Parts Town UK and ENSE are celebrating a very special milestone.
When Parts Town UK (then First Choice Group) joined our community, the London 2012 Olympics were in full swing. The UK was still part of the European Union. Some of our current members hadn’t even left high school.
This puts into perspective how long Parts Town UK has been a part of ENSE — and an integral part at that.
August 2nd, 2026 marked 14 years to the day since the company officially came on board, and it holds the distinction of being our longest-serving member.
Today, Parts Town UK is the country’s leading distributor of OEM spare parts, accessories and consumables for Catering, Refrigeration, Coffee, Laundry, and Vending.
We sat down with Julian Fisher, Head of Marketing at Parts Town UK, to reflect on this unique achievement.
How does it feel to celebrate this milestone?
It feels amazing. I had a reminder in my calendar that it’s been 14 years in ENSE, which feels very surreal and is definitely something worth celebrating.
We were the first company to join ENSE, back when it was a completely new concept, and it’s just grown and grown over the years.
I’ve been with the company for nine years, and one of the first gigs I had at First Choice, as it was known then, was to host one of the annual Partnership Summits. I picked up on the strong sense of collaboration in the room straight away and was able to appreciate what an industry leader First Choice was. It was a real “Wow!” moment.
If you were new to the industry or new to ENSE, as I was, you never felt it was a traditional buying consortium. It was more of a community than a ‘hard-sell’ environment. You’d meet and mingle professionally yet so naturally.
Why has Parts Town UK been an ENSE member for so long?
We get the dual benefit of being face-to-face with customers and other suppliers. I don’t think the latter benefit is seen enough from the outside, but we get to interact with so many great suppliers in this community and that’s one of the main things we love about it.
We’re in the unique position that we sell spare parts. Being in ENSE gives us an opportunity to talk about not just spare parts, but all the other things we do. We can educate our customers on the various services we provide whilst speaking to other suppliers in the group.
Many of our manufacturer partnerships started within ENSE, whereby we’d sell their products for them, and some of these are exclusive partnerships. These collaborations are a big reason why we’ve been an ENSE member for so many years.
And, of course, we’ve seen a lot of longevity with our customers. By meeting them through ENSE, we’ve been able to build relationships based on loyalty and trust, which are massively important in any business relationship.
How have you seen ENSE and the wider foodservice equipment industry evolve since you’ve been part of this community?
Technology and innovation have come a long way in our industry over the last 10 to 15 years.
ENSE was one of the first innovators to host a digital summit. This was in part due to COVID, but more importantly, it demonstrated innovative thinking on Bob and Ben’s part.
The members loved the digital summit as well as the various Zoom meetings and webinars, and we passed this feedback on to Bob and Ben, who’ve continued with them ever since.
These virtual events are a great way to meet and interact with customers, particularly ones you may not see at physical events.
Because we sell spare parts, we want to speak to service managers, but often the service managers aren’t able to attend the annual ENSE Partnership Summit. However, the digital meetings are great because they give us the chance to speak with the service people and day-to-day parts buyers. We can then get our customer experience and sales managers to meet them one-to-one via Zoom calls.
This online format has grown a lot over the years, and we find the Wednesday webinars invaluable. We haven’t got a fancy machine to sell, so when we host the webinars, we try to make them fun and light-hearted, and we use them to sell our training courses and get in front of engineers. We couldn’t have done any of that without the technology and innovation that ENSE has harnessed.
What would you say to other foodservice equipment suppliers who aren’t part of ENSE?
I can’t recommend it highly enough.
The personal touch you get from Bob, Ben, and the whole ENSE team is fantastic.
Left to right: Ben Sherriff, Business Development Director, ENSE; Julian Fisher, Head of Marketing, Parts Town UK; Neil Vincent, Head of Commercial, Parts Town; Bob Adams, Managing Director, ENSE
They’ll ring you for all manner of things, whether it’s advice, industry updates, or just a general chat. You feel seen and heard and this is invaluable for any buying consortium member.
The group only continues to grow. The turnout at the ENSE Partnership Summit is huge, and I’d recommend it to not only customers and dealers, but suppliers as well.
I think some people in our industry are tentative about joining because they’re worried about the presence of rivals in the group, but I know first-hand that there’s always a piece of the pie that you can take.
Long live the next 14 years!
What has been behind Parts Town UK’s success, and what does the future hold?
We’re a large company, but we’ve never lost that sense of family and community spirit. We haven’t forgotten where we came from.
When we joined ENSE 14 years ago, we were a small company, as ENSE was, and we’ve grown with the group. Despite the fact we’re now a large company, we’re still the same grounded people we were back then.
Our business is defined by longevity across the board. I’m lucky enough to have been with Parts Town UK for nine years, but some of our team have been here much longer. Neil Vincent, our Head of Commercial, has been here for over 20 years, and many of our staff members who attend ENSE meetings have tenures of over 10 years.
Parts Town UK’s big differentiator is down-to-earth, excellent customer service. This underpins our entire ethos and is key to everything we do.
Enquire about joining ENSE today
We’re honoured to have Parts Town UK and many other esteemed foodservice equipment businesses in our buying consortium.
If you’re a supplier or distributor looking to get in front of the right customers, build stronger relationships, and win more business, ENSE can help you do this.
We’re the UK’s premier catering equipment buying consortium, and the platform we offer allows commercial catering equipment suppliers to gain more traction with distributors and grow their market share. It also empowers the distributors to gain more knowledge which they can use to generate more business.
The best time to join ENSE was yesterday; the next best time is today.
Find out more about us and how we can help you by contacting us at 07775 643557, 07500 778457, or [email protected].