PAISLEY-based HMS, the parent company of several leading ingredient companies, has revealed a new identity and name – The Albex Group.
Beginning with Kent Foods in 1986, The Albex Group is now home to ten companies all involved in the supply of ingredients and related services to food and beverage manufacturers. Key members of the group include:
- Kent Foods, a specialist distributor of commodity ingredients
- Jones Kent, a global commodity ingredients trader
- Henley Bridge Ingredients, a specialist distributor of chocolate, ice cream and culinary ingredients
- BFP, a specialist distributor of bakery ingredients
- Tom Walker & Sons, a specialist in packing own-brand cheeses and selection packs
- Kent Foods Manufacturing, a specialist in ingredient blending and packing
The Albex Group employs 300 staff, operates from ten sites across Europe, owns more than 250,000 square feet of warehousing space and operates their own transport fleet ranging from bulk tankers to vans. In 2022 The Albex Group reported sales of £302m.
Commenting on the re-brand, Chairman and founder Iain Dalglish comments: “Over the past three decades we’ve been focused on building a company which provides a valuable service to both sides of the ingredients supply chain. We offer ingredient manufacturers a ready-made, cost-effective route to every market for their goods and we offer users of those ingredients unrivalled choice, availability, service and value. HMS was always intended as a temporary name, but we got so caught up building the business that it has taken us a while to get round to changing it to something more meaningful. Albex is far better suited to who we are. Based on the Gaelic word for Scotland, Alba, it reflects our Scottish roots. At the same time, it speaks to our quest for excellence in everything we do.”
Discussing the role of Albex, Dalglish continued: “Central to our approach with Albex is that we are a family of companies. Each company in the group has its own identity, its own management team and its own way of doing things. They operate independently and we have no intention of changing that. The role of Albex is to support them strategically and to provide shared services such as IT, warehousing and transport where we’re more efficient and effective working together as one.
Learn more at www.albex.group.”
