Our Heritage
Fourayes Farm Est. 1953

John Acock, Phil’s father, was a natural entrepreneur. He was the first to offer a washed and doorstep-delivered potato service for the farm’s local customers; using 10 converted ex War Department Daimler ambulances to make the deliveries. This hugely successful venture was a foretaste of the way many people buy their food shopping today.

The very first Bramley apple was peeled at Fourayes in 1963 using pioneering semi-automatic machinery for paring, coring, slicing and processing called the Pease System. Fourayes was also first to install a state-of-art fully automatic peeling system – the world-renowned Atlas Pacific.

Fourayes was again one of the first to launch a ‘farm gate’ service for direct sales of apples and potatoes. Fourayes was also an early ‘pick-your-own’ provider of summer fruits including strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants, white currants, rhubarb and loganberries. Demand was so great that we had to establish a one-way system in the lanes around the farm!

Enormous investment in the first ultra-low oxygen storage facilities in the Country – a technology that is still industry-leading.

Phil took over from his father, John, as Managing Director and Fourayes pioneered the natural apple dip that prevents browning without the use of preservatives. Today, this dip is the industry standard and is still the preferred method when processing. We also developed the hot-mix pie filling, eliminating the need for further processing by our customers. A brand new state-of-art factory was commissioned with Fourayes becoming the largest UK fruit processor and supplying processed apples, pie fillings and mincemeats

A new dispatch area and pie filling centre were purpose built – further expanding our capabilities.