Our Story

From humble beginnings of offering a single product of apple juice to a range of 20 drinks available in pubs, bars, restaurants, and hotels across the UK – the Frobishers brand has always stood for quality. It all began at The Anchor pub in Oldbury on Severn where Frobishers founder Mike Dowdeswell started offering not from concentrate apple juice from the boot of his car.

Following a time in the Merchant Navy and managing other people’s pubs, Mike took the plunge and bought The Anchor Inn in 1969.

Mike was approached by a Somerset cider maker with an offer of freshly pressed apple juice. Mike ever the innovator recognised the on-trade apple juice market was dominated by the national brands offering from concentrate juice and recognised a gap in the market for a premium offering. He soon found a bottler and gave a case of apple juice to every pub in his area to try and with such a positive response, his fruit juice company was born. Building on this success further lines were soon added to expand the range introducing orange, pear and pineapple juices.

Mike decided his fruit juice business should be a standalone company so needed a suitable name, in Mike’s words he wanted something “posh sounding” and started looking through telephone directories for inspiration. The British Telecom directory for the London suburbs and spotted Frobisher (the exchange for desirable Earls Court) delighted by the ‘FR’ alliteration of ‘fresh’ and ‘fruit’, Frobishers Juices was founded.

In 1999 Frobishers became a limited company, before being acquired by a new team in Exeter in 2009. Since 2009 the brand has evolved both visually and in range, now offering 20 products across 4 ranges.

2021 saw the launch of our new customer website offering a unique build a box function which offers unique access to your favourite flavours from across our whole range delivered direct to your door.

In 2022 we joined the United Nations Race to Zero campaign via the SME Climate Commitment. This is recommended by the government for SMEs and is aligned with the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) Net Zero trajectory. Read our more about our commitment to sustainability here.