Best of the West – Proudly local, perennially Westcountry
Some businesses are built on spreadsheets. Ours was built on a belief — that the finest food comes from knowing exactly where it comes from, and caring deeply about the people who produce it.
The Whitechurch family have been at the heart of food service in the South West for over two decades. In 2003 they acquired J&R Foodservice, a Devon-based wholesaler with strong roots in the region, and set about building something they could be genuinely proud of — a business that combined real scale with real values.
Over the years that followed, the family grew J&R into one of the South West’s most respected food service operations, delivering frozen, chilled, ambient and fresh produce to hotels, restaurants, pubs, hospitals, care homes and cafĂ©s across the region from their depot in Exeter.
The Best of the West Story
But the real turning point came in 2014, when J&R acquired Best of the West Foods — a beloved West Country brand built on sourcing outstanding produce from local growers and producers and delivering it to the quality outlets that cared most about provenance. From farm shops and delicatessens to prestigious London accounts, Best of the West had built a loyal following that stretched from Devon to the Cotswolds, the New Forest and beyond. It was a perfect fit. Same values. Same geography. Same passion for quality.
In 2018 the family continued to grow, acquiring Milfords, strengthening the group’s fresh fruit and vegetable offering and deepening relationships with growers across the region.
Then in 2025 came the acquisition of Chad’s Food Smith, based in Bude, further expanding the group’s reach into Cornwall and bringing new expertise and product ranges into the family.
Today, the Best of the West Food Group is proud to represent the very best of what Devon and the wider South West has to offer — a family business, built over two decades, with genuine roots in the region and an unshakeable commitment to quality, provenance and the people who produce our food.
Real food. Real people. Real West Country.
The next generation of the J&R family is fully invested into Best of the West. Alongside the families behind Chadds and Milfords, we form a proud Westcountry partnership, committed to delivering quality, reliability and service you can depend on.
