1859
In 1859 Alfred Towers aged 21 opened his own pork butchers shop at 60 Praed Street, Paddington, London. By 1869 Alfred had opened his second and third shop and conducted trade with Smithfield Market which opened in 1868.
1870
In 1870 he became a pork wholesaler himself taking space in part of Cox and Dennise’s shop 114 in Smithfield market.
1872
Following the death of his father, Alfred took control of all the family business and went into partnership with other food wholesalers to take advantage of London’s growing population.
1878
In 1878 success was achieved when a shipment of frozen meat from South America arrived at Le Havre. While the first shipments of frozen meat had arrived from Australia and the Americas, able minds in New Zealand set about pursuing the potential overseas market of Britain.
1894
In 1894 Alfred Towers acquired a lease of the ground floor of Paul’s Pier Wharf, a riverside warehouse in Upper Thames Street, with a capacity of around 300 tons.
1897
In 1897 Alfred died following a world tour visiting suppliers. His estate subsequently divided between family members and business partners.
1898
In 1898 this resulted in the formation of Towers & Co Limited and with the registration number of 58397 remains today as one of the oldest limited companies in England and wales.
1898-1985
After different shareholdings by New Zealand domiciled companies the company was acquired by Hillsdown Holdings in 1985. Hillsdown Holdings Plc was a public company grown and developed by two entrepreneurs David Thompson and Harry Solomon. During Hillsdown ownership the company was merged with other companies within the Hillsdown Group. A key trading company in the merger was B.Thompson managed by Alan Thompson. As part of the internal reorganisation the company was rebranded as “Towers Thompson”.
1998
In 1998, exactly a 100 years after the Company was formed Towers & Co Ltd was purchased under a Management Buy Out led by Alan Thompson, Terry Goddard, Paul Dolan and others operating under the banner Towers Thompson Holdings Limited.
Jan 2007
The Far East Division, which specialises in exporting meat and poultry by-products was added to the business.
Mar 2007
Towers then acquired Rassau Seafood GmbH, German Seafood Importers based in Hamburg.
Jun 2008
Significant investment was made to create a purpose built new Wholesale Meat /Distribution Depot in Northfleet, Kent to supply retail butchers in the South East of England.
Apr 2010
We established a new imported seafood operation in the UK “Towers Thompson Seafood”.
Jun 2016
We invested in new purpose built facilities for our trading operation in Hoddesdon Hertfordshire.
Sep 2017
Towers Thompson Trading were accredited to BRC Agents and Brokers standard.
Today
The company today remains a highly diversified energetic meat, poultry and Seafood company with operations covering seafood and meat importing, along with a UK based meat wholesale operation. We think that Alfred Towers himself would be pleased to see the Company still flourishing since he opened his first Butchers shop in 1859.