Meadow Vale Foods began life in 1989. A joint venture between Lloyds Animal Feeds (LAF) and the Wantling family. Originally set up us as a trading company, based in LAF offices in Oswestry, Meadow Vale Foods identified a gap in the food service sector to supply consistently high quality added value, further processed frozen poultry products. With this in mind, the company rapidly developed manufacturing assets through a series of acquisitions and joint ventures, in Thailand, Brazil Poland Hungry and Slovenia. This approach transformed the business from a trading company to a business with an integrated supply chain, delivering consistently high quality poultry products and a track record of successful innovation.
Fuelled by an ability to identify new opportunities and adapt to changing customer needs, Meadow Vale Foods continued to experience strong growth, in 1993 moving into recently acquired Wardle Roberts Plc (Coachman Foods Factory, Wrexham) and in 1995 moving again to larger offices in Malpas, where it stayed for 14 years, building up a successful market presence with the Goodness Me! and Meadow Vale brands.
By 2009, and with a portfolio of over 90 high quality frozen poultry lines, the company had again outgrown its premises and moved into new purpose built offices at Wilkinson Court, on Wrexham Industrial Estate, Wrexham.
By now Meadow Vale Food was part of a group of businesses that included Country Style, Highbury Poultry, Deemak International and Ready Foods. Today the six companies that comprise the Meadow Vale Holdings Group are all focused on supplying quality protein products to the retail and foodservice market and have a combined turnover of over £170 million. Meadow Vale Foods remains the largest in the group.
Nigel O’Donnel, Managing Director of Meadow Vale Foods commented, “The foundation of Meadow Vale’s success has been built on keeping things simple. Focusing on 3 key principles: Firstly, exceptional product and service quality. Secondly, innovation and agility, adapt quickly to our customers’ changing needs. From the first chicken portion product which fitted perfectly in the meat and 2 veg trends of the 80’s and 90’s to the award winning shredded chicken products, launched last year to meet the needs of the growing demand for Street Food trends, the business continues to innovate. And most importantly, we have the best team of people in the industry, unmatched expertise and commitment.’
Nigel added, “The rate of change in food trends has never been greater, according to recent studies, the UK leads the way in adopting new flavours and trends from around the world. It’s our job to stay at the forefront, providing caterers with everything they need to offer their customers. 2020 will see further exciting innovation in our range to help caterers keep their menus varied and exciting and their customers coming back”.
Nigel continued: “Staying agile and responsive has helped Meadow Vale Foods adapt through market peaks and troughs over the last 30 years. Moving forward, our focus will remain on offering great tasting chicken products, innovating to meet the ever changing food trends and finding ways to continuously improve our service to customers and end-users.”
“We know that our people are our most valuable asset – that’s where our poultry expertise, our customer and market understanding and our energy come from. We’re planning a memorable year. Celebrating with our teams, our customers and our suppliers. We kicked off celebrations at our Wrexham offices, thanks to Ray Barnes of the Delicious Food Company for bringing his Meadow Vale branded mobile catering van to serve the team with our very own great tasting chicken.”
