Northern Foods is a British food manufacturer headquartered in
Wakefield
Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...
, England. It was formerly listed on the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...
and was a constituent of the original
FTSE 100 Index. The company is credited, together with
Marks & Spencer
Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...
, with creating the UK
Chilled Food Chilled food is food that is stored at refrigeration temperatures, which are at or below . The key requirements for chilled food products are good quality and microbiological safety at the point of consumption. They have been available in the Unite ...
category.
The driver of this growth was
Christopher Haskins
Christopher Robin Haskins, Baron Haskins (born 30 May 1937, Dublin) is an Irish businessman, life peer, and former member of the British Labour Party.
Early life
The son of a Protestant farmer, he attended St Columba's College, Dublin, and Tr ...
, the son-in-law of the company's founder Alec Horsley. Haskins became a director in 1967, deputy chairman in 1974, and was chairman from 1980 to 2002. The company was delisted in 2011 when it was bought by the
2 Sisters company.
History
20th century
The business was founded by
Alec Horsley
Alec Stewart Horsley (1 September 1902 – 11 June 1993) was a British businessman, Quaker, and supporter of the peace movement. He was also the founder of Northern Foods.
Personal life and family
Born in Ripley, Derbyshire and educated at ...
in 1937 as a family-run dairy business based in
Holme on Spalding Moor.
During the war years, Horsley bought up many competing local dairies to become a major dairy force in the Humber region.
In 1942, the business was registered as Northern Dairies and became a
public company
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...
in 1956. In 1958, Alec's son
Nicholas Horsley joined the then Northern Dairies as a trainee manager, becoming a director in 1963. His first business success was to acquire cheaply, a stake in a small ice-cream company called
Mr Whippy, which he sold on to
Charles Forte
Charles Carmine Forte, Baron Forte (26 November 1908 – 28 February 2007) was an Italian-born Scottish hotelier who founded the leisure and hotels conglomerate that ultimately became the Forte Group.
Early life
Charles Forte was born as Car ...
for a high price two years later.
The dairy was generating large amounts of cash, as many dairies were at the time, due to the government backed guaranteed pricing created by the
Milk Marketing Board
The Milk Marketing Board was a producer-run product marketing board, established by the Agricultural Marketing Act 1933, to control milk production and distribution in the United Kingdom. It functioned as buyer of last resort in the milk market in ...
, itself a legacy of post-war food shortages. That cash was used to fund diversification into foods. In 1972, Northern Dairies changed its name to Northern Foods.
Nick Horsley's brother-in-law,
Christopher Haskins
Christopher Robin Haskins, Baron Haskins (born 30 May 1937, Dublin) is an Irish businessman, life peer, and former member of the British Labour Party.
Early life
The son of a Protestant farmer, he attended St Columba's College, Dublin, and Tr ...
found himself on a plane next to
Marks & Spencer
Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...
(M&S) executive who was setting up a new store in Belfast. M&S began buying milk for the store from Northern Foods, followed by yoghurt deliveries and food, including the first fresh trifle for M&S.
The contract developed into food sales to M&S that were eventually worth over half a billion pounds a year. Northern Foods also made some non-competing products for other retailers. Since then its strategy has been to buy up and consolidate M&S suppliers.
In 1986, Northern Foods built Fenlands Food Factory, for £8 million, dedicated entirely to M&S.
At the time it was regarded as the most advanced food factory in Europe.
Nick Horsley had successfully diversified the business, widening Northern Foods' portfolio into
Marks & Spencer
Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...
cakes (through Park Cakes), Smith's Flour Milling, brewing (with the purchase of
Hull Brewery
The Hull Brewery Company Limited was a brewery registered in 1888 and based in Hull, in northern England. It was taken over by Northern Foods in 1972 and bought by Mansfield Brewery in 1985.
Gleadow and Dibb
In 1782 Thomas Ward and John Firba ...
),
Fox's Biscuits,
Pork Farms
Pork Farms is a Nottingham-based British producer and distributor of mainly pork-based bakery products. The company grew from a pie shop founded in 1931, and was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1971. After several sales and amalgamations, ...
and many other smaller firms. It was during this period that the company pioneered the market in chilled, prepared meals and sandwiches in supermarkets.
In 1987, the company built the most advanced food factory in Europe, the Fenlands Food Factory in
Grantham
Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...
, and dedicated it entirely to Marks & Spencer.
Nicholas Horsley took early retirement due to a rare genetic wasting disease, and by 1986, Haskins had become chairman of Northern Foods.
In 1994, the Milk Marketing Board was abolished and milk prices in supermarkets fell. The loss of the high return on milk made a measurable impact on all dairy companies including Northern Foods. Northern Foods demerged
Express Dairies
Express Dairies is a former brand of Dairy Crest, that specialised almost entirely in home deliveries of milk, and other dairy products.
History
The company was founded by George Barham in 1864 as the 'Express County Milk Supply Company,' so na ...
in 1998 as the depressed margins were dragging the share price down of the overall group. Both businesses were listed to the FTSE 250. Express Dairies was later bought by in a staged acquisition, finalised in 2003, by
Arla Amba a Danish and Swedish co-operative.
21st century
Christopher Haskins stepped down as CEO in 2002 with Jo Stewart succeeding him. In March 2004, Patricia O'Driscol, who had previously worked for
Tesco
Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
’s chilled business and
Shell
Shell may refer to:
Architecture and design
* Shell (structure), a thin structure
** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses
** Thin-shell structure
Science Biology
* Seashell, a hard o ...
, was hired to replace Stewart.
In July 2004, M&S was subject to a takeover bid from
Philip Green
Sir Philip Nigel Ross Green (born 15 March 1952) is a British businessman who was the chairman of the retail company the Arcadia Group. He owned the high street clothing retailers Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge from 2002 to 2020. As of Ma ...
. This was rejected by M&S which, partly as a result of shareholder pressure, decided to be more transactional in its supplier relationships and started to take volume out of the Northern Foods factories to diversify its supply base. Four profit warnings followed.
In 2005, O'Driscoll embarked on a radical restructuring programme. In February 2006, she hired Stefan Barden, formerly CEO of
Heinz UK&I, to support the restructuring as CEO designate. They completed the restructuring that year selling the dedicated chilled distribution (NFT), flour milling (Smiths), cakes (Park Cakes), speciality bread (Fletchers) and chilled pastry businesses (Pork Farms Bowyers) were also sold to a private equity group, Vision Capital.
Lastly, the Green Isle Boyle site and its Trafford Park Bakery were also closed with production either consolidated into other factories within its footprint or moved to other manufacturers such as
Ginsters
Ginsters is a company based in Callington in Cornwall, in the south-west of England. The largest pasty maker in the UK in turnover, it specialises in making mass-produced pasties, sausage rolls, sandwiches, pasta bowls and other savoury snacks ...
.
The restructuring complete, O’Driscoll stepped down and Barden took over as CEO in 2007.
The next 16 quarters saw sales growth and margin expansion during a period of continued supply over capacity,
volatile commodity prices and significant customer pricing pressure.
Whereas trading was now performing well, a major issue for Northern Foods’ had become its large pension scheme, which since the 2008 financial crisis, had moved from being in surplus to having a sizeable £150m deficit. A merger of equals with
Greencore
Greencore Group plc is a food company in Ireland. It was established by the Irish government in 1991, when Irish Sugar was privatised, but today Greencore's products are mainly convenience foods, not only in Ireland but also in the United Kingd ...
was proposed to help address this, but the pension fund preferred the protections given in an alternative offer by 2 Sisters PLC; which successfully consummated the acquisition in May 2011.
On 13 May 2011, the company was delisted from the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...
. The Northern Foods factories continue to trade with the UK major supermarkets from within the 2 Sisters group.
On 11 September 2020, Northern Foods sold the
Fox's Biscuits brand to
Ferrero SpA
Ferrero SpA (), more commonly known as Ferrero Group or simply Ferrero, is an Italian multinational company with headquarters in Alba, Italy. manufacturer of branded chocolate and confectionery products, and the second biggest chocolate produc ...
, an Italian multinational specialized in the production of chocolate and snacks.
Owned properties
*
Bowyers
A bowyer is a master-craftsman who makes bows. Though this was once a widespread profession, the importance of bowyers and of bows was diminished by the introduction of gunpowder weaponry. However, the trade has survived and many bowyers conti ...
* Baxters Food Group
* Cavaghan & Gray Seafood
* Dalepak Foods
* Donegal Catch
* Dorset Chilled Foods
* Eden Vale
* Elkes Biscuits
* Emile Tissot
* Ethnic Cuisine
* Evesham Foods
*
Express Dairies
Express Dairies is a former brand of Dairy Crest, that specialised almost entirely in home deliveries of milk, and other dairy products.
History
The company was founded by George Barham in 1864 as the 'Express County Milk Supply Company,' so na ...
* Fenland Foods
* Fletchers, Grain D’Or and Kara Foods
*
Fox's Biscuits
* George Payne & Co
* Green Isle Food Groups
* Gunstones Bakery
*
Holland's Pies
* Kara Foods
* Lacemont
* Matthew Walker
* NFT Distribution
*
Palethorpes
* Park Cakes
* Pennine Foods
* Pyewipe
* R&K Wise
* Rawmarsh Foods
* Ski
* Smiths Flour Mills
* Solway Foods
* Vanderheul
[Northern Foods to close Hull site](_blank)
BBC News, 27 May 2009
References
External links
Yahoo profile
{{Authority control
Food and drink companies established in 1937
Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange
Food manufacturers of the United Kingdom
1937 establishments in England