All posts by T Farrell

Food

Crunch time: Britain’s crisp wars

10 Comments

Smith’s Crisps supplied almost every pub and hotel in Britain in the post-war period, but have since given way to Walkers, which now holds the majority of the market. How did Smith’s lose its position?

Frank Smith
Frank Smith (1875 – 1956) was born in Highgate, London, one of a family of 14. He joined his father’s greengrocers business from the age of ten.

Smith was a manager of a large grocery store by 1896. He then became a manager for Carter’s, a Smithfield wholesale grocery business. Carter’s began to sell potato crisps from 1913.

Frank Smith (1875 – 1956)

Smith recognised the potential for the product, and at his request, was appointed head of the crisp department. He wanted to establish a chain of factories to build scale in the market, however his employer declined to do so.

Establishment of Smith’s Potato Crisps
Smith was a restless and energetic man. He had faith in the potential for crisps. He raised £10,000 with two friends and entered into crisp manufacture for himself from 1919.

A factory was established at a disused garage in Cricklewood with a staff of twelve and five tons of potatoes. Within six months the business produced 500,000 packets of crisps a week.

The enterprise proved successful enough that Smith only had to spend £6,000 of his initial capital: further expansion was funded entirely from profits. Additional factories were established at Portsmouth, Birmingham, Paisley and Stockport in 1921.

Smith added a twist of salt wrapped in blue paper to his bags of crisps from 1925. Pub landlords became increasingly keen to stock his crisps as the salt made the patrons thirsty, which led to higher sales of beer.

Smith’s acquired Carter’s Crisps in 1929.

Smith’s Potato Crisps was registered as a public company in 1929. The business had a workforce of over 1,000 people. 100 million packets of crisps were produced each year from seven factories. All of the early output went to hotels and pubs, and the hospitality trade would remain the largest market for Smith’s until the 1960s.

200 million packets of crisps were sold in Britain in 1934, and 95 percent of them were manufactured by Smith’s.

Smith’s acquired 8,000 acres of farmland in Lincolnshire to provide around ten percent of the company’s potato supply. It was the largest farm under single management in Europe. 1,000 to 1,200 acres were used for potato production at any one time due to crop rotation.

The majority of production went to the military during the Second World War.

Scan 6

Smith’s had eleven factories and twelve depots in Britain by 1949, as well as two factories in Australia. Over 2,000 people were employed. Smith’s supplied the vast majority of pubs and hotels across Britain. This was at a time when the majority of pubs did not serve food, and crisps were often the only bar snack available.

Frank Smith retired as managing director in 1955 and died the following year. He was succeeded as managing director by his son-in-law, Cyril Johnston Scott (1902- 1980). In an unconventional twist of events, Scott divorced his wife in 1960, and married his stepmother-in-law, the widow of Frank Smith.

Smith’s produced over ten million packets of crisps every week by 1956. Net profit after tax exceeded £1 million for the first time in 1960. 800 million bags of crisps were sold in 1960, with the majority of sales taken by the grocery market.

Smith’s acquired its major rival, Tudor Crisps, in 1960. Tudor was in the process of constructing a large new factory at Peterlee, County Durham, and Smith’s was keen to prevent a rival gaining control of the new site.

Smith’s was the only national brand at the time, but Tudor enjoyed distribution in Scotland, the North of England and the Midlands. Founded in Newcastle upon Tyne in the late 1940s, Tudor was the first company in Britain to utilise automated crisp manufacture, and had brand leadership in the North East of England. The Tudor acquisition helped Smith’s achieve a market share of 65 percent in 1961, of which Tudor accounted for three to five percent.

Increased competition
Golden Wonder had been founded by William Alexander, an Edinburgh baker, in 1946. The company was acquired by Imperial Tobacco in 1960. Imperial built three large new factories and promoted the product heavily on television. A cellophane bag was introduced to keep crisps fresher for longer. The brand went nationwide in 1964.

Golden Wonder had overtaken Smith’s in market share by the end of 1965, and the brand had a market share of 45 percent, against Smith’s 34 percent, by 1966.

By appealing to new customers such as teenagers and children, as well as the increasingly important housewife market, Golden Wonder was able to grow the crisp category without poaching sales from Smith’s. As Smith’s did not monitor the progress of its competition, the company did not become aware of a problem until its sales fell slightly in 1966. Meanwhile, the grocery store sector grew as the pub snacks market declined.

In order to lower production costs, Smith’s closed eight factories to concentrate production at seven sites.

A new chairman and managing director were appointed. The chairman admitted that Smith’s had lost market share to Golden Wonder due to complacency, and that the business had “had it too good for too long”.

The Tudor plant in Peterlee was expanded to 150,000 square feet in 1967, and could produce eight million packets of crisps a week. It employed 500 people and was one of the most efficient crisp factories in Europe.

The business extended its interests into other savoury snacks such as roasted peanuts, and changed its name to Smiths Food Group in 1967. Meanwhile the company changed it focus from that of a production-led concern to a marketing business.

The company’s first flavoured crisp, Salt ‘n’ Vinegar, was launched by Tudor in Spring 1967, and the Smith’s branded version was released two months later. It was the first time the now iconic crisp flavour was introduced. However, the flavoured crisp had been pioneered by Tayto of Northern Ireland in the late 1950s.

1967 also saw Smith’s replace translucent paper (glassine) with cellophane film bags which increased shelf life from a few days to over six weeks.

Smith’s had long claimed to manufacture a high quality product, but Golden Wonder achieved higher standards with the continuous batch process. Growing Golden Wonder cost Imperial Tobacco £10 million, mostly in factory costs, and due to a high marketing spend the business ran at a loss until 1965. Smith’s had presumed that the barrier costs of entry were too high for a competitor to match. They were wrong and it cost them. Largely due to these concerns, Smith’s was taken over by General Mills of America in 1967 for £15-16 million.

Smith’s introduced Quavers in 1968, and Monster Munch in 1977. These were part of the new “extruded snacks” category, which were made using potato flour. (Golden Wonder launched Wotsits in 1970).

Walkers of Leicester quadrupled its sales between 1962 and 1969. Production amounted to 160 million packets in 1967, and the company held 20 percent of the Midlands market. Sales were extended to East Anglia and Yorkshire in the late 1960s. The business was sold to Standard Brands of the United States in 1971.

In 1972 Golden Wonder had a market share of 39 percent, Smith’s 32 percent and Walkers 12 percent. Still heavily regional, by 1974 Walkers claimed 50 percent of the Midlands crisp market. Walkers was a premium product with a heavy marketing spend that sold mainly to the wholesale trade.

Smith’s became loss-making under General Mills, and the business was sold to Associated Biscuits for £16.4 million in 1978. General Mills admitted defeat, and indicated that a British concern would likely be better tuned in to the needs of the company.

Merger with Walkers
Standard Brands merged with Nabisco of America in 1981. Nabisco acquired Associated Biscuits in 1982, thus bringing Walkers and Smith’s under single control. Walkers was still a regional concern at this time, but a rival executive described the brand as “the Rolls-Royce of the crisp world” in reference to its premium reputation.

Nabisco focused its marketing strength behind Walkers, and developed it into a national brand. Walkers took the lead in the crisp market with a 24 percent share in 1983. Golden Wonder had 22 percent and Smith’s/Tudor had 17 percent, followed by KP with 12 percent. Taken collectively, Nabisco had a 41 percent share of the British crisp market. By this time Tudor was considered a downmarket brand.

Walkers and Smith’s were managed separately: Walkers was a high margin, high quality regional product, but it suffered from a narrow product range, poor trade relations and no innovation. Smith’s focused on low prices, but this merely resulted in smaller profits.

Hanson Trust (who had acquired Imperial Tobacco) sold Golden Wonder to Dalgety for £87 million in 1986. At this time Golden Wonder claimed the number two position in the British and Dutch crisp markets.

Acquisition by PepsiCo
In 1988 Smith’s had sales of £145 million; Walkers had sales of £114 million. Walkers Crisps had a 32 percent market share.

PepsiCo, who produced Doritos and Lay’s crisps in the United States, acquired Walkers and Smith’s for $1.35 billion (around £900 million) in cash in 1989.

In 1991 PepsiCo reduced costs and complexity to fund investment in product quality gains, innovation and advertising, whilst maintaining prices. Walkers and Smith’s were merged. A factory was closed to leave six manufacturing sites; nine distribution centres were reduced to five, and staffing levels were reduced by 17 percent.

Walkers prices were frozen between 1992 and 1995, despite a 22 percent rise in the cost of raw materials. The main site in Leicester was upgraded to become the largest crisp factory in the world. Foil replaced plastic bags to improve freshness. Air in the bags was replaced by nitrogen, to further maintain freshness, from 1996.

Walkers received heavy advertising support, and was distributed through the large national retailers. The Smith’s and Tudor crisp brands were phased out in the mid-1990s.

Walkers held 46 percent of the branded crisps market by 1995. Launched in Scotland in 1994, Walkers had displaced Golden Wonder as the local market leader by 1996.

Walkers acquired the Wotsits brand from the struggling Golden Wonder for £150 million in 2002, following disappointing sales of its own similar Cheetos product. Golden Wonder entered into administration in 2006, a victim of the popularity of Walkers.

The Walkers site in Leicester produced more than eleven million bags of crisps a day in 2011.

 

Retail

The fall of Marks & Spencer (Part II)

2 Comments

Marks & Spencer was the fifth most highly-valued public company in Europe by 1982.

Part I of this history of Marks & Spencer can be read here.

Growth of the business
Marks & Spencer was the largest clothing retailer in the world by 1966, with a ten percent share of the British clothing market.

Marks & Spencer overtook Woolworth as the leading retailer in both sales and profits in Britain in 1968. The company was one of the largest in Britain, with a market value of £615 million in 1970.

Marks & Spencer employed 37,094 people in 1972, placing it just outside the top 50 employers in Britain. The retailer was the fourth largest public company in Britain, with a market capitalisation of £856 million.

Marks & Spencer began to sell frozen food from 1972. Convenience food was being sold at 100 stores by 1973.

Marks & Spencer expands overseas
Marks & Spencer had saturated the British mid-market clothing sector by the early 1970s, and began to look overseas for further growth. The company acquired a 50 percent stake in three Canadian clothing retailers in 1973. A controlling interest was acquired three years later.

In order to increase margins the company began to sell luxury items in its British stores.

Marks & Spencer was the second largest retailer in the world by 1974.

A branch was opened in Paris in 1975. The store ranked among the company’s top ten worldwide in terms of sales and profitability by the mid-1990s.

Marks & Spencer developed a reputation for treating its staff well, and employee absenteeism rated at just three percent in 1976.

Marks & Spencer was the fourth largest British public company in 1979, with a market capitalisation of £1.5 billion.

Marks & Spencer claimed one seventh of the British clothing market by 1980. It was the fifth largest food retailer.

Marks & Spencer had the fifth-largest public company in Europe by 1982, with a market capitalisation of US$3.7 billion and annual sales of just under £2.2 billion.

Marks & Spencer was considered one of the best-managed companies in the world throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

The first non-family member was appointed as chairman and chief executive in 1984.

Marks & Spencer was the 93rd most valuable public company in the world in 1986, with a market capitalisation of $8.3 billion.

The first location outside a town centre was opened in Gateshead in 1986.

Marks & Spencer made two United States acquisitions in 1988; Brooks Brothers, the clothing retailer, and Kings Supermarkets of New Jersey. It was widely suggested that Marks & Spencers overpaid for the 47-strong Brooks Brothers, which it acquired for $750 million, which at the time represented the highest price ever paid for a US retail chain. Forbes commented on the purchase cost, “a lot of people nearly burst from laughing”.

Marks & Spencer operated 275 stores in Canada and eight stores in France by 1990. That year the company opened its first store in Spain.

Marks & Spencer was the 63rd largest public company in the world by 1992, as measured by market value. The company employed 55,750 people, and was the twentieth-largest private employer in Britain.

The Canadian venture had been unprofitable in all but three of its twenty years by 1993. Brooks Brothers continually underperformed.

Marks & Spencer was the only retailer in the world with a AAA credit rating in 1994. The business had a reputation for quality and value for money. It boasted a turnover of over £5 billion and 679 stores.

Marks & Spencer held a 17 percent share of the British clothing market by 1996, and five percent of the food market.

Subsequent troubles
Marks & Spencer reported a sudden slump in profit in 1998. Senior management was regarded as complacent. Excessive margins had eroded customer loyalty. Competition had increased from the likes of GAP, Next and Zara.

The company withdrew from the Canadian market in 1999.

Marks & Spencer announced a radical restructuring of its operations in 2001. The British business was revamped and its United States retail operations and company-owned stores in Europe were divested. Brooks Brothers was sold for $225 million, less than a third of what M&S paid for it thirteen years previously.

Marks & Spencer was relegated from the FTSE 100 in September 2019.

Canned food, Spreads & sauces

A tinned history of Crosse & Blackwell (1927 – present)

Leave a comment

This is Part III of my history of Crosse & Blackwell. (Links to Part I  and Part II.)

Crosse & Blackwell grew to become one of the largest food manufacturers in the world. It remains best known for tinned soup in Britain, English-style condiments in America and mayonnaise in South Africa.

Crosse & Blackwell continues to expand
Increasing sales as well as rising import tariffs in North America saw Crosse & Blackwell establish factories in Toronto, Canada and Baltimore, United States, in 1927.

The Toronto factory cost £200,000 and employed 1,500 people.

The Baltimore plant cost US$1.5 million, covered five acres, and also employed around 1,500 people. Baltimore was chosen for its strong transport links, low wages and competitive taxes. Its principal lines were jam, marmalade, pickles, soup, mayonnaise and canned meats.

Sarsons and Champion & Slee were acquired by Crosse & Blackwell in 1928. The acquisition combined the three largest vinegar producers in the South of England. Vinegar production was consolidated at the Champion & Slee site.

Williams & Woods, the largest jam manufacturer in Ireland, was acquired in 1928.

The Lazenby’s Chef line of moderately-priced condiments and tinned goods was introduced from 1928.

Crosse & Blackwell was the largest food manufacturer in the world by 1928, with over 40 factories across the world. Company assets were valued at over £6 million in 1930.

Plaistowe, a Bermondsey jam manufacturer, was acquired in 1930.

The Great Depression and a transition from condiments to foodstuffs
The onset of the Great Depression took its toll on Crosse & Blackwell, as much of its trade was to hard-hit overseas markets. Exports declined by 50 percent, and Crosse & Blackwell lowered home market prices in order to increase sales. The Great Depression was the catalyst that saw Crosse & Blackwell transition from a condiment manufacturer to a mass producer of foodstuffs.

The Morrison’s Quay production site in Cork, Ireland, was divested in 1930.

The Canadian business became loss-making, and control was sold to local investors for CA$800,000 in 1932. The factory had been poorly located, as its rivals had their sites in smaller towns where taxes and minimum wages were lower, resulting in estimated annual additional costs of CA$75,000. The National Post commented, “given good management, the company would have made money, instead of losing it”. Competition was also intense from Heinz, Canadian Canners and Campbell’s Soup.

The Plaistowe factory was closed in 1935.

Crosse & Blackwell manufactured 50 million cans of food in 1936. The canning factory in Peterhead employed over 300 people.

The Silvertown factory was destroyed by German bombing during the Blitz of 1940, and was subsequently rebuilt.

Crosse & Blackwell employed 3,000 people in Scotland by 1949 across sites at Peterhead, Dundee and Paisley.

A factory was established in South Africa in 1951.

Crosse & Blackwell introduced the “10 o’clock tested” slogan in the 1950s. This referred to the time at C&B factories when products would be taste-tested for quality.

Jam decreased in importance to the company, and production had been outsourced to William Moorhouse of Leeds by the 1950s.

A vinegar brewery in Stourport was acquired from Holbrooks of Birmingham for £100,000 in 1954.

Branston Pickle was the highest selling pickle in the world by the mid-1950s.

United States sales amounted to $14 million in 1958, with 150 Crosse & Blackwell products, and 35 Keiller lines. Crosse & Blackwell was one of the four largest producers of tinned soup in the United States, and concentrated on the premium market.

Only one Blackwell remained on the board of directors by 1959, and a Crosse was among the company executives.

Crosse & Blackwell employed 450 people in America in 1960.

By 1960 Crosse & Blackwell had six factories in Britain and five overseas including the United States, Australia and South Africa. It was the largest fish canner in Britain and held one third of the pickle market, 30 percent of the tinned soup market and a ten percent share in baked beans.

Crosse & Blackwell is acquired by Nestle
Nestle of Switzerland, the largest food company in Europe, acquired Crosse & Blackwell for £11.3 million in 1960. Nestle was motivated by a desire to increase its presence in the British tinned soup and vegetables market and the tinned fruit juice market in the United States. The two companies’ portfolios were largely complementary, with Nestle strong in milk products, instant coffee and confectionery, although it did have a presence in dried soups through the Maggi brand.

Nestle management baulked at the luxury of the Soho Square premises, and relocated the head office to Nestle headquarters at St George’s House, Croydon from 1965.

A factory was opened at Staverton in Wiltshire to cater for the rising demand for baked beans and tinned pasta in 1967.

Crosse & Blackwell had fallen to a distant third in the British soup market, with a 14 percent share, by 1968.

Nestle closed the Bermondsey factory with the loss of 1,300 jobs in 1969. Production was transferred to Silvertown and Peterhead.

Nestle invested in the Peterhead plant to make it the largest Crosse & Blackwell canning factory. The site covered nearly ten acres and employed a staff of around 1,000 in 1969.

The nine-acre Baltimore plant had become outdated and unprofitable, and it was closed by Nestle with the loss of around 350 jobs in 1972. Certain product lines were discontinued and others were transferred to other Nestle factories.

Crosse & Blackwell loses market share to supermarket own-label products
Nestle had built Crosse & Blackwell’s share of the British soup market to 27 percent by 1973. This was followed by disaster, as supermarkets began to rationalise their product lines and introduce own-label offerings. Crosse & Blackwell’s share of the soup market fell by almost two thirds between 1979 and 1986. Crosse & Blackwell accounted for less than ten percent of soup sales by 1985, and had been delisted by some supermarket chains.

Nestle was identified as a company with well-regarded management, but its acquisition of Crosse & Blackwell was identified as a singular misstep.

The Keiller preserve and confectionery works in Dundee became loss-making, and were sold to a local company in 1981.

The factory at Silvertown, London, also became loss-making, and was closed with the loss of 500 jobs in 1985. Production of Branston pickle and other condiment lines were transferred to Peterhead.

Crosse & Blackwell focused mainly on soup, Branston pickle and sauces, and Waistline salad cream by 1982.

Unable to compete with Heinz, and squeezed at the lower end of the market by supermarket own-label products, in 1994 Nestle announced that it would close two canning operations at its Peterhead and Staverton sites, while a cold sauce factory in Milnthorpe would be closed, resulting in the loss of 515 jobs. All three operations had been unprofitable for some time. The tomato ketchup and standard salad cream lines were withdrawn.

The CEO of Nestle conceded defeat to Heinz in the British soup market in 1996. An analyst commented, “why pay more for a product which isn’t the brand leader and is of no better quality than the own-label [products]?”

In 1998 Nestle closed the remaining operations at the Peterhead plant, with the loss of 170 jobs, and transferred manufacturing to Hadfield in Manchester, citing lower transport costs.

Nestle divests its Crosse & Blackwell businesses
Nestle sold the remaining British business (principally Branston Pickle and Sarson’s vinegar) to Premier Foods in 2002. The American subsidiary was sold to J M Smucker in 2004.

Crosse & Blackwell, along with Fray Bentos, was sold to Princes Foods of Liverpool in 2011 for £182 million.

The Branston Pickle and Sarsons vinegar operations were sold separately to Mizkan Foods of Japan in 2012. Branston Pickle and its factory in Bury St Edmunds were valued at £92.5 million, and Sarsons was valued at £41 million. Due to the change in ownership, Branston Pickle no longer carries the Crosse & Blackwell name.

Nestle sold Crosse & Blackwell of South Africa to Tiger Brands in 2012.

Nestle continues to own the Crosse & Blackwell brand in Mexico, where it markets a popular brand of Worcestershire sauce.

Clothing & textiles

Weaving history: John Crossley & Sons

1 Comment

John Crossley & Sons of Halifax was the largest carpet manufacturer in the world throughout much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The business eventually declined as cheaper imports arrived from overseas, and the factory was closed in 1982.

Establishment and growth
John Crossley (1772 – 1837) was a hand weaver of carpets in Halifax, Yorkshire. He was promoted to mill manager. Crossley went on to lease a modest-sized mill at Dean Clough, eventually buying the property outright.

John Crossley died in 1837, and his three sons, John Crossley, Joseph Crossley and Francis Crossley took over management of the business. John Crossley & Sons had 300 employees and the fourth largest mill in Britain.

John Crossley was the general manager, Joseph was in charge of the machinery and Francis was the commercial mind.

Francis Crossley was responsible for the rapid expansion of the business throughout the mid-nineteenth century. He pioneered the development of steam-powered carpet manufacturing, which afforded the business an enormous cost advantage. Licensing the use of their patents to other carpet manufacturers brought in substantial revenues from royalties.

Francis Crossley (1817 – 1872), c. 1862. Image used with kind permission from the National Portrait Gallery.

John Crossley & Sons operated the largest carpet factory in England by 1848. By this time the business held a Royal Warrant to supply Queen Victoria. Carpets were retailed in Halifax and also supplied to London and Liverpool, with a substantial export market in the United States.

Many of the Crossley family values were inspired by their Congregationalist faith. Unusually for the time, Francis Crossley operated a policy of paying women equal wages to men for doing the same job.

Largest carpet manufacturer in the world
John Crossley & Sons was the largest carpet manufacturer in the world by 1862.

The business was transferred to a joint-stock company from 1864, with the primary aim of allowing its 3,500 employees to become shareholders. 20 percent of the company was sold to the workforce at preferential rates. John Crossley & Sons was perhaps the first large industrial business to provide a profit-sharing scheme for its staff.

John Crossley & Sons was the largest publicly-quoted industrial company in Britain by 1868, with an ordinary share capitalization of £2.2 million (about £220 million in 2014). 5,000 people were employed.

The company boasted annual carpet sales of £1.1 million by 1872, including exports to the United States valued at nearly £500,000. The buildings at Dean Clough Mill covered 20 acres, where concentration of production at a single site lowered costs.

Dean Clough Mills in 2008. Image credit.

John Crossley & Sons was one of the largest manufacturing companies in the world by 1877.

John Crossley & Sons employed 3,770 people in 1903.

John Crossley & Sons employed about 5,000 people at the largest carpet works in the world in 1923.

During the Second World War the company was largely engaged in cotton spinning (identified by the government as an essential industry) from its mill in Rochdale as well as the carpet export trade.

Post-war developments
Around half of production was exported in the post-war period, with Australia and New Zealand representing the largest markets.

John Crossley & Sons merged with Carpet Trades, one of the largest carpet manufacturers in Kidderminster, in 1953. The two companies continued to be managed separately.

The former Meredith & Drew factory at Brighouse near Halifax was acquired in order to produce the new, lower-cost, tufted-style carpets. The carpets were sold under the Kosset brand, using American marketing techniques.

John Crossley & Sons was the largest carpet manufacturer in Europe in 1968.

John Crossley & Sons-Carpet Trades merged with the Carpet Manufacturing Company of Kidderminster to form Carpets International in 1969. The company was the largest carpet manufacturer in the world, with 29 percent of United Kingdom sales. Company headquarters were transferred to Kidderminster. Kosset and Crossley were the leading brands.

Sales of imported carpets grew to take the majority of the market between 1970 and 1980. Between December 1979 and 1982 the workforce was reduced from 6,071 to 3,600.

Carpets International suffered heavy profit losses between 1980 and 1982. The Dean Clough Mills had been rendered uneconomical, and the site was closed in 1982. The company blamed the impact of the economic recession and competition from Belgian, Danish and American imports. 800 staff were relocated to other sites, although 400 jobs were lost.

Carpets International entered into administration with the loss of 1,200 jobs in 2003. The company blamed increasing imports and a growing preference for wooden laminate-style flooring.

Spreads & sauces

More than OK: George Mason & Co

4 Comments

OK was the highest-selling brown sauce in London as late as the 1970s. It was withdrawn from the British market in the 1990s, but Unilever continued to produce it for export to Asia.

George Mason & Co is established
Henderson Brand (1805 – 1893) A1 sauce, a popular brown sauce, from 1862. He employed two nephews, George and John Mason.

The Mason brothers entered into business for themselves, as competitors to Brand, from 1879. They established a small factory at 417-419 King’s Road, Chelsea. Their first products, OK Sauce and beef and chicken extracts, were direct imitations of Brand & Co products. They also supplied “invalid foods” for local hospitals.

OK Sauce contained raisins, cane sugar, mangoes, ginger, bell peppers, mace, nutmeg, cloves, British herbs, cinnamon, shallots, malt vinegar, garlic, lemons, oranges and tomato purée. No cereal-based thickening agent, artificial colouring or added chemical preservatives were used. Salt and vinegar acted as natural preservatives.

John Mason left the venture shortly afterwards, to leave George Mason as sole proprietor. George Mason took on investors to form a private limited company called George Mason & Co in 1884.

The business began to struggle, and George Mason was forced to resign his directorship in 1891.

Percy Cooper and the growth of OK Sauce
Percy Cooper (1863 – 1931) was an engaging man, who worked as an amatuer actor and magician during his spare time. He became a salesman for George Mason & Co from 1891. He was appointed general manager the following year.

Cooper was promoted to Manager and Secretary from 1895. He saw great potential in the sauce market, and decided to focus production and marketing efforts on OK Sauce. He relocated production to larger premises at St George’s Hall in Walham Green, Fulham, from 1896. Cooper named the new site ‘the Chelsea Works”.

OK Sauce won the only gold medal for sauce at the Festival of Empire exhibition in 1911. George Mason & Co were purveyors by appointment to the House of Lords, and also supplied the House of Commons.

An additional factory was opened at Southfields, Wandsworth, in order to cope with increasing demand for OK Sauce, from 1920.

Ownership of George Mason & Co was divided fairly evenly between the Cooper and Ripley families from 1920.

Rex Cooper expands OK Sauce nationwide
Rex Cooper, son of Percy Cooper, was appointed as general manager from 1925.

Both factories were closed in 1928 and production was centralised at a single larger site at Southfields, which was also named the Chelsea Works. 43,200 bottles of OK Sauce were produced daily. Rationalised production at an efficient site allowed the company to lower prices for the consumer.

The former factory in Southfields, Wandsworth (2012)

Percy Cooper died suddenly in 1931, and Rex Cooper assumed his position as managing director.

Distribution of OK Sauce was mainly limited to Southern England and South Wales. A dedicated northern sales team was established to boost sales nationwide from 1936.

Wartime restrictions meant that by 1945 only OK Sauce, mustard, Worcester sauce and fruit chutney were produced.

OK Sauce sales surpassed £1 million for the first time (about £21 million in 2015) in 1960.

Acquisition by Reckitt & Colman
Reckitt & Colman, manufacturers of Colman’s mustard, were keen to enter the brown sauce market, and acquired George Mason for £826,575 (equivalent to £14.5 million in 2013) in cash in 1964. Rex Cooper joined the Colman’s board of directors.

Rex’s son Brian Cooper was appointed managing director in 1965. Rex Cooper died the following year, leaving £77,514 (£1.3 million in 2013).

The Southfields factory was closed with the loss of 150 jobs in 1969. Colman’s explained that Mason’s had “long since outgrown” the London factory, and production was relocated to Norwich.

By 1969 caramel and concentrates were added to OK sauce for colouring, and gum tragacanth and manucol ester were added for appearance.

The brown sauce market in Britain was highly regional as late as 1970, and OK claimed the largest share of the London market.

The British grocery sector was increasingly in the hands of large supermarket chains by the mid-1970s. Supermarkets focused on a limited product range, and also introduced own-label products in categories such as brown sauce. This placed pressure on OK Sauce, which was a less-prominent brand than HP Sauce, its major rival.

OK Sauce is withdrawn from the UK, but continues to be produced for Asian markets
Colman’s was acquired by Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant, in 1995.

OK Sauce appears to have disappeared from British shelves in the mid to late 1990s. Many of its customers switched to HP Fruity as the closest available alternative.

OK Sauce continues to be manufactured by Unilever for export to Asia.

OK Sauce
OK is a dark brown sauce. It is fruity, peppery, tangy, sweet and sour. Its fruit content is listed as 39%. It has quite an Oriental profile, and perhaps contains star anise. It perhaps shares similarities with a puréed fruit chutney.

The recipe appears to have changed over time. Mangoes are no longer contained in the sauce, and dates are now present. The label now claims that there are no artificial colours, flavourings or sweeteners added. Modified maize starch is added as a thickener.

The sauce can be used in much the same way as HP, and I can highly recommend it as an accompaniment to bacon or sausage. Chinese restaurants use it with shredded beef, shredded chicken and spare ribs.

Hospitality

Munch time: a history of Happy Eater

1 Comment

Little Chef dominated roadside catering in Britain, and inspired a rival, Happy Eater, which it was later allowed to acquire.

Happy Eater was established by Michael Pickard in 1973. Michael Pickard had managed Little Chef, but had been dismissed, supposedly following a personality clash with its owner, Sir Charles Forte.

Pickard established a rival to Little Chef in May 1973 with a 60-seat Happy Eater outlet at Ripley, Surrey. Two further sites were opened that year, one near Ashford in Kent and one near Crawley in West Sussex.

The business drew inspiration from the Howard Johnson’s chain of restaurants in the United States. Happy Eater was the first roadside restaurant chain in Britain to principally target the family market. Happy Eater outlets had children’s menus and baby-feeding facilities as well as superior play area facilities compared to Little Chef, both inside and outside.

By 1980 there were 17 restaurants, and the company needed expansion capital. Courage, the national brewer, acquired a 52.7 percent stake.

The company had a turnover of £8 million in 1983-4, which rose to £11.8 million for 1984-5. By 1986 there were 61 outlets and the company employed 1,430 people.

The majority of outlets were situated in South East England, East Anglia, the Midlands and along the A1. In 1986 only one outlet was franchised, the rest being owned or leased. Outlets could seat between 70 and 110 diners.

In 1987 the chain was acquired by Trust House Forte, the owners of Little Chef, for £14.2 million. In 1988 the chain peaked with 90 outlets.

The Prime Minister, John Major, notably dined at a Happy Eater in 1991. For this he was mocked by some in the media as an uncivilised buffoon, but others praised his demonstration of the common touch.

In 1995 the chain was described in The Observer, The Guardian and Scotland on Sunday as “downmarket”.

The first six months of 1995 saw 14 outlets rebranded as Little Chef, leaving fewer than 50 Happy Eaters remaining.

In 1996 Little Chef was acquired by Granada, a conglomerate which operated motorway service stations. In October 1996 it was announced that all remaining Happy Eaters would either be converted or closed down. The brand ceased to trade in 1998.

Biscuits & cakes

Biscuit empire: Huntley & Palmers (Part I)

1 Comment

Huntley & Palmers became the largest manufacturer of biscuits in the world.

George Palmer (1818 – 1897) was born to a Quaker farming family in Somerset. His mother was a cousin of Cyrus and James Clark, founders of the well-known shoe manufacturing business.

George Palmer (1818 – 1897)

George Palmer was apprenticed to an uncle as a miller and confectioner in 1832. In 1841 he entered into a partnership with a cousin by marriage, Thomas Huntley (1802 – 1857), who owned a firm in Reading, founded in 1822, which sold high quality biscuits across much of southern England.

Huntley and Palmer took over a disused silk factory on the bank of the Kennet & Avon canal in 1843. Palmer introduced steam power and mechanisation to the business. With engineer William Exall, Palmer introduced the first continuously-running biscuit machinery in the world in 1846.

Huntley & Palmer employed 500 people by 1850. Sixteen tons of biscuits were produced every week by 1851, with distribution across England.

When Huntley died in 1857, annual turnover of the firm was £125,000 (around £12.5 million in 2014). George Palmer bought out Huntley’s son and took into partnership his brothers, Samuel and William Isaac Palmer, the former managing the London office and the latter running the factory.

Huntley & Palmers was producing thousands of tons of biscuits every year by 1865. Ship’s biscuit was a major product. The firm responded quickly to consumer demand: following the success of the Pearl biscuit introduced by rival Peek Frean of Bermondsey, Huntley & Palmers introduced their own version within a matter of months.

800 men and boys were employed by 1865. By this time Huntley & Palmers had introduced a compulsory employee sick fund, and provided a reading room at a small cost to subscribing workers.

Huntley & Palmers employed nearly 1,000 people by 1867.

The second generation of the Palmer family took over the management of the business from 1867-8. By now the business was easily the largest biscuit manufacturer in the world. Around 25 percent of production was exported. Sales grew as afternoon tea became a middle class tradition.

Nearly 2,500 people were employed by 1872.

The Thin Arrowroot biscuit was introduced from 1884. The Breakfast biscuit, an unsweetened alternative to toast, was introduced from around 1892.

Nearly 400 varieties of biscuit and cake were produced by 1892. Leading product lines included the Ginger Nut, Milk, Empire and Colonial biscuits. During peak periods, close to 5,000 men and women were employed.

Joseph Hatton (1837 – 1907), the editor of the Sunday Times, suggested that George Palmer could be described as the “father of modern Reading”. The huge population growth of the town was largely due to the biscuit industry.

By the 1890s the Huntley & Palmer name was one of the best known brands in the world.

George Palmer died in 1897. That year the firm produced 23,000 tons of biscuits and recorded a turnover of over £1.25 million (c. £142 million in 2014).

You can read Part II of this history here.

 

Confectionery

A breath of fresh air: Callard & Bowser

22 Comments

Callard & Bowser was the leading manufacturer of butterscotch in the world. The founding-family sold the business in the 1930s and its successive owners included Guinness, United Biscuits and Kraft.

Callard & Bowser developed a large market for Altoids mints in the United States from the 1980s, and eventually discontinued all other lines in order to focus on their leading product.

The growth of a family business
Daniel James Callard (1824 – 1903) was born in London to a prosperous non-conformist family. Members of the Callard family had been bakers in the metropolis since the seventeenth century, and Daniel Callard became a master baker himself.

Daniel Callard had entered into partnership with John Carrick Bowser (1828 – 1912), his brother-in-law, by 1855. The two men established a wholesale grocery business at St John’s Wood. The business initially manufactured infant formula, but began to concentrate on confectionery production from 1861.

Daniel Callard bought out John Bowser’s stake in the business in 1872, but continued to trade under the established brand name of “Callard & Bowser”. The firm grew through strong branding and a dedication to product quality and purity, at a time when standards were often inconsistent.

Daniel Callard received the 80th trademark issued in Britain in 1876.

Callard & Bowser logo (1896)

Butterscotch, Turkish Delight and boiled sweets were established as the core products by 1878.

Daniel Callard employed 41 people by 1881. He had passed control of the business to his son, James Percival Callard (1859 – 1940), by 1891.

Growing sales saw the business relocate to Duke’s Road, Euston by 1894.

Daniel Callard died with an estate valued at £99,570 (around £11 million in 2015) in 1903.

Callard & Bowser butterscotch consisted of 11.7 percent butter fat and 79.3 percent sugar, according to an analysis conducted for the British Medical Journal in 1907.

James Callard sold the business to his son-in-law after the First World War. Callard & Bowser was the largest producer of butterscotch in the British Empire.

Major Allnatt acquires Callard & Bowser
Callard & Bowser was sold to Major Alfred Ernest Allnatt (1889 – 1969), a property developer, in 1933. He was a publicity-shy and eccentric figure.

Allnatt relocated production to land he owned at Western Avenue, Park Royal, adjacent to the London branch of the Guinness brewery. Cream Line toffee was introduced from 1937, and was to prove one of the more successful products.

Callard & Bowser acquired William Nuttall of Doncaster, best known for the Mintoes boiled sweet, in 1948. The Nuttall factory was large and modern and the business had a strong export trade. The acquisition cemented Callard & Bowser’s position as one of the largest toffee manufacturers in Britain.

Callard & Bowser is sold to Guinness
Callard & Bowser was acquired by Guinness in 1951. Major Allnatt was retained as chairman. The stout brewer wanted to diversify from its core operation, and had decided to establish a confectionery subsidiary. Guinness was able to acquire Callard & Bowser at a depressed price as sweet rationing remained in force. The sweet ration was lifted in 1953, and this was to prove a major boon for the confectionery industry.

Profits from confectionery, amounting to £850,000 between 1951 and 1956, were reinvested into the business. Rileys of Halifax, best known for Toffee Rolls, and Lavells, a confectionery store chain, were acquired. Guinness invested heavily to install new factory equipment. A factory on Silverdale Road at Hayes, Middlesex was acquired in 1956.

Rolls Confectionery of Greenford, Middlesex was purchased from J Lyons & Co in 1961.

Callard & Bowser was not an extensive advertiser, and instead concentrated on developing strong relationships with wholesalers and retailers.

A “Big Four” consisting of Edward Sharp & Sons, J A & P Holland, Mackintosh and Callard & Bowser, controlled over half of the British toffee market by the early 1960s.

Callard & Bowser toffees were a favourite confectionery of United States President John F Kennedy (1917 – 1963).

Callard & Bowser was the largest manufacturer of nougat in Britain by 1974.

The Park Royal factory was divested in 1974. Guinness indicated that rationalisation was essential in order to control costs in a highly competitive industry. Production was relocated to the Hayes factory, where there was space for expansion. All 250 staff at Park Royal were given the opportunity to transfer to the Hayes site.

Callard & Bowser became loss-making, and the Nuttall factory in Doncaster was closed down with the loss of 125 jobs in 1981. Production was transferred to Halifax.

Callard & Bowser had a turnover of £17 million in 1981. The business employed 1,186 people.

Takeover by Beatrice Foods
Guinness sold Callard & Bowser to Beatrice Foods of Chicago for £4 million in 1982 in order to focus on their core brewing operation.

Smith Kendon, which produced Altoids Curiously Strong Mints at Bridgend in Wales, was absorbed into Callard & Bowser to create the eighth-largest confectionery manufacturer in Britain.

Callard & Bowser operated autonomously from its parent company.

The business continued to operate at a loss due to a declining sugar confectionery market. 135 jobs at Hayes and Halifax were lost in 1982.

High business rates and an inefficient ageing factory saw the Hayes site closed down with the loss of 500 jobs in 1983. Production was transferred to Bridgend, which received heavy investment.

Callard & Bowser was growing rapidly by the mid-1980s. It was the largest manufacturer of butterscotch in the world and claimed 25 percent of the British toffee market. Around half of all production was exported to 65 different countries.

Sale to United Biscuits
Beatrice Foods sold Callard & Bowser to United Biscuits in 1988, in an attempt to reduce debt. United Biscuits paid £21.5 million in cash, a price that represented 83 times annual earnings at Callard & Bowser. The Halifax and Bridgend sites employed 240 white collar staff and just over 400 hourly-paid employees. The Times reported that United Biscuits had acquired “one of the best-known and most traditional names in confectionery, famed for its butterscotch”.

United Biscuits integrated Callard & Bowser with their own Terry’s confectionery subsidiary, best known for the Chocolate Orange, to form the Terry’s Group. The merged business held three percent of the British sugar confectionery market.

United Biscuits did not advertise Callard & Bowser products, but instead investing in packaging design and product formulation. The strategy worked: a 29 percent share of the toffee market had grown to 34 percent by 1992.

Confectionery production was discontinued at Halifax in 1992.

Takeover by Kraft
United Biscuits sold the Terry’s Group to Kraft of Chicago in 1993.

Altoids had enjoyed considerable success in the United States from the late 1980s. Altoids were the highest selling peppermint in the United States by 1997, with annual sales of 40 million tins.

Riley’s Toffee Rolls were discontinued in the mid-1990s in order to accommodate increased Altoids production. Cream Line toffees were discontinued in 2001, and the remaining lines, with the exception of Altoids, were discontinued in 2004.

Sale to Wrigley
Kraft sold Callard & Bowser, along with its Lifesavers mint brand, to Wrigley of Chicago for $1.48 billion in 2004. The Bridgend factory exported 8,000 tonnes of Altoids to America every year.

Wrigley closed down the Bridgend plant with the loss of 173 jobs in 2005. 90 percent of production was exported to America, so it made economic sense to transfer manufacturing to the United States. The Callard & Bowser and Nuttall’s brands were discontinued, with the exception of Altoids.

American-manufactured Callard & Bowser Altoids are still available in Britain.

Confectionery

A history of Terry’s of York

1 Comment

Terry’s is the ninth largest chocolate confectionery brand in Britain and is best known for the Chocolate Orange.

Early history
Balydon & Berry established a confectionery manufacturing business at York, England, in 1767. The business principally supplied candies and lozenges to chemists shops.

Joseph Terry (1793 – 1850) was the son of a baker from Pocklington, outside York. The Terry family were Anglicans. He trained as an apothecary and established a chemist’s shop at Walmgate in York.

Joseph Terry married Harriet, the sister in law of Robert Berry. Terry became involved in the Robert Berry & Co confectionery business.

William Balydon retired in 1821, and Robert Berry died in 1825. Joseph Terry divested his apothecary business and formed a partnership with George Berry, son of Robert Berry, to take over the confectionery business at St Helen’s Square. The two men traded as Terry & Berry.

Terry’s training as an apothecary and his upbringing in a baker’s shop gave him an excellent background for the confectionery business.

George Berry sold his stake in the business to Joseph Terry in 1828. Terry established retail agencies in 75 towns, mostly in the North of England and the Midlands, but also in London and Luton, during the 1830s. Joseph Terry & Co expanded rapidly throughout the 1840s.

Joseph Terry died in 1850, and after a brief period in custodianship, the business passed to his second son, Joseph Terry Jr (1828 – 1898) and his two younger brothers in 1854.

Joseph Terry & Sons was the second largest employer in York by 1851, with a 127-strong workforce.

Joseph Terry & Sons was producing chocolate confectionery by the 1860s.

Growing trade saw Joseph Terry & Sons establish a new steam-powered manufacturing site near Skeldergate Bridge in York from 1864.

Thomas Terry, the eldest son of Joseph Terry, became a partner from 1880. He developed an extensive export trade to new markets such as Australia and New Zealand.

Joseph Terry & Sons was best known for its candied peels. jujubes, pastilles, gum-based confectionery, lozenges and boiled sweets.

Joseph Terry was knighted in 1887 in recognition of his service as Lord Mayor of York.

Sir Joseph Terry (1828 – 1898) by George Fall (1897). Image used with permission from York Mansion House and Guildhall, via Art UK.

A dedicated chocolate factory was established from 1888, with a staff of fifty.

Confectionery was the leading industry in York, with Joseph Terry & Sons at the forefront.

Incorporation
Joseph Terry & Sons was incorporated with a capital of £50,000 in 1895. The first directors were Sir Joseph Terry and Thomas W L Terry, and the business remained under family control. There were 300 employees.

The First World War was to prove a profitable time for the company. Many men picked up the habit of eating sweets during military service.

Joseph Terry & Sons had emerged as the national leader in chocolate assortment sales by the 1920s.

Joseph Terry & Sons acquired cocoa estates in the Venezuelan Andes in 1922, and palm trees were added to the Terry’s logo to reflect this. The estate produced the highly-regarded Criollo beans.

The Bishopthorpe Road factory was established in 1926

Terry’s relocated to a purpose-built factory at Bishopthorpe Road in York from 1926. The Chocolate Apple was introduced that year. The All Gold chocolate assortment was introduced from 1930 and the Chocolate Orange was produced from 1931. Originally, each Chocolate Orange was made with 22 cocoa beans.

Terry’s had a share capital of £812,490 (around £51 million in 2014) in 1934. Terry’s employed 2,500 people by 1937.

Terry’s was built up entirely from its own profits and with very little advertising. The first national press advertising campaign appeared in 1938.

Terry’s divested its Venezuelan estates in 1940.

A portion of the factory was requisitioned by the British government during the Second World War and became a repair site for Jablo propellers.

Cocoa supplies were limited in post-war Britain, and the Chocolate Apple was discontinued from 1954 in order to maintain production levels of the more popular Chocolate Orange line.

Sale by the family
Following the death of Francis Terry in 1960, rumours emerged that the family were willing to sell the company. Forte, a hotels and catering business, acquired Terry’s in an exchange of shares which valued the business at £4.25 million (around £78 million in 2014) in 1963. Noel Goddard Terry (1889 – 1980) joined the Forte board of directors.

Forte installed new machinery and methods to dramatically increase production. The advertising budget was increased. 3,600 employees were reduced to 2,300. The profitability of the business was significantly improved.

Chocolate Orange sales rose three-fold between 1973 and 1976.

Forte required capital to acquire the hotel assets of J Lyons, and sold Terry’s to Colgate-Palmolive, the American consumer goods company, for £17.5 million in cash (around £95 million in 2014) in 1977. Around 2,000 people were employed.

The Terry’s All Gold chocolate assortment had been established as the leading product by the late 1970s. A Chocolate Lemon was briefly introduced in 1979.

59 office jobs were lost in 1981 due to declining sales.

A 1936 brochure advertises the Chocolate Apple and the Chocolate Orange
A 1936 brochure advertises the Chocolate Apple and the Chocolate Orange

Colgate sold Terry’s to United Biscuits for £24.5 million (around £75.5 million in 2014) as part of a drive to rationalise its business in 1982. United Biscuits planned to use its large distribution network in Britain, North America and Europe, to increase Terry’s sales.

United Biscuits invested heavily to internationalise its confectionery business, which it renamed Terry’s Group. It acquired Callard & Bowser of Bridgend, Wales, which had a large US export market, Chocometz in France, and Aura in Italy. A deal was agreed with Marabou of Norway to distribute Dime bars in the UK.

Terry’s grew substantially under United Biscuits. The business avoided direct competition with larger rivals such as Cadbury by focusing on the premium market.

The family connection to the company ended when Peter Terry retired as chairman in 1986.

Terry’s was the fourth largest chocolate manufacturer in Britain by 1993, and held five percent of the British confectionery market. Its main product lines were All Gold, Moonlight and Chocolate Orange. Eight million Chocolate Oranges were produced every year.

Kraft takeover and subsequent ownership
United Biscuits sold Terry’s to Kraft of Chicago for £220 million in 1993 in order to reduce debt and concentrate on biscuits and savoury snacks. The sale also included the United Biscuits confectionery business. There were 2,270 employees across the businesses, with 1,350 employed at Terry’s in York.

Kraft already maintained a presence in European confectionery through Suchard of Switzerland, manufacturer of Toblerone, and Marabou of Norway. The acquisition of Terry’s afforded the business an increased presence in the British market.

Kraft announced plans to increase exports at Terry’s. A Kraft spokesman suggested that the York site might be used to produce Suchard product lines such as Toblerone for the British market, although this ultimately did not occur.

The number of employees at Terry’s had been reduced from 1,350 to 775 by 1996. That year, Kraft announced that there would be a further 300 job losses, leaving a staff of 475.

Kraft phased out the lower-volume Terry’s product lines in 2002, leaving just All Gold, Twilight, Chocolate Orange and York Fruits.

Kraft closed the York site in 2005 with the loss of 316 full time jobs, and 150 seasonal jobs. Kraft explained that sales had declined between 2000 and 2004, mostly due to a decline in Chocolate Orange exports. This, together with the size and age of the Terry’s site, made production unviable. Production was transferred to plants in Poland and Slovakia.

The York Fruits brand was sold to Smith Kendon in 2008. The Terry’s name no longer appears on its packaging.

Kraft spun off its snacks and confectionery business as Mondelez in 2012.

The Terry’s Chocolate Orange was reduced in size in 2016, from 175 grams to 157 grams.

Mondelez sold Terry’s to Eurazeo in 2017. Production was relocated to France from 2018.

Confectionery

Chewing it over: Mackintosh toffee

Leave a comment

Mackintosh was the largest manufacturer of toffee in the world. The company introduced iconic brands such as Quality Street, Rolo and Toffee Crisp.

Violet Mackintosh creates a new toffee
John Mackintosh (1868 – 1920) and his wife Violet (1866 – 1932) opened a pastry shop in Halifax, Yorkshire, in 1890. The couple were lifelong members of the Methodist New Connexion denomination (United Methodist Church from 1907).

Business was to prove slow, so Violet Mackintosh invented a new product: a unique chewy toffee which blended the qualities of Yorkshire butterscotch and American caramel. Previously English toffee had referred to a hard boiled sweet.

The product was to prove a great success, and soon the product began to be distributed across Britain.

Mackintosh becomes the largest manufacturer of toffee in the world
John Mackintosh was the largest toffee manufacturer in the world by 1905. He sold an average of one hundred tons of toffee every week in England. He claimed to be the largest consumer of butter in the world.

Export sales proved promising, and Mackintosh established a factory in Germany, outside of Dusseldorf, from 1906.

A factory was opened at Brockville, Ontario in Canada in 1908. It had a manufacturing capacity of seven tons of toffee a day.

Over 8,000 tons of toffee were sold in Britain every year by 1910.

The German business was closed shortly before the First World War.

John Mackintosh Ltd employed some 1,000 people by 1914.

A factory had been established in Australia by 1914.

John Mackintosh died from a heart attack in 1920. He left an estate valued at over £150,000, and his company had assets of £350,000.

Control of the business passed to Harold Mackintosh (1891 – 1964), the eldest son of the founder.

Company shares were first offered to the public in 1921 in order to fund the duty on John Mackintosh’s estate.

Mackintosh could produce seven million pieces of toffee every day by 1921. The company employed 2,000 people in factories in Britain and overseas by 1932.

Acquisition of A J Caley and new product launches
A J Caley, the Norwich chocolate manufacturer, was acquired from Unilever for £138,000 in 1933. The loss-making operation had a capital of £1 million and employed 1,000 people.

Mackintosh overhauled the business, repositioning it into the premium quality sector. Mackintosh combined its expertise in toffee with Caley’s expertise in chocolate. As a result, the Quality Street sweet tin was launched in 1936. This was quickly followed by the Rolo in 1937. The Rolo was designed to fit easily inside a pocket, and was an immediate success. A J Caley sales grew eightfold between 1933 and 1938.

Mackintosh supplied over 10,000 tons of confectionery to the British armed forces during the Second World War, principally toffee and butterscotch.

Quality Street had overtaken Mackintosh’s toffee to be regarded by the company as its premier product by the early 1950s. Rolo was perceived as an adequate rival to the foremost Cadbury and Rowntree lines.

Further product launches included Munchies (1957), Caramac (1959), Tooty Frooties and Toffee Crisp (both 1963) and Toffo (1964).

Mackintosh employed 5,000 people, including 2,000 at Norwich, by 1962. The company opened a new factory in Halifax, Yorkshire, in 1964.

Mackintosh became one of the “Big Five” of British chocolate manufacturers, alongside Cadbury, Rowntree, Mars and Nestle.

Fox’s of Leicester, manufacturer of Glacier Mints, was acquired for £1 million in cash in 1969.

Mackintosh merges with Rowntree
Mackintosh underwent a friendly merger with Rowntree of York to form Rowntree Mackintosh in 1969. At the time, Mackintosh shares were still majority held by family interests. Rowntree dominated the merger, which was seen as a defensive move following a £49 million bid for Rowntree from General Food of America. The merged company held 25 percent of the British confectionery market.

Quality Street had the largest sale of any confectionery assortment in the world by 1972.

Rowntree was acquired by Nestle of Switzerland in 1988. The Norwich factory was closed in 1994.

Toffo was discontinued in Britain in 2012. It continues to be manufactured and sold in the Middle East.

The Halifax factory continues to manufacture Quality Street, as well as Easter eggs and After Eights.

Mackintosh toffee is still sold in Canada and Australasia. It is also available in Britain as a variety within the Quality Street assortment.