United Biscuits (UB) was formed in 1948 by a merger of two Scottish family businesses:
McVitie & Price and MacFarlane Lang. In 1962, United Biscuits acquired
William Crawford & Sons, a Scottish baker founded in
Leith in 1813, for £6 million. In 1965, the company also acquired William MacDonald & Sons for £2.8 million, and brought the Penguin brand to the group. The company was listed on the
London Stock Exchange as United Biscuits plc on 27 July 1948. In 1972, United Biscuits acquired ''Carr's of Carlisle'', makers of
Table Water biscuits, from
James Goldsmith's
Cavenham Foods for £2.75 million. Two years later, in 1974, it acquired the US-based
Keebler Company for $53 million. It also owned the
Wimpy Bar fast food restaurant chain between 1977 and 1989, before selling it off to
Burger King. United Biscuits acquired the frozen food company
Ross Young's from
Hanson in 1988 for £335 million. It sold Keebler for $500 million in 1995 after giving up efforts to break into the American market. In 1998
PepsiCo purchased
Smith's Snackfood Company from United Biscuits. United Biscuits was de-listed from the London Stock Exchange and acquired in May 2000 by Finalrealm, a consortium of financial investors, as well as
Nabisco Holdings Corporation. As part of the transaction, UB acquired Nabisco's European businesses and divested several parts of its international business in
Scandinavia,
continental Europe, Asia (Keebler Malaysia and Singapore), several brands including
TUC and 70% shareholding in
Fazer Keksit (Biscuit) in Finland to
Groupe Danone and Far East (China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) to Nabisco. The company sold
Young's Bluecrest in 2001, in order to concentrate on the sweet biscuit sector. In September 2004, United Biscuits bought the UK portion of
Groupe Danone's Jacob's Biscuit Group for £240 million, including Cream Crackers and Twiglets. In July 2006, the company sold its Southern European biscuits business to
Kraft Foods, which in turn left the owner syndicate. In October 2006,
MidOcean Partners sold the company to a consortium made up of the
Blackstone Group and
PAI Partners. The deal was completed in December 2006. In December 2012, UB agreed the sale of its
KP Snacks business to
Intersnack for £500 million. On 3 November 2014, private equity funds managed by
Blackstone and
PAI Partners announced the sale of United Biscuits to
Yıldız Holding. ==Operations==