Product type Food Previous owners Nestlé Previous owner Nestlé | Introduced 1706 Founded 1819 | |
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Website www.crosseandblackwell.co.uk (UK)
www.crosseandblackwell.com (NA) | ||
Crosse & Blackwell is a British food production company which has been in existence since 1706.
Originally trading under the Jackson brand and then West and Wyatt, the company was purchased in 1830 by Edmund Crosse and Thomas Blackwell. Over the years, the brand has been applied to various varieties of canned, dried and bottled grocery products, including condiments and Christmas pudding.
In 1960, Nestlé bought the Crosse & Blackwell Group and developed the name across a number of food categories worldwide. The acquisition increased Nestlé's output (adding 11 factories) and included the largest fish-canning factory in the UK (located in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire). Crosse & Blackwell employed 4,700 workers in production and 1,900 other employees and salesman at the time of the acquisition.
However, the company divested the Crosse & Blackwell operations in 2002. Today ownership of the Crosse & Blackwell brand is divided between The J.M. Smucker Company in North America and Princes Group in Europe, having previously been owned by Premier Foods.