Palethorpe's is a British producer of cooked meat and pastry products and was particularly well known for its branded
sausage
A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders.
...
s. Founded in 1852, it was bought by the Bibby Group in 1969 and then by Haverhill Meat Products (a
J Sainsbury
J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales.
Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company ...
and
Canada Packers
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is a Canadian consumer packaged meats company. Its head office is in Mississauga, Ontario.
History
Maple Leaf Foods is the result of the 1991 merger between Canada Packers and Maple Leaf Mills.
Canada Packers was f ...
joint venture) before becoming part of the
Northern Foods
Northern Foods is a British food manufacturer headquartered in Wakefield, England. It was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the original FTSE 100 Index. The company is credited, together with Marks & Spencer, ...
Chilled Foods division in 1991. Palethorpes was then part of
Pork Farms
Pork Farms is a Nottingham-based British producer and distributor of mainly pork-based bakery products. The company grew from a pie shop founded in 1931, and was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1971. After several sales and amalgamations, ...
before being taken over by the addo food group.
History
Henry Palethorpe was born in 1829 in the
Black Country
The Black Country is an area of the West Midlands county, England covering most of the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall. Dudley and Tipton are generally considered to be the centre. It became industrialised during its ro ...
. Setting up business as a
butcher
A butcher is a person who may Animal slaughter, slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesal ...
in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
in the 1850s, he realised that the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
was flooding the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
market with cheap
bacon
Bacon is a type of salt-cured pork made from various cuts, typically the belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central ingredient (e.g., the bacon, lettuce, and tomato sand ...
and
pork
Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the domestic pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BCE.
Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved; ...
.
[
Palethorpe decided to move into value-added ]meat processing
The meat-packing industry (also spelled meatpacking industry or meat packing industry) handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of meat from animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock. Poultry is generally no ...
products, specialising in sausage
A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders.
...
s, with which he had success. The company moved to Tipton
Tipton is an industrial town in the West Midlands in England with a population of around 38,777 at the 2011 UK Census. It is located northwest of Birmingham.
Tipton was once one of the most heavily industrialised towns in the Black Country, w ...
in 1896, claiming at the time to be the world's largest sausage producer. The company expanded during World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, supplying canned meat products to the British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
.[ However, it lost market share during and after ]World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, with restrictions on meat sales due to the amount of meat that was being imported; this gave an advantage to fishmonger
A fishmonger (historically fishwife for female practitioners) is someone who sells raw fish and seafood. Fishmongers can be wholesalers or retailers and are trained at selecting and purchasing, handling, gutting, boning, filleting, displaying, me ...
s such as Mac Fisheries
Mac Fisheries was a branded United Kingdom retail chain of fishmongers, founded by William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, the co-founder with his brother of Lever Brothers, which later merged to become Unilever.
Background
Isle of Lewis
In hi ...
, who boomed during the war.
By the 1960s, with the development of supermarket
A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...
s in the United Kingdom, the company was experiencing additional pressure. In 1967 Palethorpe's constructed a purpose built factory employing 400 people in Market Drayton
Market Drayton is a market town and electoral ward in the north of Shropshire, England, close to the Cheshire and Staffordshire borders. It is on the River Tern, and was formerly known as "Drayton in Hales" (c. 1868) and earlier simply as "Dray ...
, at a cost of £650,000.[ This resulted in the closure of the ]Tipton
Tipton is an industrial town in the West Midlands in England with a population of around 38,777 at the 2011 UK Census. It is located northwest of Birmingham.
Tipton was once one of the most heavily industrialised towns in the Black Country, w ...
factory in 1968, after which it was demolished and redeveloped as low-rise council flat
A council house is a form of British public housing built by local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing a number of council houses and other amenities like schools and shops. Construction took place mainly from 1919 a ...
s.
The high cost of building the new factory saw Palethorpes suffer financial difficulties and in 1969 the business was bought by the Bibby Agricultural Group. In 1980 the business again changed hands being bought by Haverhill Meat Products, a joint venture company owned equally by J Sainsbury and Canada Packers. In 1985 J Sainsbury produced the world's first Mycoprotein (later to become Quorn) product, a Savoury Pie produced at its Palethorpes factory The Company ceased manufacturing and selling Palethorpes branded products in 1986 in order to concentrate on its own label business. The Palethorpes brand name was reborn briefly in the mid-1990s as a value brand for Sainsbury's pies and pasties, although it is no longer used.
Palethorpes became a part of Northern Foods
Northern Foods is a British food manufacturer headquartered in Wakefield, England. It was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the original FTSE 100 Index. The company is credited, together with Marks & Spencer, ...
, at that time the UK's largest manufacturer of meat and savoury products, in 1991. It became part of the Chilled Foods division known as Premium Savoury Products. In January 2007 Northern Foods sold most of its Savoury Pastry business to Vision Capital
Vision Capital is an international investor with a flexible capital approach to investing in mid-size private companies that has its headquarters in Western Europe and North America.
The company specializes in both the dynamics of private equit ...
; this included Pork Farms, Bowyers and Palethorpes.
Now rebranded by Vision Capital as Addo Food Group, the Market Drayton plant presently employs 700 people. The company supplies foods to leading retailers to be sold under their own brand names. Customer companies include Asda
Asda Stores Ltd. () (often styled as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain. It is headquartered in Leeds, England. The company was founded in 1949 when the Asquith family merged their retail business with the Associated Dairies company of York ...
and Sainsbury's.
References
Links
Addo Food Group Website
Addo Food Group Summary including information on the Palethorpes Bakery
Palethorpes Tipton Factory 1935
Brief History of Palethorpes from the J. Sainsbury Journal
News of Palethorpes sale by Northern Foods in 2006
National Archives article about favourite festive foods from the past including Palethorpes Sausages
{{DEFAULTSORT:Palethorpes
Companies based in Shropshire
British sausages
Northern Foods
History of Birmingham, West Midlands
Food and drink companies established in 1850
Food and drink companies disestablished in 2001
Meat companies of the United Kingdom