Samworth Brothers
Encyclopedia
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
-based food manufacture
Food manufacture
Food manufacture is the process by which food is manufactured.-History:Early food processing techniques were limited by the available food preservation, packaging and transportation. Early food processing mainly involved salting, curing, curdling, drying, pickling and smoking...
r, the owner of Cornish pasty
Pasty
A pasty , sometimes known as a pastie or British pasty in the United States, is a filled pastry case, associated in particular with Cornwall in Great Britain. It is made by placing the uncooked filling on a flat pastry circle, and folding it to wrap the filling, crimping the edge at the side or top...
maker Ginsters
Ginsters
Ginsters is a company based in Callington in Cornwall, in the south-west of England. The biggest selling pasty maker in the UK, it specialises in making mass produced pasties, sausage rolls, sandwiches, pasta bowls and other savoury snacks.-History:...
, and the largest maker of certified Melton Mowbray pork pie
Pork pie
A pork pie is a traditional British meat pie. It consists of roughly chopped pork and pork jelly sealed in a hot water crust pastry . It is normally eaten cold as a snack or as part of a meal.-Types:...
s. It is listed at number four in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
Top Track 250
Top Track 250
The Top Track 250 is a list published by British newspaper The Sunday Times each year ranking Britain's top 250 Mid-market private companies by their turnover over the previous year, from published accounts.- Sunday Times 2010 Top Track 250 :...
.
History
George Samworth was born in 1868, and after joining a group of BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
-based pig buyers started his own pig dealing business in 1896. After his retirement in 1930, his sons Frank and George took over the business. The business collapsed in the period of meat rationing
Rationing
Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, or services. Rationing controls the size of the ration, one's allotted portion of the resources being distributed on a particular day or at a particular time.- In economics :...
of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, but in 1950 Frank bought Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
based butcher
Butcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...
y and pie makers TN Parr. In 1969, the company bought local Nottinghamshire rival Pork Farms
Pork Farms
Pork Farms is a Nottingham-based British producer and distributor of mainly pork-based bakery products.-History:In the early 1940s, recently City and Guilds qualified baker Ken Parr took out a £9,000 loan to set up his own pie shop...
from W. Garfield Weston
W. Garfield Weston
Willard Garfield Weston, OC, , Canadian businessman and philanthropist, led George Weston Limited and its various subsidiaries and associated companies, including Associated British Foods, for half a century and established one of the world's largest food processing and distribution concerns...
, which doubled the size of the business overnight. Frank decided to retire, leaving the business to his sons, with David as Chairman, while Frank Jr. and John Samworth were senior Directors. In 1971, the group was floated on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
as Pork Farms plc, and in 1972 bought rival Holland's Pies
Holland's Pies
Holland's Pies is a manufacturer of pies and puddings based in Baxenden, near Accrington in Lancashire, England. Owned by Northern Foods, the company also produce pasties, sausage rolls and pork pies.- History :...
.
In 1974, Pork Farms and Northern Foods
Northern Foods
Northern Foods Ltd is a British food manufacturer headquartered in Leeds, England. It was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. The company was scheduled to merge with Greencore Group in 2011 to form Essenta Foods, the group being...
created joint venture
Joint venture
A joint venture is a business agreement in which parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity. They exercise control over the enterprise and consequently share revenues, expenses and assets...
company Porkdown Ltd, to supply meat products to French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
foods group Danone. But immediately after production started, Danone undertook a group wide-review, and on deciding to concentrate on their milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
products line, closed down the contract. The resultant losses closed Porkdown, and in 1978 lead to the agreed sale of Pork Farms to Northern Foods, after the Samworth family agreed sale of their shares to the group.
Separately, in 1977, John Samworth had left the business after his purchase of the Ginsters
Ginsters
Ginsters is a company based in Callington in Cornwall, in the south-west of England. The biggest selling pasty maker in the UK, it specialises in making mass produced pasties, sausage rolls, sandwiches, pasta bowls and other savoury snacks.-History:...
Cornish pasties business from the Ginsters family, under his holding company Goran Foods Ltd. In 1985 the name of the Goran Foods was changed to Samworth Brothers, to reflect the involvement of John and David Samworth.
In 1986, Samworth Brothers purchased Cobden Street, Leicester-based Walker & Son Ltd. Having sold their crisps business Walkers
Walkers (snack foods)
Walkers is a British snack food manufacturer operating mainly in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland and to a lesser extent on the European continent. They are best known for manufacturing crisps. They hold 47 per cent of the British crisp market...
in 1971 to US-based Standard Brands
PepsiCo
PepsiCo Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Purchase, New York, United States, with interests in the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of grain-based snack foods, beverages, and other products. PepsiCo was formed in 1965 with the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company...
, their pie making business was now the largest distributor of Melton Mowbray pork pies
Pork pie
A pork pie is a traditional British meat pie. It consists of roughly chopped pork and pork jelly sealed in a hot water crust pastry . It is normally eaten cold as a snack or as part of a meal.-Types:...
. This was added to in 1992 after the purchase of the fire-destroyed Melton Mowbray based pie maker Dickinson & Morris, which was refurbished in a traditional style.
Present
Samworth Brothers today are both a multi-line food manufacturer covering:- Meat products - a range of own-brand sausage products made by Walkers Midshire
- Sandwiches - after TescoTescoTesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...
approached the business in 1993, they opened the Walkers Charnwood owned Bradgate Bakery to produce own-label sandwichSandwichA sandwich is a food item, typically consisting of two or more slices of :bread with one or more fillings between them, or one slice of bread with a topping or toppings, commonly called an open sandwich. Sandwiches are a widely popular type of lunch food, typically taken to work or school, or...
es for a variety of supermarkets. This was supplemented in 1994 by the establishment of the Ginsters sandwich range. Further added to in 1998 with the opening of the Melton Foods bakery, and in 2006 with the opening of the Sandwich Centre to provide van-based distribution into central London - Ready Meals - produced by Tamar Foods and Kettleby Foods
- Deserts - Blueberry Foods produces ambient and chilled deserts
- Saladworks - conceived as a filling-production facility, it now also produces own brand ready-meals
After John retired in 2002, and David in 2005, the business is now chaired by non-family member Nick Linney.
Awards
- BSA Award: David Samworth (2007)
- Sandwich Manufacturer of the Year: 1995/1996 (Joint with Toft Foods); 1998 (Joint with Gibsons); 1999, 2007