Dalgety
The Company was established by Frederick Dalgety, a Scotsman, in Melbourne in 1846, outfitting sheep ranchers.
1854 Frederick Dalgety moved to London where he operated as a wool trader.
1884 Dalgety and Co was first listed on the London Stock Exchange.
1962 the business merged with the New Zealand Loan & Mercantile Agency.
1966 The Company expanded into North America in 1966 acquiring Balfour Guthrie, a lumber and poultry business.
1970 it acquired the UK-based Pig Improvement Company (PIC).
1977 Federated Chemical Holdings was acquired by Dalgety.
1979 it diversified into foods acquiring Spillers, a flour milling and pet food business, following a hostile take-over battle. Formation of new company, Dalgety Spillers.
1985 Dalgety acquired Gill and Duffus.
1986 Acquired Romix Foods, making the group the largest maker of cake mixes in the country[1]
1987 Bought Golden Wonder, potato crisp manufacturers.
1990 Deal with Grand Metropolitan to exchange certain brands: Memory Lane Cakes went to Grand Metropolitan in exchange for Green baking mixes, and Hammonds sauces[2]
1995 Dalgety bought Felix Pet Foods, the European pet foods arm of Quaker Oats, which it added to the Spillers operations[3], making it the second largest petfood business in Europe.
1995 Sold the Pot Noodles business, which was underperforming, in order to concentrate on pet foods.[4]
1995 Sold Golden Wonder to its management. Sold the Homepride sauces brand to the Campbell Soup Company.
1997 The pet foods division included Whiskas, Winalot and Felix brands.[5]
1997 Following the BSE crisis in the UK, which reduced demand for animal feed, Dalgety entered into a series of disposals, selling its food ingredients and Spillers flour milling operations, including Homepride flour, to the Kerry Group and its pet foods business to Nestlé.
Dalgety retained the brand rights for the production of pre-prepared cooking sauces. The Homepride sauces brand was acquired by the Campbell Soup Company.
1998 After the planned disposals it was expected that Dalgety would consist of the pig breeding, cattle feed, fertiliser and seeds divisions[6]
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] Wikipedia