Big Bear Limited was a company formed in 2003 to acquire the

Fox's Confectionery Fox's Confectionery is an English confectionery company based in Braunstone, Leicester which was founded in 1880. History The company was set up by Walter Richard Fox as a wholesale grocery and confectionery business in 1880. It started in a ...

business owned by

Northern Foods Northern Foods is a British food manufacturer headquartered in Wakefield, England. It was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the original FTSE 100 Index. The company is credited, together with Marks & Spencer, ...

based in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The deal was a management buyin. The main brands bought included

Fox's Glacier Mints Fox's Glacier Mints are a brand of boiled mint sold in the UK since 1918. History Background Walter Richard Fox, the founder of Fox's Confectionery, originally manufactured sweets as part of the Joyce and Fox partnership, but this was dissolved ...

Paynes Poppets Poppets (or Paynes Poppets) are a confectionery manufactured by Fox's, first introduced in 1937 by Payne's fine confectionery in Croydon. When originally introduced, only Raisin Poppets were available. More flavours have since been introduced, in ...

XXX mints XXX may refer to: Codes and symbols * 30 (number), Roman numeral XXX * XXX, designating pornography ** XXX, an X rating ** .xxx, an internet top-level domain intended for pornographic sites * XXX, a symbol of the straight edge lifestyle * XXX, ...

and Just Brazils, but not the unrelated

Fox's Biscuits Fox's Biscuits is a British biscuit manufacturer, founded by the Fox family in a terraced house, 17 Whitaker Street, Batley in West Yorkshire in 1853. The head office and main factory are based in the town and has another site in Wesham in Lanc ...

, also owned by Northern. In 2006, Big Bear diversified into

breakfast cereals Cereal, formally termed breakfast cereal (and further categorized as cold cereal or warm cereal), is a traditional breakfast food made from processed cereal grains. It is traditionally eaten as part of breakfast, or a snack food, primarily in ...

and cereal bars by acquiring

Sugar Puffs Honey Monster Puffs are a honey-flavoured breakfast cereal made from sugar-coated wheat sold in the United Kingdom. The cereal was originally sold as Sugar Puffs, but was re-branded in 2014. It was labeled as Honey Monster Sugar Puffs for a t ...

and Harvest Cereal Bars from multinational food and beverage conglomerate

Pepsico PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manuf ...

. Big Bear was acquired by

Raisio Group Raisio Oyj, known internationally as Raisio Group, is a Finnish company specialised in healthy, responsibly produced food and ingredients. Raisio Group's well-known international brands are Benecol and Elovena. Benecol foods were launched in F ...

in 2011. In December 2017, it was announced that Raisio had agreed the sale of its Big Bear confectionery division to

Valeo Foods Valeo Foods is an Irish multinational producer of branded food and beverage products. The company has a portfolio of over 50 international food brands which are sold across 90 countries globally, including Rowse Honey, Odlums Group, Odlums, Batch ...

.Valeo Foods Group agrees €100 million acquisition of Raisio Plc’s confectionery division
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References

External links

* Companies based in Leicester Food manufacturers of England {{food-company-stub