Bristol Business Guide

45 / 76

Nisbets Plc is honoured to receive Britain’s most coveted award for Enterprise: International
Trade 2017, for the continued development of international trade and constant growth.
The family business was initially established by founder and current chairman Andrew
Nisbet in 1983 as a small supplier of knives, catering clothes, and textbooks to catering
colleges. Since that time, ‘Andrew Nisbet & Co. Ltd’ has simply become ‘Nisbets’, but, while
the company’s name may be a bit smaller these days, its presence as a respected and
successful retailer of products to the catering industry has grown beyond all recognition.
Nisbets is currently considered Europe's largest supplier of catering equipment, selling to
over 100 countries with offices in the UK, Ireland, Holland, Germany, France, Belgium, Spain
and Australia.
Nisbets is now a sizeable multi-channel operation including mail order, web, managed
accounts, field sales and retail stores, with over 2,000 colleagues globally and revenues
in excess of £300 million worldwide.
Since 2010, the company has also worked hard to grow overseas sales by 205 per cent as
a result of focusing on specific territories and making significant investment in a bid to
understand those markets and how best to serve them. The company now has more than 20
industry leading own brands that are sustainably and ethically sourced from around the
world through its own product sourcing operation based in the Far East.
It is all a far cry from the first catalogue – comprising of just four pages that Andrew put
together before setting off for catering colleges around the UK in an attempt to secure
the company’s first business. Those first four pages of products soon became a more
significant mail order catalogue once the business had moved into its first warehouse in
Old Market, Bristol, in 1986. It has since become the 800+ page catalogue familiar to catering
professionals today. But while the company has experienced unrecognisable growth and
dramatic change over the last 34 years, one thing that has remained the same is a
commitment to the core family values on which success has been built.
This charitable enterprise supports the local community through donations of money,
time and skills, while the company also offers many benefits to the 1000 local people
it is proud to be able to call colleagues.
Nisbets Plc, Fourth Way, Avonmouth, Bristol, BS11 8TB
45 140 5555
fb: nisbets | tw: @nisbets | insta: nisbets_
To be awarded the Queen’s
Award for Enterprise is a great
honour and a huge tribute to
the work of Nisbets colleagues
worldwide.” said Andrew on
receiving the prestigious award.
Our philosophy around the
globe is exactly the same of
that in the UK; to provide high
quality equipment, at an
affordable price, with next day
delivery and exceptional
customer service.
As a result, Nisbets is a one-stop
shop for catering professionals.
I am extremely proud that we
have been selected for this
award, and pay tribute to the
continuous hard work of the
entire team.
Catering Equipment Made Simple
Nisbets continues to pride itself on adhering to
their core values – Integrity, Service, Innovate
and Enjoy – when interacting in all areas of the
business from customers to colleagues through
suppliers and more.
The company is also passionate about its local
community and has a dedicated long-term
charity project:
‘Nisbets in the Community’.