British food company
Associated British Foods plc
(
ABF
) is a British
multinational
food processing
and
retailing
company headquartered in
London
, England.
Its ingredients division is the world's second-largest producer of both
sugar
and
baker's yeast
and a major producer of other ingredients including
emulsifiers
,
enzymes
and
lactose
.
[4]
Its grocery division is a major manufacturer of both branded and private label grocery products and includes the brands Mazola,
Ovaltine
,
Ryvita
,
Jordans
,
Kingsmill
and
Twinings
.
[4]
Its retail division,
Primark
, has some 384 stores across several countries, predominantly Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, and the UK.
[2]
ACH Food Companies
is an American subsidiary.
Associated British Foods is listed on the
London Stock Exchange
and is a constituent of the
FTSE 100 Index
.
History
[
edit
]
20th century
[
edit
]
The company was founded by Canadian
W. Garfield Weston
in 1935, initially as Food Investments Limited, with the name changing to Allied Bakeries Limited a month later.
[5]
Between 1935 and 1956, ten national and regional bakery companies were acquired by Allied, including Barrett and Pomeroy, and London and Provincial Bakeries. The largest acquisition at this time was in 1955 when Allied bought the British operations of the
Aerated Bread Company
, founded in 1862. This acquisition included both the bakery business and the chain of cafeterias, the A.B.C. Tearooms.
[6]
Allied paid
$
8.1 million for A.B.C. At that time, Allied had a large share of the UK
baked goods
market. Allied's
market share
prior to acquiring A.B.C. was 10% of all UK bread production and the sale of 20 million
biscuits
per day. Allied's
sales
the year prior were $154 million with
profits
of $12.6 million in current dollars.
[7]
With the acquisition of A.B.C., Allied almost doubled its share of the UK's bread market by the end of the decade.
[8]
In December 1954 they purchased from Howardsgate Trust the single
Fine Fare
Supermarket in
Welwyn Garden City
, the Welwyn Store grocery branches and the bakery businesses owned by the Trust.
[9]
[10]
Allied, under its new name, adopted in 1960, of Associated British Foods, continued to run A.B.C. as a separate brand after its takeover, with a major A.B.C. bakery in
Camden Town
, London. This closed in 1982 and the A.B.C. name was retired.
[11]
Following the death of the founder in 1978, control of the company was passed on to his son
Garry
, while the North American operations fell to his son
Galen
.
[12]
The company sold Fine Fare in 1986 to the Dee Corporation, and in 1991, went on to acquire
British Sugar
.
[13]
In 1997, ABF sold its retail operations in Ireland (including Northern Ireland) to
Tesco
.
[14]
These businesses were:
Quinnsworth
and
Crazy Prices
in the Republic of Ireland and
Stewarts Supermarket Limited
and Crazy Prices in Northern Ireland. This sale also included the Stewarts Winebarrel off-licence chain, Lifestyle Sports & Leisure Ltd (a retail sports and leisure business), Kingsway Fresh Foods (a meat processing facility) and Daily Wrap Produce (a fruit and vegetable packaging plant).
[15]
In May 1994,
Greggs
acquired the
Bakers Oven
chain from the company.
[16]
21st century
[
edit
]
In 2000, the company sold its interests in Burton's Biscuits.
[17]
In 2002, it acquired the Mazola corn oil, Argo and Kingsford's cornstarch, Karo and Golden Griddle syrups, and Henri's dressing brands, along with several Canadian brands, from
Unilever
;
[18]
[19]
in 2004, it acquired the Tone's spice business and Fleischman yeast business from
Burns Philp
;
[20]
and in 2007, it purchased
Patak's
Indian food business.
[21]
On 26 March 2011, Associated British Foods, and its parent company
Wittington Investments
, were targeted over
tax avoidance
by
UK Uncut
during
anti-cuts protests
.
[22]
The tax avoidance scheme involved moving capital between ABF/Primark and the affiliated
Luxembourg
entity ABF European Holdings & Co SNC by means of interest-free loans, avoiding tax of about £9.7 million per year.
[23]
[24]
The protest took the form of a mass
sit-in
in
Fortnum & Mason
.
[25]
In February 2013, the firm denied "illegal and immoral" tax evasion after it was accused by an international charity of moving its profits outside
Zambia
to reduce its tax bill.
ActionAid
said Zambia Sugar, a unit of AB Foods, had made profits of $123 million since 2007, but had paid "virtually no corporate tax" in Zambia.
[26]
In October 2013, the company denied being involved in unscrupulous uses of land, in an article containing reports of forced evictions by other companies.
[27]
Operations
[
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]
Brands
[
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]
Subsidiaries
[
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]
- AB Agri Ltd
- AB Enzymes - an ABFI Company
- AB Sugar
- AB Mauri
, bakery ingredients
- Abitec Corporation - an ABFI Company
- Abitec Ltd
- ACH Food Companies (AC HUMKO from 1995 to 2000), an American subsidiary of Associated British Foods, previously part of Kraft Foods from 1952 to 1995.
- ACH Food Mexico
[29]
- Allied Bakeries - a division of ABF Grain Products Ltd
- Allied Mills
- British Sugar
- Frontier Agriculture
(50% joint venture with
Cargill
)
- George Weston Foods
- G Costa: sauces and specialty foods
- Illovo Sugar
- OHLY - an ABFI Company
- PGP International, Inc. - an ABFI Company
- Primark
? known as
Penneys
in the
Republic of Ireland
- SPI Pharma, Inc. - an ABFI Company
- Stratas Foods LLC, a 50/50 joint venture between ABF's American subsidiary ACH and fellow American food corporation
Archer Daniels Midland
[30]
- Wander AG
- Westmill Foods
Board of directors
[
edit
]
Controlling shareholder
[
edit
]
54.5% of ABF is owned by
Wittington Investments
.
[32]
79.2% of the share capital of Wittington Investments is owned by the
Garfield Weston Foundation
, which is one of the UK's largest grant-making charitable trusts, and the remainder is owned by members of the Weston family. Wittington Investments also owns
Fortnum & Mason
and
Heal & Son
. George G. Weston became chief executive of ABF on 1 April 2005, and Galen Weston, the chief executive of
George Weston Ltd.
, is a
non-executive director
. Garth Weston is Regional President of AB Mauri.
[33]
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Associated British Foods PLC overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK"
.
Companies House
. 20 October 1934
. Retrieved
7 August
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
"Annual Report and Accounts 2023"
(PDF)
. Associated British Foods
. Retrieved
11 February
2024
.
- ^
"About us"
. Associated British Foods
. Retrieved
11 February
2024
.
- ^
a
b
"Introduction"
. Associated British Foods plc.
Archived
from the original on 22 September 2010
. Retrieved
26 September
2010
.
- ^
"Bakers Federation"
. Bakers Federation. Archived from
the original
on 7 April 2010
. Retrieved
15 May
2010
.
- ^
Richard Evely and I. M. D. Little,
Concentration in British Industry
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) p.258
- ^
"
Barnum of Bread
,"
Time
. Monday, 14 February 1955.
(Retrieved 2009-05-13.)
- ^
Oddy, Derek J. and Derek S. Miller.
The Making of the Modern British Diet
. Croom Helm. 1976, p. 27
- ^
Maurice De Soissons (1988).
Welwyn Garden City
. Publications for Companies. p. 145.
ISBN
9780904928235
.
- ^
Roger Filler (1986).
A History of Welwyn Garden City
. Phillimore. pp. 125?127.
ISBN
9780850335903
.
- ^
"The Early History of Sainsbury's in Camden"
.
Locallocalhistory.co.uk
. Retrieved
14 December
2016
.
- ^
"Garry Weston"
.
The Daily Telegraph
. 16 February 2002
. Retrieved
25 February
2018
.
- ^
"Obituary: Garry Weston"
.
The Independent
. UK. 16 February 2002. Archived from
the original
on 2 March 2009
. Retrieved
15 May
2010
.
- ^
Pain, Derek (14 April 1997).
"ABF's £1.5bn cash mountain provides investors with food for thought"
.
The Independent
. UK
. Retrieved
28 July
2012
.
- ^
"Regulation (EEC) No 4064/89 Merger Procedure"
(PDF)
. EU. 5 May 1997. p. 2
. Retrieved
25 February
2018
.
- ^
"Greggs - history"
. 16 January 2010. Archived from
the original
on 16 January 2010
. Retrieved
15 November
2016
.
- ^
Wootliff, Benjamin (31 October 2000).
"Wagon Wheels roll west as ABF sells Burton's"
.
The Daily Telegraph
. UK
. Retrieved
15 May
2010
.
[
dead link
]
- ^
"ACH Foods Company Overview"
. achfood.com. Archived from
the original
on 15 December 2013
. Retrieved
7 December
2013
.
- ^
"ACH Food Companies, Inc. Buys Unilever's Mazola Corn Oil and Associated Brands"
. prnewswire.com. 23 April 2002
. Retrieved
7 December
2013
.
- ^
"Burns Philp & Co Ltd"
. Secinfo.com. Archived from
the original
on 21 October 2008
. Retrieved
15 May
2010
.
- ^
"AB Foods buys curry firm Patak's"
BBC News Online
Tuesday, 29 May 2007
- ^
UK Uncut Occupy Tax Dodgers Fortnum and Mason
Archived
29 March 2011 at the
Wayback Machine
. 26 March 2011.
- ^
"ABF European Holdings & Co SNC accounts 2008"
(PDF)
. Retrieved
16 February
2013
.
- ^
"Tax Research UK article"
. Taxresearch.org.uk. 28 March 2011
. Retrieved
16 February
2013
.
- ^
Video:
Occupation of Fortnum & Mason by UKuncut was peaceful
Archived
20 January 2013 at the
Wayback Machine
, by Sunny Hundal. 27 March 2011.
- ^
Vellacott, Chris (10 February 2013).
"AB Foods denies avoiding tax in Zambia Holiday"
.
Reuters
.
- ^
Merrill, Jamie (2 October 2013).
"Oxfam accuses Coke and Pepsi of taking land from the poor"
.
The Independent
.
- ^
"Associated British Foods plc has acquired the Leicester-based sports nutrition company H5 Ltd, trading as High5"
.
www.bcms.com/gb/en-gb
. Retrieved
14 November
2017
.
- ^
"ACH Food Companies - Mexico"
.
achfood.com
. Archived from
the original
on 17 March 2015
. Retrieved
15 March
2015
.
- ^
"Heggen takes the helm at Stratas Foods"
.
Food Business News
. 13 March 2020
. Retrieved
15 June
2020
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
"Associated British Foods plc - About us - Board and committees - Board of directors"
.
abf.co.uk
. Retrieved
15 March
2015
.
- ^
Associated British Foods.
"Annual Report 2011"
(PDF)
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 6 April 2012
. Retrieved
28 July
2012
.
- ^
"Trustees | The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award"
.
www.intaward.org
. Retrieved
19 February
2018
.
External links
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