The company was formed in 1959 by the merger of the UK's largest dairy products company
United Dairies, with
Cow & Gate, earlier known as the
West Surrey Central Dairy Company, forming
Unigate. On merger, aside from its extensive
milk home delivery network, its range of food products included Cow & Gate baby foods (now part of
Royal Numico) and Farmer's Wife cream. It also developed
St Ivel cheese spreads and
Utterly Butterly. In 1963, Unigate acquired
Midland Counties Dairies, but as milk consumption levelled and then started to decline in the 1960s, it began diversifying into non-dairy businesses. It began by buying up grocery stores and
restaurants, and by the 1970s bought supermarket chain Kibby's, Quids-In clothing shops, Uni-Wash laundrettes, and some
Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises. In 1973, it acquired Scot Bowyers, a meat-processing company, in 1975 United States–based
Italian cheese manufacturer
Frigo, and in 1978 US specialty cheesemaker,
Gardenia. In 1977, dairyman John Clement became CEO and chairman. To stop the decline in the dairy business, he sold 75% of its dairy manufacturing businesses to the nationalised company the
Milk Marketing Board for £87 million. After paying off debt, Unigate acquired: • 1981: moving company Giltspur; Turners Turkeys; US-based Mexican food chain
Casa Bonita • 1984: poultry processor, J.P. Wood • 1985: Arlington Motor Holdings and in Colchester Car Auctions, both added to subsidiary
Wincanton Transport • 1986: Prufrock, which specialized in southern-style food through the
Black-Eyed Pea chain of restaurants But the diversification did not help the balance sheet, and in the late 1980s the project was reversed. By the end of the decade, despite Unigate remaining the UK's biggest milk supplier, dairy products only made up one third of group turnover. With losses mounting and debt rising, Clement was replaced in both board positions by the end of 1991. In the following decade, Unigate focused on food and distribution, selling off non-core and unprofitable businesses, which raised £700 million. Half of this came through the £332 million sale of its share in
Nutricia, the holding company that owned the Cow & Gate brand. The company also bought brands to supplement its new direction, spending £400 million on French firms Prodipal, a maker of yogurts and desserts, and Vedial, a maker of spreads. In September 1996, Unigate paid £77.25 million for the UK and Italian margarine and spreads business of
Kraft Foods International, including
Vitalite. In May 1998, the company attempted an unsuccessful £1.59 billion takeover of diversified conglomerate
Hillsdown Holdings. In February 1999 the company did acquire Fisher Quality Foods, a UK supplier of sauces, dressings, and marinades, from the
Albert Fisher Group for £43 million. In the meantime, Hillsdown under shareholder pressure had begun a break-up, spinning off its chilled convenience food subsidiary as Terranova. In March 1999, Unigate initiated a hostile £228.5 million takeover bid for Terranova, which was accepted after the bid was raised to £274 million. But by the late 1990s, the decline in doorstep deliveries and price pressure from supermarkets led to mounting losses, and in 2000 the milk and cheese division was sold to
Dairy Crest. In March 2009 Uniq reached an agreement for the sale of its UK chilled fish business, Pinneys of Scotland, to The Seafood Company Ltd (part of the Foodvest Group). On 12 July 2011, Greencore announced it intended to buy Uniq. The deal was completed in November 2011, and Uniq is now subsumed within the operations of Greencore. ==Operations==