Grace's Guide

c.1960 Imperial Tobacco acquired a small food company^[1]

c.1965 The company still had only a small interest in food

1967 Imperial Tobacco Co acquired Lea and Perrins maker of sauces and pickles, as well as canned beans and other foods, including H. P. Sauce, and Golden Wonder

1968 Imperial Tobacco Co acquired National Canning Co, maker of Smedley's canned and frozen foods^[2]

1969 Headquarters of Imperial Foods was in Leamington Spa^[3]

1969 Acquired Ross Group

1970 Acquired Allied Farm Foods, the group's 4th major food purchase in 5 years

1972 Sold A. H. Allen and Co, steel stockholders and engineer's merchants, to British Steam Specialities^[4]

1972 Merged its Smedley's and HP Foods subsidiaries as Smedley-H.P. Foods^[5]

1972 Ross Poultry was a subsidiary^[6]

1974 Acquired Pillsbury Farms of USA^[7]. The company's computer bureau was located at Grimsby, operated by Lindum Information Systems^[8]

1977 Formation of a new subsidiary Ross Buxted Nitrovit, responsible for Ross Poultry, Buxted Poultry, Nitrovit^[9]

1978 Other subsidiaries were Daylay Eggs and Eastwood Thompson^[10] and J. B. Eastwood, egg producers.

1981 Formation of TKM Foods from the merger of 2 canned fruit and vegetable companies: Smedley's, part of Imperial Foods and Tozer, Kemsley and Millbourn (Holdings)^[11]

1982 Imperial Group sold its UK chicken and egg, animal feed and meat trading operations to Hillsdown Holdings, including Allied Farm Foods, Buxted Poultry, Eastwood Thompson and J. B. Eastwood^[12]

1986 Imperial Foods merged the catering arm of its frozen foods subsidiaries Ross Foods and Young's Seafood to form Ross Young's Foodservice^[13]

1986 Imperial Group was acquired by Hanson Trust

Sources of Information