Anchor Foods enjoys a unique position in the national food industry. It is a wholly Western Australian owned company competing very successfully across all sales channels in the nation. Since 2002, when the business returned to private ownership, it has been transformed into an industry leading innovator with world class capability with over 500 products.
Historically, Anchor's roots are in Adelaide where it started business as a trading company in 1854. It sent its first representative to WA in 1891 and the following year opened a branch office in Fremantle to take advantage of the booming conditions in the Swan River Colony. The west appears to have been the focus of its growth over the following eight decades as it shifted increasingly into manufacturing. Its WA operations were incorporated into a Perth-based entity in 1952. Between 1978 and 2002 the business changed hands numerous times as it became part of the corporate musical chairs of the time. In 2002 Australia's biggest food company Goodman Fielder sold the business to a private equity group led by David Clapin.