John Pickett, Managing Director founded Crown Foods in 1977, and is now a longstanding family business which is now celebrating 40 years this year. It’s a business to be proud of, one that creates a huge and innovative range of frozen and ambient food & one that is passionate about food, their team & their customers. The ‘Crown Family’ is an extraordinary team of people with expertise in marketing, design, export, finance, food service, logistics, retail, sales and trading. Crown has pioneering products to boost meals which are served in millions of meals each year.

John saw a gap in the UK market in 1977, and was the first person to begin importing small Frozen chicken from France something that was not being done before. From there the company expanded into Holland and Germany to supply the many companies in the UK food industry, from supermarkets to food processors and distributors.

“Together with our customers we are committed to changing food culture -
making healthy and high quality meals accessible, appetising and the industry standard for years to come!”
John Pickett, MD at Crown Foods Ltd

Crown began to add to its range, and began supplying the Airlines and Education sectors with a range of frozen cooked chicken, which became hugely successful. In 2004 they began supplying MSC Certified Sustainable Fish into Foodservice and then followed on with the launch of their Simply Not Fried Chicken Range in 2007. Crown Foods were thrilled to win the LACA Supplier of the Year Award in 2009, following up in 2013 with LACA Supplier of the Year Nominee. In 2015, after identifying a need for Gluten Free Products, they developed new and innovative products which did not compromise on taste, and that are inclusive for all to enjoy. 2016 saw the launch of MSC Education Days where they were proud to work with MSC on sustainably sourcing fish and they were also shortlisted for The Innovation Award at Assist.

2017 has been an exciting and successful year to date, firstly being announced as the 2017 Winner of the British Frozen Food Federation Foodservice Gold Award for Best Main Course/Meal Centre of Plate with its MSC Gluten Free Bubble Coated Salmon Fillet. Then following on with LACA South West Finalist Nomination and Nominee for LACA’s 2017 Supplier of the Year Award.

All of these successes and so many more, have all been made possible by John and the Crown Foods team, who have bought passion, enthusiasm and vision to the company, allowing Crown Foods to move with the times offering a wide and varied range of food across the Foodservice and Retail sectors.

40 years is definitely something to celebrate, and looking forward to another amazing 40 years!