The boss of Thatchers Cider has said he felt “completely devastated” by a campaign for a boycott of the company’s products that claimed it had links to slavery.
Earlier this year a Bristol-based pressure group called on people to stop buying drinks made by the UK’s second-largest cider maker, owing to managing director Martin Thatcher’s membership of the Society of Merchant Venturers (SMV).
The organisation has been criticised, for its historical links to slave trade and 18th century slave trader Edward Colston, whose statue was toppled and dumped in Bristol Harbour during protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in June 2020.
