Carl Ross - Ross Group

Ross Group

While Ross was developing his fish merchanting activities, he recognised that the future of the fishing industry lay in integrating fish catching, processing, and merchanting, He built the first diesel trawlers in the mid-1930s. He purchased nine more vessels in 1943 and acquired a majority shareholding in Trawlers Grimsby Ltd, in 1944. This was the foundation-stone of what became the Ross Group.

According to The Times, despite having had no formal finance or accountancy training, Ross demonstrated a great talent for reading and understanding figures. An extensive series of take-overs of companies in the fishing industry, including major catching and processing companies in Hull, gave the Ross Group a dominant situation on the Humber.

In the early 1950s, Carl Ross extended the frozen fish business to become Ross Foods and acquired Youngs shellfish company. In 1956 Ross secured twenty North Sea skippers through acquisition, and built up a Bird and Cat class North Sea and Middle Water trawler enterprise which went on to acquire the Cochrane yards at Selby. At its peak, the Ross Group owned the largest fishing fleet in Europe.

Carl Ross established Ross Poultry (1961), which played a major role in the industrialisation of the British poultry industry and became the largest chicken producer in Europe; The only set-back Carl Ross encountered was in 1966, when the Monopolies Commission refused to allow his bid for Associated Fisheries Ltd, the other major company in the industry.

The Ross group acquired Great Grimsby Coal, Salt and Tanning Company (Cosalt), a firm founded in 1873 as a cooperative that sold supplies needed to run a fishing fleet. The business was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1971.

Carl Ross parted company with the Ross Group after a boardroom struggle in the late 1960s, which culminated in the take-over of the company by Imperial Group Ltd in 1970.