Leicester and Leicestershire is home to enough food brands to fill the world’s most diverse superstore. Agricultural pedigree and farming tradition puts high-quality ingredients at the heart of our food and drink credentials. Quintessential products from here include Red Leicester and Stilton cheese, Melton Mowbray pork pies and iconic crisps and nuts.
Activities & key Organisations
Significant agricultural and farming businesses and operations include Pilgrims, Britain’s biggest provider of higher welfare pork and sustainable pig farming; Clawson’s Dairy –producer of Blue Stilton, Blue Shropshire and Rutland Red cheeses; Woodhouse Farm, producing Tamworth Pigs.
There are a number of long-established food and drink manufacturers in the area, many with household names such as Walkers. Everard’s the brewers, Pedigree, and United Biscuits, one of the UK’s largest producers of biscuits and snack foods, and Samworth Brothers Ltd – whose products include Ginsters and West Cornwall Pasties, Melton Mowbray Pork Pies, Walkers Sausage Co., and SCI-MX products. Recent growth firms include prize-winning Stilton cheese producers Long Clawson Dairy Ltd, Pukka Pies, Lakshmi & Sons, and Fresh-Pak Chilled Foods.
Altogether there are around 200 F&D manufacturing businesses in the area producing a wide range of products, but with a prevalence of bread and pastry bakeries, meat products and snack food providers. The ethnic diversity of the area is also represented by the sector with a number of producers of spices, sauces and traditional Indian foods.
Other Key Sectors in Leicestershire