyway. Do you know the difference between a fruit and a vegetable?

Just in case you don’t, here is a little definition.  A vegetable is the edible part of a plant, usually the root, leaf or stem and is always seedless. A fruit on the other hand is a structure created by the plant that holds the seeds.

However despite the definition being pretty clear, occasionally we get a few fruit sailors that jump ship and join the vegetable army. The classic tomato is first and often the only thing that springs to mind when we think of fruits that like to act as vegetables. However, in actual fact there are many, many more. Here are a few others to add to your list.

Avocado Pear – The clue is in the name really. Avocados are technically classed as fruits however they sit better when treated as vegetables…….particularly in a crayfish and avocado sandwich mmmmmmm.

Ackee – This is a traditional Jamaican fruit that is always served as a vegetable and goes particularly well with fish.

Beans – As beans and peas are defiantly the seeds of the plant, they should always be classed as a fruit.

Pumpkins & Squashes – These winter favourites are very big fruits indeed, however I’m happy for them to act as vegetables. I don’t fancy pumpkin soup for dessert!

Chillies - All chillies and peppers are actually fruits (the clue's in the seeds this time) including deadly hot varieties such as jalapeños and scotch bonnets. 

Misery Index

New figures have been released that show that the nation is officially miserable. The misery index is a sum of the unemployment rate and the inflation rate. As you can imagine the total is pretty high, so we as a nation are more miserable than we have ever been since 1992.

So maybe it’s time to turn to the little things to help cheer us up, like birds singing, blue skies, smiles and laughter and fruit. Yes fruit. Believe it or not, eating fruit has been proven to make people feel happier. We’ve probably all felt that slightly uplifted feeling after munching on some of nature’s sweets. That feeling isn’t just you giving yourself a pat on the back for eating something healthy. It turns out that there is actually a bundle of science, chemicals and compounds behind the whole thing.

Bananas

These yellow beauties are packed full of a mixture of chemicals that help your body to produce serotonin. That’s the stuff that makes us feel happy

Oranges

We all know that they are full to the brim with vitamin C which is great for preventing those pesky winter colds that are just around the corner. What you may not have known is that vitamin C actually produces endorphins – the happy hormone that’s also released when we eat chocolate.  Other great sources of vitamin C are blackcurrants, kiwi’s and red chilli peppers.

Strawberries

I - like most people - get excited at the very thought of strawberries, but it turns out that there is actually some science behind it. The red colour of the fruit is cause by a couple of chemicals anthocyanin and pelargonidin which help to elevate our mood. They are also another great source of vitamin C which means more endorphins.

Cherries

Another fruit that makes me happy – when you think of cherries, you think of summer time! Cherries also contain anthocyanin which leaves you feeling lifted. Remember the laxative effect though, eat too many and you really will be miserable!

Nuts

Nuts are a great source of protein and many also contain selenium. This mineral has been proven to have a positive effect on our mood. Brazil nuts are the greatest natural source of selenium – so eat up.

Instead of reaching for the old comforts food favs  i.e. chocolate and carbs to help combat the inevitable misery we are all facing – maybe munching on some fruits and nuts will give you the same boost you’re looking for.

If you’re an employee and you’ve noticed that office has been looking a bit down in the dumps recently, there has never been a better time to invest in a weekly delivery of fruit for the office.

Let’s show this misery index who’s boss!

LimeLight

SheerLuxe is a great website promoting all things luxurious and fancy. So of course, we at Fruit For The Office are delighted to be included in their online directory and in their SheerLuxe Shopping Awards.

We were also very happy bunnies when we spotted this blog post dedicated to us! Read the full post HERE.

Banana Drama!

We stumbled across these incredible pictures in the Metro newspaper this morning, and just had to share them with our Fruit Ambassadors.

Keisuke Yamada is an electrician based in Japan who indulges in a bit banana sculpting in his spare time! Before he indulges in his fruit snack, he carves a famous face into it and then posts a picture online.

He’s developed such a cult online following that people frequently send in requests of what he should carve next.

If only he were based in the UK. We’d love to send him a box of bananas and see what he could come up with.

If you have secret passion for carving fruit or veg, give us a shout and send us some pictures!

National Chocolate Week

You all know that we are completely passionate about fruit, however over at Fruit Towers we can’t resist a bit of chocolate too. And believe it or not, the boys are actually worse than the girls! So when we found out that it was National Chocolate Week, we knew we had to let our fellow Fruit Ambassadors know that now is the time to indulge!

National Chocolate Week runs from the 10 – 16 October this year and is a big fat celebration of everyone’s favourite sweet treat. The team hold events and tasting sessions all over the country where chocolate lovers can indulge in their not so secret obsession.

We thought we’d take this opportunity to remind you of a few of classic chocolate fruit combos to help you combine your fruit box with your chocolate fix.

Banana split – Take a banana, split it, drizzle on chocolate and cream. Couldn’t be simpler.

Good ol’ Chocolate Fondue – Melt the chocolate, grab some fruit and dip. Delicious

Chocolate covered berries – Whether strawberries raspberries or even cherries are your thing – this desert is easy to make and hard to resist.

Pear and Dark Chocolate – check out last week’s blogger of the week if you want some inspiration.

Have a good chocolate week!

We’re Winners (we’ve always known that, but now it’s official!)

Fruit For The Office came up trumps at the Havering Business Awards over the weekend. We won the award for Innovation at the prestigious ceremony hosted by Jon Culshaw.

We were crowned the winners due to our excellent use of technology. Now I know you may be thinking ‘how much technology do you need to deliver fruit?’ but the fact of the matter is, without it we wouldn’t be able to provide the excellent customer service that our customers receive every day.

When it comes to business at Fruit HQ, we communicate through a custom built online system that we can all update to let everyone in the team know what’s going on.* So for example, when the price of strawberries changes due to availability the team in the markets can update the team in the office in just a few clicks.

So next time you call up and speak to some at Fruit HQ about your office fruit delivery, remember that it’s our awarding winning innovative system that keeps our team so knowledgeable. And a natural love of fruit, of course.

*When it comes to gossip, we communicate over a cuppa. 

Fruit Pill to Stop us Going Grey

This week the news has been full of stories of a new miracle fruit based pill that claims to prevent hair from going grey. The powerhouse of cosmetics that is L’Oreal, are the ones behind the pill.

They state that the pill it is the kind of supplement that you would take daily throughout your whole life.  Ideally, you would start taking it before you start going grey and continue taking it to prevent ever going grey.

Here’s comes the science bit. The pill is made from a compound derived from an undisclosed fruit. This compound acts like an enzyme naturally found in the body that works to prevent a process called oxidative stress which causes hair to go grey.

Unfortunately, these pills won’t be on the market for at least another 4 years. So until then, keep on eating fruit – if only L’Oreal would disclose exactly what fruit it is……..

5 Days To Go!

 

In just 5 days we will be announcing the winner of our 'Win Office Fruit For a Whole Year' competition.

The competition closes this Friday the 30th September and the winner will be announced on the 3rd. October.

Keep an eye on your inbox.

Good luck!

Free Strawberries!

FFTO at the 2010 Thames Festival

Some of you may remember that last year we had a stall at the Thames Festival selling British strawberries and cream. 


Well, it’s that time of year again so on Saturday 10^th September (tomorrow!), we will be setting up shop on Southwark Bridge and selling our bounty to festival goers.


Once again we’d like to invite all of our existing customers down to say hello and pick up a free portion of strawberries and cream. 

Just find us on Southwark Bridge, tell us your company name AND the name of the account holder and we’ll give you some on the house. 

Hope to see you there!

FFTO Team