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The Sunday Times International Track 100 ranks Britain’s private companies with the fastest-growing international sales, measured over their latest two years of available accounts. Garrets are proud to announce that they were ranked 27 in the league table.

To meet qualifying criteria, companies had to be registered in the UK, be independent, unquoted and ultimate holding companies. They were measured and qualified on their compound annual growth rate in international sales over two years. Total sales threshold is a minimum of £5m and international sales at least £1m in the latest financial year. Fast Track conducted phone interviews or face-to-face visits with all 100 companies between January and March 2011.

Despite difficult trading conditions, the 100 companies’ international sales grew by an average of 91% a year over two years. Managing director Derrick Samms started his career as a catering manager on cargo-carrying ships, and says his Essex-based company encourages healthier menus and the responsible sourcing of food, for example through sustainable fishing practices. International sales grew by 102% a year, from £5.9m in 2008 to £24.2m in 2010.

Garrets International Limited, the London-based marine contract catering company, is introducing a free range egg policy onboard the fleets it manages to take account of changing public attitudes and pre-empting EU rules set to come into force in 2012.

Barry Samms of Garrets’ purchasing dept, who is overseeing this project, explained: “We supply more than 7.5 million eggs worldwide each year and we want all of these to be free range well ahead of the EU changes regarding chicken farming in 2012. We are introducing this new policy in the UK, Belgium, Holland and Germany and are finding our clients are welcoming the opportunity to purchase more ethically-produced eggs at our competitive prices. We plan to extend our free-range policy to customers throughout the world as soon as the right resources become more widely accessible.”

“By supplying free range eggs our seafarers are able to enjoy a high quality product which we offer with the knowledge that it also helps to support more ethical food production practices,” he explained.

Mr Samms added: “Garrets is already recognised for supplying high quality stores to its vessels and we intend to continue to maintain our high standards. Our free-range egg policy is only the beginning for us and we now plan to expand our approach to include other free range and organic products for onboard consumption.”

Garrets International Limited received a Royal visitor on 26th June 2009, when Major Tony O’Hagan TD DL came to the firm’s premises in Romford to present them with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for its outstanding business success. Garrets won its Queen’s Award in the International trade category in April this year, and invited clients, The Mayor of Havering and Andrew Rosindale MP for Romford to join staff for the presentation.

Explaining the high standards a business must achieve in order to win such an award. Major O’Hagan presented to Managing Director Derrick Samms an engraved crystal bowl with the Queen’s Award emblem as a symbol of its success as well as a grant of appointment signed by both Her Majesty the Queen and Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

On receiving the award Derrick said “The Queen’s Award for Enterprise is the UK’s highest honour for business success, so we’re extremely proud to have achieved this Royal standard of excellence. The presentation ceremony was a wonderful opportunity to share this success with everyone connected to our business, especially the staff without whom this could not have been achieved. These are very worthwhile Awards – I’d recommend them to any business which can prove it is amongst the best in its field”

Derrick Samms and Barry Samms represented Garrets by attended a special evening reception on 13th July 2009, for the 2009 Queens award winners, which was hosted by Her Majesty the Queen and other members of the Royal family at Buckingham Palace.

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Garrets International Ltd, a Marine Contract Catering Company based in Romford, Essex has the honour of receiving the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade 2009. Garrets have been providing various onboard services to ship owners and ship managers for more than 18 years. We currently provide catering services for 425 vessels owned by 29 international companies.

Derrick Samms, Managing Director of Garrets International Ltd, said: “We at Garrets are all extremely proud to receive the Queen’s Award. The last 18 years has been about steady, sustainable growth and anticipating our clients’ needs. So to have all our efforts rewarded in this independent and globally recognised way makes us even more determined to continue to succeed”

Praising the work of the Garrets team, he added: “You can never underemphasise the importance a strong team plays in achieving such an award.

“Garrets will build on the international recognition it has received through this highly prestigious award and looks forward to working even more closely with its valued customers in the months and years ahead,” he added.

The date of the official award ceremony will be advised in due course.

Read more in the QAE magazine article here.

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The British Association of Ship Suppliers (B.A.S.S.) have honoured Garrets International Ltd for winning the Queens Award for Enterprise 2009 by presenting them an award of their own at the annual B.A.S.S. lunch on board the HQS Wellington.

Bob Blake (pictured right) the Chairman of B.A.S.S. said “Many congratulations from all your friends in B.A.S.S. for being the first ship service company to gain this prestigious award; it is a great achievement and a credit to us all”. Derrick Samms (pictured left) the Owner and Managing Director of Garrets International Ltd stated that “he felt privileged to recognised by B.A.S.S. in this way” and “thanked all the members on behalf of himself and his team for this award.”

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Garrets International Ltd are pleased to announce that in October 2009 they have received accreditation to ISO 9001: 2008 the latest version of the standard. Accreditation under the ISO 9001 Standard has been held since 1999.

Derrick Samms, the Owner and Managing Director of Garrets International Ltd said “We are very pleased that we have been accredited to this new standard. Garrets are great believers in the ethos of ISO Quality Standards and have achieved many benefits from these quality standards. I would like to thank all the Garrets team for helping to gain this standard.”

Garrets International Ltd Senior Manager Chris Davies added that “This accreditation was achieved without any non-conformities which shows our commitment to quality standards. We will not be resting on our laurels, our company is growing and we are constantly reviewing our processes to look for improvement. ISO is an excellent tool to help us do this. I too would like to thank everybody for their good work.”

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Garrets International Limited, the London-based marine contract catering company, is taking its healthy eating free range egg policy a stage further by offering a wider range of new free range and healthy eating products at even more ports in Europe, the US, Australia and Korea.

It has also started supplying ships in the Middle East, Far East, US and South Africa with low fat, low sugar and low salt varieties of quality brands of mayonnaise, ketchup, and some tinned products.

Another part of this initiative is to supply vessels with Sunflower Oil instead of the more traditional Vegetable Oil. Sunflower oil has a high smoke point which makes it ideal for deep frying and is low in saturated fat so is good for stir frying and salad dressings. Being low in saturated fat helps to control Cholesterol levels.

Derrick Samms, Garrets Managing Director, said: “Crew welfare is at the heart of everything that we do at Garrets. Expanding our free range and healthier options around the globe is another step towards improving seafarers’ welfare. “Our ship supply partners around the world have moved very quickly to support us with our healthy eating initiatives and we are still planning to extend this policy in the near future to include a greater number of products in more areas.” He added: “I would like to thank all the team at Garrets, especially our Purchasing Manager Paul Westerman who implemented this policy and made it a reality.”

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Expanding our programme of providing free range products to vessels, it is the intention of Garrets International Ltd during 2011, to investigate and implement a policy of supplying fish caught from sustainable sources.

“This is an ambitious project, and like the free range chicken and eggs before it we have to consider all the factors before implementation” said Derrick Samms, Managing Director of Garrets International Ltd. He added “We all know that sustainable fishing is vital for the global fish stock.  We purchase approximately five metric tonnes of fish per month and it is our aim that all of this fish is sourced from well managed sustainable stocks.”

Barry Samms, who is heading this project said, “It is not just about supplying the vessels with different types of fish, our goal is that the seafarers will be well informed regarding the choices available and have easy access to guidance on matters like, menu planning, recipes and cooking techniques for these non endangered species.” He continued, “As well as our own team working on this, we are being assisted by our regular suppliers, and our friends at Compassion for World Farming.”

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