Established in 1978 Durham Foods is a family run business with three generations of the Hamilton Family . We supply Wholesale businesses with fresh Pease Pudding, our own Cooked Meats produced in our factory, and other products.

Durham Foods supply 7 major retailers with our Famous Pease Pudding and also cater for  individual retailers .

History

Durham Foods was founded in 1978 by Alan Hamilton Snr, an ex manager of Palethorpes. Alan started with one van selling to small independent butchers and high class Deli’s. Business grew fast and within twelve months Durham Foods were supplying Walter Wilsons, a local chain of supermarkets with stores throughout the North East of England and the Lake District.

The buyer of Walter Wilsons approached Alan to see if he could produce his own Pease Pudding, because he was unhappy with his current supplier. Not wanting to turn down an opportunity of more sales, Alan set about perfecting his own unique type of Pease Pudding, unique because he did not use the old tried and tested recipe of making the product with Ham Stock. By not using Ham stock the Pease Pudding instantly became Vegan/ Vegetarian friendly. Pease Pudding sales grew steadily and with growing confidence in his product Alan then approached the North Eastern Co-op and managed to secure their stores as part of his growing customer base.

In 1981 Alan Hamilton Jnr joined the company as salesman, to take on the extra business being created by the new lines produced. In 2003 the company approached Asda with a sample of Pease Pudding to use in a blind tasting against Asda’s own label and Newboulds Pease Pudding. The results were overwhelming in favour for Durham Foods , 40 out 50 customers preferred our product. As a result of this we now supply Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Lidl, Morrisons, Waitrose and local wholesalers , Deli’s and sandwich shops.

Today Durham Foods is run by Alan Hamilton Jnr and his three children, Ainsleigh, Lewis and Kirsty.

DID YOU KNOW WE ONCE APPEARED ON ITV’S “ADE IN BRITAIN” SERIES?

https://youtu.be/oTSEHngh