Vestey Holdings

As of August 2020^[update] Vestey Holdings owns Vestey Foods, Albion Fine Foods & FineFrance UK, Cottage Delight, Donald Russell (butchers) and Western Pension Solutions.^[3]

Vestey Foods (incorporated 16 November 1994)^[4] owns Vestey Foods UK, Vestey Foods Benelux, Vestey Foods France, Vestey Foods International, Vestey Foods Baltics, and Vestey Foods Middle East.^[5] The company's main business is in sourcing, processing and distribution of products made from meat, fish, seafood, dairy products, fruit and vegetables, and convenience foods. It trades in 70 countries, with customers in the retail, food service, wholesale, government and manufacturing sectors.^[6]

Samuel Vestey, 3rd Baron Vestey (19 March 1941 – 4 February 2021), great-grandson of co-founder William Vestey (later Lord Vestey), was Chairman of the Vestey Group from 1995 until his death in 2021.

George Vestey has been CEO of Vestey Holdings since 2010, and his brother Robin Non-Executive Chairman since 2013 (after becoming a main board director after their father Edmund’s retirement in 2004).^[7]

The family was still immensely wealthy in 2015; 160th on the Sunday Times Rich List 2015, with an estimated fortune of £700 million. Actor Tom Hiddleston is the great-great-grandson of co-founder Sir Edmund Vestey, 1st Baronet.^[8]

As of 2020^[update], the Vestey family’s farming interests are mainly in Brazil, in both the cattle industry and sugar cane production. A 12,000-hectare (30,000-acre) tree-planting programme is set to supply eucalyptus wood to the iron ore industry in Brazil. The family also has two wine companies in Australia: The Lane Vineyard in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia, and Delatite Wines in Victoria, Australia.^[9]

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Seafood

Seafood

Seafood is any form of sea life regarded as food by humans, prominently including fish and shellfish. Shellfish include various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Historically, marine mammals such as cetaceans as well as seals have been eaten as food, though that happens to a lesser extent in modern times. Edible sea plants such as some seaweeds and microalgae are widely eaten as sea vegetables around the world, especially in Asia.

Samuel Vestey, 3rd Baron Vestey

Samuel Vestey, 3rd Baron Vestey

Samuel George Armstrong Vestey, 3rd Baron Vestey, was a British peer, landowner, and businessman. He served as Master of the Horse to Queen Elizabeth II from 1999 to 2018. Lord Vestey was part of the family dynasty that founded and still runs the Vestey Holdings multinational corporation.

William Vestey, 1st Baron Vestey

William Vestey, 1st Baron Vestey

William Vestey, 1st Baron Vestey, was an English shipping magnate.

Edmund Hoyle Vestey

Edmund Hoyle Vestey

Edmund Vestey was a member of the Vestey family that made its fortune in the meat trade, their activities ranging from retail outlets, shipping lines to processing companies in South America and cattle stations in Australia. He was the third generation to head the family business, now Vestey Holdings, and was thought to have a personal wealth of £700 million.

Sunday Times Rich List

Sunday Times Rich List

The Sunday Times Rich List is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families resident in the United Kingdom ranked by net wealth. The list is updated annually in April and published as a magazine supplement by British national Sunday newspaper The Sunday Times since 1989. The editorial decisions governing the compilation of the Rich List are published in the newspaper and online as its "Rules of engagement".

Tom Hiddleston

Tom Hiddleston

Thomas William Hiddleston is an English actor. He gained international fame portraying Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), starting with Thor in 2011 and most recently in the Disney+ series Loki in 2021.

Sir Edmund Vestey, 1st Baronet

Sir Edmund Vestey, 1st Baronet

Sir Edmund Hoyle Vestey, 1st Baronet was an English food producer and importer and shipowner, and co-founder with his brother William of Vestey Brothers.

Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including Corymbia, they are commonly known as eucalypts. Plants in the genus Eucalyptus have bark that is either smooth, fibrous, hard or stringy, leaves with oil glands, and sepals and petals that are fused to form a "cap" or operculum over the stamens. The fruit is a woody capsule commonly referred to as a "gumnut".

Iron ore

Iron ore

Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the form of magnetite (Fe3O4, 72.4% Fe), hematite (Fe2O3, 69.9% Fe), goethite (FeO(OH), 62.9% Fe), limonite (FeO(OH)·n(H2O), 55% Fe) or siderite (FeCO3, 48.2% Fe).

Adelaide Hills

Adelaide Hills

The Adelaide Hills region is located in the southern Mount Lofty Ranges east of the city of Adelaide in the state of South Australia. The largest town in the area, Mount Barker is one of Australia's fastest-growing towns. Before British colonisation of South Australia, the area was inhabited by the Peramangk people.

South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of 984,321 square kilometres (380,048 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, and second smallest state by population. It has a total of 1.8 million people. Its population is the second most highly centralised in Australia, after Western Australia, with more than 77 percent of South Australians living in the capital Adelaide, or its environs. Other population centres in the state are relatively small; Mount Gambier, the second-largest centre, has a population of 33,233.

William and his younger brother Edmund (later Sir Edmund) established the Vestey empire in 1897 from a family butchery business in Liverpool. They were pioneers of refrigeration, opening a cold store in London in 1895 and developing stores across the UK, and then throughout Russia, the Baltic nations, and Western Europe. The company supplied large quantities of food to the growing UK population during the Industrial Revolution.^[9][10]

William Vestey earlier worked in stockyards in Chicago in the late 19th century, and realised that the meat waste could be used in products which were then in short supply in Britain. He and Edmund started a canning business, before foreseeing that the meat could be worth even more if the vast supplies of beef in the Americas could be transported and delivered fresh rather than canned, so they first experimented with a friend's cold store. The invention of the first ammonia-compression plant enabled refrigerated shipments, and their business grew.^[11]

International expansion

The first expansion was into China, in the early 20th century, where the company developed a huge egg processing enterprise. Creating their own shipping company, the Blue Star Line, they supplied outlets in the UK, USA, Europe and South Africa for over fifty years.^[10]

In 1911, the Vestey brothers expanded into meat production, processing and distribution, with pastoral properties as well as meatworks in Venezuela, Australia and Brazil, and meatworks in New Zealand and Argentina. In he UK, they bought market stalls on the Smithfield Market in London, and butcher shops throughout the UK, the Dewhurst the Butchers chain.^[10]

In 1912 they purchased for £250,000 the Ord River cattle station in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia from investor Sam Copley.^[12] In 1914, they established the North Australia Meat Company in Darwin, Northern Territory in Australia, but it failed after three years.^[13] In the same year, it bought the 3,000 km² (1,200 sq mi) Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory of Australia.^[14]

In 1915, the brothers, after being refused a request for income tax exemption made to David Lloyd George, moved to Buenos Aires to avoid paying income tax in the UK. The family later administered the business through a Paris trust that enabled it to legally avoid an estimated total of £88m in UK tax until the loophole was closed in 1991.^[11]

In 1924, Vesteys bought the Liebig Extract of Meat Company in Uruguay, created Frigorífico Anglo del Uruguay out of it, which marketed Fray Bentos meat extract spread.^[15] also known as the "Anglo Meatpacking Company".^[16]

It is said that by 1930 Vesteys had 30,000 employees worldwide and a net value of £300,000.

The Vestey family were estimated to be the second wealthiest family in Britain (after the King) in 1940. In 1980, it was discovered that the company had operated a tax avoidance scheme, and Vestey Brothers was the largest privately owned multinational company and the largest retailer of meat in the world in the 1980s.^[8][11]

UK developments

In the course of their expansion, Vestey bought a number of other companies, acquiring Oxo and London's Oxo Tower through the purchase of the Liebig Extract of Meat Company.

In the middle of the 20th century, Vestey companies dominated the UK wholesale and retail meat trade, selling refrigerated and canned meats, as well as leather and other by-products. Having saved cash reserves for the purpose, they entered into a price war with the US-owned importers to largely drive them from the UK market. Vestey developed the country-wide Dewhurst the Butchers chain, which was eventually sold in 1995 in the face of increasing competition from the supermarket chains. Dewhurst was among the first retailers to introduce glass windows in its butcher's shops – previously meat had been exposed to the elements and pollution. The business also owned the Downsway supermarket group, which was based in East Anglia and had 80 stores at the time of its sale to rival Fine Fare in 1978.

1966 Gurindji Strike, Australia

By the middle of the twentieth century, the Vestey Group had acquired a large amount of grazing land in Australia, and used many Aboriginal Australians as cheap labour. They were paid less than a quarter of the minimum wage of non-Indigenous workers and sometimes only received salt beef, bread, tobacco, flour, sugar and tea instead of a salary.^[14][17] Samuel Vestey, 3rd Baron Vestey, through the company, owned the Wave Hill Station in Australia at the time.^[18]

In 1966, this unfair treatment, coupled with earlier dispossession of their land by the colonial government, sparked the Gurindji strike (also known as the Wave Hill walk-off) at Wave Hill. This was a landmark event in the land rights movement in Australia and lasted for eight years. With much public support, the Whitlam government entered negotiations with Vestey and a small grant of land at Daguragu/Wattie Creek was handed back to the Gurindji people, as an initial step towards the final land handback.^[14][17]

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Sir Edmund Vestey, 1st Baronet

Sir Edmund Vestey, 1st Baronet

Sir Edmund Hoyle Vestey, 1st Baronet was an English food producer and importer and shipowner, and co-founder with his brother William of Vestey Brothers.

Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in North West England. With a population of 486,100 in 2021, it is located within the county of Merseyside and is the principal city of the wider Liverpool City Region. Its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.24 million.

Refrigeration

Refrigeration

The term refrigeration denotes cooling of a space, substance or system to lower and/or maintain its temperature below the ambient one. Refrigeration is considered an artificial, or human-made, cooling method.

London

London

London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a 50-mile (80 km) estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and retains its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries hosted the national government and parliament. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which since 1965 has largely comprised Greater London, which is governed by 33 local authorities and the Greater London Authority.

Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines; new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes; the increasing use of water power and steam power; the development of machine tools; and the rise of the mechanized factory system. Output greatly increased, and a result was an unprecedented rise in population and in the rate of population growth. The textile industry was the first to use modern production methods, and textiles became the dominant industry in terms of employment, value of output, and capital invested.

Canning

Canning

Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container. Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although under specific circumstances, it can be much longer. A freeze-dried canned product, such as canned dried lentils, could last as long as 30 years in an edible state.

Beef

Beef

Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle.

Blue Star Line

Blue Star Line

The Blue Star Line was a British passenger and cargo shipping company formed in 1911, being in operation until 1998.

Pastoralism

Pastoralism

Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The animal species involved include cattle, camels, goats, yaks, llamas, reindeer, horses and sheep.

Market stall

Market stall

A market stall or a booth is a structure used by merchants to display and house their merchandise in a street market, fairs and conventions. Some commercial marketplaces, including market squares or flea markets, may permit more permanent stalls. Stalls are also used throughout the world by vendors selling street food.

Darwin, Northern Territory

Darwin, Northern Territory

Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. With an estimated population of 147,255 as of 2019, the city contains the majority of the residents of the sparsely populated Northern Territory.

Northern Territory

Northern Territory

The Northern Territory is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Australia to the west, South Australia to the south, and Queensland to the east. To the north, the territory looks out to the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria, including Western New Guinea and other islands of the Indonesian archipelago.

The first two ships for the Blue Star Line (Pakeha renamed Broderick, and Rangatira renamed Brodmore) were bought in 1909, and the company registered on 28 July 1911 in London and Liverpool with a capital of £100,000.

In 1946 the Vesteys also became founders of Repremar Shipping, a Uruguay-based ship agency which was then taken over a few decades later by the Pena family, who to this day remain in control of the Repremar Group of Companies.^[19]

The line owned a number of refrigerated ships (Reefers), and business later expanded to countries as far apart as Egypt and China, carrying passengers in addition to various foodstuffs. Blue Star was finally sold to P&O Nedlloyd for £60 million in 1998, although most of the refrigerated ships were retained by Vestey's Albion Reefers subsidiary, which later merged with Hamburg Sud to form Star Reefers, finally sold off in July 2001.

The company had to be rebuilt twice, in the years following the world wars, before being sold in 1998.^[10]

By 2000, the vertically integrated model was broken up, and separate companies created to run farming, cold storage, and food import and distribution businesses.^[10]

2005 Venezuela handback

In Venezuela in 2005, state troops occupied a cattle ranch owned by the Vestey Group, under a 2001 land use reform programme instituted by the Hugo Chávez government. In March 2006, the Group reached an agreement with the Venezuelan government, ceding two ranches to the state while retaining ownership of eight.^[20]

There was a "Vestey Chair of Food Safety and Veterinary Public Health" at the Royal Veterinary College, University of London recorded in 1992,^[21] and 2000,^[22] "the first post of its kind in the UK".^[23]

• The Blue Star Line was sold to P&O Nedlloyd for £60 million in 1998.
• Dewhurst butchers – sold to Lloyd Maunder 2005, entered administration in 2006.^[24]