Bunzl - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Bunzl plc is a multinational

Multinational corporation

A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...

distribution and outsourcing

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else.-Overview:The term outsourcing is used inconsistently but usually involves the contracting out of a business function - commonly one previously performed in-house - to an external provider...

company headquartered in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. The company is primarily a distributor of a diverse range of non-food consumable products including food packaging

Food packaging

Food packaging is packaging for food. It requires protection, tampering resistance, and special physical, chemical, or biological needs. It also shows the product that is labeled to show any nutrition information on the food being consumed....

, cleaning and hygiene supplies, personal protective equipment

Personal protective equipment

Personal protective equipment refers to protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garment or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury by blunt impacts, electrical hazards, heat, chemicals, and infection, for job-related occupational safety and health purposes, and in...

and carrier bags

Plastic shopping bag

Plastic shopping bags, carrier bags or plastic grocery bags are a type of shopping bag made from various kinds of plastic, and are common worldwide. These bags are sometimes called single-use bags, referring to carrying items from a store to a home...

. Its customers include contract cleaners

Cleaner

Cleaner is the name of a German project specializing in electronic music. Formerly known as Cleen, Myer released several albums on the American industrial music record label, Metropolis Records, as well as the labels Zoth Ommog and Accession Records....

, retailers

Retailing

Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...

, catering

Catering

Catering is the business of providing foodservice at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, public house , or other location.-Mobile catering:A mobile caterer serves food directly from a vehicle or cart that is designed for the purpose...

firms and food processors

Food processing

Food processing is the set of methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into food or to transform food into other forms for consumption by humans or animals either in the home or by the food processing industry...

. Bunzl has operations in 23 countries: almost half of its business is conducted in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, with major operations in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

as well as a smaller presence in Australasia

Australasia

Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...

and Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

.

The activities of the company have changed a number of times during its existence, frequently incorporating the disparate business interests of the founding Bunzl family, which trace their history back to a haberdashery opened in Bratislava

Bratislava

Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...

in 1854. The current company was established in London in 1940 as a manufacturer

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...

of cigarette filter

Cigarette filter

A cigarette filter has the purpose of reducing the amount of smoke, tar, and fine particles inhaled during the combustion of a cigarette. Filters also reduce the harshness of the smoke and keep tobacco flakes out of the smoker's mouth.-History:...

s, crêpe

Crêpe paper

Crêpe paper is tissue paper that has been coated with sizing and then creped to create gathers.-Production:Paper that is creped is produced on a paper machine that has a single large steam-heated drying cylinder fitted with a hot-air hood. The raw material is paper pulp. The Yankee cylinder is...

and tissue paper

Tissue paper

Tissue paper is a lightweight paper or, light crêpe paper. Tissue can be made both from virgin and recycled paper pulp.-Properties:Key properties are: strength, absorbency, basis weight, thickness , brightness, stretch, appearance and comfort....

, and the production of fibres, pulp

Wood pulp

Pulp is a lignocellulosic fibrous material prepared by chemically or mechanically separating cellulose fibres from wood, fibre crops or waste paper. Wood pulp is the most common raw material in papermaking.-History:...

, paper

Paper

Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....

, building materials and plastics were all brought into the firm - and subsequently sold - over the following decades. Bunzl restructured itself as a company purely focused on distribution through a divestment

Divestment

In finance and economics, divestment or divestiture is the reduction of some kind of asset for either financial or ethical objectives or sale of an existing business by a firm...

process which began in the early 1990s and ended with the 2005 spin out of Filtrona

Filtrona

Filtrona PLC is a supplier of plastic and fibre products. The company operates internationally from headquarters in Milton Keynes in the UK. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...

.

Bunzl has been listed on the London Stock Exchange

London Stock Exchange

The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...

since 1957 and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index

FTSE 100 Index

The FTSE 100 Index, also called FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the footsie , is a share index of the 100 most highly capitalised UK companies listed on the London Stock Exchange....

1854 - 1938

In 1854, Moritz Bunzl registered haberdashery Emanuel Biach's Eidam in Bratislava

Bratislava

- then part of the Habsburg Monarchy

Habsburg Monarchy

The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...

, now part of Slovakia

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

. In 1883, his 3 sons, Max Bunzl, Ludwig Bunzl and Julius Bunzl, changed the name of the company to Bunzl & Biach AG, and moved the headquarters to Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

.

From 1888 they began manufacturing

Papermaking

Papermaking is the process of making paper, a substance which is used universally today for writing and packaging.In papermaking a dilute suspension of fibres in water is drained through a screen, so that a mat of randomly interwoven fibres is laid down. Water is removed from this mat of fibres by...

paper in Ortmann

Ortmann

Ortmann is a central German family name, which in the Middle Ages stood for the job called "ortman." This was an arbiter who decided in situations where there is a stalemate.Ortmann is the surname of the following persons:...

, and then at Wattens

Wattens

Wattens is a market community in Austria which is the home of the Swarovski Kristallwelten, dedicated to the history surrounding the company, the man himself Daniel Swarovski and exhibitions of the crystals.It attracts visitors from the world over....

paper mill. From 1925 Hungarian

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

inventor Boris Aivaz, who had patented the process of making cigarette filter

Cigarette filter

s from crepe paper

Crêpe paper

, with some variants including cellulose

Cellulose

Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to over ten thousand β linked D-glucose units....

wadding, experimented at the Ortmann plant. Aivaz produced the first cigarette filter from 1927 in co-operation with Bunzl's Filtronic

Filtrona

subsidiary, but up take was low due to a lack of machinery to produce cigarettes with the filtered tip.

From 1935, a British company began producing a machine to make cigarettes that incorporated the filter tip, and so the Bunzl family developed their British interests. Following the Anschluss

Anschluss

The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....

in 1938, with many Jewish assets and companies seized by the Nazi regime

Austria at the Time of National Socialism

Austria at the time of National Socialism describes in particular the period of Austrian history from March 12, 1938 when the German annexation of Austria made Austria part of the German Third Reich until the end of World War II in spring 1945....

, the Bunzl family emigrated from Austria. While some moved to the United States and Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, the majority settled in England to develop their small British operation.

1940 - 1957

The company now known as Bunzl was established in the UK in 1940 by Austrian immigrants

Immigration

Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

Martin Bunzl

Martin Bunzl is the director of the at the Eagleton Institute of Politics. He edited, with Anthony Appiah, Buying Freedom: The Ethics and Economics of Slave Redemption. His other books include Real History , and The Context of Explanation .Martin Bunzl received his PhD from the University of...

, Hugo Bunzl and George Bunzl under the name Tissue Papers Limited, which adopted a similar line of business, manufacturing filters along with tissue and crêpe paper

Crêpe paper

. The firm did not begin to grow substantially until after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, when the family reclaimed its assets in Austria. Although the two companies were not merged at this time, Tissue Papers Ltd. became the international distributor of Bunzl & Biach's paper and pulp

Wood pulp

products and as a result changed its name to Bunzl Pulp & Paper Ltd. in 1952.

International expansion followed throughout the 1950s: a filter production factory

Factory

A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...

was opened in South Africa

Union of South Africa

The Union of South Africa is the historic predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the previously separate colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State...

, while a separately-run company named American Filtrona

Filtrona

was set up in the United States in 1954. Use of cigarette filters increased markedly in the 1950s as links between smoking and cancer were established, and Bunzl soon became the exclusive supplier to both Imperial Tobacco

Imperial Tobacco

Imperial Tobacco is a global tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, United Kingdom. It is the world’s fourth-largest cigarette company measured by market share , and the world's largest producer of cigars, fine-cut tobacco and tobacco papers...

and Gallaher Group

Gallaher Group

Gallaher Group is a major United Kingdom-based multinational tobacco company. It was traded on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, prior to its April 2007 acquisition by Japan Tobacco.-History:...

. Between 1956 and 1964, Bunzl's production of filters increased by a factor of twelve.

1957 - 1980: Public listing and diversification

The company floated around 30% of its shares

Stock

The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...

on the London Stock Exchange

London Stock Exchange

in 1957, with the Bunzl family retaining a majority stake for another decade. As the growth in uptake of filter cigarettes began to tail off at the end of the 1960s, the firm's profits followed, experiencing their first fall as a publicly traded company in 1969. Around the same time, Bunzl Pulp & Paper's position in the cigarette filter market was investigated by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission at the request of Courtaulds

Courtaulds

Courtaulds was a United Kingdom-based manufacturer of fabric, clothing, artificial fibres, and chemicals.-Foundation:The Company was founded by George Courtauld and his cousin Peter Taylor in 1794 as a silk, crepe and textile business at Pebmarsh in north Essex trading as George Courtauld & Co...

, which Bunzl had recently dropped as its supplier of cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetate , first prepared in 1865, is the acetate ester of cellulose. Cellulose acetate is used as a film base in photography, as a component in some adhesives, and as a frame material for eyeglasses; it is also used as a synthetic fiber and in the manufacture of cigarette filters and...

. Although ultimately Bunzl was found to have held but not abused a monopolistic

Monopoly

A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...

position, the company determined to diversify

Diversification (marketing strategy)

Diversification is a form of corporate strategy for a company. It seeks to increase profitability through greater sales volume obtained from new products and new markets. Diversification can occur either at the business unit level or at the corporate level. At the business unit level, it is most...

its products to revive profit growth.

In 1970 the original Austrian business Bunzl & Biach was acquired, meaning that the company was now involved in the manufacture of paper for the first time, and adhesive tape

Adhesive tape

Adhesive tape is one of many varieties of backing materials coated with an adhesive. Several types of adhesives can be used.-Types:Pressure sensitive tape...

and plastics divisions were also established later in the decade. The strategy failed to stem declining profits in the long term, which were exacerbated by a smaller cigarette filter market as tobacco companies began to manufacture them in-house. A foray into data processing

Data processing

Computer data processing is any process that a computer program does to enter data and summarise, analyse or otherwise convert data into usable information. The process may be automated and run on a computer. It involves recording, analysing, sorting, summarising, calculating, disseminating and...

services also proved particularly unsuccessful, losing money for the company.

1980 onwards: distribution

At the beginning of the 1980s, the company embarked upon a new strategy to arrest a decline in its fortunes. A new chief executive, James White, was installed, and Bunzl & Biach AG and its associated paper mill

Paper mill

A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags and other ingredients using a Fourdrinier machine or other type of paper machine.- History :...

s were sold only a decade after becoming a part of the company. Bunzl began to move into the distribution sector by acquisition

Mergers and acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions refers to the aspect of corporate strategy, corporate finance and management dealing with the buying, selling, dividing and combining of different companies and similar entities that can help an enterprise grow rapidly in its sector or location of origin, or a new field or...

, beginning with the American plastic and paper products reseller Jersey Paper in 1981. Other business lines established included package delivery

Package delivery

Package delivery or parcel delivery is the shipping of packages or high value mail as single shipments. While the service is provided by most postal systems, private package delivery services have also existed in competition with and in place of public postal services.-Package delivery in the...

and foodservice

Foodservice

Food Service or catering industry defines those businesses, institutions, and companies responsible for any meal prepared outside the home...

.

The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the outsourcing and distribution businesses in the US, Europe and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

expanded, particularly in the area of disposable

Disposable

A disposable is a product designed for cheapness and short-term convenience rather than medium to long-term durability, with most products only intended for single use. The term is also sometimes used for products that may last several months to distinguish from similar products that last...

food packaging. This growth helped the company enter the FTSE 100 for the first time in October 1986, replacing financial services

Financial services

Financial services refer to services provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money. Among these organizations are credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies,...

group British & Commonwealth Holdings. At the same time, the company sold off a number of non-core

Core business

The core business of an organization is an idealized construct intended to express that organization's "main" or "essential" activity.The corporate trend in the mid-20th Century of acquiring new enterprises and forming conglomerates enabled corporations to reduce costs funds and similar investment...

and underperforming assets, a process accelerated under the guidance of Anthony Habgood, who replaced White as CEO in 1991. Foodservice, paper merchanting and building material

Building material

Building material is any material which is used for a construction purpose. Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, sand, wood and rocks, even twigs and leaves have been used to construct buildings. Apart from naturally occurring materials, many man-made products are in use, some more...

supply businesses were all divested

Divestment

In finance and economics, divestment or divestiture is the reduction of some kind of asset for either financial or ethical objectives or sale of an existing business by a firm...

by 1994. The company's plastics and fibre

Fiber

Fiber is a class of materials that are continuous filaments or are in discrete elongated pieces, similar to lengths of thread.They are very important in the biology of both plants and animals, for holding tissues together....

s interests were also consolidated with the purchase of American Filtrona, the company originally established by the Bunzl family, for $

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

178 million in 1997.

Bunzl's last link with the paper industry was severed in 2002 with the sale of its fine paper distribution arm. This left the company with just two remaining business divisions: Outsourcing Services and Filtrona (encompassing fibres, cigarette filters and plastics). Three years later, Filtrona was spun off as a stand-alone entity, leaving Bunzl with just its distribution business. The same year, former Goodyear Dunlop

Dunlop Tyres

Dunlop Tyres is a British company owned 75% by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and 25% by Sumitomo Rubber Industries, which bought the right to sell Dunlop-branded road tyres....

executive Michael Roney was appointed CEO, with Habgood becoming Chairman

Chair (official)

The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is typically elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chairman presides over meetings of the assembled group and conducts its business in an...

Operations

The company divides itself geographically into four business units: North America is the largest, followed by the UK and Ireland, Continental Europe and the rest of the world (principally Australasia).

Bunzl's largest two markets, generating over half of total business between them, are foodservice and food retail companies. Products distributed include machine

Machine

A machine manages power to accomplish a task, examples include, a mechanical system, a computing system, an electronic system, and a molecular machine. In common usage, the meaning is that of a device having parts that perform or assist in performing any type of work...

ry and safety and hygiene equipment for food processors and chemicals, packaging and disposable tableware

Tableware

Tableware is the dishes or dishware , dinnerware , or china used for setting a table, serving food, and for dining. Tableware can be meant to include flatware and glassware...

for caterers and retailers. The company's other markets include cleaning

Cleanliness

Cleanliness is both the abstract state of being clean and free from dirt, and the process of achieving and maintaining that state.Cleanliness may be endowed with a moral quality, as indicated by the aphorism "cleanliness is next to godliness," and may be regarded as contributing to other ideals...

and safety

Occupational safety and health

Occupational safety and health is a cross-disciplinary area concerned with protecting the safety, health and welfare of people engaged in work or employment. The goal of all occupational safety and health programs is to foster a safe work environment...

, where personal protective equipment

Personal protective equipment

, cleaning machinery and first aid kit

First aid kit

A first aid kit is a collection of supplies and equipment for use in giving first aid, and can put together for the purpose , or purchased complete...

s are supplied, and convenience store

Convenience store

A convenience store, corner store, corner shop, commonly called a bodega in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, is a small store or shop in a built up area that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, toiletries, alcoholic and soft drinks, and may also offer money order and...

s, to which carrier bags, point of sale display

Point of sale display

A point-of-sale display is a specialized form of sales promotion that is found near, on, or next to a checkout counter . They are intended to draw the customers' attention to products, which may be new products, or on special offer, and are also used to promote special events, e.g. seasonal or...

s and packaging and label

Label

A label is a piece of paper, polymer, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or article, on which is printed a legend, information concerning the product, addresses, etc. A label may also be printed directly on the container or article....

ling are amongst the major products distributed. In North America, Bunzl is also a major wholesale

Wholesale

Wholesaling, jobbing, or distributing is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services...

r of foodservice and janitorial products, and in the UK the company provides the supply and maintenance

Maintenance, Repair and Operations

Maintenance, repair, and operations or maintenance, repair, and overhaul involves fixing any sort of mechanical or electrical device should it become out of order or broken...

of vending machines.

Sectors

Catering equipment
Contract cleaning
Convenience stores
Food processors
Healthcare
Hotel & catering
Redistributors
Retail
Safety
Vending

List of Global Offices

Australia Canada Czech Republic Denmark France Germany Hungary Ireland Mexico New Zealand Poland Puerto Rico Romania Slovakia The Netherlands UK USA

Financial information

Bunzl plc financial results.
Year ended	Revenue Revenue In business, revenue is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, revenue is referred to as turnover.... (£ million)	Profit/(loss) before tax (£m)	Net profit Net income Net income is the residual income of a firm after adding total revenue and gains and subtracting all expenses and losses for the reporting period. Net income can be distributed among holders of common stock as a dividend or held by the firm as an addition to retained earnings... (£m)	Earnings per share Earnings per share Earnings per share is the amount of earnings per each outstanding share of a company's stock.In the United States, the Financial Accounting Standards Board requires companies' income statements to report EPS for each of the major categories of the income statement: continuing operations,... (p)
2010	4,830	225.2	159.0	49.1
2009	4,649	257.8	148.9	46.4
2008	4,177	206.9	142.2	44.5
2007	3,582	191.1	130.1	39.8
2006	3,333	189.7	129.4	37.8
2005	2,924	176.7	124.2	35.4
2004	2,438	158.2	141.4	30.7
2004	2,438	200.9	127.4	28.7
2003	2,276	194.6	124.6	27.4

Shareholder structure

At 22 February 2010, four institutions held a stake of three percent or greater in Bunzl: Invesco (11.9%), Aviva

Aviva

Aviva plc is a global insurance company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the sixth-largest insurance company in the world measured by net premium income and has 53 million customers in 28 countries...

(6.3%), Legal & General

Legal & General

Legal & General Group Plc , commonly known as Legal & General, is a multinational financial services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Its products include life insurance, general insurance, pensions and investments. It has operations in the United Kingdom, Egypt, France, Germany,...

(4.0%) and Newton Investment Management (4.0%).

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

1854 - 1938

1940 - 1957

1957 - 1980: Public listing and diversification

1980 onwards: distribution

Operations

Sectors

List of Global Offices

Financial information

Shareholder structure

See also

External links