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Fox's Biscuits is an English biscuit manufacturer, founded by the Fox family in Batley, West Yorkshire, in 1853 and currently a subsidiary of Ferrero. The head office and main factory are based in the town, and the company has another site in Wesham in Lancashire. Its biscuits are exported to Europe, North America and Asia.
 | |
 Fox's head office in Batley, West Yorkshire | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Food manufacturing |
| Founded | 1852 |
| Founder | Michael Spedding |
| Headquarters | Whitaker Street, Batley, West Yorkshire, England |
Number of locations | |
| Products | Biscuits |
| Parent | Ferrero SpA |
| Website | www |
The business is known for mass-market and chocolate-covered biscuit bars such as Rocky, Classic, Echo, Crunch Creams and Party Rings. The company also makes own brand biscuit products for a number of supermarkets.
History
editThe company was founded in 1853 in a terraced house, 17 Whitaker Street, in Batley in West Yorkshire by Michael Spedding, who worked from his small bakehouse making "eatables" to sell at feasts and fairs held throughout the north of England. His daughter Hannah provided the name for the company when she married Fred Ellis Fox in the late 1800s.[1][2] The house in Whitaker Street still stands. The bakery moved to former wartime allotments site in Batley in 1927. In 1960, it became a limited company and was named Fox's Biscuits. It was purchased by Northern Foods in 1977,[3] which itself was acquired by 2 Sisters Food Group in 2011. In September 2013, the Yorkshire Society unveiled a White Rose plaque at the site of the first bakery on Whitaker Street: the first time that the society had presented a plaque to commemorate the formation of a business.[1]
In October 2020, Ferrero bought Fox's Biscuits for £246 million.[4][5] In 2020, Fox's Biscuits won the Lausanne Index Prize – Bronze Award.[6]
The Uttoxeter site[clarification needed] was operated as Elkes Biscuits before merging in 2003.
Vinnie
editOn 28 May 2008, Fox's Biscuits launched a TV ad campaign and £5 million marketing campaign[7] centred on "Vinnie", a "danda", cross between a dog and a panda, meant to be Fox's "number one fan" who had travelled across the Atlantic to make sure everybody knew who makes his favourite biscuits (which he mispronounces with a "w" instead of a "u"). The idea of Vinnie was developed with the animation team behind Disney's The Chronicles of Narnia.
Products
edit
The company website contains nutritional and allergy information as well as descriptions of each product. The biscuits currently manufactured by Fox's are:
- Rocky (Chocolate, Caramel, Orange[Limited Edition], Crispy Crunch)
- Rocky Chockas (Double Choc, Toffee, Honeycomb)
- Rocky Rocks (Chocolate or Crispy Crunch)
- Echo (Mint, Orange, Chocolate)
- Classic
- Cookie Bars
- Triple
- Viennese (Milk Chocolate, Dark Chocolate)
- Millionaire's Shortcake
- Shortcake Rounds
- Extremely Chocolatey Cookie
- Chunk Cookie (Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, White Chocolate)
- Crunch Creams (Ginger, Golden, Chocolate Fudge, Classic, Double Choc)
- Creams (Rich Tea, Jam Ring, Malted Milk, Nice, Classic)
- Crinkles (Butter, Ginger, Coconut, Milk Chocolate)
- Dunkers (Oaty, Shortcake)
- Sports
- Party Rings
- Minis (Buttery and Oaty)
- Bourbon biscuit
- Creations
- Speciality
- Speciality Brandy Snaps
- Favourites
- Luxury Chocolate Carton
- Wholemeal Cracker (Original, Tomato & Red Pepper, Cheese & Onion and Sunflower Seed & Honey)
See also
edit
References
edit- ^ a b "Crumbs! 160 years of Yorkshire biscuits". Yorkshire Post. 9 October 2013. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
- ^ "About Fox's Biscuits". Fox's Biscuits. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
- ^ "Our history". Northern Foods. Archived from the original on 27 December 2007. Retrieved 18 January 2008.
- ^ Media, Insider (4 November 2020). "Fox's Biscuits £246m deal completes". Insider Media Ltd. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
- ^ Landini, Francesca (7 October 2020). "Ferrero snaps up Fox's Biscuits to expand cookie business". Reuters. Archived from the original on 12 October 2020. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
- ^ "2020 L.I.P. Bronze Award - Fox's Biscuits". Archived from the original on 14 January 2021. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
- ^ Sweney, Mark (28 May 2008). "Fox's biscuits launches ad featuring New Jersey dog/panda hybrid". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.