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 today was formed through the merger of Young's and Bluecrest in 1999. It is privately owned by
venture capital
Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...
concern
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 Ltd, Jimmy Choo, Wagamama, Kettle Foods and AllSaints.
Th ...
who purchased the
parent company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...
Foodvest (part of CapVest) in July 2008. It is a major player in the European seafood industry and also owner of sister company,
Findus AB, based in
Malmö
Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...
, Sweden.
History
Prior to the merger with Bluecrest, Young's itself had been the result of a number of takeovers and management buyouts.
Early history
The 1805 foundation of Young's is based on that being the year when one Elizabeth Martha began selling fish on the
Greenwich
Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...
quays. In 1811, Martha married William Timothy Young, a member of a fishing family based on the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...
since the mid-18th century, thus combining their fishing and selling businesses. The business prospered and later moved downriver to
Leigh-on-Sea.
By the end of the 19th century the business, under William Joseph Young, had become a prominent fish merchanting and wholesaling company, operating its own fleet of small boats primarily for fishing
whitebait and
shrimp. In 1890, the company moved its headquarters to
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
to begin supply the city's catering market.
Young's expanded throughout the 1920s, becoming one of the first companies in England to import
salmon and debuting the company's most successful product,
potted shrimps.
The next generation of the Young family - brothers Gordon, Stanley, Douglas, and Malcolm - took over in the late 1930s and set up a new subsidiary for its wholesaling business. Another subsidiary added dockside purchasing and processing operations in
Grimsby, which later emerged as the United Kingdom's (and for a time, the world's) busiest fishing port. By the 1950s, the company had built five production facilities for its potted shrimp production.
Takeovers by the Ross Group and Imperial Tobacco
1959 marked the end of Young's independence, after the company was purchased by the larger
Ross Group. Young's, however, maintained its own operations, and especially its nationally known brand name, and members of the Young family remained in charge of the company's direction.
Ross's and Young's frozen foods operations grew strongly through the 1960s. A new network of distribution depots was set up, and a number of wholesalers throughout the country were acquired. By the middle of the decade the group's share of the UK's frozen food sector topped 5 percent in the retail channel, and as much as 13 percent in the catering market.
The Ross Group's trawling operations, however, were losing money throughout the decade and, in 1969, the group agreed to be acquired by Imperial Tobacco - as part of which process Ross's trawling business was spun off into British United Trawlers. Ross was renamed Imperial Foods (a division of the newly renamed
Imperial Group) but both the Ross and Young's names survived as independently operating divisions of the new company.
As part of Imperial, Young's invested to expand capacity and developed a new centralized distribution system. By the middle of the 1970s, Young's sales had more than doubled, topping £23 million in 1974, and the company was operating 18 factories.
The Hanson and United Biscuits Eras
By the mid-1980s, however, Imperial was caught in an era of hostile takeovers, becoming the target of a number of companies including
United Biscuits Plc (UB). UB lost out to fast-growing conglomerate
Hanson in its attempt to acquire Imperial, but Hanson was interested only in Imperial's tobacco holdings and sold Ross Young's to UB in 1988. Under UB's ownership, Young's was redeveloped as a standalone division. However, by the late 1990s, UB was restructuring its business to focus on core brands.
Bluecrest
Bluecrest, founded in 1975 by Frank Flear, was a British manufacturer and processor of fish products based in Grimsby, England, UK. It was acquired by Fitch Lovell in 1985 and in 1990 it was sold to
Booker Plc, which also had acquired the Ross fish division from Hanson. The two companies were merged to form Booker's Fish Division. In 1999 Booker sold Bluecrest to a management buyout of rival Young's Seafood, backed by Legal & General Ventures (LGV).
Once combined with LGV's other UK seafood group the newly created Young's Bluecrest became the UK's leading specialist fish business.
Buyouts and acquisitions
In 2000, Young's Bluecrest relaunched the Young's branded products and invested in increased production capacity. By then turning over more than £320 million, the company also began an expansion strategy, designed to consolidate the British fish sector.
LGV, however, declined to back this expansion, and instead, in 2002, sold Young's Bluecrest to a new management buyout, this time backed by CapVest, a European investment firm. The newly capitalised company made its first acquisition (of the chilled seafood division of Albert Fisher, based in Newcastle), in June 2003. Purchases of the Pinegain Group and its Marr Foods division followed in October 2003; and Young's bought a 34 percent stake in Macrae Food Group, the largest dedicated producer of ready-to-eat seafood in Scotland in September 2004. Expansion and refurbishment of its
Humber,
Grimsby and
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
operations followed during 2005 and 2006.
The acquisition of the UK-based
Findus operations from
EQT AB in January 2006 boosted Young's total sales to an estimated £1 billion ($1.7 billion), confirming the company's position as the leader in the UK frozen fish sector, having surpassed rivals
Bird's Eye, then owned by
Permira.
In 2019, Youngs was acquired by CapVest Partners LLP, owner of pork specialist Karro Food Group. Karro and Young's combined employ about 5,000 people across the UK and Ireland.
In October 2020, it acquired Germany-headquartered ''AliSa International GmbH'', which trades as ''Greenland Seafood''.
Market areas
Most of the group's sales are of its Young's brand of frozen and chilled fish, shrimp, and shellfish. The company is also the owner of Macrae in Scotland.
The Young's Foodservice subsidiary focuses on the restaurant and catering industry whilst Polarfrost Seafoods specializes in fish frozen at sea.
Sister business, The Seafood Company, now specialises in chilled fish for UK retailers own label.
Sponsorship
Young's was the official sponsor of
Grimsby Town F.C., taking over the kit sponsorship from the final home match of the 2003–2004 football season. For the 2004–2005 season, the clubs yellow away strip had the product logo for "Youngs Mariners Pie", to tie in with Grimsby Town's club nickname "The Mariners". At the end of the 2021–22 season it was announced that Grimsby would not be renewing the sponsorship deal after an 18-year spell as the club's primary kit sponsor.
Principal competitors
Alpesca S.A.;
Orkla ASA;
Aker ASA;
Maruha Corporation;
Unilever Deutschland GmbH;
Icelandic Group Seachill; hf;
Perkins Foods Holdings Ltd.;
Green Isle Food Group Ltd.
References
Further reading
*"The Businessman with Young's at Heart,"
Yorkshire Post, January 11, 2005.
*"Capvest Acquires Young's,"
Acquisitions Monthly, April 2002, p. 73.
*"Capvest Considers Unified Young's, Birds Eye, Findus,"
Grocer
A grocery store (American English, AE), grocery shop or grocer's shop (British English, BE) or simply grocery is a retail store that primarily retails a general range of food Product (business), products, which may be Fresh food, fresh or Food p ...
, May 13, 2006, p. 6.
*Davies, Kit, "Young's Warns of Rising Fish Prices,"
Grocer
A grocery store (American English, AE), grocery shop or grocer's shop (British English, BE) or simply grocery is a retail store that primarily retails a general range of food Product (business), products, which may be Fresh food, fresh or Food p ...
, March 4, 2006, p. 67.
*"Experiment with Fish, Says Young's,"
Grocer
A grocery store (American English, AE), grocery shop or grocer's shop (British English, BE) or simply grocery is a retail store that primarily retails a general range of food Product (business), products, which may be Fresh food, fresh or Food p ...
, March 11, 2006, p. 57.
*McDonagh, Vince, "Merged Company Ploughs Money into Improvements,"
Frozen & Chilled Foods, April 2000, p. 2.
*"Young's Brand Breaks Through £200 Million Barrier,"
Frozen & Chilled Foods, September–October 2005, p. 9.
*"Young's Moves Fish Operation from Hull to Scotland,"
Frozen & Chilled Foods, November–December 2005, p. 13.
*Young's Serves Up 15m Humber Expansion Plan,"
Fish & Chips and Fast Food, May 2004, p. 4.
*McLelland, Fiona, "Young's Could Be Up for Sale,"
Grocer
A grocery store (American English, AE), grocery shop or grocer's shop (British English, BE) or simply grocery is a retail store that primarily retails a general range of food Product (business), products, which may be Fresh food, fresh or Food p ...
, January 25, 2005, p. 5.
*Merrell, Caroline, "Suitors Line Up for £1bn Unilever Business,"
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
, June 12, 2006, p. 32.
*"Young's Bluecrest Expanding Macrae Plant in Edinburgh," QFFI's
GLOBAL SEAFOOD MAGAZINE, January 2006, p. 45.
*"Young's Bluecrest Merger Creates Strongest Seafood Company in the UK,"
Frozen & Chilled Foods, August 1999, p. 2.
*
International Directory of Company Histories (Gale Group, Inc.)
External links
*{{official website, http://www.youngsseafood.co.uk
Companies based in Grimsby
1805 establishments in England
Seafood companies of the United Kingdom
Food and drink companies established in 1805
British companies established in 1805
2008 mergers and acquisitions
Fish processing companies