Our History
Our success is based on quality.
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.
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.
1988
UK
Moved to Hull and closer to our two main raw material suppliers for bread and oil, at that time.
1993
UK
Purchased Pearts Bakery, in Derby, in order to be able to bake our own bread and remove competitor from the market.
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.
1999
Europe and USA
Began to supply freeze-dried fruit to Kellogg’s, first in Europe and then the USA.
1999
Europe and USA
Began to supply salad croutons in sachets to salad manufacturers.
2000
USA
Established Chaucer Foods Inc.
2001
China
Opened our sales office in Beijing.
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.
2005
China
Opened our new Huangdao sorting centre.
2005
China
Began our Chinese growing programme.
2006
China
Production started at our partner freeze-drying factory in Linyi.
2010
South America
Established Chaucer Foods, Chile.
2012
USA
Opened Chaucer Foods Inc office and Research and Development facility in Battle Creek, Michigan.
2014
USA
Freeze-drying production facilities opened in Forest Grove, Oregon.
2015
USA
Chaucer Foods acquired a majority stake in Crunchies Natural Food Co, a leading consumer brand in the US market for freeze-dry.
2015
USA
Crunchies rebranded its logo and packaging to become more aligned with the consumer profile in the freeze-dry market.
2016
Global
Chaucer was acquired by Nagatanien with co-investment from INCJ, Ltd.
2017
USA
Chaucer Foods acquired the remaining minority interests in Crunchies Natural Food Co.
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See CareersOur Mission
Our mission is to deliver sustainable growth for all stakeholders by providing product solutions that create value for our customers.
See Our Mission