Meat Management is sad to report the passing of Ron Burgess who died on Sunday 2nd November aged 89. Ron was well known throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s as a leading supplier and innovator within the meat and food machinery sector.
Through his business ABR Food Machinery, in addition to manufacturing equipment from premises in Bletchley, he introduced a wealth of innovative machinery from Europe, which at that time was new to the UK meat processing sector. This turned out to be equipment that subsequently has become established household names still serving the industry such as Handtmann, Laska, Poly Clip, Bastra, Inject Star and many others. Following on from the ABR success, he then launched GB Food Machinery based from Olney in Bedfordshire. He retired from direct business activities in 1986.
Ron was highly regarded and well liked throughout the meat industry both in the UK and by the equipment manufacturers overseas that he represented. He will be remembered by many as a pioneer and a great character, who was responsible for the introduction of processes that revolutionised the production of meat and food in the UK market, setting a new and more efficient production standard that was at the cutting edge of technology, and also at the forefront of developing today’s modern industry.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
