Grace's Guide
British Industrial History
Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 148,107 pages of information and 233,634 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.
Hillsdown Holdings
From Graces Guide
1975 The company was founded by Harry Solomon and David Thompson as Hillsdown Holdings, a holding company for a number of their investments. The name came from Thompson's house - Hillsdown.
The Principal areas of activity were:
- fresh meat and bacon;
- poultry, eggs and animal feeds;
- food processing and distribution;
- furniture manufacturing;
- stationery and office equipment;
- property;
- specialist operations.
1981 it acquired Lockwood Foods, a canned foods business
1982 Acquired from Imperial Group its UK chicken and egg, animal feed and meat trading operations, including Allied Farm Foods, Buxted Poultry, Eastwood Thompson and J. B. Eastwood[1]
1986 Bought various food businesses from Beecham Group
1988 Sold the Nitrovit feed mills to J. Bibby and Sons.
1990 Acquired Premier Brands which included Typhoo and Cadbury's drinks.
At the end of 1994, acquired Lyons Biscuits Ltd.
Hillsdown Holdings later sold Lyons Biscuits to a U.S. investment firm which subsequently sold it to large biscuit manufacturer Burton's Foods Ltd.
1999 The company was bought by the private equity company Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst.
2000 Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst acquired Burton's Foods and merged it with Hillsdown Holdings[2]
2002 Bought Nestlé's ambient foods business.
2004 Premier Foods was listed on the London Stock Exchange.