Associated British Foods

Associated British Foods plc

Type	Public limited company
Traded as	LSE: ABF FTSE 100 Component
Industry	Food processing Retail
Founded	1935 (1935)
Headquarters	London, W1 United Kingdom
Key people	Charles Sinclair (Chairman) George G. Weston (CEO)
Products	Food, ingredients
Services	Retailing
Revenue	£13,399 million (2016)[1]
Operating income	£1,089 million (2016)[1]
Profit	£821 million (2016)[1]
Total assets	$15.07 billion (2016)[2]
Owner	Wittington Investments, 54.5%
Number of employees	124,000 (2015)[1]
Subsidiaries	British Sugar Primark
Website	www.abf.co.uk

Associated British Foods plc (ABF) is a British multinational food processing and retailing company whose headquarters are in London, United Kingdom. Its ingredients division is the world's second-largest producer of both sugar and baker's yeast and a major producer of other ingredients including emulsifiers, enzymes and lactose.^[3] Its grocery division is a major manufacturer of both branded and private label grocery products and includes the brands Mazola, Ovaltine, Ryvita, Jordans and Twinings.^[3] Its retail division, Primark, has around 325 stores with over 6,500,000 sq ft (600,000 m²) of selling space across Austria,^[1] Belgium, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, the UK, and the United States.^[3]

Associated British Foods is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

History

The company was founded by Canadian W. Garfield Weston in 1935, initially as Food Investments Limited, with the name changing to Allied Bakeries Limited a month later.^[4] In 1960 the name was changed again to Associated British Foods. In 1963 the Company acquired Fine Fare, a leading British supermarket chain.^[5] Following the death of the founder in 1978, control of the company was passed on to his son Garry, while the North American operations fell to his son Galen.

The company sold Fine Fare in 1986 and in 1991 went on to acquire British Sugar.^[6] In 1997 ABF sold its retail operations in Ireland (including Northern Ireland) to Tesco.^[7] These businesses were: Quinnsworth and Crazy Prices in the Republic of Ireland and Stewarts Supermarket Limited and Crazy Prices in Northern Ireland. This sale also included the Stewarts Winebarrel off-licence chain, Lifestyle Sports & Leisure Ltd (a retail sports and leisure business), Kingsway Fresh Foods (a meat processing facility) and Daily Wrap Produce (a fruit and vegetable packaging plant).

In May 1994, Greggs acquired the Bakers Oven chain from the company^[8]

Old Argo laundry starch box, photographed at Edmonds Historical Museum.

In 2000, the company sold its interests in Burton's Biscuits.^[9] In 2002, it acquired the Mazola corn oil, Argo & Kingsfords corn starch, Karo and Golden Griddle syrups, and Henri’s dressing brands, along with several Canadian brands, from Unilever;^[10][11] in 2004 it acquired the Tone's spice business and Fleischman yeast business from Burns Philp;^[12] and in 2007 it purchased Patak's Indian food business.^[13]

On 26 March 2011 Associated British Foods, and its parent company Wittington Investments, were targeted over tax avoidance by UK Uncut during anti-cuts protests.^[14] The tax avoidance scheme involved moving capital between ABF/Primark and the affiliated Luxembourg entity ABF European Holdings & Co SNC by means of interest-free loans, avoiding tax of about £9.7 million per year.^[15][16] The protest took the form of a mass sit-in in Fortnum & Mason.^[17]

In February 2013, the firm was forced to deny “illegal and immoral” tax evasion after it was accused by an international charity of moving its profits outside of Zambia to reduce its tax bill. ActionAid said Zambia Sugar, a unit of AB Foods, had made profits of $123 million since 2007 but had paid "virtually no corporate tax" in Zambia.^[18]

In October 2013, the company denied being involved in unscrupulous uses of land, in an article containing reports of forced evictions by other companies.^[19]

Operations

Brands

Subsidiaries

Board of directors

• Charles Sinclair, Chairman.^[21]
• George G. Weston, Chief Executive Officer.^[21]
• John Bason, Finance Director.^[21]
• Peter Smith, Independent non-executive director.^[21]
• Michael Jay, Baron Jay of Ewelme, Independent non-executive director.^[21]
• Timothy Clarke, Independent non-executive director.^[21]
• Javier Ferrán, Independent non-executive director.^[21]
• Emma Adamo, Independent non-executive director.^[21]

Controlling shareholder

Some 54.5% of ABF is owned by Wittington Investments.^[22] 79.2% of the share capital of Wittington Investments is owned by the Garfield Weston Foundation, which is one of the UK's largest grant-making charitable trusts, and the remainder is owned by members of the Weston family. Wittington Investments also owns Fortnum & Mason and Heal & Son. George G. Weston became chief executive of ABF on 1 April 2005, and Galen Weston, the chief executive of George Weston Ltd., is a non-executive director. Garth Weston is Regional President of AB Mauri.

References

External links

• Official website

Associated British Foods
Current operations	AB Agri Ltd Abitec Corporation Abitec Ltd Argo cornstarch Allied Mills Allinson British Sugar Frontier (50%) G Costa George Weston Foods Illovo Sugar Kingsmill Mozolo oil Ovaltine (except USA) Patak's Primark Ryvita Silver Spoon Sunblest Twinings
Former operations	Burton's Biscuits Dairy Wrap Produce Fine Fare Kingsway Fresh Foods Lifestyle Sports Power Supermarkets Limited Stewarts Supermarkets Limited
People	W. Garfield Weston Garry Weston George G. Weston Guy Weston
Other	Garfield Weston Foundation George Weston Limited Wittington Investments
Category

FTSE 100 companies of the United Kingdom   → FTSE 250

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