History
Shop in Paul Street 1916
Many companies claim to be family run, but not many can trace their company history back as far as F Milford & Sons Limited - Fruit & Vegetable Merchants.
Our first retail fruit shop was opened by founder Fred Milford in Paul Street, Exeter in 1908.
By 1925, with the help of three sons, "the firm" had moved into wholesale, shortly afterwards purchasing premises in King Street, Exeter. At this time fruit and vegetables were collected from Newton Abbot train station in a horse and cart and delivered to the local market and the surrounding shops. This then progressed to lorry deliveries as times changed.
Depot in King Street - 1954
We were the first company in the area to pre-pack potatoes under our own brand of 'Milpac'. Until 1964 we ripened our own bananas in specially built gas fired rooms.
With nearly 100 years experience behind the company the current Managing Directors, Paul Milford & Steve Hawley (cousin), can trace their history from that first fruit shop to their modern wholesaling unit, still in Exeter - still local, still family run and still supplying locally produced, quality fruit and vegetables to the county, just as they have been doing since 1908.
Modern Times!
Banana Boxes
Newton Abbot Market - 1935
