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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 major creamery and milk bottling plant 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 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]
Iceland Foods Ltd, trading as Iceland, is a British supermarket chain headquartered in Deeside, Wales. It mainly sells frozen foods, including prepared meals and vegetables, alongside non-frozen grocery items such as produce, meat, dairy and dry goods. The company also operates a chain of shops called The Food Warehouse.
Glanbia plc is an Irish global nutrition group with operations in 32 countries. It has leading market positions in sports nutrition, cheese, dairy ingredients, speciality non-dairy ingredients and vitamin and mineral premixes. Glanbia products are sold or distributed in over 130 countries. While Europe and the USA represent the biggest markets, the Group are continuing to expand into the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Glanbia's primary listing is on Euronext Dublin. The Group has four segments; Glanbia Nutritionals, Performance Nutrition, Glanbia Ireland and Joint Ventures & Associates, with a combined workforce of over 7,000 employees in 32 countries.
Associated British Foods plc (ABF) is a British multinational food processing and retailing company headquartered in London, England.
Dairy Crest Limited trading as Saputo Dairy UK, is a British dairy products company. It was created in 2019 when the Canadian company Saputo Inc bought Dairy Crest. Dairy Crest itself was created in 1981 as a spin-off of the Milk Marketing Board. Its brands include Saputo Dairy UK, Cathedral City Cheddar Cheese, Country Life Butter, Utterly Butterly, Vitalite and Clover.
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St Ivel is a brand of dairy products in the United Kingdom, introduced in 1901 by the Yeovil-based dairy company Aplin & Barrett, for use on a range of their products. The company was taken over by Unigate Dairy Company in 1960. Most production sites were in the south west of England and some in Wales. Most of its brands were bought in the beginning of the 2000s by Dairy Crest, following a severe decline in doorstep deliveries of milk – previously a major area of business for Unigate. In 2020 the St Ivel brand was still used for buttermilk produced by Dairy Crest's successor Müller.
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Wensleydale Creamery is a cheese manufacturer based in the town of Hawes in North Yorkshire, England. It makes several varieties of cheese, but is most notable as a producer of Yorkshire Wensleydale; a variety of Wensleydale cheese with PGI status.
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