EDME has been based on the same site next to the River Stour in Mistley, Essex, since its earliest origins in the late 19th century.

In 1881 maltster Robert Free started a business together with consulting chemists Richard Southby and Thomas Amey making and selling malt extract. Originally called The Condensed Wort and Brewer’s Meal Company, the business was renamed The English Diastatic Malt Extract Company in 1884, a mouthful that was eventually shortened to EDME Ltd in 1897. The products produced by the business soon became an essential ingredient of prize-winning entries at bakers’ exhibitions up and down the country.

Over the past 140 years EDME’s 3.5-acre Mistley site has undergone many transformations as the world around it has changed. This includes significant mechanisation in 1950, and a major programme of rebuilding and modernisation during the early 1990s. In more recent years, developments have included a test centre and R&D facility, state-of-the-art mixing and blending equipment, and a gluten-free mill. Our innovation continues to be underpinned by substantial investment. 

EDME has been a cornerstone of the community for over a century, and among our workforce there are some employees whose family involvement in the company goes back many generations.