About Valley Grown Salads

Founders and Owners of Valley Grown Salads 

          
      Jimmy Russo - Owner and Director                         Vince Russo - Owner and Director

History

Valley Grown Salads is a family run business. In 1963 Gaspare Angelo Russo (father of Jimmy and Vince, the founders and directors of Valley Grown Salads) was the first Italian cucumber grower in the Lea Valley.

In 1982 Jimmy and Vince became cucumber agents (buying from growers and selling to packhouses).

In 1985 Jimmy and Vince decided to pack independently by using the small packing facility at their father’s nursery, this was when they started serving Presto supermarkets. It was in 1986 that they purchased the current site at Sedge Green, this is where Valley Grown Salads offices and packhouse are based.




By the late 1980’s, with a new packhouse (which kept on being extended and updated in the following 14 years) Valley Grown Salads became salad and vegetable supplier of two leading UK supermarkets.



In 1999 the company purchased the Langridge Nursery in Nazeing with the intention of builing their own pepper nursery. The ambitious redevelopment project took three years and resulted in the award winning Valley Grown Nursery. 

Vince and Jimmy state: “Owning our own nursery allows us a better control of the supply chain, more flexibility as well as the opportunity to research and innovate”.

We are committed to having a safe and trustworthy supply base and we are also in a unique position of owning and controlling both growing and packing sites in Spain (Nature Choice, 7%) and Israel (Edom, 20%).