History

The name Crown Chicken Limited has been in existence since 1993, however its roots go back much further to the pioneering days of the U.K. poultry industry of the early 1950’s.

In 1951 Fred Thacker, father of current Chairman and Managing Director David, began processing a few hens in a small shed only yards away from where today’s modern factory stands.

F.D. Thacker Limited as it was then known, continued to expand throughout the 50’s, 60’s, and 70's processing 40,000 birds a week until Fred sold the business in 1976.

Under the name Harvest Poultry, Fred and David continued to carry out the day to day running of the business for the new owners until Fred’s retirement in 1987.

By 1993, when David was given the opportunity to buy the business back, it had developed into a fully integrated poultry company comprising all the stages of feed milling, breeding, hatching, rearing and processing.

Since 1993 David Thacker and his fellow directors/shareholders, Nigel Armes and Matthew Ward have continued to expand and develop the business into the top quality, modern and efficient company that it is today processing 365,000 birds a week.