United Biscuits (UB) is a British multinational food manufacturer, makers of

McVitie's McVitie's () is a British snack food brand owned by United Biscuits. The name is derived from the original Economy of Scotland, Scottish biscuit maker, McVitie & Price, Private company limited by shares, Ltd., established in 1830 on Rose Street ...

biscuits,

Jacob's Jacob's is an Irish Brand, brand name for several lines of biscuits and Cracker (food), crackers in Republic of Ireland, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The brand name is owned by the Jacob Fruitfield Food Group, part of Valeo Foods, which prod ...

Cream Crackers, and

Twiglets Twiglets are a wheat-based snack marketed in the United Kingdom that have a "distinctive knobbly shape" similar to that of twigs and a speckled-brown-over-pale-colour appearance. The taste of Twiglets, which has been compared to that of Marmite, ...

. The company was listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

and was once a constituent of the

FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most highly capitalised blue chips listed on ...

. In November 2014, the company was acquired by

Yıldız Holding Yıldız Holding is a Turkish conglomerate that is best known for manufacturing food products. The company also produces other consumer goods and has its own retail, private equity and real estate operations. Yıldız Holding is among the large ...

and is now part of

Pladis pladis Global (styled as pladis) is a British confectionery and snack foods company encompassing United Biscuits, Ülker, Godiva Chocolatier and DeMet's Candy Company. It was formed in January 2016 as a subsidiary of Yıldız Holding with its ...

. United Biscuits manufactures in a number of countries across Europe, such as the Netherlands, France and Belgium. It also has a manufacturing site in India. The company's

headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...

is in

Chiswick Business Park Chiswick Business Park is a business park in Gunnersbury, West London, fronting on to Chiswick High Road. History Bus maintenance site The land on which the Chiswick Business Park was built had been owned by the Rothschild family and planted ...

in west London.

History

United Biscuits (UB) was formed in 1948 by a merger of two Scottish family businesses: McVitie & Price and MacFarlane Lang. In 1962, United Biscuits acquired William Crawford & Sons, a Scottish baker founded in

Leith Leith (; ) is a port area in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith and is home to the Port of Leith. The earliest surviving historical references are in the royal charter authorising the construction of ...

in 1813, for £6 million. In 1965, the company also acquired William MacDonald & Sons for £2.8 million, and brought the Penguin brand to the group. The company was listed on the

as United Biscuits plc on 27 July 1948. In 1972, United Biscuits acquired ''Carr's of Carlisle'', makers of Table Water biscuits, from

James Goldsmith Sir James Michael Goldsmith (26 February 1933 – 18 July 1997) was a French-British financier and politician who was a member of the Goldsmith family. His controversial business and finance career led to ongoing clashes with British media, fr ...

Cavenham Foods Cavenham Foods (also known as Cavenham) was a retail and food processing conglomerate started by Sir James Goldsmith in 1964. The company started out as a group of struggling UK food brands, including Carr's and Hollands Toffee purchased and br ...

for £2.75 million. Two years later, in 1974, it acquired the US-based

Keebler Company The Keebler Company is an American cookie and former cracker manufacturer. Founded in 1853, it has produced numerous baked snacks, advertised with the Keebler Elves. Keebler had marketed its brands such as Cheez-It (which bear the Sunshine Biscu ...

for $53 million. It also owned the Wimpy Bar fast food restaurant chain between 1977 and 1989, before selling it off to

Burger King Burger King Corporation (BK, stylized in all caps) is an American multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacks ...

.Information on Wimpy's Franchise
",''Caterer Search''. Retrieved on 29 January 2008. United Biscuits acquired the frozen food company Ross Young's from

Hanson Hanson or Hansson may refer to: People * Hanson (surname) * Hansson (surname) * Hanson (wrestler) or Ivar (born 1984), American professional wrestler Musical groups * Hanson (band), an American pop rock band * Hanson (UK band), an English ...

in 1988 for £335 million. It sold Keebler for $500 million in 1995 after giving up efforts to break into the American market. In 1998

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

purchased

Smith's Snackfood Company The Smith's Snackfood Company is a British-Australian snack food brand owned by the American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation PepsiCo. It is best known for its brand of potato crisps. The company was founded by Frank Smith a ...

from United Biscuits. United Biscuits was de-listed from the London Stock Exchange and acquired in May 2000 by Finalrealm, a consortium of financial investors, as well as

Nabisco Nabisco (, abbreviated from the earlier name National Biscuit Company) is an American manufacturer of cookies and snacks headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey. The company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Mondelēz International. Nabisco' ...

Holdings Corporation. As part of the transaction, UB acquired Nabisco's European businesses and divested several parts of its international business in

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by som ...

, Asia (Keebler Malaysia and Singapore), several brands including TUC and 70% shareholding in

Fazer Fazer (, ) is one of the largest corporations in the Finland, Finnish food industry. The company was founded by Karl Fazer in 1891, as a "French-Russian café" in central Helsinki. Today, it employs over 6,000 people across Finland, Sweden, Lat ...

Keksit (Biscuit) in Finland to

Groupe Danone Danone S.A. () is a French multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in 1919 in Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris, where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock market index. Some of the company's produ ...

and Far East (China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) to Nabisco. The company sold

Young's Bluecrest 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 t ...

in 2001, in order to concentrate on the sweet biscuit sector. In September 2004, United Biscuits bought the UK portion of

's Jacob's Biscuit Group for £240 million, including Cream Crackers and Twiglets. In July 2006, the company sold its Southern European biscuits business to

Kraft Foods Kraft Foods Group, Inc. was an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate (company), conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. on October 1, 2012, and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz on July ...

, which in turn left the owner syndicate. In October 2006,

MidOcean Partners MidOcean Partners is a New York City , New York based alternative asset management firm that specializes in mid-sized private equity and alternative leveraged investments. The firm, founded in February 2003, is based in Midtown Manhattan. MidOc ...

sold the company to a consortium made up of the

Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. It was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter Peterson and Stephen Schwarzman, who had previously worked together at Lehman ...

and

PAI Partners PAI Partners is a French private equity firm based in Paris. It is one of the oldest firms in the sector, with its origins dating back to Paribas Affaires Industrielles, historically the principal investment arm of Paribas, which started opera ...

. The deal was completed in December 2006. In December 2012, UB agreed the sale of its

KP Snacks KP Snacks Limited is a British producer of branded and own-label maize-, potato-, and nut-based snacks, "Choc Dips" and nuts. The ''KP'' stands for “Kenyon Produce”. The company is based in Slough, England. History The company was founded ...

business to

Intersnack Intersnack Group GmbH & Co. KG is a German snack food company that annually produces around 600,000 tonnes of snacks including potato chips, nuts, baked products and specialty snacks. The company made its first potato chips in 1968. The company ...

for £500 million. On 3 November 2014, private equity funds managed by Blackstone and

announced the sale of United Biscuits to

Operations

The core of the business is in the United Kingdom, where it produces biscuits under a number of brand names, including:

biscuits and

Cream Crackers. The company manufactures in a number of countries across Europe, such as the Netherlands, France and Belgium. It also has a manufacturing site in India. The company's

is in

in west London. The company's main UK distribution centre is at

Ashby-de-la-Zouch Ashby-de-la-Zouch (), also spelled Ashby de la Zouch, is a market town and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England, near to the Derbyshire and Staffordshire borders. Its population at the 2021 census was ...

Brands

Carr's Carr's is a British biscuit and cracker manufacturer, currently owned by Pladis Global through its subsidiary United Biscuits. The company was founded in 1831 by Jonathan Dodgson Carr and is marketed in the United States by Kellogg's. History ...

* Crawfords * Tasties * Delacre *

Verkade Royal Verkade (Dutch: Koninklijke Verkade) is a Dutch manufacturing company, owned by a Turkish conglomerate. The company is headquartered in Zaandam and was one of the oldest existing family companies in the Netherlands. In November 2014, the com ...

* Go ahead! * Wing Dings * Flipper Dipper

Jacob's

* Biscuits for Cheese *

Mini Cheddars Cheddars are a British brand of baked Cheddar cheese-flavoured savoury biscuits. They were originally manufactured and sold by Crawfords. Until 2014, Cheddars were marketed under the McVitie's brand; they are now sold under the Jacob's brand. Mi ...

Cheddars Cheddars are a British brand of baked Cheddar cheese-flavoured savoury biscuits. They were originally manufactured and sold by Crawfords. Until 2014, Cheddars were marketed under the McVitie's brand; they are now sold under the Jacob's brand. Mi ...

* Cheeselets * Choice Grain * Cornish Wafer * Cream Crackers * Essentials Crackers * Mediterraneo * Thai Bites * Water Biscuits *

* Crinklys * Oddities * TUC (UK market only)

McVities

Ginger Nuts A gingersnap, ginger snap, ginger nut, or ginger biscuit is a biscuit flavoured with ginger. Ginger snaps are flavoured with powdered ginger and a variety of other spices, most commonly cinnamon, molasses and clove. There are many recipes. The b ...

* Digestives * Hobnobs * BN * Rich Tea *

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

Taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...

* Lyle's * Mini Rolls *

Club Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands and enterprises * ...

* Gold * Iced Gems *

Happy Faces Happy Faces are a brand of biscuit made by United Biscuits' subsidiary Jacob's Bakery Ltd. Similar to Jammie Dodgers, they are composed of two pieces of shortcake filled in the middle with raspberry jam and (unlike Jammie Dodgers) cream. The sh ...

Jaffa Cakes Jaffa Cakes are a cake introduced by McVitie and Price in the UK in 1927 and named after Jaffa oranges. In their most common form, Jaffa cakes are circular, in diameter, and have three layers: a Genoise sponge base, a layer of orange-flavo ...

*United (discontinued)

United Biscuits Network

The

United Biscuits Network United Biscuits Network (UBN) was an internal radio station serving the factories of United Biscuits (UB) in Britain that operated from 1970 to 1979. In 1970 the BBC had a monopoly on radio broadcasting in Britain, although there were a few off ...

, a closed-circuit radio network serving their factories across the UK which was active from 1970 to 1979, spawned the career of UK radio presenter

Steve Allen Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen (December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American television and radio personality, comedian, musician, composer, writer, and actor. In 1954, he achieved national fame as the co-creator and ...

and TV and radio personality

Dale Winton Dale Jonathan Winton (22 May 1955 – 18 April 2018) was an English radio DJ and television presenter. He presented the shows '' Supermarket Sweep'' from 1993 until 2001 and again in 2007, the National Lottery game show '' In It to Win It' ...

In popular culture

In his 2009 book ''The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work'',

Alain de Botton Alain de Botton (; born 20 December 1969) is a Swiss-born British author and public speaker. His books discuss various contemporary subjects and themes, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. He published ''Essays in Love'' (1993) ...

chronicles his tour and brief experiences with employees of United Biscuits as they launched the "Moments" biscuit line.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1948 establishments in England Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Snack food manufacturers of the United Kingdom History of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Food and drink companies established in 1948 British companies established in 1948 Yıldız Holding 2006 mergers and acquisitions 2014 mergers and acquisitions British subsidiaries of foreign companies Companies based in London