About Us

Like Mary Queen of Scots before him, John West was born in the ancient town of Linlithgow. He was a family man and had interests in Salmon and canning. John West set up his first cannery in Oregon, USA in 1868. His business was proving quite a success and he set high standards which have been followed consistently over the years.

Two Liverpool merchants T.L Pelling and C.H Stanley decided to import Salmon and purchased the rights to use the John West name in 1888.

In 1892, the first cans of John West branded Salmon arrived in the United Kingdom.

In the UK at the time, there were three companies related with canning, Pelling Stanley, R.B. Green and Angus Watson. These three companies became associated with the first Lord Leverhulme. Lord Leverhulme was the founder of Lever Brothers which later became Unilever.

Unilever later acquired all shares of these companies in 1963 and gave the company its name John West Foods Limited. Branches of John West Foods were established in Australia in 1969 and Africa in 1974 and an export network was established which now trades to more than sixty countries.

In 1997, Heinz acquired the brand and the majority of the John West Food company operations, excluding those in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa which continued to be part of Unilever. In March 2006, Heinz sold its European Seafoods business, MW Brands, where it was acquired by Lehman Bros.

MWBrands was later acquired by Thai Union group in 2010 and rebranded as Thai Union Europe.

The brands within Thai Union Europe now consist of John West operating in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, North Europe (Austria and Scandinavia) and MENA (Middle East and North Africa). Mareblu operates in Italy and both Petit Navire and Parmentier operate in France. More recent brands to join the group are King Oscar operating in Norway, Belgium and Poland and Armoric operating in France (under the MerAlliance subgroup). Today John West also exports to over 50 countries across the globe.