I love everything about working here – the people, the company ethics and the positive environment

Chris Clark, Regional Sales Manager

About Nisbets

Welcome to Nisbets

In just 35 years, by giving our customers great service and the widest choice of quality products, we’ve become the UK’s largest catering equipment supplier, with exports to more than 100 countries.

It’s the kind of growth and success that can only be achieved with fantastic people – and we’ve got lots of them.

We do this by making our customers' lives easier, supporting their businesses, creating better value and thus helping them do great things.

Join our highly professional, dedicated and innovative team and you’ll help to keep our business growing and evolving into the future.

Together, we can do great things.

Find out more

An international business

With operations in five mainland European countries, as well as Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and China, we’re not only the UK market leader; we’re a major worldwide supplier of catering equipment. Over 2,200 people work for us around the globe, which means our international customers enjoy the Nisbets quality of service wherever they are in the world.

Ireland

Australia

China

New Zealand

Netherlands

Belgium

France

Spain

Portugal

Ireland

Australia

China

New Zealand

Netherlands

Belgium

France

Spain

Portugal

Our companies

Nisbets

The UK’s largest catering equipment supplier, serving customers around the world. With 2,200 people, we’re number one in our marketplace.

Mitre

A specialist provider of linen, towelling and soft furnishings to luxury and boutique hotels since 1946, acquired by Nisbets in 2016.

Space Group

Combining our project management, manufacturing and installation expertise with Nisbets’ product range, we design and fit out any commercial food service business.

26,000

Lines

3,000

Hours of volunteering work

£550k

Raised for charity since 2012

100

Countries we export to

Our vision and values

"We’re a family business. So naturally, family values are at the heart of how we work."

Nisbets is a challenging, fast-paced and constantly changing business, so we encourage a family atmosphere, where our people work together, share their ideas and voice their opinions. They’re the ones who bring our values to life, supporting and learning from each other to keep our business moving forward.

We do great things by being Simple, Supportive and Switched on and by being open and honest to ourselves, colleagues, customers and suppliers by doing what is right, and not what is easy.

Simple

Everything we do is designed to cut out complexity and to make life more straightforward for ourselves and our customers

Supportive

Our customers rely on us for their livelihoods, so we are dependable and dedicated to supporting the industry

Switched on

We're experts in tools for catering and hospitality and constantly share our ideas and inspiration to help customers acheive more

Our behaviours

We recognise that it’s not just what we do that will make us successful; it's how we do it.

Our vision is to continue to build a business based on Team Oriented Leadership which places a strong emphasis on team building and common purpose amongst team members creating common goals and objectives.

As a business we encourage, value and celebrate to help us to achieve our vision and to fulfil our brand values.

A brief history of Nisbets

1983

Andrew Nisbet starts his own business selling knives, clothing and text books to catering students.

1985

Nisbets launches its first mail order catalogue.

1990

Nisbets branches into wholesale by buying Red Ball and the Export team is introduced.

1996

We open our first office outside the UK, in Cork in Ireland.

2000

We start a new operation in Eindhoven to cover the local markets in the Netherlands and Belgium.

2004

The company continues to grow fast and we open a new warehouse in Avonmouth, Bristol, UK.

2005

Continuing the expansion of our European operations, we open a new French business in Combs-la-Ville near Paris.

2007

We continue to grow across Europe, with a new Spanish operation in Valencia and the expansion of our Dutch operation to include Germany.

2008

Our UK business is still growing at a breath-taking pace and we open a second warehouse in Avonmouth, Bristol.

2010

We buy Pages, an established catering shop in London on Shaftesbury Avenue, which becomes our first retail store.

2010

Our global expansion continues as we buy Caterers Warehouse in Australia, including locations in Castle Hill and Erina.

2011

We open new retail outlets in the UK, in Birmingham and in Australia in South Melbourne.

2013

We celebrate our 30th anniversary with new retail outlets in London and Leeds in the UK and in Sydney, Australia.

2014

We introduce new retail outlets in London and Manchester in the UK, and Geelong and Brisbane in Australia.

2015

We open six new retail outlets in the UK, plus Gold Coast in Australia.

2015

We open our new distribution centre and retail outlet in Campbelltown in Australia.

2016

Our retail presence keeps on growing, with 11 new stores in the UK and three in Australia.

2016

We acquire Bradshaw Microwave and Mitre Linen, and take a stake in Space Catering (UK) Ltd.

2017

Nisbets receives Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade.

2018

Nisbets achieves position 48 in The Sunday Times Grant Thornton Top Track 250.

Our future

In 35 years we’ve become Europe’s largest distributor of catering equipment. This is all down to the hard work of our fantastic people. Their energy and commitment, innovative thinking and ability to adapt to different markets have always kept us ahead of the game and will continue to help shape our future.

"We have a great business and there is a very clear desire to grow the business a lot bigger, and we think we can do that. This will include organic and acquisitional growth. We want to increase the international footprint and deliver great service to our existing and new customers around the world.

"Nisbets is honoured to be in the top 50 of The Sunday Times Grant Thornton Top Track 250, which celebrates our business success and cements our position as a significant contributor to the UK economy.

"Our growth confirms that Nisbets’ company values work in practice, and reassures us that we are supporting our customers in the right way"

A short film of highlights from our first Global Leadership Conference

A responsible business

By giving the planet a brighter future we’ll all benefit, so we’ve developed a set of corporate environmental aims:

0% landfill – By making our recycling facilities as efficient as possible.

Reduce paper waste – We offer email invoices and statements and re-use paper whenever viable.

Reduce energy and water consumption – By using energy efficient technology, we cut the resources we need.

Promote a sense of corporate and social responsibility – We encourage our people to devise ways to reduce our environmental impact. Such as installing solar panels on two of our UK offices, which cuts 111 tonnes of carbon emissions a year.

More about our CSR programme