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Company type | Limited company |
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Industry | Food |
Founded | 1896 |
Headquarters | Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire and Callington, Cornwall, United Kingdom |
Key people | Life President
Group Holdings Board
Group Executive Board
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Products | Meat products, Melton Mowbray pork pies, Sandwiches, Meals |
Owner | Private, various |
Number of employees | 2,000+ |
Subsidiaries | Ginsters, Walker & Son, Dickinson & Morris, Soreen and SCI-MX Nutrition |
Samworth Brothers is a British food manufacturer which produces a range of chilled and ambient foods, both own-label and branded. It is the owner of Cornish pasty maker Ginsters and malt loaf manufacturer Soreen, and is also known as a maker of certified Melton Mowbray pork pies.
George Samworth was born in 1868, and after joining a group of Birmingham-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. In 1950, Frank bought Nottingham based butchery and pie makers TN Parr, followed in 1969 by the acquisition of local Nottinghamshire rival Pork Farms 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 as Pork Farms plc, and in 1972 bought rival Holland's Pies. In 1978, Pork Farms was acquired by Northern Foods.
Separately, in 1977, John Samworth had left the business after his purchase of the Ginsters Cornish pasties business from the Ginsters family, under his holding company Goran Foods Ltd. In 1985 the name of Goran Foods was changed to Samworth Brothers, to reflect the involvement of John and David Samworth.
In 1986, Samworth Brothers purchased Leicester-based Walker & Son Ltd. Having sold their Walkers crisps business in 1971 to US-based Standard Brands, their pie-making business was now the largest distributor of Melton Mowbray pork pies. This business 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.
In 2014, the Group bought the malt loaf brand, Soreen, and in 2015, the sports nutrition brand, SCI-MX.
In 2017, Samworth Brothers bought the West Cornwall Pasty Company, a chain of fast food outlets which at that time had 33 shops and 19 outlets at motorway service stations. [2]
In June 2024, Samworth Brothers Manton Wood voluntarily recalled 15 sandwich and wrap products containing vegetable leaf following an outbreak of Shigatoxigenic E. coli in the United Kingdom in major supermarket chains. The recalls were done as a precautionary step, as no testing has yet indicated traces of E. coli in tested products.
The business is chaired by non-family member Nick Linney.
Samworth Brothers manufactures the following product lines:
Food to go: including sandwiches, wraps, salads, pasties and mini malt loaves.
Savoury pastry: including Ginsters and the West Cornwall Pasty Company, as well as pork pie brands Dickinson & Morris and Walker & Son. The Group is a member of the Cornish Pasty Association and the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association.
Meals: a range of 'heat and serve' meals for major UK retailers and branded suppliers.
Sausages and cooked meats: Walker Sausage Company and Walkers Deli make a range of premium sausages, hams and pates.
Sports nutrition: SCI-MX makes a range of high protein powders, capsules, snack bars and shakes.
Samworth Brothers Supply Chain provides temperature controlled distribution services to companies within the Samworth Brothers Group, as well as to external food manufacturers, retailers and other distributors.
Westward Laboratories is a food testing lab in Cornwall which provides microbiological and chemical testing for the food industry.
Since 2007, the company has run the Charity Challenge, a fundraising triathlon-style event that takes place every two years.
In 2013, the Group launched the Samworth Brothers Sports Opportunity Fund which supports community sports projects close to Samworth Brothers locations. Between 2013 and 2019, it gave £1.9 million to 160 sports projects.
Since 2017, Samworth Brothers has bought all its grid-supplied electricity from certified renewable sources. In an effort to tackle food waste, the Group is a signatory to the IGD/WRAP Food Waste Reduction Roadmap and to the Champions 12.3 pledge – an international food-waste-reduction initiative.
Samworth Brothers also has group-wide initiatives in place aimed at reducing impact, reusing resources, recycling materials and adopting recovery principles.
At the time of introduction of a National Living Wage in April 2016, Samworth Brothers came under widespread criticism for removing premium pay rates in order to pay the new minimum wage. Joan Ryan, Labour Party MP for Enfield North, stated in Parliament:
Bradgate Bakery is part of the group [Samworth Brothers] that owns famous brands that we all enjoy, such as Ginsters pies and Soreen loaf, but the pay that it is offering staff is a lot less tasty than its food. Bradgate has written to all its Leicestershire staff, detailing changes to their wages. Most shop-floor employees at Bradgate were earning just over £6.70 an hour before 1 April, so the introduction of the national living wage should have made quite a difference for them, but Bradgate, like B&Q, has found an opportunity to save money.
[Bradgate] has changed staff terms and conditions to phase out double pay for Sundays by 2019. That means that while employees on the national minimum wage earned £13.78 per hour on a Sunday last month, by 2019 they will earn just £9 per hour. That is the national living wage according to Bradgate Bakery. Extra pay for night shifts, Saturdays and overtime are also being scaled back. In sum, Bradgate workers are being sold a lie: they are told that their pay is increasing, but what the Government are giving with one hand, Bradgate is taking with another. According to one very worried worker who approached my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden, these cuts will affect the whole range of shifts that run in the factories. That means that by 2018 a production operative on night shift will be paid £2,778 less a year, while a night shift team leader will be paid £344 less. [3]
Mark and David Samworth, who died in 2022, [4] were regular donors to the Conservative Party. It was reported in 2015 that donations since 2002 by the Samworths, and others connected with the company, totalled nearly £650,000. [5] [6]
Mark Samworth was invited to one of the Conservative Party's "leaders' group meals" in 2016, according to documents released by the party and analysed by the Morning Star. These "cash-for-access" meals require a minimum payment of £50,000 to the Conservative Party. [7]
Leicestershire is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warwickshire to the south-west, and Staffordshire to the west. The city of Leicester is the largest settlement and the county town.
A pasty or Cornish pasty is a British baked pastry, a variety of which is particularly associated with Cornwall, but has spread all over the British Isles, and elsewhere through the Cornish diaspora. It consists of an uncooked filling, typically meat and vegetables, baked in a folded and crimped shortcrust pastry circle.
A pork pie is a traditional English meat pie, usually served either at room temperature or cold. It consists of a filling of roughly chopped pork and pork fat, surrounded by a layer of jellied pork stock in a hot water crust pastry. It is normally eaten as a snack or with a salad.
Ginsters is a company based in Callington in Cornwall, in the south-west of England. The largest pasty maker in the UK in turnover, it specialises in making mass-produced pasties, sausage rolls, sandwiches, pasta bowls and other savoury snacks. Since 1977, it has been owned by Mark and David Samworth.
The Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association is a group of pork pie manufacturers in the Melton Mowbray area of England, UK. The association was set up in 1998 with the aim of helping to protect the Melton Mowbray pork pie recipe.
Malt loaf is a type of sweet leavened bread made with malt extract as a primary ingredient. It has a chewy texture and often contains raisins. It is usually eaten sliced and spread with butter for tea. Malt flour is sometimes used to supplement the flavour.
Lincolnshire sausages are a distinctive variety of pork sausage developed in and associated with the English county of Lincolnshire.
There are many geographically indicated foods of the United Kingdom. In British cuisine, there is a custom of naming foodstuffs with reference to their place of origin. However, there are other reasons for this practice; Scotch egg, which was invented in London and Dover sole which indicates where they were landed, for example.
Holland's Pies is a manufacturer of pies and puddings based in Baxenden, near Accrington in Lancashire, England. Owned by 2 Sisters Food Group, the company also produces pasties and sausage rolls.
Soreen is a brand of malt loaf and is owned by Mark and David Samworth, a food manufacturing company based in Leicestershire.
Higgidy is a fresh food manufacturer based in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, England. The company produces a range of pies, quiches, tortillas and rolls. It was co-founded by Camilla Stephens and James Foottit in 2003. The name of the company originates from an early description of the uneven appearance of their pies by a visiting child.
Mr. Pastie ("PASS-tee") is a brand name pasty, a meat-and-potato turnover product. It is marketed by entrepreneur Garnet T. Sleep, Jr., owner of Real English Foods, Inc., based in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania. Mr. Pastie is based on a traditional Welsh/Cornish recipe and has been called "the original fast food." It has been sold in US military commissaries, High's Dairy Stores, Weis Markets Wal-Mart, and 7-Eleven convenience stores.
Cornish cuisine encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with Cornwall and the Cornish people. It has been heavily influenced by the geography of the county as well as its social history.
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, since 2017 the brand has been owned by Lloyds Development Capital.
Palethorpe's is a British producer of cooked meat and pastry products and was particularly well known for its branded sausages. Founded in 1852, it was bought by the Bibby Group in 1969 and then by Haverhill Meat Products before becoming part of the Northern Foods Chilled Foods division in 1991. Palethorpes was then part of Pork Farms before being taken over by the Addo Food Group in turn owned by PAI Partners.
Bowyers was a company known for the manufacture of meat products, including a brand of sausages, which was based in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England. The company was acquired by Northern Foods in 1985, and passed through two other owners until the Trowbridge factory was closed in 2007. The brand is used by Addo Food Group for ranges of sausage rolls, pork pies and quiches.
Ferguson Plarre's Bakehouse is a family owned and operated bakery business based in Melbourne, Australia. The business began as two separate entities with the families coming together to form Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses in 1980. Ferguson Plarre now has 86 stores across Victoria. In 2012, members of the Plarre family bought out the Ferguson's stake and the business remains owned and operated by the Plarre family with Steve Plarre as CEO. There are only a small number of company owned stores now as the majority of stores are run by franchisees.
West Cornwall Pasty Company is a fast food chain in the United Kingdom specialising in making and selling pasties. The company was established in 1998 and has been owned by Mark and David Samworth since 2017.
Saxby Bros Limited was a food manufacturing company based in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, who manufactured pork pies, delicatessen, meat and pastry products. In 2007, the company was taken over by General Mills, which led to its closure a year later. The factory is now demolished and redeveloped for housing.