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OUR HISTORY
The Queenswood story began in 1977 when founders Roger and Jill Cooze started packing Bran and Wheatgerm in their kitchen.
Discover the Queenswood journey below.
Roger identified demand for these products when delivering organic potatoes to health food shops. He then purchased Queenswood Farm, Bridgwater and converted one of the farm sheds into a packing operation. The business grew rapidly moving into nuts, fruits and seeds which were packed down into pre-packs for customer’s needs. Gill’s brother Alan Baker then joined Queenswood and started wholesaling branded products to Natural Foods customers across the south of England. With help from the family including Gill and Alan’s father the business grew quickly installing a packing machine for pre-packed products at the Farm. In 1984 Roger bought some land in Robins Drive, the old home of the “Robins” Bridgwater Football club and purpose built a new premises.
The businesses’ primary objective has always been commodity trading, the range expanded and evolved with Roger bringing in a trader and in 1987 a larger production line with a new packing machine was set up enabling Queenswood to pack down more bulk commodities into smaller pack sizes for retail customers.
Over the next fifteen years the product range grew to over 5000 products and along with a growing commodity trading business and prepack range the business required additional space. In 2006 Queenswood Natural Foods moved to Bristol Road, Bridgwater our now headquarters. The branded range grew into the chilled and frozen categories and bulk trading and prepacks produced in house continued to flourish.
As Roger, Jill and Alan approached retirement they wanted to sell the business to a family owned and run organisation that maintained the Queenswood name, businesses ethos and passion for the Natural Foods industry. In 2014 Hunts Food Group purchased Queenswood to develop its Natural Food offering and increase the diversity of its range. The branded products were amalgamated into Hunts Food Group’s distribution enabling customers five days a week delivery across the South of England.
Queenswood Natural Foods then focused on prepacks, bulk trading and in 2019 launched the Zero Waste project with the aim of reducing plastic usage as far as possible. Dispensers are installed in retail sites, filled with Queenswood products and customers weigh out products into paper packaging, which is massively advantageous environmentally. The business still embodies Roger Cooze’s original vision of selling high quality Natural Products to retail customers in the Natural Food industry!
Fun Fact: Sue Thompson and Sandy Barnes were two of Queenswood first employees back in 1985 and 1987 respectively and our still part of our production team today