Embracing innovation to minimize food waste strengthens Huntapac’s partnership with major UK retailers
From its conception during WWII as a salad growing business to the innovative root vegetable farmer and supplier it is today, Huntapac Produce Ltd (Huntapac) is making huge strides in reducing food waste; a bold move which has enabled the company to diversify and expand. Not only is it creating fresh new products from carrots and parsnips, Huntapac now delivers 88 percent for supermarket giant Tesco, and is their longest-serving fresh produce supplier.
Managing Director, Will Hunter, explains how the farm evolved and tells Food Chain more about its pioneering carrot powder line: “My great-grandfather founded Huntapac in 1942,” he begins. “We’re a fourth-generation family business, including my father, his brother Jason, myself, and my brother Henry. I have an 18-month-old son, so there’s a potential fifth generation in the works! About seven to eight years ago, we decided to stop producing the salads and brassicas that Huntapac initially began with, moving solely into carrots and parsnips. We have very strong relationships with our main retailers, Tesco and Marks & Spencer – we’ve worked with M&S for 45 years, and Tesco has been our customer for 52 years.
“We grow a lot of the produce ourselves: 80 percent of carrots and 60 percent of parsnips, the remainder of which is sourced from other growers. Everything comes back to our base in Preston, Lancashire, to be washed, packed and transported, so we have full control from end to end. Carrots and parsnips require a one-in-seven-year rotation, and for that reason we rent most of our land. We do, however, have bases in strategic locations across Norfolk, Shropshire, Yorkshire, and Lancashire, which house farm buildings and machinery. Norfolk is an area that we’ve been expanding over the last three to four years, adding to this with a new farm building in 2025. Additionally, we carry out 90 percent of transport ourselves, pulling in subcontractors when we need that extra resource during our key trading times, namely Easter and Christmas. Huntapac has about 600 employees, with 140 drivers in that number, and multi-site growth, from Suffolk, all the way up to the Black Isle in Scotland.”
Last year, Huntapac reached £80 million in turnover and plans to continue expanding on the farming side, following monumental growth in its factory and in transportation. Since working alongside Tesco and doubling the size of the business over the past few years, Will reveals the company is beginning to process its products, starting with diced and sliced carrots, with a view to supplying retail in the coming months and an appetite to expand into high care in years to come. “Processing our products this way is also going to be significant in reducing food waste. Pre-Covid, we had a lot of waste product, and we realized that if we were to remain sustainable as a business, we needed to find value in that waste. This was before ‘wonky veg’ was being advertised and purchased, so we had the idea of making vegetable crisps. To make these healthy vegetable crisps, we needed to powder carrots. This is how the idea of carrot powder first started. We invested in a powdering line which basically takes our waste, dries it and mills it into a powder. Initially it was created for the crisps, but it’s now used in food products such as carrot cake and food ingredients, along with dog food, chicken feed for egg coloring, and it’s even used in some cosmetics. It’s still new to the UK market and we’re currently the only company in the UK producing it. Our other strategies around minimizing food waste are working business-to-business with the Tesco chain to explore how it can be incorporated into their other products, for instance, frozen parsnips, or diced and sliced carrot retail packs.”
Above and beyond
Alongside focusing on innovative powder products and waste reduction methods, Huntapac has been investing heavily in automation to improve efficiency in its factory. For crop grading, it now has three camera graders and it’s also utilizing end-of-line automation, comprising robots putting bags into trays. “We’ve also built a new cold store extension,” Will continues. “Our cold store is effective in its use of solar energy, after we installed 2000 panels on the roof two years ago. In Phase 2 of the project, this enlargement will add 12 loading bays and enable us to undertake a large pack house extension, hopefully allowing for a third line. In addition, we took on 24 new wagons last year. We change a third of our wagon fleet every year, meaning the oldest unit will only ever be three years old. We’ve also invested quite heavily in farming equipment, as the weather has been so volatile over the last five years. We spent in the region of £4 million on harvesting kit in the last three years to combat the amount of rainfall, and just over £1 million on irrigation equipment due to extreme dry conditions.”
Furthermore, Huntapac was recently recognized for its hard work and growth with two prestigious industry awards: Agri Business of the Year 2025 and Tesco Longstanding Contribution 2025. “There’s a story behind the Tesco award,” Will divulges. “It was the Christmas 2024 period, and they called us on the 20th December and asked if we could help with their potato supply. Bearing in mind we’d never packed potatoes before then, my dad and I grabbed our tape measures and headed down to the factory, where we had a potato line running within about 12 hours. Somehow an email got circulated which included a photograph of us both in front of this makeshift potato line, which got through to the UK CEO of Tesco! He sent us a thank you message and we were awarded at their IGD conference, primarily for the length of time we’ve supplied Tesco but also for going above and beyond to help them at Christmas.
“The awards also recognize and reward the incredible work of our staff, who are integral to the company. To promote this, we introduced a scheme called LEAD – Learn, Educate, Appreciate and Develop, which covers everything from commencing employment, simple incentives such as birthday cards and free food at Christmas, through to acknowledging employees’ length of service. We also offer development through the Apprenticeship Levy and our Rising Star scheme for younger employees.”
Heading into 2026, Huntapac’s main priority lies in delivering 100 percent for its key retail partner Tesco: “2026 will see our largest turnover and volume to date as a business,” concludes Will. “We’re extremely focused on that extra volume. In the next five years, our plan is to utilize carrots and parsnips better within the business, so we’ll be looking at the prep element both for Huntapac and for Tesco.”