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| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Dairy Products |
| Founded | 1864 (as Express County Milk Supply Company) |
| Headquarters | London |
Key people | George Barham (founder) |
| Parent | Dairy Crest |
Express Dairies is a former brand of Dairy Crest, that specialised almost entirely in home deliveries of milk, and other dairy products.
The company was founded by George Barham in 1864 as the 'Express County Milk Supply Company,' [1] so named as they only used express trains to get their milk to London. The company had two major creamery and bottling plants in London. The first was located just south of South Acton railway station on the North London Line. This gave easy and equal access for milk trains from both the Great Western Railway and the Southern Railway. [2] The second was located at the company's headquarters in Cricklewood, adjacent to the station. This had railway access for milk trains from the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.
The company was purchased by Grand Metropolitan in 1969, [3] and sold in November 1991 to Northern Foods. [4] It was demerged from Northern Foods in 1998, [5] and purchased a 51% controlling stake in Claymore Dairies Ltd of Scotland, for £2.2 million.
Express Dairies acquired Star Dairies Food Service Ltd. and certain assets of Star Dairies International Ltd for £3.5 million in February 1999. In June 1999, the liquid milk operations of the United Kingdom of Glanbia plc were acquired for £100 million, and the share capital of Blakes Chilled Distribution Ltd. was purchased in August for £3 million.
Express Dairies announced a joint venture in Northern Ireland with Golden Vale plc in November 2000, that created Dale Farm Dairies Ltd, although that was sold in October 2001. Express Dairies disposed of its UHT business and Frome creamery in July 2002.
Following a period of poor profitability, the business was acquired in March 2003 by Arla Foods, [6] who in turn sold it on to Dairy Crest in July 2006. [7] Dairy Crest sold its deliveries business to Creamline Dairies in July 2013, and its milk processing business to Germany's Müller in December 2015.
Post war, Britain was changing. The chairman's new son-in-law, American citizen and ex-sailor of the US Navy, Patrick Galvani, had been studying retailing before coming to the United Kingdom, particularly supermarkets. Galvani made a pitch to the board, which resulted in Britain's first supermarket opening in Streatham, South London in 1951 under the Premier Supermarket brand. [8]
In 1960, in an attempt to expand nationwide, Galvani made a pitch to the board to buy the 212 stores of John Irwin and Sons, based in Liverpool and Merseyside, but they refused to back him; Jack Cohen of Tesco subsequently bought the chain. [8] In 1964, the Premier chain was sold to Unilever's Mac Fisheries chain for £1million. The cash income allowed Express to develop and launch marketing for long-life milk. [9]
In 1955, Express Dairies set up a subsidiary to maintain and promote demand for dairy products, using the Eden Vale brand. [10]
The Eden Vale division became responsible for Express' chilled food interests including yogurts, desserts, salads, cottage cheese and fromage frais. [11]
In addition to the Eden Vale name, it also sold yogurt under the Ski brand (launched in 1963) [12] and in the early 1980s launched a range of child-oriented yogurts based around characters from the Munch Bunch books and television series. [13]
In 2002, Northern Foods- the then-owners of Express Dairies- sold the Ski and Munch Bunch brands, along with their Cheshire yogurt plant, to Nestlé. [14] In 2004, Northern Foods sold the Eden Vale plant at Minsterley to Uniq. [15]
Yogurt is a food produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. Fermentation of sugars in the milk by these bacteria produces lactic acid, which acts on milk protein to give yogurt its texture and characteristic tart flavor. Cow's milk is most commonly used to make yogurt. Milk from water buffalo, goats, ewes, mares, camels, and yaks is also used to produce yogurt. The milk used may be homogenized or not. It may be pasteurized or raw. Each type of milk produces substantially different results.
Munch may refer to:
Yoplait is the world's largest franchise brand of yogurt. It is fully owned by French dairy cooperative Sodiaal since 2021.
The Munch Bunch is a series of children's books, created in the UK by Barrie and Elizabeth Henderson and originally published between 1979 and 1984.
Arla Foods Ltd. is a major dairy products company in the United Kingdom, based in Leeds, and a subsidiary of Arla Foods, which is owned by its farmer owners in seven countries including the UK.
Valio Ltd is a Finnish manufacturer of dairy products and one of the largest companies in Finland. Valio's products include cheese, powdered ingredients, butter, yogurt and milk. It is Finland's largest milk processor, producing 85% of the country's milk.
Northern Foods is a British food manufacturer headquartered in Wakefield, England. It was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the original FTSE 100 Index. The company is credited, together with Marks & Spencer, with creating the UK Chilled Food category. The driver of this growth was Christopher Haskins, the son-in-law of the company's founder Alec Horsley. Haskins became a director in 1967, deputy chairman in 1974, and was chairman from 1980 to 2002. The company was delisted in 2011 when it was bought by the 2 Sisters company.
Dairy Farmers Pty Ltd, originally established in 1900, whose parent company is Australian-owned Bega Cheese, is distributed mainly in New South Wales and Queensland in Australia. The core products sold under Dairy Farmers brand are fresh milk and UHT "long-life" milk, as well as various other dairy snacks. It supplies products to local and international markets such as Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Bega Dairy & Drinks is a subsidiary of Australian diversified food company the Bega Group, having been purchased from the Japanese company Kirin in November 2020. While owned by Kirin, it was known as Lion Dairy & Drinks.
Uniq plc was a British food manufacturer. Listed on the London Stock Exchange and once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, it was taken over by Irish foods conglomerate Greencore in 2011.
Strained yogurt, Greek or Greek-style yogurt, yogurt cheese, sack yogurt, kerned yogurt or labneh is yogurt that has been strained to remove most of its whey, resulting in a thicker consistency than normal unstrained yogurt, while still preserving the distinctive sour taste of yogurt. Like many types, strained yogurt is often made from milk enriched by boiling off some water content, or by adding extra butterfat and powdered milk. In Europe and North America, it is often made from low-fat or fat-free cow's milk. In Iceland a similar product named skyr is made.
Mövenpick Ice Cream is a brand of ice cream of Swiss origin produced initially by Nestlé. Since 2016, Froneri - a joint venture between Nestlé and R&R Ice Cream - manufactures it.
Delamere Dairy is a UK-based company founded in 1985, producing goats milk and other dairy products such as cheeses and yoghurts, sold in supermarkets and other outlets nationally as well as in Ireland, Italy, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Middle East and Caribbean. Delamere Dairy is a member of a British Cheese Board.
Rachel's is an organic dairy products company based in Aberystwyth, Wales. Founded by local farmers but now a subsidiary of French company Lactalis, it was the United Kingdom's first certified organic dairy.
Crunch is a chocolate bar made of milk chocolate and crisped rice. It is produced globally by Nestlé with the exception of the United States, where it is produced under license by the Ferrara Candy Company, a subsidiary of Ferrero.
Quark or quarg is a type of fresh dairy product made from milk. The milk is soured, usually by adding lactic acid bacteria cultures, and strained once the desired curdling is achieved. It can be classified as fresh acid-set cheese. Traditional quark can be made without rennet, but in modern dairies small quantities of rennet are typically added. It is soft, white and unaged, and usually has no salt added.
Ronald Klaas Otto Kers is a Dutch businessman, and the former group chief executive (CEO) of Müller (company), based in Fischach, Bavaria. Müller has around 21,000 employees, and a €5 billion turnover. After working for several private equity companies in 2017, he joined the 2 Sisters Food Group in June 2018 as CEO, succeeding founder and majority shareholder, Ranjit Singh Boparan. 2SFG has a turnover of £3.4 billion, 21,000 employees and has businesses in poultry, biscuits, ready meals, desserts, and frozen products.
Ski Dairy is a British dairy and yogurt brand owned by Nestle.
Chambourcy is a French company specializing in the production of yogurts and fresh dairy products. Since 1996, it has been owned by the Nestlé Group.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)...the activities of a special subsidiary called Express Dairy Products Limited set up in 1955 to promote the sales of dairy products under the name of 'Eden Vale', even to maintain demand in an affluent society.
Today the original name, Express Dairy, lives on as one of five operating companies under the corporate banner of Express Foods Group (International). They are:- [..] Eden Vale looks after the group's chilled food interests and is best known for its Ski and Munch Bunch yogurts and desserts. It is also a major salads and cottage cheese manufacturer and is about to go into production with fromage frais.
Eden Vale decided to ask [..consumers..] between three and nine particularly [..resulting in..] a new range of yogurts containing real fruit [..] in a form that children prefer. They're being called the Munch Bunch after a popular children's TV cartoon [sic] series and each fruit is named after one of the cartoon characters.
NESTLE UK is to acquire the Ski and Munch Bunch yoghurt brands from Northern Foods in a move which includes a yoghurt plant in Cheshire.
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