Following yonder Starlight

Starlight Growers LTD, based in Willersey, Worcestershire, is three years old on 11th December. Sicilian-born owner Tony Lo Bue will be celebrating the anniversary with company secretary and wife of eleven years Jo after another unprecedented increase in year-on-year volume and value.

Tony came to the UK on holiday in 1990 and never left. Bored with his career as a television and electrical enginneer and needing to learn English, he took a job at Redland's Nursery in local Bretforton and realised how passionate he was about working with nature and being outside after years working in shops and indoors. Tony tried his hand at various roles, worked his way up in the company and created a customer contact base from contacts in the Fresh produce Journal, and the Grower bringing a few supermarkets on board and increasing turnover from £250,000 to £2.5million along the way. Redland became a limited company and Tony was marketing director until they parted company on August 31st 2001; what he and his family now celebrate annually and refer to as "Freedom Day".

When the company closed down and Starlight was formed four months later, customers from Reland followed Tony because he had established such credability and strong relationships with them. The company was set up from nothing except expertise, confidence and the determination of the Lo Bue family to found and finance a retreat for abused children (there is currently only 1 in the Uk which has just 6 beds); the driving force behind everything it does. Tony says this is his family's "sense of purpose" and feels they are fortunate to have found something that they are food at and enjoy to realise their end goal. All staff are aware of the motivation behind Starlight (dubbed "a family of friends" when they join and buy them into the philosophy.

On the first day of trading, Tony, Jo and his parents (Giovanni, harvest manager and Sara, packhouse assistant) took delivery of twelve boxes of Egyptian salad onions, packed them in the then empty breezeblock unit and distributed them. In the first year, by buying other growers' surplus while its own crops were maturing, the company planned to turnover £350,000 but actually managed £800, 000. This rose to £1.4 million in the second year and almost £2million in the third. Starlight now employs 10 full-time staff and 10 casual, agency workers in the packhouse including Tony's parents who have not been drawn back to Italy either.

The BRC-accredited salad onions business now comprises 250 acres and customers include Budgens, secondary wholesalers, catering companies and processors and specialises in extended shelf life vacuum packs. Its second crop was strawberries, which it has been supplying Well-Pict European since 2003 (coincidentally the first box was delivered on August 31st, the family's "Freedom Day") and a 16 acre crop of asparagus will be harvested in the spring. With such rapid expansion, starlight had to find new land and buildings and is about to complete erecting tunnels on its new site near Pershore, Worcestershire. It is names White Bull site after an Indian spirit guide as spirits and angels heavily influence the company.

Next year's berry offering will be 5 acres of strawberries and 1 acre of raspberries. By then, the whole business will be BRC accredited and strawberries alone will at least double 2004's 25-tonne Autumn crop. Tony is happy with the existing customer base but because of such unexpected growth and to reach the ultimate target, he had to expand the company so focused on lines that are in demand. Starlight currently grows Elsanta, some Flamenco and raspberry varieties it favours are Polka, Joohn Squire, Himbotop and Josephine. Tony appreciates the crucial advice he has received from Well-Pict European's technical director David Johnston and is very close to WPE's QC and marketing teams.

The Lo Bues believe it is very important to work in combination with nature and, for example, all the salad onion waste is recycled to make methane and peat. As well as being environmentally friendly, this system enables them to increase profit, which means more money for the Starlight Children's Foundation, and they hope will inspire others to follow their star, at Christmas and beyond.

Winter 2004