Ross Group
| Private | |
| Industry | Fish processing |
| Founded | 1920 |
| Founder | Thomas Ross |
| Headquarters | Grimsby |
|
Area served
|
UK |
| Products | Fish products |
The Ross Group was a British food company founded in Grimsby, England in 1920.
The Ross brand remains common in the retail frozen fish market. David Ross, the co-founder and significant shareholder in mobile telephone retailer The Carphone Warehouse, is the grandson of J Carl Ross.
Originally a small family-owned fish merchanting company, Ross diversified into trawling, fish processing, and later into food processing in general, expanding into factory farming to become the largest chicken producer in Europe by 1962 via a series of takeovers. The company bought out rival Young's in 1959 and, after a series of takeovers and mergers and de-mergers, forms part of what is now Young's Bluecrest, the UK's largest company in the frozen fish sector. The company's history is also Grimsby's industrial history.
It was registered as Thomas Ross Ltd in 1920 in Grimsby. In 1929, Carl Ross became chairman and managing director when his father retired.
By the outbreak of World War II, the company operated fish merchanting branches in Leeds, Leicester, and Fleetwood as well as its Grimsby base.
Starting with a small fleet of four fishing vessels in the 1930s, Ross diversified into trawling from 1934. The acquisition of a major shareholding in Trawlers Grimsby in 1944 was followed by several other fishing fleets such as the Queen Steam Fishing Company. In 1956 Carl Ross took over G F Sleight Ltd, which employed 20 of the best trawler skippers in Britain, and began building trawlers in his latest acquisition – the Cochrane Shipyards of Selby. These were the famous 'Cat' and 'Bird' class trawlers. In 1960/1, the Ross Group took over the Rinovia Steam Fishing Company Ltd. At its peak the Group owned the largest fishing fleet in Europe, with eight trawler fleets. The company also acquired its own shipyard, which began building the company's vessels. In 1960, in England there were around 600 fishing trawlers. In the mid-1960s it had 65 vessels, the second largest fleet in England, after Associated Fisheries.
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