Thatchers is to plant 13,000 apple trees as part of a new 50-acre orchard to help it meet growing demand for its ciders.
The new orchard marked “the beginning of a new generation at Thatchers” and was needed due to “record demand”, the Somerset producer said.
It was roughly the size of 31 football pitches and would be used to grow apples for ciders including single-variety Thatchers Katy, as well as Thatchers Juicy Apple and Thatchers Rosé, it revealed.
The orchard would capture around 325 tonnes of CO2 a year, adding to the “thousands of tonnes already sequestered into the soil by Thatchers’ existing 500 acres of orchards”.
It followed three years of regenerative farming to prepare the land for planting, Thatchers added.
“Great cider begins in the orchard, so making sure the soil is in peak condition is vitally important,” said Thatchers MD and fourth-generation cidermaker Martin Thatcher. “It can be up to eight years from taking on the land, to harvesting our first full crop, and then we want it to be a fruitful orchard for decades to come, producing top-quality apples that we can craft into delicious ciders.”
Turnover at Thatchers grew 16.3% to £203.9m in the year to 31 August 2024, as the supplier bucked wider malaise in the cider category to grow its market share to 17.2%.
While Thatchers’ flagship Gold has lost £2.6m on volumes down 7.7%, sales at a brand level are up 8% on volumes up 2.9% [NIQ 52 w/e 25 January 2025], driven by new variants like Juicy Apple, launched last summer as part of a bid to appeal to younger shoppers.
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