United Biscuits :: United Biscuits Business Management Essays

United Biscuits 1. Introduction United biscuits were founded in 1948 with the merger of two Scottish family businesses, these were McVities and the Price and McFarlane Lang group. It was developed furthermore when they acquired Crawford’s Biscuits and MacDonald’s Biscuits. More recently in 2000, United Biscuits was bought by Finalrealm who were a consortium of investors and the company reverted to a private company status. 2. Ownership In 2000 United Biscuits were bought by a consortium of four businesses, these four businesses own different percentages in the company which is dictated by the amount of money which they invested. The four businesses were Cinven who own 30%, PAI Partners who also own 30%, Nabisco who own 25% and finally MidOcean Partners who own 15%. United Biscuits were reverted to being a private limited company, this is unusual because private companies tend to be smaller than public companies and often are family businesses. To be a private company there must be at least two shareholders, which United Biscuits have two more than the minimum. Shares in privately owned companies cannot be traded on the Stock Exchange and often shares can only be bought with the permission from the board of directors. The board of directors is a group of officials whose job it is to protect the shareholders’ interests, they also choose the managing director who looks after the daily running of the company. With private limited companies the shareholders choose the board of directors, who then choose the management, this is done at an annual shareholders meeting. Companies that are private have limited liabilities and this may make them more attractive to stakeholders in the company because they are only liable for their share value. Shares are a good way of generating capitol for new ventures because they can release shares for a certain amount and depending on how many they sell they will have an instant rise in capitol. There are only a few disadvantages in comparison to an unlimited liability business, they have to share the profits out between the shareholders and decisions can’t be made quickly, they also cost more to set up. United Biscuits could become a public limited company, and to do this they would have to float their stocks on the Stock Exchange. One of the main benefits of doing this is that large amounts of capital can be raised very quickly, to every â€Å"up-side† there must be a â€Å"down-side† and this is that the control of the business can be lost if large amounts of shares are bought because this would possibly result in a takeover. To become a public company the directors must apply to the Stock