About Us

In the spring of 1975 when Peter Easter’s parents bought him a small corner shop on Magpie Road in Norwich, called Magpie Stores. For the first few years he traded seven days a week selling mostly groceries, tobacco and cigarettes – and a tiny selection of fruit & vegetables. In response to customer requests he began delivering, in an old Bedford Rascal van.

After a few years, Peter was persuaded to increase the fresh produce selection and put on a display to rival any market stall. This was encouraged by a regular customer called George who had been a market trader for many years. He taught Peter how to make price tickets from old wooden fruit crates and how to setup a stall. George helped out every day for a couple of years, working only for a coffee in the morning, a cup of tea in the afternoon and a bit of company. During his time at Magpie Stores, Peter had admired a fruit and vegetable stall on Norwich market. There, you could buy anything from the world of fresh produce.

Peter began to realise that he could replicate this kind of business at Magpie Stores. He just needed a handful of pubs and restaurants as regular customers to make the idea a reality. Within a fortnight he had encouraged four or five restaurant/pub clients to take daily deliveries. In the background Peter’s wife Frances and his mum ‘Nanny Easter’ made sure the books balanced.

By 1990 the fresh produce delivery service had flourished to as many as 30 daily deliveries and Magpie Stores was sold to enable Easters to grow without the constraints of a small retail grocery store. The Magpie Stores name went with the sale and Easters was born trading from our new premises at Cavalry ride near Mousehold Heath in Norwich. The business continued to grow and within a few years Easters was on the move again to a much bigger premises situated on the corner of Oak Street and Sussex Street in Norwich. This was when Peter’s son Will joined the company, after leaving The City of Norwich School at the age of 16. Will began his Easters career picking and collating orders but within 12 months had passed his driving test and was out delivering produce across Norfolk to some of the county’s best-loved food establishments. Now the business really began to thrive, taking on catering contracts for a local business and delivering produce to more than 20 schools in Norfolk. Easters expanded again, adding dairy products such as milk, cream and butter to their ever-expanding range. Soon they began to receive requests for more specialist cheeses from the continent, such as brie, goats cheese & camembert.

By 2008 Easters had again outgrown its premises and a bigger site on Northumberland Street in Norwich, consisting of two warehouse units caught the eye of Peter and Will, and this became their new home. In 2016 Peter bought the Northumberland Street site. The business continues to thrive and now occupies five units offering a huge range of produce, delivering six days a week across Norfolk & Suffolk with our fleet of temperature-controlled vehicles.

Even when Covid hit in 2020 and the hospitality industry shut down almost overnight, the work never stopped at Easters. Realising that people stuck at home still needed fresh produce, we began a doorstep delivery service to homeowners – which continues successfully to this day with our ‘Shop’ page, which offers more than 350 products and is ordered through this easy-to-use purpose built website. And now no other wholesaler can match our promise to the hospitality industry of six-day-a-week delivery, which includes bank holidays.

Will became Easters Managing Director – allowing Peter to reduce his day-to- day workload and enjoy some well-earned time on the golf course.