OUR VALUED SupPLIERS

Founded in 1979 by the Gray and Mukadam families, we’ve grown from a small start-up in Manchester to a national leader in the drinks industry – but we’re still proudly rooted in our family values.

The Rossendale Brewery first opened in 1994 located below the Griffin Inn at Haslingden, the Griffin being the only pub to be owned by the then owners Porter Brewing Company (PBC).

PBC steadily increased its tied estate of pubs to a total of five, then selling off three of them, leaving only The Griffin (with brewery) and The Railway in Stockport. Eventually, these also came onto the market and were bought by the present owners of The Griffin/brewery Geoff and Cangui Oliver.

Geoff already had a significant interest in another pub, The Sportsman in Hyde; This was already a 'real ale house' well supported by CAMRA members and the local community and soon became the third major outlet for the brewery. 

It was soon decided to offer the beers to a large local section of the 'free Trade' for the first time - PBC rarely did so. The Brewery has since purchased a few hundred more barrels and increased production to accommodate the added Free Trade sales.

Geoff (an ex Home Brewer) first brewed all of the beers himself after being trained the more "commercial" art by ex brewer/director of PBC, David Porter and attending a brewery training course.

The Brewery now has a database of well over 100 Free Trade outlets as well as The Griffin (Brewery Tap) and The Sportsman in Hyde, Cheshire - both of which presently serve the whole range of our Pennine Ale/Rossendale Brewery ales

However, the capacity of the brewery (eight barrels or 288 gallons per brew) and Geoff's intentions to only sell locally for environmental reasons, means that sales are restricted only to limited selected areas north, east, south of Manchester and to central Manchester.

AO Seafoods was established in 1988 by Adrian Ogden in Burnley, Lancashire and we have been supplying the hospitality trade all over the UK since then.

We remain an independently operated and family run business, values which give us the opportunity to really tailor our service to suit you.

Rileys butchers has a history that stretches back more than 150 years, always with one focus, continuing the art of traditional butchery. Everything sold at Riley’s, is locally sourced, from farm to fork. Here at Rileys we make our award winning products by hand in store, ranging from pies and sausage rolls to ready meals. We only use specially selected local suppliers who share our passion to ensure only the finest quality products make it to your table. So you can be assured that, from our prize-winning sausages to our matured beef, we know exactly where our meat comes from.

Geoff has been awarded many prestigious Smithfield Awards in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, for every product category entered. We were also named in the top three butchers shops in the North of England in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 - winning the best butchers shop in the north in 2012. Locally we have won awards for the best retail category of the Rossendale Business of the Year awards in 2010 and 2013 and best small business in 2013.

The younger staff are also triumphing. In May 2013, our own Ryan Healy was crowned The UK's Premier Young Butcher of the Year at the NEC in Birmingham, winning overall and topping 3 out of 5 skill categories. 

In the mid 70's John Penny began working for his dad Jack Penny on a farm. The farm reared dairy cows and sheep but predominantly focused on pigs.Penny's had the pigs reared for a wholesaler which would take all the pigs that the farm produced. 

The contract with the wholesaler later collapsed leaving the farm with surplus and you can't exactly tell a pig to stop growing! It was John's decision to slaughter the pigs and sell them to friends and family. Penny's began to thrive and everyone wanted more.

A farm shop soon followed, a butcher was employed and Penny's began to sell lamb and beef. John watched from this butcher and learnt the craft of butchery. Tim, John's son, joined the business and it soon became clear to him that they wouldn't be able to sustain themselves with this trade.

 Penny's began to diversify into supplying the hospitality industry and prides itself on supplying some of the best hotels and restaurants throughout the North West.

 The Penny family with a great team behind them is still dedicated to consistently producing meat of excellence.

Porcus is real food, made by real people with real provenance. We farm the pork ourselves, making sure that the highest welfare standards are afforded to all of our pigs. We slow grow them, free range on our own pasture and allow them to do all the things pigs love to do in the beautiful outdoors of the Pennines. In return we get amazing tasting meat complemented with only the finest, freshest ingredients from which we produce fantastic, hand made Artisan Sausages.

Whitworth Valley Brewing, where we believe that brewing isn’t just about what you brew, but how you brew it. We are a new microbrewery rooted in tradition but embracing the evolving landscape of craft beer.

Our commitment? Producing top-quality cask-conditioned real ales that marry traditional craftsmanship with modern styles and flavour profiles.