PRIVATE LABEL LEADER With 20 factories in 11 countries, McBride is a global leader in the manufacture of household and personal care products for the private label market. And it is a market that continues to grow.
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Bride is Europe’s leading provider of private label household and personal care products, with more than 5000 employees and a turnover of around £800 million – well over twice the size of its nearest competitor. Currently the company supplies more than 95 per cent of Europe’s top 50 retailers, including Auchan, Carrefour, Tesco, Metro, Rewe, Aldi, Wal-Mart and Sainsbury’s. It is the number one in private label household and personal care products in the UK, France, Italy and Poland. Founded in Manchester in 1927 to supply chemical processing products to Lancashire’s cotton industry, McBride moved into washing-up liquid and fabric conditioners in the 1960s, following the growing demand for supermarket private labels. The growing company was acquired by BP in 1978 and was established in its present form in 1994, following BP’s decision to sell its Consumer Products Division. The late 1990s saw rapid expansion of the product range and geographic reach, with acquisitions in the
UK, Holland, France and Poland. Recent developments have included the 2007 acquisition of Dasty, an Italian producer of private label household cleaning liquids, and of Henkel’s European private label household products business and, in the following year, the acquisition of the production assets of Darcy Industries at Warrington and the former Remploy household and personal care products facility at St Helens. Also in 2008, McBride commissioned a Greenfield manufacturing facility in Zhongshan, China, for the production of specialist air fresheners. In 2009, the company acquired the Limelite and Frish brands in the UK and bought the manufacturing assets of Budelpack Roosendaal in Holland. McBride’s global expansion continued in 2010 with the acquisition of Fortlab in Malaysia and Newlane Cosmetics in Vietnam as well as of a skincare business in Brno, Czech Republic. The company currently operates five factories in the UK, 10 in western Europe, two in central Europe and one each in China, Vietnam and Malay-
sia. Its production technologies include powders, liquids, tablets, soluble sachets, triggers, aerosols, creams and lotions as well as specialist air fresheners.
Two categories Despite this ambitious acquisition strategy and continuing strong organic growth, McBride remains completely focused on its two chosen product categories of household and personal care. In the household cleaning sector it manufactures laundry products, dishwashing products, household cleaners, toilet cleaners and air care products. Every year 220 million bottles of household cleaners alone are filled at the company’s Ieper (formerly Ypres) factory. Recent investments in end-of-line automation, PET bottle-blowing and filling capacity has made this Belgium factory one of the most efficient in the Group. In the UK, McBride’s new bleach filling machine at its Middleton, plant can produce 100 million bottles per year and in Europe the company currently produces
