History
From early roots in the 19 th century, Northern Foods formally began life in 1937 as a family-run dairy business. In 1942 the business was registered as Northern Dairies and became a public company in 1956. The company changed its name to Northern Foods in 1972 to reflect the range of food it sold. In the late 1970s, in partnership with one of its customers, Northern Foods pioneered the development of the chilled ready meal and today we continue to be one of the UK’s leading food producers, maintaining a flair for responding to changing consumer eating habits with innovative new food ideas.
| 1880 | Northern Foods had its beginnings in Pape and Co Ltd, a small condensed milk importing and wholesaling business in Hull. |
| 1937 | Business started by Alec Horsley in Holme on Spalding Moor |
| 1942 | Business registered as Northern Dairies |
| 1956 | Northern Dairies becomes a public company |
| 1972 | Company changes name to Northern Foods plc Acquired Park Cake Bakeries, Oldham and Smiths Flour Mills |
| 1977 | Acquired Fox's Biscuits |
| 1978 | Acquired Pork Farms |
| 1981 | Acquired Dorset Chilled Foods |
| 1983 | Opened Lenton Foods ready meals site |
| 1985 | Acquired Bowyers (Wiltshire) Ltd, Elkes Biscuits |
| 1986 | Acquired Batchelors |
| 1987 | Fenland Foods built in Grantham (Ready meals) |
| 1988 | Pennine Foods built in Sheffeld (Ready meals) Acquired Evesham Foods |
| 1990 | Acquired Palethorpes |
| 1991 | Acquired Park Cake Bakeries, Bolton, Trafford Park Bakery, Kara Foods and Grain D’Or, Express Dairies, Eden Vale |
| 1992 | Acquired 24% shareholding in Fletchers Bakery Acquired Matthew Walker |
| 1993 | Acquired Vanderheul, Holland |
| 1995 | Acquired Green Isle Foods |
| 1998 | Acquired Cavaghan and Gray (Ready meals & Seafood) Demerger of Express Dairies Acquired George Payne & Co Closed Lenton Foods |
| 1999 | Acquired remaining stake in Fletchers Bakery Acquired Pyewipe |
| 2000 | Acquired 40% stake in Solway Foods Acquired R & K Wise |
| 2001 | Acquired Lacemont Ltd Acquired Fox's Confectionery |
| 2002 | Sold Vanderheul Sold Ski and Munch Bunch brands |
| 2003 | Acquired remaining 60% stake in Solway Foods Sold Fox's Confectionery Sold Batchelors |
| 2004 | Sold Emile Tissot Sold Eden Vale Sold Cavaghan & Gray Seafood to IFP Holdings Pat O’Driscoll appointed as CEO (March) Company initiates major change programme |
| 2005 | Corporate HQ moves to Leeds Closure of Evesham Foods Closure of London Road site at Cavaghan & Gray, Carlisle Tony Hobson appointed as Chairman following 3 years as Deputy Chairman (July) Jez Maiden appointed as Chief Finance Officer |
| 2006 | Stefan Barden appointed as Executive Director, Chilled division (February) Northern Foods announces radical refocus of business and divestment programme, targeting disposal of its Chilled distribution, Flour milling, Cakes, Speciality bread and Chilled pastry businesses (May) Sold NFT Distribution (August) Closure of Green Isle Boyle site (September) Closed Trafford Park Bakery (November) Announced exchange of contracts for proposed sale of its Flour milling, Cakes, Speciality bread and Chilled pastry businesses (November) |
| 2007 |
Completion of the sale of Speciality bread, Chilled pastry, Cakes and Flour milling to Vision Capital Limited (January)
With the radical refocusing of the business completed, Pat O'Driscoll steps down. Stefan Barden is appointed Chief Executive (February) Acquisition of Ethnic Cuisine ready meals business announced (November) |
| 2008 | Acquired chilled soup manufacturing plant from Baxters (January) |