The McVitie’s Chocolate Digestive is turning 100 in 2025, and no biscuit is more worthy of a celebration, says David Murray, UK & Ireland Managing Director of parent company Pladis.
Murray said: “It’s the king of our portfolio.” While Murray remains tight-lipped about the specifics – “no spoilers” – he promises “the best party ever. You’ll want to be invited… I know I’m being humorous, but it’s serious.”
Murray sits at the head of a boardroom table in Pladis’ Chiswick Park headquarters, where the table is stacked with the company’s standout innovations of 2024. These include Jaffa Cakes Cola Bottle, Rich Tea The Cocoa One, Seriously Chocolatey Digestives, Gold Digestives, McVitie’s Signature, and Jacob’s Bites.
Biscuits are a significant business for Pladis, with McVitie’s, Jacob’s, and Carr’s generating a combined £681.1m last year [NIQ 52 w/e 7 September 2024]. Together, these brands will celebrate a collective 554 years of history in 2025. Carr’s is the eldest, established in 1831, followed by McVitie’s in 1839 and Jacob’s in 1851.
Murray said: “With that heritage comes responsibility. We have these brands in our hands for a short period of time in the overall scheme of things. Our job is to hand them off to the next group of people who are going to do their bit for the next 200 years.”
Compared to its biscuit brands, Pladis is a relatively young company. It was established in 2016, after Turkey’s Yildiz Holding acquired United Biscuits two years earlier. Despite its brief history, the company has already seen three UK & Ireland leaders: Jon Eggleton, a long-serving United Biscuits executive; Nick Bunker, former CEO of KP Snacks; and David Murray, who joined the company in 2019.
Murray added: “I’d spent 25 years at PepsiCo, this incredible company with brands at its heart… When the [Pladis] challenge came my way, I said: ‘OK, this sounds interesting. Could I be part of making McVitie’s loved again?’”
From the start, Murray aimed to instill PepsiCo's sense of “confidence” into Pladis, striving to “bring its mojo back.” However, his plans were quickly derailed just months into the role when he found himself stranded in London during the first Covid lockdown.
Plans for his family to move from Ireland were postponed due to travel restrictions, leaving Murray isolated in a Hammersmith apartment. “I’m staring out the window, looking at my Tesco Express,going: ‘Can I go and talk to some people in the shop?’” he recalls.
But lockdown also presented an opportunity for Pladis. “There was a retreat to well-known, trusted brands in Covid. It wasn’t just biscuits; we saw that across the board.”
In fact, accounts filed at Companies House by United Biscuits showed that McVitie’s and Jacob’s “performed particularly strongly” in the year ending 31 December 2020, with sales increasing by 4.1% to reach £867.5m.
