Rank Hovis
 |
|
| Public | |
| Industry | Food |
| Fate | Acquired |
| Successor | Premier Foods |
| Founded | 1875 |
| Defunct | 2007 |
| Headquarters | Marlow, United Kingdom |
|
Key people
|
J. Arthur Rank (Chairman) |
RHM plc, formerly Rank Hovis McDougall, was a United Kingdom food business. The company owned numerous brands, particularly for flour, where its core business started, and for consumer food products. It was listed on the and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Premier Foods in March 2007.
The Company was founded by Joseph Rank in 1875 as flour milling business when he rented a small windmill. He initially lost money and therefore took a co-tenancy at West's Holderness Corn Mill. In 1885 he built a mechanically-driven flour mill in Hull in order to beat competition from abroad. He used steel rollers instead of mill stones thereby producing six sacks of flour an hour instead of one and a half. In 1888 he built another steel-roller plant in Lincolnshire, and soon after, built a more modern plant, producing 20 sacks of flour an hour.
As he strove for greater productivity he installed equipment that produced 30 sacks of flour an hour, and then 40 sacks an hour. He also set up agencies to distribute his flour in parts of England where it previously had not been sold. In May 1899 the business was incorporated as a private company under the name Joseph Rank Limited.
In 1902 Joseph Rank made his first trip to the United States to understand and beat his American competitors. Soon after his trip abroad, the company built mills in London and Cardiff. In 1912, a mill in Birkenhead was built to supply the needs of Ireland and northwestern England. Rank then moved the corporate headquarters of the Company from Yorkshire to London.
During World War II the company employed 3,000 workers, many of them women working while their husbands were away at war. In 1935 Joseph Rank was awarded the Freedom of the City of Hull, in part because of a trust fund he had set up in Hull to help "poor persons of good character."
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Wikipedia