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Weetabix nationalised... by China: Communist state naps up another British brandBy Sean Poulter
PUBLISHED: 20:36 GMT, 3 May 2012 | UPDATED: 21:55 GMT, 3 May 2012
Weetabix, the breakfast cereal <span style="font-weight: bold">produced in Britain since 1932, has effectively been sold to an arm of the Chinese state.</span>
Bright Foods, which is run by the council responsible for the city of Shanghai, is paying £720million for a 60 per cent controlling stake in the company.
The cereal manufacturer, based in Northamptonshire, was family owned until 2004 when it was bought by a Texan private equity firm, Lion Capital. Now, the business is effectively being nationalised – not by the British government, but by the Chinese.
Family favourite: Weetabix accounts for 7 per cent of UK cereal sales
The Chinese hope to boost sales of Weetabix – based on its credentials as a healthy product – in China, across Asia and in North America.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Currently, the Chinese do not have Western-style breakfast cereals and are more likely to eat savoury rice dishes or deep fried dough, but the nation's wealth is bringing a change in diet</span>.
The purchase by Bright Foods is the latest evidence of how the fabulously wealthy Chinese government and its agencies are looking to snap up iconic British businesses.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Last week it emerged that the British sports car firm Lotus is under threat of being sold to China, putting 1,400 UK jobs at risk.</span>
Its Malaysian owners, the industrial conglomerate DRB-Hicom, has appointed city firm KPMG to find a potential Chinese buyer, MPs have been told.
In January, the Chinese government's sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation, bought an 8.7 per cent stake in Thames Water. Although Weetabix has been part of British daily life for decades, the original concept for the whole-grain wheat breakfast cereal was developed in the 1920s by Bennison Osborne in Australia.
In 1930 Mr Osborne and his partner Malcolm Macfarlane sold the Australian and New Zealand rights for what they called 'Weet-Bix' to the Sanitarium Health Food Company.
They then formed another company which began manufacturing in the UK at Burton Latimer, near Kettering, Northamptonshire, in 1932. They renamed the product Weetabix for the British market.
The cereal is still made at Burton Latimer, and there is another factory in Ontario, Canada, serving the north American market.
The Weetabix Food Company, which also owns the Ready Brek and Alpen brands, is the UK's second biggest cereal manufacturer.
It exports to more than 80 countries, employs nearly 2,000 people and generates annual sales of more than £420million.
The Weetabix cereal alone accounts for 7 per cent of the UK's cereal sales, with annual figures of £100million.
Zongnan Wang, chairman of Bright Foods which has annual sales of £7.5billion, said the plan is to invest in the Weetabix brand and build sales around the world.
But the company's staff will want reassurances that production will remain in the UK.
The transaction is subject to regulatory and government approvals in China, but completion of the deal is expected later in the year.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...l#ixzz1trglPbgg
PUBLISHED: 20:36 GMT, 3 May 2012 | UPDATED: 21:55 GMT, 3 May 2012
Weetabix, the breakfast cereal <span style="font-weight: bold">produced in Britain since 1932, has effectively been sold to an arm of the Chinese state.</span>
Bright Foods, which is run by the council responsible for the city of Shanghai, is paying £720million for a 60 per cent controlling stake in the company.
The cereal manufacturer, based in Northamptonshire, was family owned until 2004 when it was bought by a Texan private equity firm, Lion Capital. Now, the business is effectively being nationalised – not by the British government, but by the Chinese.
Family favourite: Weetabix accounts for 7 per cent of UK cereal sales
The Chinese hope to boost sales of Weetabix – based on its credentials as a healthy product – in China, across Asia and in North America.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Currently, the Chinese do not have Western-style breakfast cereals and are more likely to eat savoury rice dishes or deep fried dough, but the nation's wealth is bringing a change in diet</span>.
The purchase by Bright Foods is the latest evidence of how the fabulously wealthy Chinese government and its agencies are looking to snap up iconic British businesses.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Last week it emerged that the British sports car firm Lotus is under threat of being sold to China, putting 1,400 UK jobs at risk.</span>
Its Malaysian owners, the industrial conglomerate DRB-Hicom, has appointed city firm KPMG to find a potential Chinese buyer, MPs have been told.
In January, the Chinese government's sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation, bought an 8.7 per cent stake in Thames Water. Although Weetabix has been part of British daily life for decades, the original concept for the whole-grain wheat breakfast cereal was developed in the 1920s by Bennison Osborne in Australia.
In 1930 Mr Osborne and his partner Malcolm Macfarlane sold the Australian and New Zealand rights for what they called 'Weet-Bix' to the Sanitarium Health Food Company.
They then formed another company which began manufacturing in the UK at Burton Latimer, near Kettering, Northamptonshire, in 1932. They renamed the product Weetabix for the British market.
The cereal is still made at Burton Latimer, and there is another factory in Ontario, Canada, serving the north American market.
The Weetabix Food Company, which also owns the Ready Brek and Alpen brands, is the UK's second biggest cereal manufacturer.
It exports to more than 80 countries, employs nearly 2,000 people and generates annual sales of more than £420million.
The Weetabix cereal alone accounts for 7 per cent of the UK's cereal sales, with annual figures of £100million.
Zongnan Wang, chairman of Bright Foods which has annual sales of £7.5billion, said the plan is to invest in the Weetabix brand and build sales around the world.
But the company's staff will want reassurances that production will remain in the UK.
The transaction is subject to regulatory and government approvals in China, but completion of the deal is expected later in the year.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...l#ixzz1trglPbgg
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