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!

The Pros and Cons of being a Personal Assistant

Photo Credit: mpujals via Compfight cc

When you think about the hierarchy of an office, your go-to for the head honcho is always the CEO, Managing Director or the 'Boss'.

But here at Fruit for the Office, we know who the real star of the show is: the PA.

Like an organisational ninja, PAs work hard in the background to make their boss look incredible and their company even more so!

We've always thought that Personal Assistants are some of the most important people in the office so we knew it was our duty to dedicate an entire blog to the perks and pitfalls of their job!

Photo Credit: mpujals via Compfight cc

Pros

• Getting to go to client parties and network (especially if there's an open bar!)
• Knowing that you're almost always responsible for that 'amazing thing' your boss did or said
• Being given the freebies your bosses or clients didn't want
• Being part of a great friendship group of other company PAs who get to share the tools of the trade (and laugh about anything you've overheard in the office)
• Ordering your office fruit delivery so you get first pick of your favourite fruit
• Meeting interesting people
• Getting that hard-earned 'Well done' from your boss
• The power that comes from knowing that the person that hired you actually relies on you more than anyone else 
• Every single day being completely different
• Having a great repertoire (and sometimes even a friendship!) with your boss

Photo Credit: mpujals via Compfight cc

Cons

• If you're female, being referred to as 'just the secretary' by the old corporate men
• Having to pick up your boss's questionable dry cleaning (the sight of a pleather g-string is enough to make your eyes bleed)
• Staring at the office fruit delivery - that you spent an hour meticulously ordering to suit your tastes - sitting in a bowl as a decorative display for clients a few feet from your grumbling tummy
• Having to run questionable errands like picking up an extra pair of pants or 'hygiene' products for your boss
• Casually slipping between comfy trainers and sophisticated yet horrifically painful heels under your desk if you work for a very fancy or fashion-orientated company
• Having to explain why you can't be on call at 4am on a Sunday
• Making up increasingly more farfetched excuses about why your errand is taking so long - when you're really just trying to scoff down lunch and a coffee with some friends
• Burning up with embarrassment when you're mistaken for your boss's wife or husband at a client's party
• Your job title being changed to a barista, waiter and caterer whenever a large meeting happens in the office

Tweet us @office_fruit with your pros and cons about being a PA or tell us the weird conversations you've earwigged at work with the hashtag #overheardintheoffice

And, as always, leave us a comment below - we're all ears!

#EasterFruitFriday - UNICEF @ Brighton Marathon 2014

Set in the equally picturesque and alternative beach town of Brighton, the pavements were pounded by the worn-out and blistered but proud feet of Brighton Marathon 2014 runners.

For 2014, Fruit For the Office were given the amazing opportunity to support UNICEF and all those who run miles and miles, giving it their all, to run marathons on behalf of UNICEF.

Fruit for the Office donated huge boxes of our favourite, energy replenishing fruits to UNICEF and their marathon runners at Brighton Marathon - which, we assume after 26.2 miles, were scoffed down pretty sharpish!

Our bananas are famous (and also very photogenic!)

At Brighton Marathon, UNICEF set up a right royal spread of delicious banana donations and Fruit for the Office couldn't be happier to have donated our office fruit to such a worthwhile charity.


If you were running at Brighton Marathon on behalf of UNICEF, check your goody bags and you'll find a 50% off voucher code from Fruit For the Office - lucky you! 


Well done to all those who ran and if you're running on behalf of UNICEF at another marathon this year, you might be chomping down on a bunch of our delicious bananas again!


Tweet us @office_fruit to find out if we'll be at a marathon near you soon, or leave a comment below if you were at Brighton Marathon 2014 and enjoyed the bananas donated by this office fruit supplier!

5 Steps to 5 A Day

The verdict is out – in fact it has been for some time now – we should all be eating 5 portions of fruit and veg a day. To many, this number still sounds pretty daunting however if you break it up throughout the day, you’ll soon be reaching 5 A Day, every day in no time.

Breakfast

Most of us tend to rush breakfast in favour of a few extra minutes in bed before the daily commute begins. Therefore an easy option is required if we are to get the first of our 5 A Day in before 8.00am. Dried fruit is one of the easiest ways to get one of your portions in the morning. It can be bought in bulk, lasts for ages and can be added to other things or eaten alone.

Suggestions

·         Add a handful of dried berries to your cereal or porridge

·         Grab 3 dried apricots as you head out of the door

·         150ml of any pure fruit juice

Morning snack

For those who need caffeine hit as soon as the get to the office, add a piece fruit to your routine. Not only will you get your second portion in before midday, it will also give you  an extra energy kick. Two down, three to go!

Lunch

Lunch time in the office; try adding some simple extras to your staple office lunch.

Suggestions

·         Slice 1 tomato and add it to your sandwich

·         3 carrots

Afternoon snack

If you feel like you’re starting to lag in the office, reach for potassium packed banana from your office fruit delivery to give you a much needed energy boost

Dinner

Round off your day with a well balanced dinner, including one or two portions of veg.

And you’re done! You’ve achieved your 5 A Day in 5 easy steps. To order the right amount of fruit for the people in your office, take a look at our fresh range. Having two FRESH range deliveries a week will ensure that each person in the office can get two pieces of fruit every day.

LimeLight

Last week the Fruit For The Office had a glittering feature in the business section of the Evening Standard newspaper. The team at Evening Standard caught up with the company owner Daniel Ox (that's him in the picture!) over at Fruit HQ to find out the story of how the company all began.

Dan was interviewed by business journalist Ralph Miller who regularly writes articles for the paper on entrepreneurs in Greater London. The piece revisits the history of the company and the story of the Ox family’s involvement in the fruit and veg trade.

It certainly makes for an interesting read, so if you missed the paper last week, you can catch up online HERE.

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

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.

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.

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.