Company type | Public |
---|---|
ISIN | GB00B7N0K053 |
Industry | Food Manufacturing |
Predecessor | Rank Hovis McDougall |
Founded | 1975 (as Hillsdown Holdings) |
Headquarters | St. Albans, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom |
Key people | Colin Day, (Chairman) Alex Whitehouse, (CEO) |
Products | Foods |
Revenue | £1,006.4 million (2023) [1] |
£132.2 million (2023) [1] | |
£91.6 million (2023) [1] | |
Number of employees | 4,322 (2023) [1] |
Website | www |
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.
The company was founded by Harry Solomon and David Thompson in London in 1975 as Hillsdown Holdings. [2] The name came from Thompson's house, Hillsdown. [2] His son Richard Thompson worked for his father after his education at Haileybury. In 1981 it acquired Lockwood Foods Ltd which was in administrative receivership. [2] In May 1987, David Thompson stepped down from Hillsdown Holdings, selling 50% of his shares and became a non executive director. In April 1989 he sold all of his shares. [3]
In 1986, it bought various food businesses from Beechams and in 1990 it acquired Premier Brands, the MBO led by Paul Judge of Cadbury Schweppes' Foods and Other Products divisions which included Typhoo and Cadbury's drinks. [2]
It was bought by the private equity company Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst in 1999. [4] In 2002, it bought Nestlé's ambient foods business. [5] It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2004. [6]
In 2004, it acquired the Ambrosia custard and rice pudding brand from the Colman's division of Unilever. [7]
In February 2005, Premier Foods acquired Kraft Foods' ambient desserts businesses including Bird's Custard and Angel Delight. [8]
In June 2005, Marlow Foods, [9] makers of Quorn, was purchased and this was followed in October by the acquisition of Cauldron, consolidating the two leading brands in the meat-free category. [10] That month, Premier Foods announced the sale of Typhoo tea to India's Apeejay Surrendra Group for $140 million. Immediately after the sale, The Sirhowy Group confirmed it had acquired a 2% stake in Premier Foods, supporting the company's strategy to make debt reduction a priority. [11]
In 2006, Premier Foods acquired the UK and Ireland businesses of Campbell's for £460 million. Brands included in the deal were Oxo, Batchelors, Homepride and Fray Bentos. The iconic Campbell's Soup cans had to be rebranded as Batchelors Condensed Soup (as the brand itself was not acquired) but labels still carried the label "Formerly Campbell's. Same great taste." [12] Similarly, Campbell's Meatballs were rebranded as Fray Bentos Meatballs. [13] Subsequently, in December 2007, the closure of the King's Lynn depot where Fray Bentos pies were made was announced. [14]
In March 2007, Premier Foods completed the takeover of its rival Rank Hovis McDougall (RHM) for £1.2 billion. [15]
In July 2007, Premier Foods announced it would close several RHM sites: Bristol, Droylsden (makers of Robertson's Golden Shred since 1890 and Sharwood's brands), Middlewich (makers of Bisto and Salts), Wythenshawe (makers of Sharwood's pappadoms and Paxo), Ledbury (makers of specialist jams) and Reading (Foodservices). [16]
In 2008 the company re-launched the Hovis brand by commissioning Go On Lad , a retrospective advertisement which was voted "Advert of the Decade" by the British public in December 2009. [17]
In 2009, Premier Foods sold its frozen bakery business, including Le Pain Croustillant and Sofrapain, to Nutrixo. [18]
In February 2011, Premier Foods sold its Crosse & Blackwell, Fray Bentos and Smedley's businesses to Princes for £182 million. [19] It followed this in March with the sale of Marlow Foods to Exponent Private Equity and Intermediate Capital Group for £205 million ($331.6 million), [20] resulting in the creation of a new company, Quorn Foods. Premier Foods said the deal was part of a strategy to reduce its debt, which built up following an acquisition spree that included Hovis-owner RHM and Campbell's Soup in the UK and Ireland. 2 Sisters Food Group bought Premier Foods' Brookes Avana business in December 2011. [21]
In 2012, the company announced it had agreed a re-financing package, which required the disposal of additional assets. [22] Premier Foods reached agreements with Mizkan to sell its Haywards pickle, Sarson's and Dufrais vinegar in June, [23] followed by Branston in October that year. [24] In August, the company sold its sweet spreads and jellies division, including Hartley's jam, Sun-Pat peanut butter and Robertson's, to Hain Celestial Group. [25]
In January 2014, Premier Foods announced a new capital structure for the business which included an underwritten equity issue of approximately £353 million, a new pension schemes agreement, a high yield bond of £500 million and a new lending agreement with a smaller banking group. Premier also became a 'grocery-only' business with the movement of the Hovis brand into a joint venture with US-based venture capital fund The Gores Group. Premier Foods sold a controlling 51% stake in the joint venture to The Gores Group, which saw Hovis become a private company. [26]
The Hovis spin-off was followed in June 2014 by the announcement that the company would spin off its powdered food and drinks manufacturing operations in Knighton into a joint venture called Knighton Foods. Premier Foods sold a controlling 51% stake in the venture to Specialty Powders Holdings. [27]
In December 2014 it was reported that the company was charging suppliers for the right to sell goods and services to Premier Foods. One supplier said the practice – known as pay and stay – was like "blackmail". Premier Foods said it was confident the scheme did not break any rules under competition law. [28]
In November 2015 the group announced a new partnership with celebrity baker Paul Hollywood to produce a range of bread, savoury and sweet mixes, designed to make artisanal baking accessible to consumers. [29]
The company announced a partnership with the Japanese company Nissin Foods in March 2016, whereby the companies would distribute each other's products in their home markets. [30] Premier Foods also revealed it had rejected an unsolicited takeover approach from McCormick & Company. Nissin subsequently purchased a 17.3% stake in the company. [31] McCormick dropped its takeover bid in April 2016. [32]
The company's brands include: [33]
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.
Cup Noodles is a brand of cup instant ramen developed in 1971 and manufactured by Japanese food company Nissin Foods. Single servings of the product are packaged in foam, plastic, or paper cups and are prepared by adding boiling water.
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.
Cup-a-Soup is an instant soup product sold under various brands worldwide. The soup is sold in sachets of powder which can be poured into a mug or cup making it a drink, which is then filled with near-boiling water and stirred.
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.
Fray Bentos is the capital city of the Río Negro Department, in south-western Uruguay, at the Argentina-Uruguay border, near the Argentine city of Gualeguaychú. Its port on the Uruguay River is one of the nation's most important harbours. The city hosts the first campus of the Technological University, beside the historically relevant industrial complex Anglo, a World Heritage Site.
Typhoo is a brand of tea in the United Kingdom. It was launched in 1903 by John Sumner Jr. of Birmingham, England. In 2022, the Typhoo brand was ranked 5 in sales volume in the UK in spite of being deemed to have the largest production output; this mismatch is due to major supermarkets' own-labelled tea brands being largely supplied by Typhoo.
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.
Sharwood's is a British food company, which specialises in Asian food, established in 1889 by James Allen Sharwood and acquired by RHM in 1963, which was then merged into Premier Foods in March 2007.
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.
Baxters Food Group Limited, also known as Baxters of Speyside or Baxters, is a food processing company, based in Fochabers, Scotland. It produces foods such as canned soups, canned meat products, sour pickles, sauces, vinegars, antipasto, chutneys, fruit preserves and salad and meat condiments.
Peter's Food Service is a Bedwas, Wales based baker and supplier of pies, pasties, slices, sausage rolls and factored products into retail, food service, catering and hospitality outlets across the United Kingdom. Today it is one of the largest employers in Wales, and one of the largest cold meat distributors in the United Kingdom.
Saxa is a brand of herbs, spices, salt and pepper in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia that was introduced in 1907. Formerly a brand of Rank Hovis McDougall it became property of Premier Foods in 2007. As a result of the change, production of Saxa salt was moved from Middlewich in Cheshire, a traditional centre of the British salt industry, to factories at Worksop and Ashford, Kent.
Ambrosia is a brand of food products in the United Kingdom. Its original product was a dried milk powder for infants, but it is now mostly known for its custard and rice pudding. The brand plays on the fact that it is made in Devon, England,, with their punning strapline "Devon knows how they make it so creamy".
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.
Monde Nissin Corporation, commonly known as Monde Nissin or abbreviated as MNC, is a Philippine multinational food and beverage company with a portfolio of brands across instant noodles, biscuits, baked goods, culinary aids and alternative meat products categories, including Lucky Me!, SkyFlakes, Fita, M.Y. San Grahams and Nissin. Monde Nissin also sells its alternative meat products globally under Quorn Foods and the Quorn brand.
The Fray Bentos food brand is associated with tinned processed meat products, originally corned beef and later meat pies. The brand has been sold in the United Kingdom, other European countries, and Australia. Created in the second half of the 19th century, the name is derived from the port of Fray Bentos in Uruguay where the products were originally processed and packaged until the 1960s. The brand is now owned in the UK by Baxters, which manufactures the product range in Scotland. Additionally, the Campbell Soup Company manufactures and sells Fray Bentos branded steak and kidney pies in Australia.
Instant sauces are industrially prepared sauce mixes, typically dehydrated, used to prepare sauces. Instant sauces are typically thickened with thickening agents such as starch.