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Fyffes plc (ISEQ: FFY, LSE: FFY) is a fruit and fresh produce company headquartered at North Anne Street, Dublin 7, Ireland.
Fyffes is one of the world's leading brands of bananas, and the company also distributes the brands Geest (brand), Turbana, Coplaca, Cape, and Outspan.
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History
In the 1870s Thomas Fyffe, a London food wholesaler, went into partnership with a fruit dealer named Hudson who had connections in the Canary Islands. In 1878 they shipped their first cargo of bananas to England. Within five years the business had become so successful that they purchased land in the Canaries to be cultivated as banana plantations. Meanwhile, Elder Dempster & Company (a large shipping firm which traded in the Canaries) had observed the success of Fyffe & Hudson and followed suit.
In 1898 Elder Dempster’s fruit importing business was extended to Jamaica, which was then the second oldest of Britain’s overseas colonies. To protect the island’s economy the British Government agreed to pay a subsidy of £40,000 a year to Elder Dempster to run a regular steamer service to Jamaica and bring large quantities of bananas to the British market.
In May 1901 the firms merged and Elders & Fyffes Ltd was established in London. The following year 45% of the capital was purchased by the United Fruit Company of America. Thereafter, the business went from strength to strength using specially constructed ships that ensured the fruit arrived in good condition after the long Atlantic crossing.
In 1960 At Bembridge Airport, Isle of Wight, Britten-Norman Ltd began trials of their new Cushioncraft— their name for an air-cushion vehicle built for Elders and Fyffes. It was used to study the potential of this type of vehicle for the carriage of bananas from plantations in the Southern Cameroons.
Over the following decades, a number of subsidiaries were acquired or created and in May 1969 the company was renamed Fyffes Group Ltd, recognising the diversity and importance of the then 14 subsidiary companies.
It became an Irish company following takeover by the Irish group FII plc in 1986 - FII having been originally established as Fruit Importers of Ireland Limited in 1968. The combined company was initially known as FII Fyffes plc, but became simply Fyffes plc in 1990.
In 2002 Fyffes took legal action against DCC plc in relation to the sale of its stake in the company, though DCC was eventually cleared of insider trading.
On May 15 2006, the company spun off its property portfolio to a separate company, Blackrock International Land plc, though it would retain a 40% share. In September 2006 Irish newspapers reported that it was considering spinning off its fresh produce business, leaving Fyffes as purely a banana importer. On 2 January 2007 this occurred, with Total Produce plc listing on the ISE's Irish Enterprise Exchange and the LSE's Alternative Investment Market. Fyffes itself, now a pure fruit company, will move from the Official Lists of the ISE and LSE to the IEX and AIM on 10 January 2007.
The company formerly operated its own fleet of ships, known as Fyffes Line.
Fyffes now (2007) handles the entire banana export produce of Belize.
See also
References
Beaver, Patrick (1976). Yes! We have some: The story of Fyffes. Publications for Companies. ISBN 9780904928020.
External links
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