English Label was born in 2001 and started by Chris Fredericks, a traditional turkey farmer from Essex. His aim was to reproduce a British version of the French Label Rouge chicken, a very high welfare, 80 day reared, corn fed chicken, which, wherever it may have been reared in France, would always have been farmed to the same standards.
The small group of farmers that started Label rouge in 1965 with a shared passion for welfare and quality famously scribbled down the welfare standards on the back of a restaurant menu, a copy of which exists today. These standards are now set in history and adhered to by every Label Rouge producer across France.
15 years on, and the brand has now taken a turn in its journey and been adopted and taken over by Rod Adlington, and his family farming concern, Adlington Ltd.
Adlington are also seasonal turkey farmers, and are incredibly passionate about how their free range poultry is reared and looked after. Rod Adlington quotes ’we are incredibly proud to be able to have governance of this brand and have enormous respect for the hard work put in by Chris Fredericks over the past 15 years.
We fully intend to hold up the English Label brand as a mark of ultimate quality, and even push it further still. We are striving for it to be the finest poultry whole bird available today, both in provenance and taste’.
Backed up Tim Bailey, who is responsible for the very high care rearing standards afforded to the chickens, and these qualities match the Adlington ethos perfectly, making a very strong and united team.
