History
1967: Thurne Founded
Thurne is founded as a general engineering company, providing innovative solutions across industries including carrot toppers and book binding and sawing equipment.
1968: Richard Payne takes control
Entrepreneur Richard Payne takes control of Thurne. Payne started his engineering career as a student apprentice at DeHavilland working on aeroplane engines. Moving into food engineering with Thurne, he invented a line of industry-standard resealable food bag labellers, as well as many firsts in slicing technology.
1970: Acquisition of edward hines
Thurne acquires Edward Hines, a local business with more than 100 years experience in fabrication, to expand their manufacturing capabilities.
1976: acquisition of estuary engineering
Thurne acquires Estuary Engineering, a King’s Lynn based sheet metal company, to expand their manufacturing capabilities.
1979: foundation of Thurne Corp, usa
Thurne establishes U.S. operations in Bridgeview, Illinois.
1786: fOUNDATION OF tHURNE gmbh, gERMANY
Thurne establishes operations in Kempten, Germany, to focus on developing and building cooked meat slicing systems for the European market, including the MS range of slicers.
1988: Queen's award for technological achievement
For the development of the Thurne Polyslicer – a versatile high speed industrial food slicer for fast automated process lines. The slicer can operate at speeds of 800 slices per minute – up to twice that of earlier models. It incorporates microprocessor control and programme features that give the correct number of slices and slice pack weight by variation of slice thickness in increments of 0.01mm (10 microns); many times better than earlier models. 67% of the production is exported.“ - London Gazette, 21 April 1988
1993: market leading bag sealer
Launch of the Mk5 bag sealer at the Bake’93 show. Thurne achieves 98% market share in the bakery industry. Sold in 2006 to Select Bag Sealers.
2000: aCQUISITION BY PELCOMBE GROUP
Following acquisition by the Pelcombe Group in 1999, Thurne Engineering is merged with AEW Engineering, a Norwich based manufacturer of bandsaws and portion control slicers. The new AEW-Thurne is based at Pinetrees Road, Norwich, UK and Lake Zurich, Illinois, USA.
2001: AMI SUPPLIER OF THE YEAR AWARD
AEW-Thurne, Inc. CEO Michael Strauss is honored with AMI Supplier Of The Year Award.
“Michael Strauss has a reputation for listening to his customers and taking their comments, suggestions and criticisms seriously in an effort to produce the best possible equipment,“ said AMI Chairman W. Dan Wright, president and CEO of Wright Brand Foods, Ltd. in Vernon, TX. “Michael and his company represent what suppliers and processors can achieve by working together.“
2003: MERGER WITH DELFORD-SORTAWEIGH
AEW-Thurne and Pelcombe Group sister company Delford Sortaweigh, a Harwich-based weighing, grading and labelling equipment supplier, join forces as AEW Delford Systems.
Acqusition by Marel
Icelandic food processing equipment supplier Marel acquires AEW Delford Systems.
2015: acqusition by middleby corporation
Food processing equipment group Middleby Corporation acquires Marel’s Slicing Division and reintroduces the Thurne brand. Thurne-Middleby Ltd is headquartered in Norwich, UK, with a second office in Chicago, IL, USA, and global representation by the Middleby Worldwide network.
