Company type | Limited company |
---|---|
Industry | Food |
Founded | Macclesfield, Cheshire, United Kingdom (1886) |
Headquarters | High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire |
Key people | Jon Jenkins CEO |
Products | Bread, flour |
Owner | Endless LLP |
Website | www |
Hovis Ltd is a British company that produces flour, yeast and bread. Founded in Stoke-on-Trent, it began mass-production in Macclesfield in 1886.
Hovis became part of Rank Hovis McDougall (RHM) in 1962 after a succession of mergers. RHM, with its brands including Hovis and Mother's Pride, was acquired by Premier Foods in 2007. In April 2014 it became a limited company after Premier Foods sold a 51% stake in the business to The Gores Group to form a joint venture between the two companies. [1]
In November 2020, it was announced that both the Gores Group and Premier Foods had sold their stakes in the business to British-based private equity firm Endless LLP. [2] [3]
Hovis specialises in high wheatgerm wholemeal flour, the bread being baked independently. It also produces the Nimble brand reduced-calorie bread. [4]
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The brand began in 1886; [5] the Hovis process was patented on 6 October 1887 [6] by Richard "Stoney" Smith (1836–1900), and S. Fitton & Sons Ltd developed the brand, milling the flour and selling it along with Hovis-branded baking tins to other bakers. The name was coined in 1890 by London student Herbert Grime in a national competition set by S. Fitton & Sons Ltd to find a trading name for their patent flour which was rich in wheat germ. Grime won £25 when he coined the word from the Latin phrase hominis vis, "the strength of man". [5] The company became the Hovis Bread Flour Company Limited in 1898. [5]
When the abundance of certain B vitamins in wheatgerm was reported in 1924, Hovis increased in popularity. [5]
In 1915, when the London and South Western Railway inaugurated their first electric train services, they introduced alphabetical head-codes in lieu of the traditional discs used on steam locomotives so that the general public could more easily identify their train. A 1926 advertisement widely deployed on the railways showed five such trains carrying headcodes H ō V I S along with an explanation (H-Hampton Court, ō-Hounslow, V-Kingston [V for Thames Valley], I-Dorking North & Effingham, and S-Shepperton). That the "clockwise" Hounslow Loop head-code was a slightly height-reduced 'O' topped by a bar led to the rendering of the brand as HōVIS, a rendering that significantly outlasted the advertising campaign.
In 1973, Hovis ran a television advertisement, Boy on the Bike , [5] written by advertising agency Collett Dickenson Pearce and filmed by CDP's photographer Jack Bankhead under the direction of Ridley Scott, who later directed Alien . The advert featured the slow movement of Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 rearranged for brass. [7] Filmed on Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset, Scott's advert has been voted Britain's favourite advertisement of all time. [8] [9] An original film print was restored by the BFI in 2019 and is available on their Advertising Collection. [10] [11]
This advertisement was repeated on British television for a 10-day run in May 2006 to commemorate the firm's 120th anniversary. The soundtrack had to be re-recorded to meet advertising standards. [10] The boy on the bike, Carl Barlow, then aged 13, left acting and eventually became a firefighter in East Ham in 1979. [8] [12]
In 2008 Hovis departed from the "boy on a bike" format by commissioning Go On Lad , a retrospective advertisement documenting the 122 years of British history since the brand's launch. Go On Lad was voted "Advert of the Decade" by the British public in December 2009. [13]
Hovis Ltd. published a series of map books which included advertisements for their products. In 1899 the company produced eight books of maps, covering England and Wales, designed for cyclists. [14] In 1920 the company published Where to Go and How to Get There: Hovis Road Map of England, Wales and Scotland, and several versions of this book were later printed. [15]
Since 1980, Hovis have licensed Jacob's to produce a digestive biscuit, branded as Hovis. [5] Now a United Biscuits product, they are shaped like a miniature flat copy of the traditional Hovis loaf, and like the bread have the word "HOVIS" stamped on their top surface.
In a bid to help the environment and sustainability, Hovis collaborated with TerraCycle in The Bread Bag Recycling Programme. The objective of the programme is to drop-off used bread bags at public drop-off locations across the UK, or mail them to delivery services like those provided by UPS. These are all listed on an interactive map. After that the bags are recycled in a specialist plant. Those who take part in the programme are able to get TerraCycle points. These can be redeemed for a variety of charitable gifts or a payment to the non-profit organisation. [16] [17]
Quorn is a brand of meat substitute products. Quorn originated in the UK and is sold primarily in Europe, but is available in 11 countries. The brand is owned by parent company Monde Nissin.
Mr Kipling is a brand of cakes, pies and baked goods made in Carlton, South Yorkshire and Stoke-on-Trent, and marketed in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and North America. It was introduced in May 1967, to sell cakes of a local baker's standard to supermarkets, and grew to become the United Kingdom's largest cake manufacturer by 1976.
Shreddies are a breakfast cereal marketed in Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was first produced in Canada in 1939 by Nabisco. The Shreddies brand is held by Post Consumer Brands in Canada, and Nestlé in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
RHM plc, formerly Rank Hovis McDougall, was a United Kingdom food business. The company owned numerous brands, particularly for flour, where its core business started, and for consumer food products. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Premier Foods in March 2007; many of its brands continue to be produced.
Bisto is a popular and well-known brand of gravy and other food products in the United Kingdom and Ireland, currently owned by Premier Foods.
Cerebos is a brand of salt and, more recently, of other flavourings and nutritional supplements. Ownership of Cerebos brand is divided between Kraft Heinz in Asia Pacific, Australia and New Zealand, Premier Foods in UK, K+S in Western Europe, and Bud Group in South Africa. The product was developed by George Weddell, a Scottish chemist working at the British company Mawson & Swan, and sold under the Cerebos brand by a new partnership, Mawson, Swan & Weddell.
Gold Hill is a steep cobbled street in the town of Shaftesbury in the English county of Dorset. The view looking down from the top of the street has been described as "one of the most romantic sights in England."
Premier Foods plc is a British food manufacturer headquartered in St Albans, Hertfordshire. The group owns many well-known brands, including Mr Kipling, Ambrosia, Bird's Custard, Angel Delight, Homepride cooking sauces, Lyons, Sharwood's, Loyd Grossman sauces, Oxo, Bisto, Batchelors and Plantastic. Premier Foods also produce cakes under the Cadbury's name, using the brand under licence. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Warburtons Limited is a British baking firm founded by Thomas Warburton in 1876 and based in Bolton, a town formerly in Lancashire, England, and now in Greater Manchester. For much of its history Warburtons only had bakeries in Lancashire and it remains a family-owned company. As of 2018, Warburtons has 12 bakeries, 14 depots, and 4,500 employees around the UK.
TerraCycle is a private U.S.-based recycling business headquartered in Trenton, New Jersey. It primarily runs a volunteer-based recycling platform to collect non-recyclable pre-consumer and post-consumer waste on behalf of corporate donors, municipalities, and individuals to turn it into raw material to be used in new products. TerraCycle also manages Loop, a consumer-products shopping service with reusable packaging.
Mother's Pride is a brand name for a variety of breads produced by British Bakeries, a division of Premier Foods. The company also bakes Nimble and Hovis branded loaves as well as supermarket 'own brand' ranges.
Be-Ro is a food manufacturing business, formerly based in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Malt loaf is a type of sweet leavened bread made with malt extract as a primary ingredient. It has a chewy texture and often contains raisins. It is usually eaten sliced and spread with butter for tea. Malt flour is sometimes used to supplement the flavour.
Homepride is a British food brand owned by Premier Foods for prepared cooking sauces. Premier Foods also licenses the brand to Kerry Group for the production of flour.
Spillers Ltd was a British company that owned flour milling operations, operated bakeries and also sold pet food and equine feeds.
"Go On Lad" is a British television and cinema advertisement launched by Premier Foods in 2008 to promote its Hovis brand of bread. The 122-second piece was commissioned as part of a £15,000,000 brand relaunch designed to reverse Hovis' declining market share and profits. The commercial follows the journey of a young boy through 122 years of British history, from the establishment of the Hovis brand in 1886 to the current day. The campaign was handled by advertising agency Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy. Production of the commercial itself was contracted to London-based production company Rattling Stick, with post-production handled by The Mill. It was directed by Ringan Ledwidge. "Go On Lad" premiered on British television on 12 September 2008.
Skins, stylized SKINS, is an Australian manufacturing company founded in 1996 that designs and produces compression garment for athletes and sports enthusiasts. After filing for bankruptcy in 2019, the company was acquired by Hong Kong-based holding Symphony, which owns rights over the "Skins" brand.
Hovis Ltd is a British company that produces flour and bread.
Sir John McDougall was an English businessman and an east London politician who chaired London County Council for a year from March 1902.
The Bike Ride, Bike Round or Boy on the Bike is a 1973 advert for the bread maker Hovis. It was directed by Ridley Scott.