Pasture Farm Foods bought by Haffners

Popular Pendle business, Pasture Farm Foods, has been sold to long established Burnley butchers, Haffners.

New owners, Ted and Dean Cockett, are delighted to bring together two popular Lancashire brands and assure customers and staff that it is very much ‘business as usual’.

Pasture Farm Foods was established in 2002 and became a limited company in 2019. Online sub-brand meat2u.net was introduced to the business to service the wholesale market and local online deliveries and a second platform, justmeats.co.uk, was added to the business to service a UK-wide audience during Covid and beyond.

Ted Cockett, managing director of Pasture Farm Foods and Haffners, said: “We recognised the synergies between our two business immediately and opened discussions with director David Chilvers.

“We are asked every single day if we do pie deliveries, both locally and nationally, but until now we haven’t had the capacity at our bakery and we didn’t have an online ordering function, nor the logistical capability to make deliveries consistently.

“All of these challenges have been dealt with through the acquisition, which will come as good news to our loyal Haffners customers who will soon be able to get next day or workplace deliveries throughout Burnley and Pendle for all meat and pies.

It is good news too for existing Pasture Farm Food customers, as we will now be introducing our full range of pies into our Colne shop.

“We also have plans to add breakfast butties and breakfast pies to our offering there, and to serve coffee throughout the day.”

“The takeover also opens further wholesale opportunities across Lancashire and enables current customers to add pies to their orders from here on.”

Haffners had been a family run business since it was established in Burnley in 1889.

When brothers Ted and Dean Cockett took it over in September last year they made it clear that they wanted to protect the reputation which the Haffners’ family had built up, while seeking new opportunities for the brand.

In January this year they were asked to supply a special Burnley pie for the movie premiere of the Bank of Dave and created a mouth-watering Bene ‘n’ Hot Pot Pie for VIP guests at the Reel Cinema.

Ted said: “We’re passionate about both Pendle and Burnley. We grew up here and we’re proud to live and work here and hope that the Pendle community welcomes news of the takeover as warmly as Burnley’s did last year.”

The Pasture Farm Foods traditional butchers’ shop, in Whitewalls Close, near to Asda in Colne, will be rebranded as Haffners, but the staff and service will remain the same. 

Wholesale customers will still be serviced under the Pasture Farm Foods brand.

Neil Wood joins the business as operations director, bringing with him a wealth of experience and industry knowledge. He will ensure the smooth integration of the two business and lead the growth of retail and wholesale sales.

David Chilvers said: “I am delighted that Ted and Dean are the new owners of the business and have no doubt they will look after our customers as we have done over the past 21 years. I wish them well for the future and look forward to seeing the business grow and prosper.”

This is the third acquisition that Dean Cockett has been involved in and he is confident that it won't be the last.

He said: "Should further opportunities present themselves with the right synergies in the right locations, we would certainly be interested in taking a look, with a view to adding them into our group.”