Turkish delight: McVitie’s owner melts biscuits into same £3.6bn company as Godiva
McVitie’s biscuits have been melted into the same company as chocolatier Godiva.
Yildiz Holding, the Turkish owner of Godiva Chocolatier, Ulker, DeMet’s Candy Company and McVitie’s maker United Biscuits, has brought the brands together to form Pladis.
The $5.2bn (£3.6bn) revenue company will be London-headquartered and aims to float on the London Stock Exchange as a FTSE 100 firm as early as 2020.
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“We are bringing together some of the world’s best loved brands and combining their 350 years of experience to form a new family company,” said Murat Ulker, chairman of Yildiz Holding. “We will be a global leader in biscuits and confectionery, and bring ‘bites of happiness’ to every corner of the world.”
Pladis – named after the ‘Pleiades’ constellation, a group of seven stars visible anywhere on earth – will have 36 factories in 13 countries, employing 26,000 people.
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Pladis chief executive Cem Karakas said: “We have significant growth ambitions for Pladis with the aim to outperform the category standard year-on-year.”
He added: “As one global family, we can be more agile, allowing us to innovate around our products and develop more brand synergies – which are already benefitting our business.”
McVitie's makes Jaffa Cakes, Chocolate Digestives, Penguins and HobNobs.