Tony Alfano founded Best Imports in October 1984 primarily to import Italian confectionery and cakes to satisfy the growing demand for these products within the flourishing Italian community in London and the South East of England. He continued to expand his product range to include various high quality gourmet lines.
Having established a solid and well respected business he was recommended to the American company of Herman Goelitz Inc, (now the Jelly Belly Candy Co.), the manufacturers of the highly prestigious and successful Jelly Belly ® range of Gourmet jelly beans who were looking for a UK distributor. So it was that in October 1987 Best Imports became the sole official UK importer of this product, now enjoying great success.
In February 1992 Best Imports became a limited company. It employs eleven permanent staff to run the offices and temperature and humidity controlled warehouse. Both are fully computerised, utilizing the latest dedicated software technology.
For areas our own fleet does not cover we offer a next day business courier delivery service by both TNT and Interlink. We have a fully computerised system in place to track all parcels from the moment they leave our warehouse to the time they reach their destinations thereby ensuring our customers of an efficient service.
Our offices occupy 1,200 Sq ft within our 12,000 Sq ft of warehouse space, and, as with our tracking services, are fully computerised to cope with the demands produced from our twelve hundred and fifty accounts which include prestigious names like Selfridges, Harrods, Hamleys, Fenwicks and John Lewis stores to mention only a few. Even though we of course service the supermarket giants such as Waitrose, Sainsbury’s & Tesco, we do not forget the smaller specialist independents with which we continue brisk trade.
As you can see our service cuts right across the retail spectrum, from the small (and not so small) confectionery specialists and Independents, to department stores, forecourt shops right up through to the big supermarkets and convenience store chains.
We operate both an In-house sales department for direct sales contact for both existing and prospective customers, and also a national network of pro-active sales representatives which guarantees nationwide coverage of the UK, including Southern Ireland.
Best Imports Ltd believe its continued future lies in providing its customers with only premium quality products of the highest calibre, in conjunction with a fast efficient service second to none.
The major lines we currently deal with include:
From the Americas the Original Gourmet jelly bean Jelly Belly, Spangler candy canes and Adams & Brooks Lollipops.
From here in the UK we feature sumptuously packaged Chocca Mocca chocolates and also all natural candy canes from the Original Candy Company.
From Italy import a range of luxury cream filled chocolate and nut wafer biscuits from Loacker Spa and deliciously crisp and crunchy Biscotti and Cantuccini from Pan Ducale.
