From a one-man start up in 1971 to becoming one of London’s leading dairy suppliers the Allan Reeder story is simply incredible. A family business full of entrepreneurial spirit, drive, perseverance and desire to succeed and despite their success they have never lost the personal touch, something that means so much to the family and the business to this day.
Paul Andrews spoke to founder Allan Reeder and his daughter Heidi to find out more.
Since day one, they have always dealt with their customers as individuals and there is no way that this approach is going to stop now. They may have grown and moved premises to a state-of-the-art facility in 2019 but it’s still very much a family affair.
Their customers know and trust them and that’s the foundation of the personal service that keeps their customers in dairy products and keeps them in business.
The journey began back in 1971 with a young Allan, one lorry and one customer. He had previously worked as a sales executive for Express Dairies before he took the decision to set up on his own business working 6 days a week and went 15 years with no holiday. These were very difficult times and to supplement his fledgling business he would clean windows on a Sunday to help pay the mortgage and support his young family. Despite this, he has never looked back.
The business began the year that daughter Heidi was born and he was committed to building something successful right from the start. As Allan explains, “You must believe in what you are doing."
"You must love it and I love what I did then as much as I love it now. It’s the way we have always worked and after the large company experience and knowing that it wasn’t for me, I wanted to create something different.”
“I believed in what I was doing and never doubted myself, even when it got hard. We started off small, but I had lots of contacts and worked on them to our advantage. I never tried to take on anything too large and even if that had been on offer, we would have struggled because we were a small operation. I just asked for a small piece of any contract to supply and built-up business relations, generated trust and faith in what we could do and that got the ball rolling,” continues Allan.
This was a family business through and through as Heidi remembers fondly. “I have been involved with the business forever and remember from a young age being in the office helping with the invoices and as a toddler with my older brother Tony, when our brother Chris was born, being taken out in the lorry on deliveries with my dad!”
As Heidi continues, “It is amazing the memories you have when you grow up in a family business too. I used to get in the lorry and take my shoes off at every delivery and drove Dad mad. I now have a daughter of my own and she does exactly the same thing and it drives me up the wall! Like mother, like daughter!”
For Heidi, joining the family business was pretty much inevitable.
“I had a job with British Airways when I left school but was ready for a new challenge. I spoke to Dad and said that I wanted to work for him. I knew I had to fully commit and not just dip my toe in and got involved with all areas of the business. It was not easy though as I knew I was the boss’s daughter and I remember the first few days when I was in the office and was scared of answering the phone, not to mention having to pick up the phone to call customers for orders!”
Like many next generation members joining their family business, Heidi knew that knowledge was key. “I had to learn all aspects of the business and knew that was the way to generate respect and trust in my skills and abilities, and also move with the business as it constantly evolves,” she continues.