United Biscuits

History

United Biscuits (UB) was formed in 1948 by a merger of two Scottish family businesses: McVitie & Price and MacFarlane Lang. In 1962, United Biscuits acquired William Crawford & Sons, a Scottish baker founded in Leith in 1813, for £6 million. In 1965, the company also acquired William MacDonald & Sons for £2.8 million, and brought the Penguin brand to the group.

The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange as United Biscuits plc on 27 July 1948.

In 1972, United Biscuits acquired Carr's of Carlisle, makers of Table Water biscuits, from James Goldsmith's Cavenham Foods for £2.75 million. Two years later, in 1974, it acquired the US-based Keebler Company for $53 million. It also owned the Wimpy Bar fast food restaurant chain between 1977 and 1989, before selling it off to Burger King.

United Biscuits acquired the frozen food company Ross Young's from Hanson in 1988 for £335 million.

It sold Keebler for $500 million in 1995 after giving up efforts to break into the American market. In 1998 PepsiCo purchased Smith's Snackfood Company from United Biscuits.

United Biscuits was de-listed from the London Stock Exchange and acquired in May 2000 by Finalrealm, a consortium of financial investors, as well as Nabisco Holdings Corporation. As part of the transaction, UB acquired Nabisco's European businesses and divested several parts of its international business in Scandinavia, continental Europe, Asia (Keebler Malaysia and Singapore), several brands including TUC and 70% shareholding in Fazer Keksit (Biscuit) in Finland to Groupe Danone and Far East (China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) to Nabisco. The company sold Young's Bluecrest in 2001, in order to concentrate on the sweet biscuit sector. In September 2004, United Biscuits bought the UK portion of Groupe Danone's Jacob's Biscuit Group for £240 million, including Cream Crackers and Twiglets. In July 2006, the company sold its Southern European biscuits business to Kraft Foods, which in turn left the owner syndicate.

In October 2006, MidOcean Partners sold the company to a consortium made up of the Blackstone Group and PAI Partners. The deal was completed in December 2006.

In December 2012, UB agreed the sale of its KP Snacks business to Intersnack for £500 million. On 3 November 2014, private equity funds managed by Blackstone and PAI Partners announced the sale of United Biscuits to Yıldız Holding.

Operations

The core of the business is in the United Kingdom, where it produces biscuits under a number of brand names, including: McVitie's biscuits and Jacob's Cream Crackers.

The company manufactures in a number of countries across Europe, such as the Netherlands, France and Belgium. It also has a manufacturing site in India.

The company's headquarters is in Chiswick Business Park in west London. The company's main UK distribution centre is at Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

Brands

• Carr's
• Crawfords
• Tasties
• Delacre
• Verkade
• Go ahead!
• Wing Dings
• Flipper Dipper

Jacob's

Main article: Jacob's

• Biscuits for Cheese
• Mini Cheddars
• Cheddars
• Cheeselets
• Choice Grain
• Cornish Wafer
• Cream Crackers
• Essentials Crackers
• Mediterraneo
• Thai Bites
• Water Biscuits
• Twiglets
• Crinklys
• Oddities
• TUC (UK market only)

McVities

Main article: McVities

• Ginger Nuts
• Digestives
• Hobnobs
• BN
• Rich Tea
• Penguin
• Taxi
• Lyle's
• Mini Rolls
• Club
• Gold
• Iced Gems
• Happy Faces
• Jaffa Cakes
• United (discontinued)

United Biscuits Network

The United Biscuits Network, a closed-circuit radio network serving their factories across the UK which was active from 1970 to 1979, spawned the career of UK radio presenter Steve Allen and TV and radio personality Dale Winton.

In popular culture

In his 2009 book The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, Alain de Botton chronicles his tour and brief experiences with employees of United Biscuits as they launched the "Moments" biscuit line.

References

References

1. "Companies House Records".
2. "Full Accounts made up to 31 December 2022".
3. "Companies House PSC register".
4. "A New Biscuit Company." ''The Times'' [London, England] 19 March 1948: 9.
5. "United Biscuits Crawfords For More Than £6M." ''The Times'' [London, England] 24 May 1962: 19.
6. "£2.8M. Biscuit Merger." ''The Times'' [London, England] 21 January 1965: 22.
7. "Archive issuer list 1999".
8. Anthony Rowley. "Cavenham sell biscuit interests for £4m." ''The Times'' [London, England] 5 July 1972: 19.
9. "[http://www.caterersearch.com/Companies/33925/wimpy-international-ltd.html Information on Wimpy's Franchise] {{Webarchive. link. (11 February 2013 ",''Caterer Search''. Retrieved on 29 January 2008.)
10. "History". United Biscuits.
11. [https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/07/business/united-biscuits-sells-keebler-for-500-million.html United Biscuits Sells Keebler for $500 Million]
12. [https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/no-intervention-in-smiths-sale No intervention in Smith's sale] [[Australian Competition & Consumer Commission]] 21 August 1998
13. (25 April 2002). "UB to weigh up its options". Eurofood.
14. United Biscuits (holdings) Limited, 1999 Annual Report
15. (29 March 2001). "United Biscuits selling Young's stake". Eurofood.
16. (24 July 2004). "Danone sells its UK biscuits to United". [[The Independent]].
17. (11 July 2006). "City sandwich". The Daily Telegraph.
18. Parkinson, Gary. (26 October 2006). "Private-equity companies snap up United Biscuits in a [pound]1.6bn". [[The Independent]].
19. (15 December 2006). "Blackstone and PAI complete purchase of UB". United Biscuits.
20. (25 October 2006). "Cinven, MidOcean to sell United Biscuits". Alt Assets.
21. (5 December 2012). "KP Snacks snapped up by Intersnack in £500m deal". Manchester Evening News.
22. (3 November 2014). "Turkish food giant gobbles up United Biscuits". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
23. (8 June 2016). "McVitie's and Jacob's owner Yildiz plans to sell British biscuits around the world". The Independent.
24. (16 March 2014). "Team Builder". Business Today.
25. "United Biscuits Midlands Distribution Centre". Mister What.
26. (9 February 2016). "United Bars are the eighties sweets we need to see back on our shelves". The Daily Edge.
27. "Pick of the Pops Biography". BBC.
28. (26 March 2009). "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work". The Economist.