How did Irn-Bru become the fourth highest-selling soft drink in Britain?
Robert Barr establishes the business
Robert Barr (1834 -1904) was born in Falkirk, Scotland, a sizeable town roughly located between Glasgow and Edinburgh. He initially followed his father into the cork-cutting trade.
The cork-cutting trade came under threat with the rise of the screw-stopper, so Robert Barr established a soft drinks business in Falkirk from 1873. Barr had likely been exposed to the soft drinks trade through his cork-cutting business, and probably noted its high growth potential.
The soft drinks enterprise employed five men, three girls and two boys by 1881.
Robert Barr was a Liberal in politics, a keen sportsman, and a generous benefactor to charitable causes.
A G Barr enters the business
Andrew Greig Barr (1872 – 1903), son of Robert Barr, managed the Falkirk business from 1890. He had originally served an apprenticeship as a banker, a profession for which he demonstrated great potential.
A sister factory was established at 184 Great Eastern Road, Glasgow, and Andrew Greig Barr managed it from around 1892. He would develop it into the largest carbonated soft drinks factory in Scotland.
Robert Barr had passed full control of the soft drinks business to Andrew Greig Barr by 1899.
Iron Brew was introduced in 1901. It was based on an American soft drink of the same name, first produced in the late nineteenth century. The Barr recipe contains 32 flavouring ingredients, mostly originating from India, including “fruit essences”, including citrus, quinine and curry powder. Vanilla likely comprises one of the flavours.
The Falkirk and Glasgow works employed at least 500 workers by 1903.
Andrew Greig Barr contracted typhoid fever and died from acute pneumonia in 1903. He left a personal estate valued at £18,409.
The largest soft drinks manufacturer in Scotland
Upon the death of their brother, Robert Fulton Barr (1868 – 1918) and William Snodgrass Barr (born 1881) became joint-managing directors of A G Barr & Co.
Robert Barr died of heart failure in 1904.
A workforce of around 1,000 were employed by 1913.
The Parkhead site was significantly expanded in 1914, to create one of the largest soft drinks factories in Britain.
A G Barr & Co was the largest soft drinks manufacturer in Scotland by 1918.
Robert Fulton Barr died in 1918, and the business was continued by William Snodgrass Barr.
W S Barr passed the chairmanship of the company to his nephew, Colonel Robert Barr (1896 – 1949), from 1931.
The Parkhead site in Glasgow employed around 100 people by 1931, and was the largest soft drinks factory in Britain.
A small amount of iron was present in Iron Brew from 1937 onwards.
Government rationing regulations saw Iron Brew withdrawn from sale between 1942 and 1948. A G Barr continued to advertise Iron Brew during this period. When Iron Brew was reintroduced to the British market it was renamed Irn-Bru in order to differentiate the drink from competing products and to avoid falling foul of a mooted government Food Labelling Act.
Robert Barr (1907 – 1993) became chairman from 1947.
A G Barr becomes a public company
A G Barr & Co was registered as a public company in 1965.
A G Barr overtook Tizer of Manchester to become the fourth largest soft drink manufacturer in Britain in the late 1960s. Irn-Bru dominated the Scottish soft drink market, and was introduced to England from 1970.
Tizer was acquired for £2.5 million in 1972. A G Barr wanted access to the company’s distribution network in England to promote sales of Irn-Bru. Tizer had been struggling with falling sales for a number of reasons: drinks were not sold in cans, there was no advertising budget, there were no sales to the supermarkets and the flavour essences used had been subjected to cost-cutting.
The Tizer purchase transformed A G Barr into the largest specialist soft drinks manufacturer in Britain.
A G Barr reformulated Tizer to recapture how it tasted the 1930s.
Robin Barr (born 1938) succeeded his father as chairman in 1978. He developed sales of Irn-Bru in the English market.
Mandora, the soft drinks subsidiary of the Mansfield Brewery, was acquired for £21.5 million in cash in 1988. Mandora employed a workforce of 400 at its factory on Bellamy Road, Mansfield. The deal transformed A G Barr into the third largest soft drinks manufacturer in Britain. A G Barr invested £300,000 to upgrade the warehousing facilities at the Mansfield site in 1988.
The Mansfield site was closed in 2011, and production was relocated to Scotland.
What is the flavour? For Robin Barr, “some might say it tastes of bubblegum. Others might say it tastes of citrus fruits, still others might say it has a peppery taste”.