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Findus () is a frozen food brand which was first sold in Sweden in 1945. Findus products include ready meals, peas and Crispy Pancakes, the latter of which were invented in the early 1970s. The Swiss food company
Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...
owned the Findus brand from 1962 to 2000; it sold the rights to the brand in most of Europe (except in Italy where it was owned by
Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...
) in 2000 whilst retaining ownership in
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
(later under
Froneri Froneri is a global ice cream manufacturer with its headquarters in Leeming Bar, North Yorkshire, England. It is the largest producer of ice cream in Europe by volume, and the second-largest in the world, after Unilever. Froneri was establish ...
) until 2021. Through a number of acquisitions, the brand in
Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland is now owned by
Nomad Foods Nomad Foods is an American-British frozen foods company, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The company's jurisdiction of incorporation is the British Virgin Islands. In 2015, Nomad acquired the Iglo Group. Five countries – the UK, It ...
. In June 2015, Iglo Group was purchased by Nomad Foods. Nomad followed this in November 2015 with the purchase of Findus' European business, with the exception of Findus UK and
Young's Young's (Young & Co.'s Brewery Plc) is a British pub chain operating nearly 220 pubs. The company was founded as a brewery in 1831 by Charles Young and Anthony Bainbridge when they purchased the Ram Brewery in Wandsworth. The company closed t ...
, which remain under the ownership of Lion Capital and its partners. Young's confirmed in February 2016 that it intended to rebrand Findus in the UK. Young's later sold Findus UK to Nomad Foods for £500 million.


History

The origins of the Findus brand date back to the founding of Skånska Frukt- vin- & Likörfabriken (''Scandic Fruit, Wine and Liqueur Factory'') in
Bjuv Bjuv is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Bjuv Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 6,832 inhabitants in 2010. References

Findus was located in Bjuv before relocating to Germany and they make frozen food to stores ...
, Sweden, in 1905. In 1941 this company was acquired by the confectionery manufacturer Freja Marabou and was subsequently renamed Findus Canning Factory. In 1945 the first Findus-branded deep-frozen food products went on sale in Sweden, produced in a small factory in
Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conte ...
. Findus products were exported to an increasing number of European countries in the late 1950s, including the United Kingdom in 1958. In 1962, Findus Co. was acquired by the Swiss food and beverage company
Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...
. In 1963, The Swiss food and beverage company
Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...
and the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company
Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...
formed a frozen foods joint venture in Italy, which sold products under the ''Findus'' name. In the 1970s, famed film talent
Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
provided
narration Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...
for a series of Findus television commercials that aired in the UK. Outtakes from the recordings sessions (in which Welles complained about the quality of the advertising copy, argued with the director, and ultimately stormed out of the recording booth) have become known colloquially as the '' Frozen Peas'' recordings. The ''Findus Flag'' logo was adopted in 1971. Unilever acquired Nestle's stake in the joint venture in 1985, giving it full ownership of the Findus brand in Italy. The Findus
Lean Cuisine Lean Cuisine is a brand of frozen entrées and dinners sold in the United States and Canada by Nestlé, and in Australia by Vesco (under a licensing agreement with Nestlé). The brand began as low-fat, low-calorie versions of Stouffer's product ...
range was launched by Nestlé in 1987. In 1998, Nestlé announced that it intended to discontinue the Findus brand in the UK in favour of its
Crosse & Blackwell Crosse & Blackwell is a British food brand. The original company was established in London in 1706, then was acquired by Edmund Crosse and Thomas Blackwell in 1830. It became independent until it was acquired by Swiss conglomerate Nestlé in 1960. ...
name. The plan was dropped when Swedish firm
EQT Partners EQT AB Group is a global investment organization founded in 1994. Its funds invest in private equity, infrastructure, real estate, growth equity, and venture capital in Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific. , EQT's assets under management ...
purchased the Findus brand in Scandinavia, France, Spain and the UK from Nestlé in 1999. Geir Frantzen, a former senior manager at ''Findus AB'', bought out the UK company in April 2005 from EQT. EQT sold the rest of the Findus business (excluding Italy and
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
) to CapVest Limited in January 2006, which subsequently created ''FoodVest'' as a holding company for Findus and
Young's Seafood Young's Seafood Ltd. is a British producer and distributor of frozen, fresh, and chilled seafood, supplying approximately 40% of all the fish eaten in the United Kingdom every year. It is headquartered in Grimsby, England. The company as it is to ...
. In July 2008 FoodVest, including Findus, was purchased by the British private equity firm,
Lion Capital LLP Lion Capital LLP is a British private equity firm specialising in investments in the consumer sector. Previous and current consumer brands owned by Lion have included Weetabix, Jimmy Choo, Wagamama, Kettle Foods and AllSaints. The firm is headq ...
. FoodVest was renamed ''Findus Group'' in 2009. On 6 January 2009, a fire broke out at the British Findus factory, devastating much of the building. ''Newcastle Production'', owners of the factory, entered in the administration with ''Zolfo Cooper'' on 12 January, leading to 359 redundancies. Unilever later sold ''Findus Italy'' to Permira in 2010. In June 2011 it was announced that Findus Group would take back direct responsibility for sales and marketing of the Findus brand in Spain, which it had previously licensed to Ardo in 2005. In November 2015, Findus in all markets excluding the UK was sold to ''Nomad Foods'', former ''Nomad Holding'', which had already purchased ''Iglo Group'', former ''Birds Eye'', in June that year. Findus' UK operations remained alongside Young's under the ownership of investors led by Lion Capital. In February 2016, Young's confirmed it would discontinue use of the Findus brand in the UK, replacing it with ''Chef's Classic'' and ''Original Pancake Co.'' Froneri later sold ''Findus Switzerland'' to Nomad Foods Europe for approximately €110 million in 2021, unifying ''Birds Eye/Iglo/Findus'' ownership in continental Europe.


Products

The Italian Findus range includes ''4 Salti in Padella'' (literally "four jumps in a pan", Italian for " stir frying"), a microwavable or easy cooking version of classic Italian dishes, such as
carbonara Carbonara () is an Italian pasta dish from Rome made with eggs, hard cheese, cured pork and black pepper. The dish arrived at its modern form, with its current name, in the middle of the 20th century. The cheese is usually Pecorino Romano, ...
,
amatriciana Sugo all'amatriciana (), or alla matriciana (in ''Romanesco'' dialect),Ravaro (2005), p. 395 also known as salsa all'amatriciana, is a traditional Italian pasta sauce based on guanciale (cured pork cheek), pecorino romano cheese, tomato, and, in ...
and tagliatelle al ragù.


Crispy Pancakes

Crispy Pancakes is the name of a brand of frozen savoury
pancake A pancake (or hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack) is a flat cake, often thin and round, prepared from a Starch, starch-based batter (cooking), batter that may contain eggs, milk and butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or fryi ...
s containing various fillings and coated with breadcrumbs. Past fillings include cheddar cheese, chicken and bacon, chicken and sweetcorn and chicken and mushroom (these were being phased out in November 2001 and finally discontinued in 2002). Crispy pancakes, packaged in Britain, are sold in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In Italy, they were historically made and packed in the Sagit factory in Cisterna Di Latina and they are known as ''Sofficini'' ("soft ones, fluffy ones") and are described as mozzarella and cheese, tomato and mozzarella, mozzarella and spinach or cheese and ham. The chef
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Hugh Christopher Edmund Fearnley-Whittingstall (born 14 January 1965) is an English celebrity chef, television personality, journalist, food writer, and campaigner on food and environmental issues. Fearnley-Whittingstall hosted the ''River C ...
re-created Findus Crispy Pancakes on his television show ''
River Cottage River Cottage is a brand used for a number of ventures by television chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. These include a long-running Channel 4 television series, cookery courses, events, restaurants and products such as beer and organic yogurts. ...
'' in November 2009. Fearnley-Whittingstall stated in an article in ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' in 2009 that he loved Findus Crispy Pancakes as a child.


Crostinos

These are fish fingers with a chip coating instead of the usual
Breadcrumbs Bread crumbs or breadcrumbs (regional variants including breading and crispies) consist of crumbled bread of various dryness, sometimes with seasonings added, used for breading or crumbing foods, topping casseroles, stuffing poultry, thickeni ...
.


Sponsorships

Findus were previously sponsors of the former 2nd tier of British ice hockey the British National League. They also sponsored English football club
Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in ...
between 1979 and 1984.


2013 horse meat scandal

On 7 February 2013, it was revealed that the Findus beef
lasagne Lasagna (, also , also known as lasagne, ) is a type of pasta, possibly one of the oldest types, made of very wide, flat sheets. Either term can also refer to an Italian dish made of stacked layers of lasagna alternating with fillings such as ...
range in the UK, France and Sweden and the shepherd's pie and moussaka ranges in France contained
horse meat Horse meat forms a significant part of the culinary traditions of many countries, particularly in Eurasia. The eight countries that consume the most horse meat consume about 4.3 million horses a year. For the majority of humanity's early existen ...
without proper declaration. The contamination may have gone on since summer 2012 according to a leaked document. 9 February 2013 independent.co.uk Out of 18 products, 11 tested positive for horse meat. It was also revealed that some of the products sold had minced meat declared as beef that actually was 60–100% horse meat. The source of the horse meat was a third party supplier of
Comigel Comigel S.A.S. is a privately owned French food processing company, headquartered in Metz. History Founded in 1972 in Luxembourg, it moved its headquarters to Metz in 1976. The company was owned by Perkins Foods Holdings Ltd of the United Kingd ...
, the producer of the lasagne. According to the
Food Standards Agency , type = Non-ministerial government department , nativename = , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Food Standards Agency.svg , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = ...
(FSA), the company had been alerted by a third-party French supplier on 4 February 2013 and tested its beef lasagne products finding over 50% of the tested products contained horse meat. According to reports, both Findus UK and the French supplier withdrew all products related to the third party supplier. It is thought the reason for the contamination is "highly likely" to have been criminal activity. On 8 February 2013, Findus UK published a public apology on their website, also announcing that, following DNA testing, 3 of its products were found to contain horse tissue. These are the 320, 350 and 500-gramme packages of Findus Beef Lasagne and the company offered a refund for products purchased. In Sweden, Findus Sverige AB also announced a recall of its packs of ready-made single portion lasagne (code 63957) and published a contact number for customers who had already purchased the products. The horse meat is thought to have been introduced via a Romanian
abattoir A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility. Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...
Tesco says some of its value spaghetti bolognese contains 60% horsemeat
''The Guardian'', 11 February 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
that delivered the meat to a trader in the Netherlands. They were contracted by a Cypriot trader who sold the frozen meat to Spanghero. The meat was then sent to
Comigel Comigel S.A.S. is a privately owned French food processing company, headquartered in Metz. History Founded in 1972 in Luxembourg, it moved its headquarters to Metz in 1976. The company was owned by Perkins Foods Holdings Ltd of the United Kingd ...
who makes the end consumer product. The French authority DGCCRF (Directorate General for Competition, Consumer affairs and Repression of Fraud) inspected Spanghero on Friday 8 February and was able to review the traceability of documents for the concerned batches on the past 4 months, which attests of the conformity of Spanghero's procedures. The French fraud office, the
DGCCRF The politics of France take place with the framework of a semi-presidential system determined by the Constitution of France, French Constitution of the French Fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "indivisible, laïcité, secular, ...
investigation is going on, and inspectors are visiting both the Comigel and Spanghero plants. The investigation's results should be known on 14 February and they will determine the fraud source. Spanghero is working jointly with the authorities on this investigation. 11 February 2013 Public health scientists suspect the horse meat may contain traces of bute which is harmful to humans in large amounts. Spanghero had to withdraw of
mince Mince may refer to: * MINCE, an early text editor for CP/M microcomputers * Mincing, a food preparation technique in which food ingredients are finely divided * Ground meat, also known as ''mince'', meat that has been minced ** Ground beef, also ...
in June 2011, because of suspected contamination by ''
E.coli ''Escherichia coli'' (),Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. also known as ''E. coli'' (), is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus ''Esche ...
'', which causes potentially fatal food poisoning. This contamination happened to be a false alarm. Spanghero products did not contain E.coli and the French authority
DGCCRF The politics of France take place with the framework of a semi-presidential system determined by the Constitution of France, French Constitution of the French Fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "indivisible, laïcité, secular, ...
cleared Spanghero on 22 June 2011. 23 June 2011 In a public letter later that day, 11 firms, including
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 ...
and
Asda Asda Stores Ltd. () (often styled as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain. It is headquartered in Leeds, England. The company was founded in 1949 when the Asquith family merged their retail business with the Associated Dairies company of York ...
, said they shared shoppers' "anger and outrage". Whitbread vowed to remedy the unacceptable situation on 26 February. The FSA's chief executive, Catherine Brown also said "it is unlikely we will ever know" how many unwittingly ate horse meat. In 2016, all Findus products were removed from UK supermarkets. In 2019, a new recipe and name were introduced for Findus' crispy pancakes. Findus was not the only perpetrator, as
Compass Group Compass Group plc is a British multinational contract foodservice company headquartered in Chertsey, England. It is the largest contract foodservice company in the world employing over 500,000 people. It serves meals in locations including o ...
, the world's biggest catering firm, Sodexo the French contract caterer to hospitals, schools and defence sites and
Whitbread Whitbread plc is a multinational British hotel and restaurant company headquartered in Houghton Regis, England. The business was founded as a brewery in 1742, and had become the largest brewery in the world by the 1780s. Its largest division ...
, Britain's biggest hotel and hospitality group, were both indicted for illegally selling concealed horse meat in food products.


References


External links

* {{Authority control Food brands of the United Kingdom Food and drink companies of Sweden Frozen food brands Products introduced in 1945 Former Unilever brands