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PA
The maker of Hovis bread could possibly be altering possession after Italy’s Newlat Meals launched a bid to purchase the 134-year-old agency.
In a statement on its website, Newlat mentioned it had made a non-binding supply to shareholders of Hovis Holdings Ltd.
It described Hovis as a model with “an amazing custom and recognisability in the UK”.
Hovis is owned by Premier Meals and US funding agency the Gores Group, which purchased a controlling stake in 2014.
Newlat mentioned it was awaiting suggestions from shareholders.
It added that purchasing Hovis would assist it to realize its goal of turning into one of the crucial vital operators within the meals sector in Europe.
Primarily based in Excessive Wycombe, Hovis employs 2,800 individuals in eight bakeries, one flourmill and three distribution centres throughout the UK.
Milan-based Newlat makes a variety of dairy merchandise and pasta.
Victorian origins
Like many well-known British manufacturers, Hovis has had a succession of homeowners over time.
It originated within the Cheshire city of Macclesfield in 1886 on the flour mill of Samuel Fitton and Sons, when miller Richard “Stoney” Smith discovered a means of milling flour that preserved the vitamins within the wheatgerm.
The method was patented the next 12 months and the identify was chosen in 1890 following a nationwide competitors.
Hovis is a contraction of the Latin phrase “Hominis Vis”, that means “energy of Man”.
In 1962, following a sequence of mergers, it turned a part of Rank Hovis McDougall (RHM).
Hovis was the topic of one of many UK’s best-loved TV commercials in 1973, which additionally launched the profession of movie director Ridley Scott.
It depicts a boy pushing his bicycle up a hill to the soundtrack of a brass band model of Dvorak’s New World Symphony.
RHM was purchased up by Premier Meals in 2007. Seven years later, Premier Meals bought a 51% stake to the Gores Group, making Hovis Ltd an Anglo-American three way partnership.
