citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2007 learn how and when to remove this template message young s seafood ltd. type private industry food founded 1805 headquarters ross house wickham road grimsby england key people stewart james managing director . products food owner lion capital number of employees 3 000 website www.youngsseafood.co.uk young s seafood ltd. is a british producer and distributor of frozen fresh and chilled seafood supplying approximately 40 % of all the fish eaten in the united kingdom every year . it is headquartered in grimsby england . the company as it is today was formed through the merger of young s and bluecrest in 1999 . it is privately owned by venture capital concern lion capital llp who purchased the parent company foodvest part of capvest in july 2008 . it is a major player in the european seafood industry and also owner of sister company findus ab based in malm sweden . contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1.2 takeovers by the ross group and imperial tobacco 1.3 the hanson and united biscuits eras 1.4 bluecrest 1.5 buyouts & acquisitions 2 market areas 3 sponsorship 4 principal competitors 5 references 6 further reading 7 external links history edit prior to the merger with bluecrest young s itself had been the result of a number of takeovers and management buyouts . early history edit the 1805 foundation of young s is based on that being the year when one elizabeth martha began selling fish on the greenwich quays . in 1811 martha married william timothy young a member of a fishing family based on the river thames since the mid 18th century thus combining their fishing and selling businesses . the business prospered and later moved downriver to leigh on sea . by the end of the 19th century the business under william joseph young had become a prominent fish merchanting and wholesaling company operating its own fleet of small boats primarily for fishing whitebait and shrimp . in 1890 the company moved its headquarters to london to begin supply the city s catering market a move boosted after 1895 when a railway connecting leigh on sea to london was built enabling the morning catch to arrive in the city before lunchtime . young s expanded throughout the 1920s becoming one of the first companies in england to import salmon and debuting the company s most successful product potted shrimps . the next generation of the young family brothers gordon stanley douglas and malcolm took over in the late 1930s and set up a new subsidiary for its wholesaling business . another subsidiary added dockside purchasing and processing operations in grimsby which later emerged as the united kingdom s and for a time the world s busiest fishing port . by the 1950s the company had built five production facilities for its potted shrimp production . takeovers by the ross group and imperial tobacco edit 1959 marked the end of young s independence after the company was purchased by the larger ross group . young s however maintained its own operations and especially its nationally known brand name and members of the young family remained in charge of the company s direction . ross s and young s frozen foods operations grew strongly through the 1960s . a new network of distribution depots was set up and a number of wholesalers throughout the country were acquired . by the middle of the decade the group s share of the uk s frozen food sector topped 5 percent in the retail channel and as much as 13 percent in the catering market . the ross group s trawling operations however were losing money throughout the decade and in 1969 the group agreed to be acquired by imperial tobacco as part of which process ross s trawling business was spun off into british united trawlers . ross was renamed imperial foods a division of the newly renamed imperial group but both the ross and young s names survived as independently operating divisions of the new company . as part of imperial young s invested to expand capacity and developed a new centralized distribution system . by the middle of the 1970s young s sales had more than doubled topping 23 million in 1974 and the company was operating 18 factories . the hanson and united biscuits eras edit by the mid 1980s however imperial was caught in an era of hostile takeovers becoming the target of a number of companies including united biscuits plc ub . ub lost out to fast growing conglomerate hanson in its attempt to acquire imperial but hanson was interested only in imperial s tobacco holdings and sold ross young s to ub in 1988 . under ub s ownership young s was redeveloped as a standalone division . however by the late 1990s ub was restructuring its business to focus on core brands . bluecrest edit bluecrest founded in 1975 by frank flear was a british manufacturer and processor of fish products based in grimsby england uk . it was acquired by fitch lovell in 1985 and in 1990 it was sold to booker plc which also had acquired the ross fish division from hanson . the two companies were merged to form booker s fish division . in 1999 booker sold bluecrest to a management buyout of rival young s seafood backed by legal & general ventures lgv . 1 once combined with lgv s other uk seafood group the newly created young s bluecrest became the uk s leading specialist fish business . buyouts & acquisitions edit in 2000 young s bluecrest relaunched the young s branded products and invested in increased production capacity . by then turning over more than 320 million the company also began an expansion strategy designed to consolidate the british fish sector . lgv however declined to back this expansion and instead in 2002 sold young s bluecrest to a new management buyout this time backed by capvest . the newly capitalised company made its first acquisition of the chilled seafood division of albert fisher based in newcastle in june 2003 . purchases of the pinegain group and its marr foods division followed in october 2003 ; and young s bought a 34 percent stake in macrae food group the largest dedicated producer of ready to eat seafood in scotland in september 2004 . expansion and refurbishment of its humber grimsby and edinburgh operations followed during 2005 and 2006 . the acquisition of the uk based findus operations from eqt partners in january 2006 boosted young s total sales to an estimated 1 billion 1.7 billion confirming the company s position as the leader in the uk frozen fish sector having surpassed rivals bird s eye then owned by permira . market areas edit most of the group s sales are of its young s brand of frozen and chilled fish shrimp and shellfish . the company is also the owner of macrae in scotland . the young s foodservice subsidiary focuses on the restaurant and catering industry whilst polarfrost seafoods specializes in fish frozen at sea . sister business the seafood company now specialises in chilled fish for uk retailers own label . sponsorship edit young s is the official club sponsor of grimsby town football club with the company logo present on all grimsby football strips now since the final home match of the 2003 2004 football season . for the 2004 2005 season the clubs yellow away strip had the product logo for youngs mariners pie to tie in with grimsby town s club nickname the mariners . principal competitors edit alpesca s.a. ; orkla asa ; aker asa ; maruha corporation ; unilever deutschland gmbh ; icelandic group seachill ; hf ; perkins foods holdings ltd. ; green isle food group ltd. references edit votteler t. 2003 . international directory of company histories . detroit st. james press . isbn 978 1 55862 476 4 further reading edit the businessman with young s at heart yorkshire post january 11 2005 . capvest acquires young s acquisitions monthly april 2002 p. 73 . capvest considers unified young s birds eye findus grocer may 13 2006 p. 6 . davies kit young s warns of rising fish prices grocer march 4 2006 p. 67 . experiment with fish says young s grocer march 11 2006 p. 57 . mcdonagh vince merged company ploughs money into improvements frozen & chilled foods april 2000 p. 2 . young s brand breaks through 200 million barrier frozen & chilled foods september october 2005 p. 9 . young s moves fish operation from hull to scotland frozen & chilled foods november december 2005 p. 13 . young s serves up 15m humber expansion plan fish & chips and fast food may 2004 p. 4 . mclelland fiona young s could be up for sale grocer january 25 2005 p. 5 . merrell caroline suitors line up for 1bn unilever business the times june 12 2006 p. 32 . young s bluecrest expanding macrae plant in edinburgh qffi s global seafood magazine january 2006 p. 45 . young s bluecrest merger creates strongest seafood company in the uk frozen & chilled foods august 1999 p. 2 . international directory of company histories gale group inc. external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title young % 27s seafood & oldid 743982612 categories companies based in lincolnshirecompanies established in 18051805 establishments in the united kingdomseafood companies of the united kingdomfood and drink companies established in 1805hidden categories articles needing additional references from april 2007all articles needing additional referencespages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this 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