Upfield (company)

Margarine was one of the first products sold by the company that would become known as Unilever.[3] Antoon Jurgens of Oss, Netherlands, acquired the patent for making margarine from its inventor Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès in 1871.[4] Through a series of mergers Jurgens' company became Margarine Unie in 1927 and then Unilever in 1929.[5] Since that time, Unilever has added other margarine and food spread brands.

Although the food spreads division of Unilever maintained a robust profit margin, in the 21st century sales declined as many consumers switched to more natural foods, like butter. In the five years leading to 2014, sales of margarine fell 6% while sales of butter rose 7%.[6]

Following a February 2017 takeover attempt by Kraft Heinz, Unilever chief executive Paul Polman made a pledge to investors to boost returns. In April of the same year, Unilever put the margarine and spreads division up for sale with the intention of returning the net cash from the sale to shareholders.[7]

The sale sparked a bidding war among buyout firms including Apollo Global Management, CVC Capital Partners, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, and Bain Capital. According to Bloomberg, it was the biggest-leveraged buyout in Europe in 2017.[3] In December 2017, Unilever accepted an offer of €6.8bn from investment firm KKR. The purchase, which was completed in July 2018, was funded by European and North American private equity funds that are under KKR's control.[8] The brands in the sale represented about 7% of Unilever's global business.[9]

Upfield's notable brands include Flora, Stork, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!, Rama, Country Crock, Becel, and Blue Band.[10] In southern Africa Remgro-owned Siqalo Foods has the rights to produce several of these brands, instead of Upfield.

David Haines, non-executive director of Tobacco company Imperial Brands, was appointed CEO in July 2018.[11] As of August 2018, other members of the executive board include Detlef Schmitz (General Counsel), Gerry Mulvin (Transformation Office/M&A), Afzaal Malik (Corporate Affairs), Jesper Andersen (CFO), Gordon von Bretten (Interim COO), John Verbakel (Chief R&D Officer), and Eve Baldwin (Chief HR Officer).[1]

After Upfield was spun off from Unilever in 2018, decision was made to close the Purfleet-on-Thames factory, 200 employees were made redundant.[12] Underperformance and exceeding costs were determined to be the reason for the closing of the factory.

In June 2020 it was made public that Upfield were to offshore its factory in Helsingborg, Sweden.[13] In total 80 employees were notified of termination. The product portfolio consisting of cheese- & dairy products are set to move to a factory in Kleve, Germany. The move is scheduled to be complete in February 2021.[14]

The UK version of Flora now contains buttermilk, so it is no longer vegan.[15]

• Official website