• 1950’s
  Jack Hartley an arable farmer from Knottingley started JE Hartley Ltd
• 1950’s to 1960’s
  Land was purchased to grow fresh produce such as peas, carrots and potatoes for Heinz and Freeze Dried Peas for Batchelors
• Today the farming enterprise is concentrated around approximately 4000 acres around Knottingley and Tadcaster, West Yorkshire dedicated to peas and potatoes

• 1975
  The Thorganby factory was built by Sir John Eastwood to freeze produce grown on his 4000acre estate
• 1979
  A second cold store and additional packaging stores were added.
• 1983
  The factory site was bought by JE Hartley Ltd to support the existing farming enterprise
• 1985
  A new, faster freezer tunnel was added, allowing four tonnes of vegetables per hour to be frozen
• 1985
  Multihead packing line installed
• 1986
  New pea cleaning and root crop line added to increase capacity

• 1991
  Multihead packing line upgraded and second machine installed
• 1993
  £2.5m investment programme was completed creating an additional 3000+ pallet cold store and a new repack department incorporating upgraded colour sorting facilities
• 1996
  Automated vegetable mixing line added
• 1997
  Upgrade of packing line
• 1998
  New Coldstore Office incorporating John Preston Transport. The addition of a new pulsar optical sorter.
• 1999
  New QC and test kitchen built
• 2000
  No 4 Coldstore built increasing storage capacity by 6000 pallets to 13000
• 2001
  Repack department automated
• 2002
  Additional Heinen Freezer increased production capacity by 6 tonnes per hour
• 2003
  An Argus Laser Sorter was added to the process line increasing sorting accuracy to 98%
• 2005
  New form fill and seal packaging machine added to end of process line (10kg-25kg sacks)