Case study: The Fruit Box

Jonathan Russell graduated in 2008 with a degree in Marketing before going on to start his fruit delivery company ‘The Fruit Box’ in April 2009.

The Fruit Box specialise in delivering the finest fresh fruit to offices in Leeds with a regular delivery service available Monday to Friday, offering handpicked fruit from the Yorkshire Produce Centre to guarantee customers receive only the best produce.

The Fruit Box provides a hassle free service and prices are maintained throughout the year to help you stay within your budget. Jonathan says;

“We are absolutely determined to ensure that our customers are 100% satisfied with our products and services. This is underpinned by commitment to excellent customer service and sourcing only the finest quality fruit for our customers”.

Jonathan has utilised a number of the services that Business Start-Up has to offer including several meetings with our in-house advisor to talk through his ideas and gain useful local contact information. Jonathan also attended a number of the Business Start Up workshops designed to help young entrepreneurs and new start up businesses improve their business skills. This six week program runs once a semester and covers a number of aspects important to new businesses including marketing, sales, legal issues, financial issues, market research, business planning and more. For more information on the workshops, have a look here.

“The Business Start Up workshops gave me an excellent opportunity to brush up on the aspects of business relevant to my situation and helped me to get ready for my start date.”

In February 2009, Jonathan was awarded the Business Start-Up Proof of Concept grant of £1000 to test the feasibility of his idea. This financial assistance helped Jonathan to fund a website, some business cards and the design of a logo.

For more information on ‘The Fruit Box’, have a look at the website at www.thefruit-box.co.uk.