Our History

Founded in 1948, Albert Bartlett invested £30 in an old water boiler and cast iron bath to set up a small beetroot boiling operation in Coatbridge, Scotland.

In 1957 Albert and his two sons, Jimmy and Alex, expanded their operations and found a site on Watt Street in Airdrie, Scotland.

Bartlett’s Airdrie site then became the first factory in Britain to pre-pack carrots in “poly” bags.

In 2002 we opened our state-of-the art headquarters on Stirling Road in Airdrie.

Albert Bartlett is now Britain’s leading supplier of potatoes.

Albert Bartlett today

Albert Bartlett is run today by the third generation of the family. All who are involved with Albert Bartlett are fiercely proud of its achievements. With great investment in our business over the last four years, we now supply one in five of the UK’s fresh potatoes. The business has grown from its Airdrie base and now includes two futher packing sites. One in Boston in Lincolnshire and the other outside St. Helier on the island of Jersey.

The group now employs over 700 full time staff and works with a dedicated group of farmers which stretches from Cornwall to Inverness and now also includes 10 on the island of Jersey.

Our state of the art Airdrie pack-house is a model of environmental design. We have invested in robot technology to improve safety and efficiency. Water conservation measures include rainwater and borehole collection, as well as dedicated recycling channels for conventional, organic and imported produce.

Our second UK packing operation in Lincolnshire handles crop from our dedicated grower group and from land farmed by ourselves in neighbouring Suffolk. Our team grows a selection of potato varieties at various sites throughout Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, including the famous Rooster and Vivaldi.

In Spring 2009, we opened a state-of-the art pack-house on the island of Jersey. The famous Jersey Royal is grown here for us by a dedicated group of island farmers. The facility can wash, hydro-cool and pack the highly-prized Jersey Royal within hours of it being harvested, so they arrive in store some two days fresher than previously possible.