History

Chaucer has gone from strength to strength ever since our very first bakery was opened in Kent. Our success is based on quality. Quality product. Quality service. Quality people.

1980

UK: Founded in Charing, Kent, as Knevitts bakery – developed bread recipe for instant soup croutons.

1980

1982

UK: Moved to Ashford, Kent, as Chaucer Foods Ltd – developed soup crouton manufacturing process and started supplying croutons to soup manufacturers around the world.

1982
1988

UK: Moved to Hull and closer to our two main raw material suppliers for bread and oil, at that time.

1988
1993

UK: Purchased Pearts Bakery, in Derby, in order to be able to bake our own bread and remove competitor from the market.

1993
1995

France: Purchased our Saumur freeze-drying plant from Unilever and became involved in freeze-dried vegetables and herbs. We also acquired our spray-dried mushroom powder factory.

1995

1999

Began to supply freeze-dried fruit to Kellogg’s, first in Europe and then the USA.

1999
1999

Began to supply salad croutons in sachets to salad manufacturers.

1999
2000

USA: Established Chaucer Foods Inc.

2000
2001

China: Opened our sales office in Beijing.

2001
2003

China: Established our full Chinese business with an office in Qingdao, factory in Huangdao Free Trade Zone and a holding company in Hong Kong.

2003
2005

China: Opened our new Huangdao sorting centre.

2005
2005

China: Began our Chinese growing programme.

2005
2006

China: Production started at our partner freeze-drying factory in Linyi.

2006
2010

South America: Established Chaucer Foods, Chile.

2010
2012

USA: Opened Chaucer Foods Inc office and Research and Development facility in Battle Creek, Michigan.

2012
2014

USA: Freeze-drying production facilities opened in Forest Grove, Oregon.

2014
2015

USA: Chaucer Foods UK acquired a majority stake in Crunchies Natural Food Co, a leading consumer brand in the US market for freeze-dry.

2015
2015

USA: Crunchies rebranded its logo and packaging to become more aligned with the consumer profile in the freeze-dry market.

2015
2016

Chaucer was acquired by Nagatanien with co-investment from INCJ, Ltd.

2016
2017

USA: Chaucer Foods UK acquired the remaining minority interests in Crunchies Natural Food Co.

2017