6th Floor Royal Liver Building
Company Perspectives:
Our Responsibilities: Princes recognises that, as a major internation al manufacturer and supplier, the company has a responsibility toward s the environment, its employees and the communities in which it oper ates. Princes constantly strives to ensure that its business activiti es provide sustained environmental, social and economic benefits in t he countries in which it operates. The company complies fully with th e labour, health and safety and employment laws of the respective cou ntries in which it operates. The same compliance is expected from all Princes' suppliers, which are regularly audited by the company.
Princes Ltd. is the United Kingdom's leading importer of canned foods products, and one of its major processed foods and soft drinks produ cers. The company has been associated with the United Kingdom's canne d fish market for more than 125 years, and remains one of the country 's top two canned tuna brands. Princes also has expanded its brand na me to include a range of food and cooking oils, as well as processed foods including canned meats and other ready-to-eat meals, ready-made sandwiches, and sauces. Princes has been extending its brand portfol io in the 2000s, adding brands such as Napolina Italia Foods, Shippam s, Mazola, Cookeen, and Crisp N' Dry. In 2005, the company entered th e ambient ready-to-eat meal segment with the launch of the Quick Eat brand. Since the 1990s, Princes also has been present in the soft dri nks market, with a full range of juices, carbonated beverages, and mi neral water marketed under the Princes, Jucee, Twist n' Squeeze, and, since 2005, Aqua Pura brands. In addition to its U.K. manufacturing operations, Princes operates production facilities in The Netherlands and on the island of Mauritius. The company has set itself a target of doubling its sales, from 2004's £750 million, through the se cond half of the 2000s. As part of that strategy, the company expects to expand its operations further onto the European continent. In add ition to its subsidiary in The Netherlands, the company controls the Vier Diamanten canned tuna brand, the largest in the Austrian market. Princes has been wholly owned by Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation sinc e the late 1980s.
Canned Fish Importer in the 1880s
Princes' origins stretched back to the late 19th century and the form ation of Simpson, Roberts. The company, formed as a partnership in 18 80, specialized in importing canned fish to the United Kingdom, espec ially salmon and other fish from Canada. Operating from headquarters in Liverpool, the company eventually launched its own line of canned fish under the Princes brand. By 1900, the partnership had formed a d edicated subsidiary for its canned food products, Princes Pure Foods Ltd.
Simpson, Roberts remained focused on its import business into the mid -20th century. By 1946, however, the company had begun its first move into manufacturing, setting up a processing and production facility in Southport. The company also established a production facility in T he Netherlands, in 1960. Nonetheless, the great majority of the compa ny's operations remained focused on its fish imports, and the company was essentially recognized as a commodities business. By the 1ate 19 50s, the company also had gone public, although the Dickinson family, who had been among the original partners, remained as the company's leadership; indeed, the group's chairman, W.T. Dickinson, served with the company for 80 years until his death in 1962.
The transition toward a branded food products group began in the earl y 1960s. In 1962, the company changed its name, adopting its popular Princes brand name as its corporate identity. Through the 1960s, the company successfully positioned its line of Princes-branded canned fi sh as one of the United Kingdom's leading brands.
The company's effort came in the midst of a dramatic change in the U. K. grocery sector. Once dominated by small, locally owned grocer's sh ops, supplied by a myriad of small production companies, the grocery market had begun to shift toward the rapidly developing supermarket m odel. The supermarket format quickly established itself as a dominant force in the grocery sector. By the late 1960s, a small number of la rge, regionally and nationally operated supermarket chains had begun to transform the U.K. food industry in general. Many smaller grocers disappeared, while others were forced to consolidate.
The arrival of supermarkets placed food producers and importers under a new and unprecedented pressure. The consolidation of the sector an d the concentration of consumer spending was coupled with the tendenc y of supermarket groups to focus on a narrower range of branded produ cts. Producers were forced to compete for limited store shelf space.
This new fact of the grocery industry sparked a wave of consolidation among British food companies in an effort to gain the national scale to supply the largest supermarket groups. Princes, with its popular brand name, became a fixture on supermarket shelves. Nonetheless, by the late 1960s, the company became caught up in the industry consolid ation. In 1968, Bibby & Co., which produced paper products as wel l as foods, including its Trex line of fats and vegetable oils, launc hed a takeover offer for Princes. The company initially rejected the offer as too low. Yet Princes' management held just 10 percent of the group's shares. When Bibby raised its offer, the company had no choi ce but to accept, and Princes ceased to be an independent company.
Bibby's expansion effort floundered, however, into the early 1970s. T he company's problems were especially attributed to the Princes acqui sition, which, still chiefly a commodities business, had not generate d the hoped-for synergies with Bibby's other operations. In 1973, Bib by decided to restructure, and sold off its foods division, including Princes Foods and its Trex fats and oils business, to Italy's Buiton i. That family-owned company, based in Italy, had been making its own drive to expand internationally, and the Princes acquisition provide d Buitoni with a solid entrance into the United Kingdom.
Princes grew strongly as part of Princes Buitoni. The company expande d its canned goods business, adding new products such as imported can ned vegetables and canned corned beef and other meats. By the end of the decade, the company held the U.K. market leadership in some 11 di fferent canned goods categories. From sales of £33 million in 1 980, the Princes division grew to turnover of £200 million at t he end of the decade. The Princes brand alone represented some 93 per cent of these sales.
Building a Brand Family in the 2000s
Nestle acquired Princes Buitoni in 1988, then sold off the Princes Fo od division to Mitsubishi the following year. Backed by one of the wo rld's largest corporations, Princes now began to diversify its operat ions, expanding its range of brands, as well as its production capaci ty. On the one hand, Princes enjoyed continued independence of operat ion under Mitsubishi. On the other, the company was able to take adva ntage not only of Mitsubishi's financial clout, but also of its exten sive, worldwide presence.
Princes' first product extension came in 1991, with the purchase of G . Barraclough Limited. That company added soft drinks production and distribution to Princes' operations, including the Gee-Bee brand of c arbonated beverages and "squashes." The company continued to develop its soft drinks wing, buying Cima Foods Limited in 1993. That purchas e extended the company's operations to the fruit juice and fruit drin ks category.
Beverages remained the company's primary acquisition target through t he end of the decade. In 1997, Princes bought Barber Springdale and i ts line of juices, squashes, and carbonated beverages. The company th en bought the Juices Division from Waterford in 1998.
As the new decade approached, however, Princes' acquisition interest turned toward developing its food categories. In 1999, the company bo ught up rival Oxbridge Foods Ltd., a producer of canned foods, includ ing vegetables, fruits, and fish. That year the company also made an unsuccessful attempt to buy up Shippams Ltd., which produced fish pas tes, canned chicken, and pate, and which had been in operation since the late 18th century. However, in 2001 Princes made a successful bid to acquire Beta Foods, finally gaining control of the Shippams opera tion.
By then, Princes had expanded its canned fish production capacity, bu ying up a cannery on the island of Mauritius in 1999. The company too k a break from its foods expansion to add to its beverage division ag ain in 2000, buying Wells Soft Drinks. In that year, as well, the com pany completed its acquisition of oils group Leon Frenkel, after acqu iring 50 percent of that business in 1998. In 2001, after the Shippam s acquisition, the company bought up Italian foods group Napolina Ita lia Limited.
In the early 2000s, Princes began developing goals for expansion onto the European mainland. The company began producing for the private-l abel market, expanding in The Netherlands, Sweden, and Spain. The com pany also formed a partnership with Italian canned tomato producer AR Industrie Alimentarie, forming the Russo joint venture in 2000. In 2 002, in keeping with its growth goals, the company restructured its o perations. As part of this process, the company created three new div isions: Princes Foods Trading and Manufacturing, which focused on its U.K.-based businesses; Princes Foods International, which included i ts Netherlands, Mauritius, and Italian holdings, focused on developin g the group's European operations; and Princes Soft Drinks, which inc luded the group's beverage business in the United Kingdom and Europe. The company hoped the restructuring would achieve its goal of doubli ng in size into the second half of the 2000s.
A new extension to the group's brand family came in 2002, when Prince s gained the franchise for Virgin Drinks, including the popular Virgi n Cola, launched in the early 1990s. Under Princes, Virgin redevelope d its recipe in order to differentiate itself from competitors. In 20 03, the company further extended its beverage line with the acquisiti on of Dairy Crest's chilled fruit juice operations. A year later, the company entered the bottled mineral water market, a rapidly expandin g beverage segment in the United Kingdom, with the purchase of Well W ell Well Ltd. and its Aqua Pura brand.
In addition to its acquisition drive, Princes launched an in-house ef fort to extend its operations into new product categories. In 2000, f or example, the company launched its own branded line of ambient dips . The company also began to target the ready-to-eat market, introduci ng its own prepared canned meals. Included in this effort was a partn ership with Slimming World, and the launch of 12 tuna-based, Slimming World-branded ready-to-eat products. In 2005, the company launched a new line of ready-to-eat ambient meals. Originally developed for Mar ks & Spencer, the popularity of the line led the company to launc h the line under its own Quick Eat label.
With sales of £750 million--and a target to reach £1.5 bi llion during the decade--Princes continued seeking expansion opportun ities. In 2005, the company made a new acquisition, buying up the lic enses to a range of oil brands, including Flora, Mazola, Cookeen, and the olive oil brand Olivio. After 125 years, Princes remained a lead ing name in the U.K. foods industry.
Principal Subsidiaries: Stretton Hills Mineral Water Company; Eden Valley Mineral Water Company; Princes Foods B.V. (Netherlands); Napolina Italia Ltd.; Princes Tuna (Mauritius) Ltd.
Principal Divisions: International Trading and Manufacturing; Soft Drinks; Foods Manufacturing.
Principal Competitors: John West Foods Ltd.; Thai Union Frozen Products plc; Bumble Bee Seafoods LLC; StarKist Foods, Inc.
Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic: