Have you been reading about the sale of a part of Numico? Did you have any idea what it meant?
No, nor did I until today.
Numico isn’t exactly a high street name – but these are (if you are a coeliac): Dr Schar, Nutrition Point, Dietary Specials, Trufree and Glutafin.
It turns out that what all the press releases have been saying is that Dr Schar has bought Glutafin and Trufree from Numico. This means that Nutrition Point, whose parent company is Dr Schar, will add Trufree and Glutafin to their Dietary Specials range, giving them three – rather different – product ranges in the UK and Ireland. Glutafin products will become available in Europe.
I hope this means that all the ranges – including the Schar range – will continue to be available here, and that it doesn’t mean consolidation of the ranges, with the result that we have less to choose from. Especially if its our favourites that get eliminated! I’m sure we’re not alone in picking and choosing our favourites from across the market and we’re not loyal to one brand. We have enough restricted choice in the first place, without losing any more variety.
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I am not sure, but I also think Juvela was part of Nutricia under their SHS International branch…
Oh, you’re right!
I think there was a monopolies and mergers investigation back in 1995 into the merger of Nutricia and Valio/SHS … its all a little unclear to me, but I think the commission decided that the merger would be likely to increase prices, and recommended that prices should remain fixed (allowing for inflation) for four years. The commission believed that there would be a more competitive market by then – and I think they may have been right. Obviously ‘free’ prescriptions confuse matters a bit …
Prices are still high, but there is definitely more choice now. My concern is that if companies do go in for more merging, although it might make their production lines more efficient, it may also reduce consumer choice.
This takeover has certainly reduced customer choice. Trufree have added milk to biscuit ranges that were previously dairy free – Custard Creams and Bourbon Biscuits – so limiting the choice for dairy intolerant or vegan consumers.
The new owners seem to want to concentrate on gluten free products only and do not appear to care for Trufree’s customers that were buying the products that were dairy free.
Hi Lawrence! I hadn’t realised this about the Trufree biscuits – that must be really annoying. Have you managed to find decent substitutes?