The story
Cranswick was founded by Jim Bloom, Mike Field and 21 other East Riding of Yorkshire farmers producing pig feed under the name Cranswick Mill in 1972. The company subsequently diversified into food production. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1985.
The company began diversifying in 1988, when it bought a pork butchery business and an abattoir business. Cranswick diversified into pet products with the purchase of bird-seed producer George Buckton in 1993 and Tropical Marine Centre, a leading supplier of live tropical fish and invertebrates, in 1995. In 2009, the company sold its pet and pet products businesses.
In 1995, the company incorporated Cranswick Gourmet Sausage Company, and in 1998 acquired Mr Lazenby's, another premium sausage maker.
In 2007, Cranswick sold Cranswick Mill, its original business, as the pig-feed business had become less profitable over time, and the company focused on prepared foods instead.
The company moved back to breeding and rearing its own British pigs after acquiring East Anglian Pigs Limited and livestock and assets from Dent Ltd in 2013. By 2025, it had nearly one million pigs and more than 500 farms supplying pigs and chickens to its production facilities.
Cranswick has continued to develop through a combination of acquisitions and subsequent organic growth, enabling the company to build upon its philosophy of working with artisan producers to provide premium, market leading products to a much wider audience. As of 2026, the company serves its customers from 23 production facilities across the UK.
The company returned to livestock-feed milling in 2016 with the purchase of CCL Holdings, which included Crown Chicken and Crown Milling. As of 2026, Cranswick has pig- and poultry-feed milling operations in Norfolk, Suffolk, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire.
In July 2016, the company announced it had sold The Sandwich Factory Holdings Ltd for £15 million to Greencore.
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In 2021, Cranswick acquired two small plant-based food businesses for £6.4 million, Ramona's Kitchen and Atlantica UK, to expand its non-meat product range in a fast-growing sector.
In 2022 the company re-entered the pet food market with the acquisition of Grove Pet Foods, a dog-food manufacturer, and in 2023 Cranswick entered into a partnership with Pets at Home to supply that company with dog kibble.
From Wikipedia’s article on Cranswick plc, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4