Associated British Foods
Manufacturers and retailers of food, bread and provisions
1934 October: George Weston Foods Ltd was incorporated
1935 November: Food Investments Limited was founded by Willard Garfield Weston
1935 December: Food Investments was converted into a public company Allied Bakeries Limited; acquired 14 bakeries[1].
1939 Merger of Allied Bakeries and Weston Foods, both subsidiaries of George Weston Holdings[2].
1960 Name was changed to Associated British Foods.
1961 Acquired Vitbe Flour Mills of Kent[3]
1961 Acquired A. B. Hemmings bakeries
1962 The accounts of Howardsgate Group were qualified by the auditors; the group has subsidiaries including Cooper and Co.'s Stores, Joseph Burton and the Fine Fare Supermarkets.[4]
1963 Dicoa Holding Investment Co, a Canadian member of the George Weston group, acquired 51 percent of Howardsgate Holdings, which had 650 shops including 275 Fine Fare supermarkets; this would enable experienced Canadian management to improve the supermarkets' business performance.[5]. ABF acquired 51 percent of Premier Milling Co[6]
1964 Sold the remaining 49 percent in Howardsgate to Dicoa[7]
1964 Acquired Twinings
1966 Fine Fare Holdings and Associated British Foods, both controlled by Garfield Weston and his family, purchased a controlling interest in Melias Ltd but did not intend to make an offer for rest at that time.[8]
ABF had been slowly selling its grocery businesses to its sister company, Fine Fare[9]
1968 Associated British Foods bought Allied Farm Foods[10], the Buxted/Nitrovit Group[11]
1969 Promoted Vitbe vitamin-enhanced brown bread
1970 Sold Allied Farm Foods, as well as Walshs, Alfred E. Jones, Hollingsworth (Meat Products) and Warners of Melton Mowbray to Imperial Tobacco[12]
1973 Acquired Cranfield Brothers, millers
1979 Following the death of the founder, control of the company was passed to his son Garry, while the North American operations went to his son Galen. While Garry maintained the company's prominence in the European foods market, ABF's growth has been eclipsed by the phenomenal performance of George Weston Ltd. in North America.
Defeated Spillers in a marketing war, forcing them out of the market
By the 1980s the company again supplied 30 percent of the bread sold in Britain[13]
1986 Sold Fine Fare
1987 Established Weston Research Laboratories
1990 Associated British Foods[14]
1991 Acquired British Sugar Corporation from Berisford International
1994 Included George Weston Holdings
1995 Purchased Kraft’s food ingredients business. Later renamed ACH Food Companies, Inc.
1996 Manufacturing operations included Allied Bakeries, Burton's Biscuits and British Sugar; retail operations included Primark[15]
1997 ABF sold its retail operations in Northern Ireland and the Republic to Tesco.
2000 Opened the 100th Primark store. Sold its interests in Burton's Biscuits. Formed AB Enzymes.
2002 Acquired Mazola, Ovaltine and George Weston Foods, one of Australia and New Zealand's largest food manufacturers.
2004 Acquired the Tone's spice business and Fleischman yeast business from Burns Philp and Billington's Sugar
2007 Acquired Patak's Indian food business. British Sugar opened the first UK bioethanol plant.
2008 ACH entered into a joint venture with Archer Daniels Midland called Stratas Foods LLC.
2011 The company operates in five sectors: Sugar, Agriculture, Retail, Grocery, Ingredients.
2015 They have 124,000 employees worldwide with 61,000 of these in the retail arm of Primark. Gross number employed in the UK in all divisions is 42,416.[16] The company declare 42,416 employees in the UK but large part will be in retail for Primark chain - estimated at 37,000 for the 173 stores.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Times Dec 17, 1935
- ↑ The Times, Mar 29, 1939
- ↑ The Times Feb. 18, 1961
- ↑ The Times Nov. 26, 1962
- ↑ The Times June 25, 1963
- ↑ The Times July 12, 1963
- ↑ The Times Oct. 17, 1964
- ↑ The Times Dec. 13, 1966
- ↑ The Times May 6, 1967
- ↑ The Times Oct. 9, 1968
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ The Times, Jan 24, 1970
- ↑ The Times Feb. 16, 2002
- ↑ The Times Dec. 11, 1990
- ↑ The Times, April 23, 1996
- ↑ 2015 Annual Report