Tiger Brands

Tiger Brands
Public company
Traded as JSE: TBS
Industry Food, Fisheries
Predecessor Tiger Oats
Headquarters Bryanston, Gauteng, South Africa
Area served
South Africa and Selected Emerging Markets
Key people

Peter Matlare (CEO)
Funke Ighodaro (CFO)

Andre C Parker (Chairman)
Products Over one hundred covering a variety of packaged goods and foodstuffs.
Revenue Increase R20.64 Billion (FY 2009)[1]
Increase R3.47 Billion (FY 2009)[1]
Number of employees
12,697[2]
Subsidiaries Over one hundred brands and products.
Website www.tigerbrands.co.za

Tiger Brands Limited (JSE: TBS) is a South African packaged goods company.[3] In addition to the company's South African operations Tiger Brands also has direct and indirect interests in international food businesses in Chile, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Kenya and Cameroon.[4] Tiger Brands is South Africa's largest food company.[5]

History

In 1998 Tiger Oats bought out Imperial Cold Storage.
The Old Tiger Oats buildings in Moorreesburg.
2010 box of Jungle oats (left) as well as an example of the first box from the 1920s (right)

Originally known as Tiger Oats, Tiger Brand's first product was a breakfast oatmeal brand called Jungle Oats. A product that is still produced by Tiger Brands. The product was first conceived by a Mr Frankel towards the end of the 19th century and was finally launched in 1925. Tiger Oat's first Mill was opened in Moorreesburg, Western Cape. A second mill was opened in Maitland, Cape Town when demand outgrew the Moorreesburg's mill's capacity in 1930. The Moorreesburg mill was abandoned in about 1987.[6] In March 1982 Barlow bought a considerable share of Tiger Oats.[7]

In 1988 SPAR South Africa became a wholly owned subsidiary of Tiger Oats, however it was unbundled and listed as a separate company in 2004.[8] During the late 1990s Tiger Oats went through a period of rapid expansion. Buying out other large companies and competitors such as food packaging company Imperial Cold Storage and Supply Company in October 1998[7] and pharmaceutical company Adcock Ingram for R3.4bn in 1999.[9] After these buyouts Tiger Oats was renamed Tiger Brands. In July 2008 Adcock Ingram was unbundled from Tiger Brands.

Tiger Brands Limited's subcompany, Tiger Food Brands Ltd merged with Bromor Foods (Pty) Ltd, which owns the Super Juice carbonated drink.[10] As of 1 October 2009, the Company acquired Crosse & Blackwell's mayonnaise business for an undisclosed amount.[11][12]

Price-fixing Scandals

Bread

In mid-November 2007 Tiger Brands was fined R98.8 million (roughly equivalent to US$12,8 million)[13] by the South African Competition Commission for colluding with other bread producers to raise the price of bread by between 30c and 35c per loaf.[14]

According to the commission the four companies involved (Premier Foods, Tiger Brands, Foodcorp and Pioneer Foods) controlled more than 90 percent of the wheat flour market at the time. Facilitating their pricing activities through secret meetings and telephone calls between employees of these firms at various venues, including churches, stadiums and hotels. The commission also found that the price-fixing activities had a negative effect on both consumers as a whole as well as inhibiting smaller bakeries from being effective competitors.[15]

The fine reflected 5.7% of Tiger Brand's bread sales, coming mostly from its Albany brand, for the 2006 financial year.[14] Tiger Brands took full responsibility and then CEO Nick Dennis resigned.[16]

Adcock Ingram Critical Care

In May 2008 Tiger Brands agreed to pay a R53.5 million fine for alleged anti-competitive practices in its health care subsidiary Adcock Ingram Critical Care (AICC). AICC executive Arthur Barnett was suspended until the investigation was concluded.[17][18] In July 2008 Tiger Brands stated that it was going to unbundle its entire Adcock Ingram subsidiary with each Tiger Brands shareholder receiving one share in Adcock Ingram for every Tiger Brands share they owned.[19]

Brands


Brand (country if not in South Africa, year of acquisition and/or launch)[2][20]

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Tiger Brands Annual Report 2010". Tiger Brands. Retrieved 30 September 2010.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Profiles's Stock Exchange Handbook: October 2010 – January 2011. Johannesburg, South Africa: Sasfin. 2010. p. 357. ISSN 1680-0036.
  3. CNBC article on Tiger Brands Limited. http://www.cnbcafrica.com/businessnews/sens/170896.htm
  4. Google Finance, Tiger Brands Limited (Public, JNB:TBS)
  5. BHP, Blue Financial, Remgro, Telkom, Tiger: South African Equity Preview, By Janice Kew, Bloomberg, 21 June 2010.
  6. Jungle Oats brand history, retrieved 6 July 2010
  7. 7.0 7.1 Brooke Simons, Phillida (2000). Ice Cold in Africa: The History of Imperial Cold Storage & Supply Company Limited. Cape Town: Fernwood Press. pp. 252,. ISBN 1-874950-50-4.
  8. Trade Intelligence – SPAR, accessed 2 October 2010
  9. Business Day: Tiger Oats Bids For All, 7 October 1999
  10. Competition Tribunal of South Africa article on the merger and details. (PDF file) http://www.comptrib.co.za/%5Ccomptrib%5Ccomptribdocs%5C488%5C33LMApr06.pdf
  11. Thomson Reuters Business Description: Tiger Brands, retrieved 21 July 2010
  12. Business Day: Tiger Brands buys Crosse & Blackwell from Nestlé, Published: 2009/05/25
  13. http://www.xe.com retrieved on 5 July 2010
  14. 14.0 14.1 MoneyWeb: "Tiger Brands admits to bread price-fixing, pays fine", 13 November 2007
  15. MoneyWeb: "Watchdog refers wheat milling cartel to Tribunal", 15 March 2010
  16. Business Report: "Tiger Brands Limited. Price-fixing saga bites Tiger Brands chief", 7 December 2007
  17. Adcock Ingram Critical Care (Proprietary) Limited (“AICC”), Tiger Brands website, 9 May 2008, retrieved 2 February 2011
  18. MoneyWeb: "Tiger Brands' Adcock Ingram to pay R53,5m for price fixing", 9 May 2008
  19. Finance24: Tiger to unbundle Adcock Ingram", 21 July 2008
  20. Mbendi – Tiger Brands Ltd (TIGBRANDS), accessed 2 October 2010

External links