An expanding county company, with an office in Pukekohe, is celebrating hiring its 100th employee.

Muddy Boots Software is predominantly based in Phocle Green, near Ross-on-Wye in the UKbut their workforce extends to Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Kenya and Egypt.

Over the past four years it has grown both financially and in headcount and is not only one of the county’s leading technology businesses, but also one of the world’s primary developers of food supply chain software solutions.

Jack Evans, head of commercial at Muddy Boots, said: "Our mission is to produce food industry software and apps that deliver visibility, efficiency and trust.

"Five of the top seven retailers in the UK now rely on our systems to deliver safe and fresh food to the consumer. We also help several major brand holders, including Unilever with their global sustainability agendas."

The business' main hive of activity is very much still in Ross.

It started as a small group of technicians developing early farm recording software 20 years ago.

Mr Evans said: "We are still very attached to our roots. We began as a development house for farm recording software, and even now, that still makes up 18 percent of our business.

"The Wye Valley is one of the most fertile regions of the UK and as a result many of our customers are within walking distance of the office.

"In fact, we consider these growers more partners than customers because many of them have been with us since our inception 20 years ago."

He said it wasn’t long before Muddy Boots saturated the farm market but this coincided with a time when the food industry was really starting to embrace the ideas of quality control along the whole supply chain.

Mr Evans said: "We really just saw an opportunity to capitalise on this, and so we used our expertise to develop solutions that would cater for organisations up the chain, and we were fortunate in being able to secure some big names early on in the form of Unilever and M&S."

He said the growth is only set to continue as they begin to take advantage of huge opportunities in the USA.

But as their global reach extends, Mr Evans said the company is still very proud to be part of the local community, adding: "We’re now one of the biggest employers locally, certainly in the field of software development, and as we grow and mature, we look forward to welcoming an ever increasing workforce."

Source: Hereford Times