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.
UK: Founded in Charing, Kent, as Knevitts bakery – developed bread recipe for instant soup croutons.
UK: Moved to Ashford, Kent, as Chaucer Foods Ltd – developed soup crouton manufacturing process and started supplying croutons to soup manufacturers around the world.
UK: Moved to Hull and closer to our two main raw material suppliers for bread and oil, at that time.
UK: Purchased Pearts Bakery, in Derby, in order to be able to bake our own bread and remove competitor from the market.
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.
Began to supply freeze-dried fruit to Kellogg’s, first in Europe and then the USA.
Began to supply salad croutons in sachets to salad manufacturers.
USA: Established Chaucer Foods Inc.
China: Opened our sales office in Beijing.
China: Established our full Chinese business with an office in Qingdao, factory in Huangdao Free Trade Zone and a holding company in Hong Kong.
China: Opened our new Huangdao sorting centre.
China: Began our Chinese growing programme.
China: Production started at our partner freeze-drying factory in Linyi.
South America: Established Chaucer Foods, Chile.
USA: Opened Chaucer Foods Inc office and Research and Development facility in Battle Creek, Michigan.
USA: Freeze-drying production facilities opened in Forest Grove, Oregon.
USA: Chaucer Foods UK acquired a majority stake in Crunchies Natural Food Co, a leading consumer brand in the US market for freeze-dry.
USA: Crunchies rebranded its logo and packaging to become more aligned with the consumer profile in the freeze-dry market.
Chaucer was acquired by Nagatanien with co-investment from INCJ, Ltd.
USA: Chaucer Foods UK acquired the remaining minority interests in Crunchies Natural Food Co.