How Fife wholesale boss went from £3k Prince's Trust loan to £45m turnover
Dunfermline businessman Joe Wall always knew he wanted to be his own boss.
The son of a respected Highland vet and GP, he turned down a place at university to start his own wholesale business at just 19.
With no industry experience and a £3,000 loan from The Prince's Trust, he leased a second-hand van and a small lock-up and The Cress Company was born.
More than two decades on, the award-winning firm has an annual turnover of £45 million and 216 staff.
The fine food distributor supplies delis, cafés, farm shops, garden centres, butchers, fishmongers, bars and hotels across the UK.
In 2004, Joe worked with just a handful of Scottish food manufacturers but the business now boasts hundreds of big-name brands, including Yeo Valley, Border's Biscuits, Fever-Tree and Pipers Crisps.
And in 2023, Cress Co – as it is better known – secured its first ever acquisition, taking over fellow Fife wholesalers Adamsons Drinks.
Despite his incredible success, managing director and founder Joe is keen to be seen as 'one of the team'.
The unassuming 41-year-old takes his turn with the on-call mobile phone and planning the delivery rota and tries to be at the Cress Co Pitreavie Business Park HQ most days.
Joe jokes that his 15-year-old border terrier Dougal, who he brings to the office, is the 'real boss' – and more likely to abuse his position to get senior staff to take him for a walk.
'I'm very much at my happiest mucking in and getting things done,' Joe admits.
'I started out as a one-man show, doing all the jobs myself.
'I learned the importance of hard work at a young age watching my parents, who didn't work nine to five.
'People would turn up at our house in the evenings with animals in need and my dad would treat them then and there in the kitchen.
'It's important as a business owner to know what is going on day-to-day – and the only way to do that is by being there.'
He added: 'I'm sure some of the team think I'm a bit of a control freak but I love what I do and see myself as just one of the team.
'I'm at my most comfortable at work and it means more to me than anything else.'
Growing up near the small village of Bonar Bridge in Sutherland, Joe was the second youngest of six children.
His busy childhood home and assertive older siblings, he concedes, could be one of the reasons he was keen to go it alone from an early age.
Suffering a period of ill health while at secondary school, which led to him spending a significant chunk of time away from his classes, also influenced his decision.
However, convincing his academic parents that he could make it in life without a degree wasn't easy.
He continued: 'I did quite well at school and had a place at university to study business and economics but I decided not to take it.
'There was no point in wasting time. I knew I wanted to work for myself and have my own business.
'I was always relatively ambitious, willing to take a risk and wanted to stand and fall by my own decisions.
'When you are young you just go for it. I didn't really worry about what I would do if it failed.
'Initially, I fancied getting into food manufacturing but the overheads were higher.
'I saw a gap in the market in food distribution and realised I could do it on a fairly low budget and build it up incrementally.
'My mum would have preferred I go to university first but I cut a deal with her to give it a year.
'It helped I was the second youngest of six kids so my parents had relaxed a bit!'
On top of the £3,000 from The Prince's Trust, Joe got 'a little extra' cash from his family and moved 150 miles down the A9 to Perth, which he thought would be a 'good central location'.
'I got a second-hand van on finance and a rental on a small unit and then bought a bit of stock,' he recalls.
'I worked with five brands to start with but after I did my deliveries I would visit other companies in the area and tout for business.
'It was hard work and I was on the breadline for the first year or so but it paid off and the company slowly grew.'
After five years in Perth, Cress Co moved to Dunfermline, where warehouse space was cheaper and the labour pool larger.
Joe credits the 'farm shop boom' of the mid-2000s – fuelled by EU diversification grants – with helping increase his customer base.
Cress Co supplies many of Scotland's top farm shops, including Gloagburn in Tibbermore, and Loch Leven's Larder outside Kinross.
As the business grew, Cress Co made the bold decision to open additional depots south of the border in a bid to widen its distribution area.
It now has sites in Milton Keynes, Maltby, Telford and Bristol. Telford is the base for all chilled goods.
Moving into England was a gamble, Joe admits, and made for some stressful weeks and months.
Competition – and fuel costs – increased, but it paid off.
With more depots, the customer-base swelled and since 2019, revenue has jumped fourfold from around £11m to around £45m.
In 2023, months after being first approached, Cress Co acquired Fife-based Adamsons Drinks, a leading supplier of soft drinks, snacks and confectionary.
It opened up a new market for Cress Co, and Joe and his team hope to widen the Adamsons customer base.
Joe now hopes to continue to grow and has his sites set on further acquisitions as well as growing the logistics arm of the business.
Cress Co was recently named Associate of the Year 2025 at the Farm Retail Association (FRA) Awards.
The accolade is particularly special for Cress Co as it is judged by farm shop retailers – the very businesses the company supports every day.
Customer relationships have always been of huge importance to Joe – and it is why he thinks he has been successful.
'If people trust you and can pick up the phone to you, they will continue to work with you – even if costs rise,' he explained.
'Wholesaling is an old-fashioned business model, the crux of what we do is buying and selling.
'There are a lot of moving parts but if you look after the brands you buy from and the customers you sell to, are efficient and the goods arrive in good condition, it will be ok.'
On paper, he is a millionaire, but becoming wealthy was never Joe's goal.
'I'm so busy week to week I don't really have a lot of time to look back and say, 'gosh, look how far I have come',' he admits.
'When you are in the thick of it you don't notice the growth as much.
'Yes, I could get the bank to write me a big check and spend it but I have no plans to do that. A lot of it goes back into the business and it's a business I hope to have for years to come.'
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