The Ross Group was a British company founded in Grimsby, England in 1920 by Thomas Ross and developed into a major concern by his son John Carl Ross after Thomas' retirement in 1928. Originally a small family-owned fish merchanting company, Ross also diversified into trawling, fish processing, and later into food processing in general. The company bought out rival Young's in 1959 and, after a series of takeovers and mergers and de-mergers, forms part of what is now Young’s Bluecrest, the UK's leader in the frozen fish sector. The Ross brand remains common in the retail frozen fish market. By the outbreak of World War II, the company operated fish merchanting branches in Leeds, Leicester, and Fleetwood as well as its Grimsby base. Starting with a small fleet of four fishing vessels in the 1930s, Ross diversified into trawling. The acquisition of a major shareholding in Trawlers Grimsby in 1944 was followed by several other fishing fleets such as the Queen Steam Fishing Company. In 1956 Carl Ross took over G F Sleight Ltd, which employed 20 of the best trawler skippers in Britain, and began building trawlers in his latest acquisition - the Cochrane Shipyards of Selby. These were the famous ' Cat' and 'Bird' class trawlers. In 1960/1, the Ross Group took over the Rinovia Steam Fishing Company Ltd. At its peak the Group owned the largest fishing fleet in Europe. The company also acquired its own shipyard, which began building the company's vessels. By the early 1960s, Ross's holdings included poultry, frozen and fresh foods, including fish, as well as its fish trawling, merchanting, and other operations. Yet the company's trawling operations, which by then represented just 5 percent of group sales, had become perennial money-losers. Carl Ross left the Ross Group after an acrimonious board room struggle in 1965 and, as a direct result of this, Imperial Tobacco gained control. While Carl Ross was in control Ross Group had diversified into non-fish foodstuffs such as Ross Frozen food. While the non-fish food companies were subject to several further takeovers, the Ross fishing fleet was acquired by British United Trawlers.
Source
- Votteler, T. (2003). International directory of company histories. Detroit: St. James Press. ISBN: 9781558624764
