Lewis Food Wholesalers was founded by Barrie Lewis and his wife Jill in June 1963.

Barrie had originally worked at the New Crown Bakery in West Bromwich and whilst there he took a course at a local Bakery College. After several years he left New Crown Bakery and started working for himself as a market trader at Smethwick Market, selling products he mainly sourced from his old employer. The business was very successful and Barrie opened stalls in several other local Markets, eventually, at one stage having two stalls on as many as 15 different Markets including West Bromwich, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Great Bridge.

So large were the quantities of products that Barrie needed to keep all these stalls properly stocked, it meant that he eventually had to acquire storage premises in West Bromwich.

Around 1973, Barrie was asked by New Crown Bakery if he would take over the wholesale side of their business, which he did, becoming their main wholesale outlet. He added several other lines that he had begun to source himself and this formed the basis of a new wholesale operation. The Market stalls had to take a back seat and although he had others running the stalls for him, Barrie gradually started to cut them back until he closed the last remaining stall at West Bromwich Market in 1980.

In 1984, with business still on the increase, the company moved into its current 15,000 sq. ft premises conveniently located just two minutes drive from junction 1 of the M5 Motorway.

Barrie’s son, Paul, joined the company in 1992 from Lucas Automotive, where he was employed as a systems engineer.
Early in the 1970’s, Barrie’s brother, Ken, joined the business and helped to build it up. He remained an integral part of the Lewis ‘team’ until 1992 when he and his family moved to Bournemouth.

Paul took over the running of the business when Barrie retired in 2000.
Barrie’s sister, Megan, who worked for the business for 30 years retired in 2002.

Barrie's Wife and co-founder of the business, Jill, continued to work in the business right up until her sudden and unexpected death in 2014.
Paul's wife, Stacey, joined the business in 2015.