Millet

Millets are a group of highly variable small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Millets are important crops in the semiarid tropics of Asia and Africa (especially in India, Nigeria, and Niger), with 97% of millet production in developing countries. The crop is favored due to its productivity and short growing season under dry, high-temperature conditions.

The most widely grown millet is pearl millet, which is an important crop in India and parts of Africa.Finger millet, proso millet, and foxtail millet are also important crop species. In the developed world, millets are less important. For example, in the United States, only proso millet is significant, and it is mostly grown for bird seed.

While millets are indigenous to many parts of the world, it is believed that they had an evolutionary origin in tropical western Africa, as that is where the greatest number of both wild and cultivated forms exist. Millets have been important food staples in human history, particularly in Asia and Africa. They have been in cultivation in East Asia for the last 10,000 years.

Blacks Outdoor Retail

Blacks Outdoor Retail Ltd. is a British retailer, headquartered in Bury, Greater Manchester, England which owns the British outdoor retailers Blacks and Millets. Blacks is the largest outdoor retailer in the UK with stores nationwide.

It entered administration in 2012 and was purchased by JD Sports. Since the acquisition by JD Sports, Blacks head offices have been relocated to JD's head offices in Bury.

History

In 1931, Blacks of Greenock published the first Good Companions catalogue. In the Second World War, Blacks made tents for the Army and Navy and made fenders for boats on D-Day. During the early part of the war, the workshops in Greenock were destroyed by a parachute mine on 8 May 1941.

A Canadian subsidiary opened in 1958. Throughout the 1960s, it bought smaller companies. Then in 1967, it bought Benjamin Edginton Ltd, a tent maker. In 1984, it joined with Greenfields plc, then became the Black Leisure Group plc in 1985. In 1994, Blacks Camping became Blacks Outdoors.