Unigate
 |
|
| Public | |
| Industry | Foods |
| Founded | 1959 |
| Headquarters | Gerrards Cross, UK |
|
Key people
|
Ross Warburton, Chairman Geoff Eaton, CEO |
| Revenue | £736.1 million (2007) |
| £(3.6) million (2007) | |
| £(41.7) million (2007) | |
|
Number of employees
|
6,559 (2007) |
| Parent | Greencore |
| Website | www.uniq.com |
Uniq plc (formerly Unigate plc) was a British food manufacturer. Listed on the and once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, it was taken over by Irish foods conglomerate Greencore in 2011.
The company was formed in 1959 by the merger of the UK's largest dairy products company United Dairies, with Cow & Gate, earlier known as the West Surrey Central Dairy Company, forming Unigate.
On merger, aside from its extensive milk home delivery network, its range of food products included Cow & Gate baby foods (now part of Royal Numico) and Farmer’s Wife cream. It also developed St Ivel cheese spreads and Utterly Butterly.
In 1963 Unigate acquired Midland Counties Dairies, but as milk consumption levelled and then started to decline in the 1960s, it began diversifying into non-dairy businesses. It began by buying up grocery stores and restaurants, and by the 1970s bought supermarket chain Kibby's, Quids-In clothing shops, Uni-Wash laundrettes, and some Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises. In 1973 it acquired Scot Bowyers, a meat-processing company, in 1975 United States-based Italian cheese manufacturer Frigo, and in 1978 US specialty cheesemaker, Gardenia.
In 1977, dairyman John Clement became CEO and chairman. To stop the decline in the dairy business, he sold 75% of its dairy manufacturing businesses to the nationalised company the Milk Marketing Board for £87 million. After paying off debt, Unigate acquired:
But the diversification didn't pay off, and in the late 1980s the project was reversed. By the end of the decade, despite Unigate remaining the UK's biggest milk supplier, dairy products only made up one third of group turnover. With losses mounting and debt rising, Clement was replaced in both board positions by the end of 1991.
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Wikipedia