When Thomas Ingle first established Ingle’s Nurseries over a century ago, salad cress was only grown as a ‘catch crop’ to supplement the production of lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, mint, daffodils, tulip and chrysanthemum flowers. The cress was grown in soil on the floor of the greenhouses, with the workers harvesting it on their hands and knees using small knives! The salad cress was then packed by hand before being distributed to wholesalers across the North West by train.
It was the 1960’s before the automation of salad cress production began, in light of the gain in popularity of ‘hot and cold’ (mustard and cress). Cress gradually became the leading crop at Ingle’s Dawndew Salad and the other produce was phased out. Thanks to investment in mechanisation during the 1970’s, output more than trebled and Ingle’s Dawndew Salad become nationally recognised as a major British grower and supplier of salad produce.
By transforming the production process with new technology, the firm’s output trebled. With the extra business came national recognition and the visit from the former Prime Minister, Sir Edward Heath, was the highlight of the 1970s, spreading the name of ‘Ingle’ far and wide.
The Company continued to grow throughout the 1980s, leading to the decision of Raymond Ingle as Managing Director to relocate the business in a £2 million glasshouse expansion project at the start of the 1990s. It took over two years to build the production facility, develop the site and move the business to our current location in Poulton-le-Fylde.
As part of the transition, The Company changed its name from Thomas Ingle & Sons Ltd to Ingle’s Dawndew Salad Ltd, and in the late 1990s went on to acquire W.H. Bamford & Sons Ltd in Great Leighs, Essex. The acquisition provided a valuable route to market in the South of England with the creation of new trading opportunities.
In the last ten years the fifth generation of Ingles’ have become involved in the business, with Trudie Webster focusing on meeting our customers’ food safety and commercial requirements and James Ingle concentrating on the operational side of the business, including the development of new niche product lines.
Today, the family, with a dedicated team of individuals, continue to work hard to ensure The Company’s reputation for quality, freshness, value and service is maintained.