history of soy yogurt, soy acidophilus milk and other ... - SoyInfo Center

many of the people in other companies that he deals with
are more ethical people. He would estimate that 85-90%
of the consumers who buy products made by Genice are
vegetarians or vegans. Address: Founder, Genice Foods Ltd.,
Pinfold Lane, Llay Industrial Estate, Llay near Wrexham,
Clwyd, LL12 OPX, Wales/Cymru, UK. Phone: 0978-853-
787.
1007. Mahlich, John. 1994. History and development of the
Haldane Foods Group Ltd. Part II (Interview). SoyaScan
Notes. March 8. Conducted by William Shurtleff of Soyfoods
Center.
• Summary: Continued: Next, in Feb. 1989, the Haldane
Foods Group purchased a company named Kwality Foods.
They made sauces, spreads, and dips. John liked the
management, their products, and the price at which they
offered to sell the company, which had a fi nancial problem–
they had run out of money. The Group subsequently changed
the name of Kwality Foods into Saucemasters Ltd.
While owning Saucemasters, the Group started another
company named Snackmasters Ltd., which was wholly
owned by Saucemasters. Then in 1993 the Group sold
Saucemasters, but retained ownership of Snackmasters,
which they relocated in a new factory adjacent to the
Haldane factory. It basically makes noodle- or rice-based
vegetarian snack meals that contain textured protein and
dried vegetables with a sauce sachet in each plastic cup. You
pour hot water into the cup, leave for 4 minutes, and you
have a very convenient and nutritious meal. This type of
product is a big business in England; one company, Golden
Wonder, dominates the market. But Snackmasters has carved
out a niche by making ethnic vegetarian meals (Chinese,
Indian, etc.), and using their sauce company to make the
sachet of sauce. They have taken the product up-market by
some ingenious developments and the company is thriving.
A month after buying Kwality Foods, the Haldane
Group purchased Genice (pronounced JEN-ais) Foods,
which makes non-dairy ice creams, yogurts, and margarines.
“By this time we were deeply into the healthy food, health
food, vegetarian business.” Though this was the Group’s fi rst
company to make non-dairy products, it fi t well because their
products were basically made from soya–either soyamilk or
soya protein isolates. “Not only were we developing a group
of interesting companies that can make some profi t, but we
were also signalling to a very large audience that maybe
others (such as the many food manufactures who have been
hesitant to use soya) should get into the soya business. And
ADM likes that, because the more it is obvious that soya
is here to stay and that it has multitudinous uses, the more
Dwayne Andreas’s dream will come true. Truthfully, we do
not fear competition; the more that are in the business, the
merrier. If you can get companies like Unilever to start using
soya, then you get good publicity on a global basis.
“Genice is doing a very good job, but I have to say
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 376
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truthfully that selling non-dairy ice cream is missionary
work. You need converts, and if you don’t get them you’re
not a happy missionary. Its just a fact that most people want
products with more and more cream. But at Genice we were
going in the opposite direction–but successfully, though with
slow growth. That’s a tough number but we are hanging
in and more and more will be sold. The non-dairy yogurts,
incidentally, are going exceedingly well. That’s good
business.”
ADM is a very acquisitive organization. For this reason,
John and Peter Fitch were always looking for promising
companies to add to the group. In the 20 years that John has
worked for them, he has bought more than companies–with
many outside the Haldane Group. Dwayne Andreas was
aware of each of the Haldane Group’s purchases as they
took place. “He was totally aware of what we were doing
and obviously was approving as we went. “You have to
remember that Dwayne Andreas is very much committed to
the evolution of the soyabean. He certainly has shown the
keenest of interest in everything that we have done. I report
directly to ADM and I could not buy a business without the
approval of Dwayne Andreas (or Jim Randall) and fi nally
the ADM board of directors, which meets quarterly... Yet
ADM is a very fast-moving animal, and you can’t contain
its dynamism by quarterly meetings. The whole thing is
designed to move with speed. So some acquisitions have
been made before the board meeting; the contract simply
reads ‘Subject to board approval.’”
In those days John used to go to the USA quite a lot
because he was running the ADM-Arkady business there for
ADM; it was a manufacturing business in Chicago, Illinois–
it’s now in Kansas.
In December 1990 the Haldane Group purchased
Unisoy, a small soya company which was for sale and which
made soymilk. In the early 1990s a situation developed
where the Haldane Foods Group had a sales director who had
been a previous employee of Granose Foods. He suggested
that the Group might be able to buy the Granose Foods
company. “He had a key to open that particular door. It was
with his basic introduction that we approached Granose,
and subsequently we bought all of Granose. Granose had
built a brand new and beautiful factory which was about 40
miles north of London, and that fi t it very well to the growth
and pattern that we were following.” So the Haldane Group
moved the center of their operations out of the Haldane
factory and into the Granose factory, where it now is. The
group still usually calls itself the Haldane Foods Group Ltd.,
but under some circumstances other names may also be
used–such as the Granose Foods Group.
Granose was selling soyamilk that was being imported
from a German manufacturer [DE-VAU-GE]. The Haldane
Group decided to discontinue these imports, and now Unisoy
is making all of the soyamilk for Granose that used to be
imported from Germany. The quality of Unisoy’s soyamilk