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Trivia: I never knew they owned them...

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Mcr Warrior

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This thread concerns companies (business concerns or even brand names) with parent companies that aren't generally known.

For example...

One Stop Stores, owned by Tesco.

Pringles, owned by Kellogg's.

Altrincham Retail Park, owned by the Crown Estate.

Any others? Must be quite a few!
 
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mikeg

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I already knew about One Stop...

Walkers Crisps, owned by Pepsi.

Many people don't realise Channel Four is state-owned.

One of Europe's most popular parcel service, GLS, owned by what was once our very own Royal Mail.

Burger King is now owned by some huge company that specialises in owning things. Before that (nearly 20 years ago now) it was owned buy Guinness owner Diageo. And before that it was bought by the company that had bought Traveller's Fare when that was privatised, hence Wimpy was replaced by Burger King at stations to save on franchising costs.

Talking about Wimpy they divested their South African business under political pressure late 70s/early 80s. The SA side of things retained the right to use the Wimpy name and some years after democratic rule then bought the UK Wimpy.
 
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Busaholic

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Costa is Pepsi now as well

Volvic water owned by Evian (and there was me trying to buy from a smaller co!)
 

Peter Mugridge

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One of Europe's most popular parcel service, GLS, owned by what was once our very own Royal Mail.

Royal Mail also own a large firm of motorcycle couriers in London. The name of them escapes me at the moment... if I remember it, I'll come back to edit this post.


Edited: It's Courier Systems, generally trading as eCourier.
 
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gswindale

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Londis and Budgens are owned by Booker Group, which in turn is now owned by Tesco
 

MotCO

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Wagamamas and Frankie & Benny's are both owned by the Restaurant Group.
 

Crossover

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Yorkshire Tiger (ultimately derived from Yorkshire Traction numerous iterations ago) is owned by Arriva, I believe (a former competitor)
 

superjohn

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NISA convenience stores are owned by the Co-op, hence the random appearance of their products on NISA shelves.

Plusnet is owned by BT.
 

Western Lord

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Many companies split themselves up and the various bits are in completely different ownership, often the same product is owned by different companies in different parts of the world. A good example is Dunlop, with Dunlop branded tyres being made by different companies in different parts of the world, and of course nothing to do with other Dunlop branded goods like sports equipment. Some people probably think that SAAB doesn't exist anymore, but SAAB the aerospace manufacturer is very much alive, they just sold the car division decades ago and it has subsequently folded. Volvo, the company that makes trucks and much else, is nothing to do with Volvo Cars, which is Chinese owned. Then there's the "brands of convenience" type operation where one company operates several different brands aimed at different parts of the market, the classic example being Carnival Corporation which runs several differently branded cruise lines including Cunard and P & O Cruises, but remember that P & O Cruises is nothing to do with the P & O company which operates ferries!
 

MotCO

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Many companies split themselves up and the various bits are in completely different ownership, often the same product is owned by different companies in different parts of the world. A good example is Dunlop, with Dunlop branded tyres being made by different companies in different parts of the world, and of course nothing to do with other Dunlop branded goods like sports equipment. Some people probably think that SAAB doesn't exist anymore, but SAAB the aerospace manufacturer is very much alive, they just sold the car division decades ago and it has subsequently folded. Volvo, the company that makes trucks and much else, is nothing to do with Volvo Cars, which is Chinese owned. Then there's the "brands of convenience" type operation where one company operates several different brands aimed at different parts of the market, the classic example being Carnival Corporation which runs several differently branded cruise lines including Cunard and P & O Cruises, but remember that P & O Cruises is nothing to do with the P & O company which operates ferries!

A bit like Gatwick Express being nothing to do with Southern or Thameslink :lol::lol:. On second thoughts, maybe I shouldn't go there.
 

MotCO

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At the back of my mind, I'm trying to unravel Leyland Buses. Leyland was obviously bought by Volvo, but somehow Leyland lives on with Ashok Leyland, who own Optare. But wasn't there a Leyland Specialist Vehicles company which did some developement work for one of the other bus manufacturers?

And then of course there was Leyland DAB. This division was also sold to Volvo, but DAB joined forces under the United Buses banner which also included Optare at the time.
 

Scotty

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These links may surprise some people:
https://www.behindthebrands.org/brands/ and https://www.flickr.com/photos/oxfam/14931276759

Basically - a lot of brands you think are competing with each other are actually owned by the same company.
The illusion of choice!

We have it at work, too. We distribute 100s of magazine titles, and some of them go head to head every week/month. Even at Christmas, 2 of the big TV titles are actually both distributed by us and the teams work together to earn maximum sales for the category, as well as each title.
 

superjohn

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Companies creating multiple supposedly independent brands to capture all sectors of a particular market is incredibly common. See also supermarket ‘fake farms’ which attempt to distance their cheaper offerings from the stigma to the old ‘value‘ ranges and boost the status of the own brand stuff.

Most own brand stuff also comes from the big name manufacturers as well. Sainsbury’s own brand Caledonian water and Highland Spring are exactly the same stuff. Similarly, nearly all supermarket branded milk comes from Arla in identical bottles with different labels. I used to work in a Sainsbury’s distribution centre and we regularly received Asda milk mixed among our own on Arla deliveries.
 

Mcr Warrior

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Presumably quite a few of the obscure brands only available at a particular store, effectively fall into that category.
 

superjohn

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Presumably quite a few of the obscure brands only available at a particular store, effectively fall into that category.
A quick glance at the back of the packet usually confirms. “Produced in the UK for Sainsbury’s/Tesco/Lidl etc” will be there, usually in the house style of the supermarket in question.

The other trick is brands licensing their name to go on products they have nothing whatsoever to do with. Those cheap batteries you find in pound stores that are branded Kodak or Hyundai are prime examples. See also the “Stanley” tools and “RAC” car accessories in B&M Bargains.
 
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najaB

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The other trick is brands licensing their name to go on products they have nothing whatsoever to do with.
JVC televisions being an example. Certainly up until recently (and I presume currently) they were made by/for Dixons-Carphone and have nothing to do with the Japanese company.
 

Tetchytyke

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JVC televisions being an example. Certainly up until recently (and I presume currently) they were made by/for Dixons-Carphone and have nothing to do with the Japanese company.

It's the same with a lot of stuff sold by Currys (Dixons-Carphone). My Grundig fridge is made for them.
 

thejuggler

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Costa is Pepsi now as well

Volvic water owned by Evian (and there was me trying to buy from a smaller co!)

Buxton Spring sounds very local, they are owned by Nestle which own lots of other brands under Nestle Waters including Perrier.
 

SteveM70

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NISA convenience stores are owned by the Co-op, hence the random appearance of their products on NISA shelves.

Not quite.

The Coop owns NISA Retail Ltd, which is the buying and distribution organisation. The shops are all independently owned, and the owners of these shops previously owned NISA Retail, a mutual organisation not unlike the Coop itself. The owners then voted (narrowly - 77% in favour with 75% required) to sell to the Coop.

The independent store owners now have access to quite a lot of the Coop range, but have no obligation to buy any of it. About 15% of NISA sales are now Coop branded.

The buying organisations are still operationally separate, but buying terms are being harmonised. The logistics operations are separate, although some of the satellite NISA sites, run by DHL, have moved into Coop warehouses
 

DB

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Gateshead Metrocentre was built and owned by the Church of England, until they sold a majority stake in the mid 1990s - think they may still have a minority holding.

In many places (York is one) they own a fair amount of prime city-centre retail property.
 
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