By Tony McDonough Liverpool Business News
Southport-based fresh food grower, importer and exporter Nationwide Produce breaks through £200m revenue barrier for first time as son of late founder says achievements ‘would have made dad very proud’. Tony McDonough reports
Just over a year after the deaths of founders Bernard and Joan O’Malley, Southport fresh food producer Nationwide Produce breaks through the £200m revenue barrier for the first time.
Family-owned Nationwide, which started out as Bernard O’Malley & Sons 50 years ago, is based in Southport town centre. A year ago it was reported how the devoted couple had both died within days of each other in October 2024. Both aged 88, they had been married for 65 years.
Employing more than 200 people, Nationwide works across the entire fresh food supply chain – growing, grading, packing, trading, importing, and exporting fresh produce, including vegetables and fruits, from around the world.
And the business remains firmly under the control of the O’Malley family. Tim O’Malley heads the firm as managing director while brothers Patrick and Anthony are also senior directors.
Nationwide has just posted its annual accounts on Companies House for the 12 months to May 30, 2025, They reveal a strong financial performance despite poor weather in spring 2024 hitting crops.
Revenues came in at just above £204m, almost 10% higher than the previous year. Pre-tax profits were also up almost 20% to £2.4m.
Writing in the annual report, Tim O’Malley said: “UK crops got off to a bad start with the cold wet spring at the beginning of last year. This set the tone for another generally short-supply, high-price year.
“But that never overly concerns us as we are so strong on procurement, not just here in the UK but globally.
“The end result is another record year. We broke through the £200m barrier for the first time ever – a milestone. My dad would have been very proud of that, he liked milestones. Pre-tax profit came in at £4.2m up 19.6%. He would’ve been proud of that too.
“Our onion packing business is running well. We’ve just pumped £6 million into extensions, refurbishment and robotics for the long Sutton site. We also bought a lump of land next to the site to future proof or investment.
“We have invested heavily in staff and equipment for our onion farming operation in East Anglia. We’re increasing our acreage again next year to 930 acres which will make us one of the largest onion growers in the UK.”
Tim added Nationwide had also invested in its fleet of lorries based out of its transport hub in Burscough in Lancashire. He admitted the vehicles were “not cheap to buy, not cheap to run and laden with compliance regulations.
“That said, there’s no doubt they’ve massively improved our service levels to our customers and growers which in turn leads to more business, so we continue to invest in our fleet,” he explained.
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