Bidfresh combines Henson Meats and Campbell Brothers

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Henson Meats will now trade as part of Campbell Brothers

Bidfresh-owned Henson Meats and Campbell Brothers will now trade under one brand in a bid to expand the reach of both businesses across Britain.

The combined business — Campbell Brothers — will now deliver across England, Scotland and Wales operating from two sites with distribution links through their sister Bidfresh businesses nationwide. 

Neil McCole, UK Sales Director for Campbell Brothers said: “Operating as a single, national brand, with consistency in product sourcing, codes and pricing means that Campbell Brothers can support the broad range of menu styles that catering operators now offer.  

Long-established relationships 

"At the same time, we are able to maintain our long-established local relationships with individual customers through our local depots. At a time when chefs skills are at a premium, Campbell Brothers is now better positioned than ever to support our customers.” 

Campbell Brothers is part of Bidfresh and sits alongside the Direct Seafoods business and specialist fresh produce supplier Oliver Kay.  

Bidfresh managing director Brian Hall added: “We now have three genuinely national brands fully focused on the needs of the foodservice market, at one of the most challenging periods the hospitality sector has ever faced.” 

Meeting 21st century needs 

The enlarged business combines the traditions of Campbell Brothers, founded in Edinburgh in 1902, and Henson, established in Smithfield Market in 1895, while ‘meeting the 21st century menu needs of businesses across the full range of the catering sector’. 

The business already supplies over 2,000 chefs and operators nationwide and will use its new national status to focus on growing sales to larger groups and multiple operators. 

Meanwhile, potato firm Tuber Group has acquired fresh produce processor MyFresh from William Jackson Food Group for an undisclosed sum. 

The sale included MyFresh’s BRC Grade AA awarded vegetable processing facility in Chicksands, Bedforshire, which includes an anaerobic digestion plant on site, generating electricity from vegetable waste.