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Express Dairies
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryDairy Products
Founded1864 (as Express County Milk Supply Company)
HeadquartersLondon
Key people
George Barham (founder)
ParentDairy Crest

Express Dairies is a former brand of Dairy Crest, that specialised almost entirely in home deliveries of milk, and other dairy products.

History

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The company was founded by George Barham in 1864 as the 'Express County Milk Supply Company,'[1] so named as they only used express trains to get their milk to London. The company had two major creamery and bottling plants in London. The first 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] The second was located at the company's headquarters in Cricklewood, adjacent to the station. This had railway access for milk trains from the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.

An Express Dairies Morrison Marsden milk float

The company was purchased by Grand Metropolitan in 1969,[3] and sold in November 1991 to Northern Foods.[4] It was demerged from Northern Foods in 1998,[5] and purchased a 51% controlling stake in Claymore Dairies Ltd of Scotland, for £2.2 million.

Express Dairies acquired Star Dairies Food Service Ltd. and certain assets of Star Dairies International Ltd for £3.5 million in February 1999. In June 1999, the liquid milk operations of the United Kingdom of Glanbia plc were acquired for £100 million, and the share capital of Blakes Chilled Distribution Ltd. was purchased in August for £3 million.

Express Dairies announced a joint venture in Northern Ireland with Golden Vale plc in November 2000, that created Dale Farm Dairies Ltd, although that was sold in October 2001. Express Dairies disposed of its UHT business and Frome creamery in July 2002.

Following a period of poor profitability, the business was acquired in March 2003 by Arla Foods,[6] who in turn sold it on to Dairy Crest in July 2006.[7] Dairy Crest sold its deliveries business to Creamline Dairies in July 2013, and its milk processing business to Germany's Müller in December 2015.

Subsidiaries

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Premier Supermarkets

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A Premier Supermarket, 1963

Post war, Britain was changing. The chairman's new son-in-law, American citizen and ex-sailor of the US Navy, Patrick Galvani, had been studying retailing before coming to the United Kingdom, 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.[8]

In 1960, in an attempt to expand nationwide, Galvani made a pitch to the board to buy the 212 stores of John Irwin and Sons, based in Liverpool and Merseyside, but they refused to back him; Jack Cohen of Tesco subsequently bought the chain.[8] In 1964, the Premier 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.[9]

Eden Vale

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In 1955, Express Dairies set up a subsidiary to maintain and promote demand for dairy products, using the Eden Vale brand.[10]

The Eden Vale division became responsible for Express' chilled food interests including yogurts, desserts, salads, cottage cheese and fromage frais.[11]

In addition to the Eden Vale name, it also sold yogurt under the Ski brand (launched in 1963)[12] and in the early 1980s launched a range of child-oriented yogurts based around characters from the Munch Bunch books and television series.[13]

In 2002, Northern Foods- the then-owners of Express Dairies- sold the Ski and Munch Bunch brands, along with their Cheshire yogurt plant, to Nestlé.[14] In 2004, Northern Foods sold the Eden Vale plant at Minsterley to Uniq.[15]

References

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  1. ^ "Archived copy". www.archiveshub.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 18 July 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ^ "South Acton". Abandonedstations.org.uk. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  3. ^ "Competition Commission Report 1990" (PDF). Competition-commission.org.uk. Archived from the original on 25 October 2007. Retrieved 1 August 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  4. ^ "Grand Met Sells Dairy Interests". The New York Times. 21 November 1991. Archived from the original on 2012-11-06. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  5. ^ "Northern Foods". Archived from the original on 7 November 2008. Retrieved 9 February 2009.
  6. ^ [1][dead link‍]
  7. ^ Mark Tran. "Dairy Crest buys rival to expand milk round | Business". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  8. ^ a b Helen Gregory (3 November 2001). "It's a super anniversary: it's 50 years since the first full size self-service supermarket was unveiled in the UK". The Grocer. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
  9. ^ "History". MacFisheries.co.uk. Archived from the original on 20 April 2010. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
  10. ^ Bryan Morgan (1964). Express Journey 1864-1964: A Century of the Express Dairy Company Limited (PDF). p. 96. ...the activities of a special subsidiary called Express Dairy Products Limited set up in 1955 to promote the sales of dairy products under the name of 'Eden Vale', even to maintain demand in an affluent society.
  11. ^ Express Anniverary Review 1989. 1989. Archived from the original on 2024-11-17. Today the original name, Express Dairy, lives on as one of five operating companies under the corporate banner of Express Foods Group (International). They are:- [..] Eden Vale looks after the group's chilled food interests and is best known for its Ski and Munch Bunch yogurts and desserts. It is also a major salads and cottage cheese manufacturer and is about to go into production with fromage frais.
  12. ^ Staff Writer (1 March 2013). "Ski Yoghurt celebrates 50 years of innovation". Talking Retail. Retrieved 2023-01-15.
  13. ^ "Express Dairy Tales: Ski, Yogurts & Eden Vale". Archived from the original on 2024-11-17. [Section:Pack a Punch with a Munch Bunch Lunch] Eden Vale decided to ask [..consumers..] between three and nine particularly [..resulting in..] a new range of yogurts containing real fruit [..] in a form that children prefer. They're being called the Munch Bunch after a popular children's TV cartoon [sic] series and each fruit is named after one of the cartoon characters.
  14. ^ "£145m Nestle factory deal". The Bolton News. 2002-02-01. NESTLE UK is to acquire the Ski and Munch Bunch yoghurt brands from Northern Foods in a move which includes a yoghurt plant in Cheshire.
  15. ^ "Food producer sells dairy plant". BBC. 2004-05-10.
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