Wittington Investments


Wittington Investments Limited is a privately owned British holding company. It was incorporated in 1941 and is based in London, England.
The company is 79.2% owned by the Garfield Weston Foundation, one of the United Kingdom's largest grant-making trusts, which was established in 1958 by Canadian-born businessman W. Garfield Weston, and 20.8% owned by members of the prominent Weston family. As of 5 April 2008, the trustees of the Garfield Weston Foundation valued their 79.2% stake in Wittington Investments at £3.62 billion.

Holdings

Wittington Investments owns 54.5% of Associated British Foods, one of the largest food companies in the world and the parent company of Primark, the largest discount clothing chain in the UK and Ireland. Further assets include ownership of the British department stores Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges, as well as Heal's, a chain of homeware and furnishing stores in the UK.
Wittington Investments also owns Brown Thomas and Arnotts in Ireland, and De Bijenkorf in the Netherlands, which are upscale department stores. Associated British Foods also own British Sugar, processor of the entire UK beet crop and producer of half the UK consumption of sugar.
The company has a subsidiary in Canada called "Wittington Investments, Limited". It was founded in 1952 and is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.