Express Dairies
Express Dairies is a subsidiary of Dairy Crest, specialising almost entirely in home deliveries of milk and other dairy products.
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[edit] History
The company was founded by George Barham in 1864 as the Express County Milk Supply Company,[1] named after the fact that they only used express trains to get their milk to London.
The major creamery and milk bottling plant was located just south of South Acton railway station on the North London Line. This gave easy and equal access for milk trains from both the Great Western Railway and the Southern Railway.[2]
[edit] Premier Supermarkets
Post war, Britain was changing. The chairman's new son-in-law, American citizen and ex-US Navy sailor Patrick Galvani had been studying retailing before coming to the UK, particularly supermarkets. Galvani made a pitch to the board, which resulted in Britain's first supermarket opening in Streatham, South London in 1951 under the Premier Supermarket brand.[3] While the average British retailer was taking £98/week, the average take at Premier was £1,000/week. The company developed an estate footprint of similar 2,500 square feet (230 m2)+ retail outlets, all under the Premier Supermarkets brand. In 1960, in attempt to develop a national footprint, Galvani made a pitch to the board to buy northern based Irwin's 212 stores, but they refused to back him; Jack Cohen of Tesco subsequently bought the chain.[3] After Galvani resigned over a dispute to take Green Shield Stamps, in 1964 the chain was sold to Unilever's Mac Fisheries chain for £1million. The cash income allowed Express to develop and launch marketing for long-life milk.[4]
[edit] Grand Metropolitan and demerger
Acquired by Grand Metropolitan in 1969,[5] and sold again in 1991 to Northern Foods[6] who demerged it in 1998.[7]
A period of acquisition and disposal then occurred, whereby it:
- 1999: acquired a 51% stake in Claymore Dairies Ltd (Scotland) for £2.2 million
- February 1999: acquired Star Dairies Food Service Ltd. and certain assets of Star Dairies International Ltd for £3.5 million
- June 1999: acquired the UK liquid milk operations of Glanbia plc for £100 million.
- August 1999: acquired the share capital of Blakes Chilled Distribution Ltd. for £3 million.
- November 2000: announced a 50/50 partnership in Northern Ireland with Golden Vale PLC to create Dale Farm Dairies Limited.
- October 2001: announced the sale of Dale Farm Dairies Limited to Dromona Quality Foods Limited.
- July 2002: disposed of its UHT business and Frome creamery.,
[edit] Arla Foods/Dairy Crest
Following a period of poor profitability, it was acquired in 2003 by Arla Foods[8] who in turn sold it on to Dairy Crest in July 2006.[9] It still operates under the name Express Dairies.
[edit] References
- ^ Archive hub
- ^ http://www.abandonedstations.org.uk/South_Acton_station.html
- ^ a b Helen Gregory (2001-11-03). "It's a super anniversary: it's 50 years since the first full size self-service supermarket was unveiled in the UK". The Grocer. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5245/is_7528_224/ai_n28873842/. Retrieved 2010-06-30.
- ^ "History". MacFisheries.co.uk. http://www.macfisheries.co.uk/page2.htm. Retrieved 2010-06-30.
- ^ Competition Commission Report 1990
- ^ Grand Met Sells Dairy Interests New York Times, 21 November 1991
- ^ UK Business Park: Northern Foods
- ^ Express and Arla deal set to cut overcapacity
- ^ Dairy Crest buys rival to expand milk round Guardian, 24 July 2006
