We love berries and one of the most loved berries must be strawberries. Delicious and nutritious fruit, strawberries are enjoyed around the world. Behind the scenes, a lot of hard work and dedication goes into ensuring that consumers have access to fresh strawberries during the year.

Phil Condell, Production & Supply Manager for Mountain Blue, is one of many individuals who have been instrumental in making this possible. In this post, we will explore Phil's role, the behind-the-scenes action, his love of this industry and insights on his favourite berries.

As Production and Supply Manager, Phil is managing all things involved in getting the strawberries from Farm to the Supermarket. Through careful forecasting and management of purchases, Phil can support the supply chain and present the best-looking tasty fruit to market.

Phil enjoys working with growers and retails and provides our growers and the Mountain Blue marketing team with reporting that support key decisions on forecasting.

Whilst a strawberry man most days of the year, Phil is a fan of Blueberries “I love Eureka Sunrise Blueberries, it’s like eating sweets”. Phil is a big fan of Mountain Blue, not only for their famous fruit, but the “great team atmosphere, colleagues, and marketing team” Phil notes that he enjoys “the people who work hard to create and produce a great product”.

When Phil is not communicating with his grower base and retailers, you will find him engrossed in podcasts whilst walking his dog – the ultimate multi-tasker at heart. And interestingly, when asked whom he would invite to dinner – he would be stoked to have fellow Irishmen Eamon Dunphy, professional golfer Rory McIlroy & actor and comedian Tommy Tiernan join him. We can imagine the laughs going on at that table.

Phil is a hard-working Manager, who is always supporting the wider Mountain Blue team. His can-do approach to tasks outside the box, not only enables growth within the team but extends to supporting growers to obtain the best outcome for their strawberries.

There is a lot that goes on behind our berries – Discover the people who make the magic happen.