Category Archives: Food

Biscuits & cakes

Driving force: Carr’s of Carlisle

1 Comment

Carr’s are best known for their Table Water biscuits. The manufacturing site in Carlisle is the oldest biscuit factory in the world.

Establishment and development
Jonathan Dodgson Carr (1806 – 1884) was the son of a grocer from Kendal in the North West of England. He served an apprenticeship to a baker, and then commenced business as a miller and baker on Castle Street, Carlisle, from 1831.

Jonathan Dodgson Carr
Jonathan Dodgson Carr (1806 – 1884)

Carr began to sell biscuits in tins in order to preserve product freshness. He became the first person to use steam-powered machinery to manufacture biscuits.

Sales soon grew, and Carr opened a factory on Caldewgate, Carlisle, from 1834.

A committed Quaker, Carr was a gentle, kind and modest man. An enlightened employer, he had established a library for his workforce by 1841.

With assistance from Philip Henry Howard (1801 – 1883), the Member of Parliament for Carlisle, Carr was appointed biscuit maker to Queen Victoria in 1841. He was at this point the sole manufacturer of machine-made biscuits in the United Kingdom. At this stage only four varieties of biscuit were produced.

The Royal Warrant was to prove a boon to sales, and 400 tons of biscuits were produced in 1846, with a staff of 90.

J D Carr died in 1884, and he was formally succeeded by his three sons, Henry Carr (1834 -1904), James Carr (1838 – 1901) and Thomas Carr (1840 – 1895).

Henry Carr was appointed chairman of the business. A deeply spiritual man, he had a greater inclination towards religion than commerce. However he was determined to show that he was worthy of the legacy left him by his father. He ventured upon an ambitious expansion of the biscuit factory, almost doubling its productive capacity in 1891.

Just under 1,000 people were employed by 1891. Nearly 300 different varieties of biscuit were produced. 18,000 Derby biscuits could be produced in one hour. 200,000 Midget biscuits could be cut in an hour.

Overexpansion led to liquidity issues, and the business was forced to tender a public offering of shares in 1894.

An 1896 advertisement for Carr & Co

A Royal Warrant to supply King Edward VII was issued in 1903.

The factory covered several acres by 1904, and 300 varieties of biscuit were produced.

Henry Carr died in 1904 and he was succeeded as chairman by Theodore Carr (1866 – 1931), the son of Thomas Carr.

Theodore Carr was a hands-on chairman. He had developed the Table Water biscuit in 1890, which soon became the signature product for the business. It was a variant of the Captain’s Thin, a Victorian staple which was itself derived from the ship biscuit. The Table Water biscuit was thinner and crisper than any biscuit before it, and paired particularly well with cheese.

The unprofitable flour milling division was divested as Carr’s Flour Mills in 1908.

The biscuit factory employed 4,000 people by 1919.

Carr & Co had a capital of £600,000 in 1927.

Theodore Carr died in 1931, and he was succeeded as chairman by his brother, Harold Carr (1880 – 1937).

Carr & Co granted its workers a five day working week from 1934, and hours were reduced from 47 to 45 with no reduction in pay.

Carr & Co produced 4,500 tons of biscuits a year by 1939, and was one of the largest biscuit manufacturers in Britain. The biscuit factory was one of the largest in the world.

A view of the Carlisle factory in 2008

A fully automated biscuit-making plant was installed in 1960.

Cavenham acquisition
Carr & Co was a mid-sized British biscuit producer by the 1960s, and suffered from increasing competition from the larger manufacturers.

Cavenham, controlled by James Goldsmith (1933 – 1997), acquired Carr & Co in 1964, beating a £1.2 million bid by J Lyons. The Carr family, who owned around 30 percent of the business, supported the sale.

Capital-saving measures were introduced, including the sale of the freehold of the Carlisle factory for £600,000, which was then leased back for £63,000 a year.

Goldsmith rationalised the Carr product range. Through television advertising he was able to triple the sales of Table Water biscuits by 1966, to take around three percent of the British biscuit market.

Despite some success, Carr & Co lacked the scale to compete with the larger biscuit manufacturers, and was sold to its rival United Biscuits in 1972.

United Biscuits immediately transferred some Carlisle production to a factory in Liverpool, with the loss of 80 jobs. However the Carlisle factory escaped closure, in part, due to its excellent labour relations, which were in themselves a valuable asset.

United Biscuits massively increased the advertising spend at Carr’s.

Factory closures at other United Biscuits sites, as well as increasing sales of bourbon and custard cream biscuits, saw production increased to seven days a  week from 1990. Staffing levels rose to over 2,000.

Present day
The Carlisle factory employed over 600 people in 2016, and produced McVitie’s products such as the Gold bar, as well as Carr’s Water Biscuits. It is the oldest continually-operating biscuit factory in the world.

Confectionery

A J Caley of Norwich

2 Comments

How did A J Caley of Norwich become one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in Britain?

A J Caley establishes the business
Albert Jarman Caley (1829 – 1895) was born in Windsor, the son of a silk merchant. After attending Eton School he established a chemist’s shop on High Street, Windsor in 1853.

Embed from Getty Images

Caley relocated to London Street, Norwich, where his brother already lived, from 1857.

A J Caley began to manufacture soft drinks from 1862. Soft drink manufacturing was Caley’s largest branch of trade by 1881.

Due to the seasonal nature of the soft drinks trade, Caley began to produce drinking chocolate from 1883, followed by eating chocolate from 1886.

Caley was possessed of a retiring disposition. He was considered a kind and considerate employer who took a keen interest in the welfare of his employees. He was a religious man, and in later life was affiliated with the evangelical Plymouth Brethren.

Caley retired in 1894 and control of the business passed to his only son, Edward James Caley (1862 – 1938), and two nephews.

A J Caley died in 1895 with an estate valued at £22,000.

A J Caley is converted into a limited liability company
The business was converted into a private limited liability company, A J Caley & Son, in 1898, with a capital of £120,000.

Christmas cracker production was introduced from 1898. The manufacture of milk chocolate commenced from 1901.

700 workers were employed by 1904. This had risen to 1,200 by 1912.

A J Caley & Son supplied the armed forces with ration chocolate during the First World War.

Acquisition by Lever Brothers
A J Caley & Son was acquired by the Lever Brothers-controlled United Africa Company in 1919. The United Africa Company was motivated by the opportunity to have an outlet for its large purchases of raw cocoa.

A J Caley & Son saw its capital increased from £120,000 to £1 million. Four new factories were completed at a cost of around £500,000 in 1920, which trebled productive capacity.

Chocolate, especially Easter eggs, was the most important product by this time. Christmas cracker production was also important, and the division employed hundreds of people year round.

Sale to John Mackintosh & Sons
A J Caley & Son had become loss-making by the early 1930s. John Mackintosh & Sons of Halifax acquired A J Caley & Son for £138,000 in 1932. Mackintosh was motivated by the opportunity to increase its productive capacity, which had outgrown their own Halifax site.

Mackintosh expanded the Norwich site. In order to render A J Caley profitable, hundreds of product lines and several departments were discontinued.

There were nearly 1,500 employees at Norwich by 1935, more than ever before. A J Caley sales grew eightfold between 1933 and 1938.

A J Caley expertise in chocolate manufacturing allowed Mackintosh to introduce new product lines such as Rolo and Quality Street.

A J Caley initially operated under independent management, but control was brought under the Mackintosh umbrella from 1939.

The Norwich factory was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War in 1942, and had to be rebuilt.

The Caley’s brand name was phased out in the early 1960s.

John Mackintosh & Sons employed 2,000 people at Norwich by 1962.

John Mackintosh & Sons merged with Rowntree in 1969 to form Rowntree Mackintosh. Rowntree Mackintosh was acquired by Nestle of Switzerland in 1988. The Norwich factory was closed in 1994, and demolished ten years later.

Biscuits & cakes

Cracking the market: a history of Jacob’s

Leave a comment

Over a billion Jacob’s Cream Crackers were consumed in 2013.

W & R Jacob is established
W&R Jacob was founded by two Quaker brothers, William and Robert Jacob, in Waterford, Ireland in 1851. Shortly afterwards the business relocated to Peter’s Row, Dublin.

A fire completely destroyed their factory in 1880. W&R Jacob completely rebuilt and extended the site, and installed new machinery.

W&R Jacob had introduced “American Crackers” by 1881.

W&R Jacob introduced the cream cracker in 1885. It was so-called because it had extra fat “creamed” into the flour. The new product was to quickly prove a great success.

Jacob’s establishes a British factory
W&R Jacob acquired ten acres of land at Aintree, adjacent to Hartley’s jam factory, in 1912. It was intended to improve the firm’s market share in Liverpool. Manufacture began on the site from 1914.

During the First World War the armed forces were supplied with Jacob’s biscuits.

Following the end of the First World War, Jacob’s rehired every employee who had fought during the war, and also found work for a large number of men who had been injured during the conflict.

The Club chocolate biscuit was introduced from 1919.

The foundation of the Irish Free State saw the English subsidiary established as an independent company in 1922.

Jacob’s was one of the largest biscuit manufacturers in Britain by 1929.

The Aintree factory covered 30 spacious acres by 1932. The firm employed over 3,000 people. Over 300 different varieties of biscuit were manufactured.

The Yorkshire market was entered in earnest from 1932, with the construction of a large depot in Leeds.

Jacob’s held seven percent of the British biscuit market by volume by 1939.

Approximately 1,500 employees were engaged in manufacturing in 1949; 75 percent of them were women.

A new depot was established at Plympton in 1959, due to increasing sales in the Devon and Cornwall region. It had a capacity to handle six million lbs (2.7 million kg) of biscuits each year.

Jacob’s is acquired by Associated Biscuits
Jacob’s was the third largest biscuit manufacturer in Britain when it was acquired by Associated Biscuits in 1960. Family members, who controlled 70 percent of voting shares, approved the sale.

The Jacob’s Cream Cracker was the third highest-selling biscuit in Britain by 1969.

Associated Biscuits dedicated the vast majority of its advertising expenditure to the strong Jacob’s brand from 1972.

The Jacob’s sweet biscuit product lines, other than the Club, were phased out in favour of the Huntley & Palmers brand in the 1980s.

The Aintree site employed 2,800 people by 1983.

The Aintree site was modernised at a cost of £25 million in 1986. Its leading lines were the Jacob’s Cream Cracker and the Jacob’s Club biscuit.

Voluntary redundancies and natural wastage had seen the staff reduced to 1,800, with a further 400 temporary staff during the Christmas period, by 1988.

Nabisco continued to invest heavily in the Aintree plant, which absorbed much of the production from the Bermondsey site, which was closed in 1989.

The Huntley & Palmer name was discontinued in 1990, and all products were relabelled under the Jacob’s brand.

Jacob’s is acquired by United Biscuits
United Biscuits acquired Associated Biscuits for £200 million in 2004.

United Biscuits rebranded all of its savoury biscuits under the Jacob’s name from 2014. Jacob’s gained the Mini Cheddars product, but lines such as Club, Fig Rolls, BN and Iced Gems were rebranded as McVitie’s.

The Aintree site produced over 55,000 tonnes of products in 2014. 900 people were employed at the factory.

It was announced that the Aintree site would receive an investment of £10 million in 2015. The site is the centre of United Biscuits savoury snack production, and brands manufactured include Twiglets, Mini Cheddars and Club, as well as Jacob’s.

Jacob’s held 25 percent of the British savoury biscuit market in 2015.

Reports emerged in 2018 that Jacob’s could be sold in a deal that valued the business at £100 million. Potential buyers included Mondelez and Burton Biscuits.

Spreads & sauces

Playing ketchup: Geo Watkins

Leave a comment

Geo Watkins is the only remaining national producer of mushroom ketchup in Britain.

George Watkins founded his grocery business in 1830. The Watkins family were Quakers.

A George William Watkins is described as an oilman/Italian warehouseman of 308 Oxford Street, London in 1843.

The firm of George Watkins was based at Kentish Town by 1850.

The grocers and Italian warehousemen partnership of George Watkins, Alfred Robinson and George William Watkins of 4 Portland Place, St John’s Wood, was dissolved in 1857.

The firm was best known for its Winchester Sauce in the 1860s.

The firm was based at 116 Bayham Street, Camden Town by 1867.

Crosse & Blackwell distributed the firm’s products in export markets by 1870.

Digestive Relish, a pickle, was their best known product from the 1870s. Digestive Relish was still being advertised as late as 1923.

Presumably, the firm entered into receivership around 1923, in what was a difficult time for food manufacturers.

G Costa & Co of Aylesford, Kent, best known for Blue Dragon oriental sauces, relaunched the Geo Watkins brand in 1985, as a range of traditional English sauces.

A Geo Watkins piccalilli was available until 1996. A Geo Watkins brown sauce was discontinued in the 2000s.

G Costa was acquired by Associated British Foods, owner of Patak’s and Levi Roots ethnic sauces, in 2003.

Two products are manufactured under the Geo Watkins brand as of 2016; mushroom ketchup and anchovy sauce.

 

Spreads & sauces

Keen as mustard: Keen Robinson

Leave a comment

Keen & Co was perhaps the largest mustard manufacturer in the world before it was overtaken by Colman’s in the 1860s.

Thomas Keen establishes a mustard factory
Mustard became an increasingly popular condiment throughout the eighteenth century, with production largely centered at Durham and Tewkesbury.

Thomas Keen became the first commercial producer of mustard powder in the City of London from 1742, with a factory at Garlick Hill.

The business traded as Sutton, Keen & Smith by 1794.

The factory was entirely destroyed by fire in 1806.

The business traded as Keen, Son & Co by 1818.

A Joseph Teale exited the business in 1824, leaving John Keen, John Henry Keen and James Keen (1780 – 1849) as partners.

John Keen retired in 1828, leaving Thomas Keen (1800 – 1862) and James Keen as sole partners.

The business was known as Keens & Welch by 1841. James Keen left the partnership in 1849, leaving Thomas Keen and John Welch (1805 – 1856).

Thomas Keen was a wealthy man by 1851; he kept nine servants in his household.

Keen Robinson Bellville & Co
Thomas Keen died in 1862, and Thomas Keen & Son was merged with Robinson & Bellville of Holborn, manufacturers of patent barley. The merged firm traded as Keen Robinson Bellville & Co.

Keen’s mustard was described as “world famous” in the Morning Post in 1868.

William John Bellville (1829 – 1891) was sole proprietor of the firm by 1876.

William John Bellville (1829 – 1891)

Keen operated the largest mustard factory in London by 1881, and it was supposedly the oldest mustard factory in the world. Additional factory premises were acquired at Denmark Street, London, in the 1880s.

William John Bellville died with an estate valued at £638,000 in 1891. The firm was inherited by his wife, Emma Bellville (born 1847).

The Garlick Hill premises was said to the oldest factory in the City of London by 1892. It spanned five floors. Most mustard seed was grown in the East of England, although some was imported from the Netherlands. There were extensive granaries in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire and Boston, Lincolnshire. The firm employed over 1,000 people, and was notable for not employing women, except for in sack mending.

Keen Robinson is acquired by J & J Colman
The business was registered as Keen Robinson, with a capital of £300,000,  from 1893.

Keen Robinson was acquired by J & J Colman of Norwich, a rival mustard manufacturer, in 1903. Frank Ashton Bellville (1870 – 1937) joined the Colman’s board of directors.

It appears that Keen’s mustard advertising was immediately withdrawn in favour of the Colman’s brand.

Production was centralised at Colman’s Carrow Works in Norwich from 1925.

The two brothers and heirs to the Keen Robinson fortune both died in 1937. Frank Ashton Bellville left an estate valued at £394,397, and William John Bellville (1868 – 1937) left an estate valued at £393,709.

The Keen’s mustard brand appears to have been phased out in Britain following the Second World War.

Colman was sold to Unilever in 1995.

The Australian rights to Keen’s mustard, where the brand remains popular, were sold to McCormick & Co in 1998.

Unilever continue to produce Keen’s mustard for the Canadian market.

Confectionery

Worth a mint: Barker & Dobson

5 Comments

How did Barker & Dobson become one of the largest confectionery manufacturers in Britain?

Origins
Joseph Dobson (1801 – 1864) established a grocery shop on Henry Street in Liverpool from 1834. He was declared bankrupt in 1841.

Using the maiden name of his wife, he commenced trade as Barker & Dobson from 1844 and the business was relocated to Paradise Street.

Dobson was declared bankrupt again in 1861. One of the trustees of the estate was George Bassett (1818 – 1886), confectioner of Sheffield.

Barker & Dobson had relocated to 6 Duke Street by 1870. The main business was in imported French confectionery.

Jacobson era
The business was taken over by Henry Dobson Jacobson (1867 – 1961), grandson of Joseph Dobson, in 1889.

Jacobson was to prove the impetus behind the subsequent growth of Barker & Dobson. He relocated the business to Hope Street and entered into confectionery and chocolate manufacturing. Over 100 people were employed in sweet and chocolate manufacture by 1897. The leading product line was Walnut Toffee, with sales of over 900 kg a week.

Barker & Dobson operated three confectionery shops which specialised in the sale of imported confectionery from France, Germany and America.

Jacobson was a great believer in the power of advertising, and bought space in newspapers, and invested in enticing product labels and packaging.

A 1929 advertisement for the Barker & Dobson Verona chocolate assortment from Britannia & Eve.

Barker & Dobson established a factory and head office at Franklin Place, in the Everton district of Liverpool, in 1906.

Barker & Dobson was incorporated as a public company from 1919 in order to fund expansion.

Premises had been established at London as well as Liverpool by 1924.

A disused tram depot on Whitefield Road, Liverpool was acquired and converted into a factory in 1926. The new factory adjoined the Franklin Place site.

Barker & Dobson had a authorised share capital of £500,000 by 1928. The business employed over 1,200 people.

H D Jacobson became chairman, and appointed his brother, Percy Isidore Jacobson (1873 – 1961), as managing director.

Sale to Scribbans-Kemp
Barker & Dobson was one of the largest manufacturers of chocolate and boiled sweets in Britain by the post-war period. Following the Second World War the company began to struggle to meet demand for its products, and required an increase in capital.

Barker & Dobson was acquired by Scribbans-Kemp of Birmingham, a large cake and biscuit manufacturer, in 1952. Scribbans-Kemp established a new sugar confectionery factory and offices in 1955.

Bensons, a sweet manufacturer based in Bury, Lancashire, was acquired in 1956-7.

P I Jacobson died with a gross estate of £353,003 in 1961. H D Jacobson also died in 1961 with a gross estate of £865,359.

Fryer & Co of Nelson, Lancashire was acquired for £1.2 million in 1965. The company had invented the jelly baby, and produced the Victory V cough sweet.

Scribbans-Kemp changed its name to S K Holdings in the early 1970s.

Waller & Hartley of Blackpool, with the Hacks cough sweet brand, was acquired for £4.7 million in 1972.

18 percent of production was exported to 86 different countries in 1972. The principal foreign markets were North and South America. The Everton Mint remained the highest-selling product line.

S K Holdings changed its name to Barker & Dobson from 1973.

The five confectionery factories in Lancashire employed over 2,000 people by 1974. The Liverpool factory produced 250 tons of sweets per week.

The Blackpool and Southport factories were closed with the loss of 450 jobs in 1974.

Barker & Dobson distributed Ferrero products such as Tic-Tacs for the British market from 1974.

Financial difficulties
Barker & Dobson suffered heavy losses in the mid-1970s. A stake in Hacks Malaysia was divested in 1976.

Barker & Dobson was forced to remove the 0.2 percent chloroform component from its Victory V sweet recipe from 1981, due to a change in the law. Sales of their highest-selling product immediately slumped by 25 percent.

The Barker & Dobson factory in Dublin was closed in 1982.

The Whitefield Road factory was closed with the loss of about 360 jobs in 1983. The sugar confectionery market was in decline, and the ageing factory would have needed extensive repairs in order to remain operational. 200 administrative staff remained at the Whitefield Road offices.

Only Bury and Nelson remained as large factories within the company. There were also smaller factories in Dundee and east London.

Barker & Dobson held the British distribution rights for Marabou products, such as the Daim/Dime chocolate bar, by 1984.

Barker & Dobson sold its newsagents business, with 150 outlets, to Guinness for £10 million in 1985. A high-class chocolate shop on Bond Street, London was retained.

Keiller, the butterscotch and marmalade manufacturer, was acquired for £4.9 million in 1985.

The highest-selling product lines in 1985 were Hacks, Victory V and Everton Mints.

The Whitefield Road offices were closed in 1985, and headquarters were relocated to Bury.

Barker & Dobson acquired Budgens supermarkets, with 148 outlets, from Booker McConnell for £80 million in 1986.

Subsequent owners
Alma Holdings acquired the heavily loss-making confectionery subsidiary of Barker & Dobson for £10 million in 1988. The deal created the fourth largest sugar confectionery manufacturer in Britain.

Alma entered into receivership in 1992, and Hacks and Victory V were sold to Cadbury for £3.1 million, with production relocated to their Trebor Bassett factories. Barker & Dobson and Keiller were acquired by Portfolio Foods for £3 million.

The Barker & Dobson brand was withdrawn in 2008 alongside the Pascall and Sharp’s names, with traditional sweets consolidated under the Taveners brand.

Hacks remains a leading confectionery brand in Malaysia.

Canned food

Herring aid: Maconochie Brothers

3 Comments

Maconochie Brothers was the largest tinned food manufacturer in the world during the late Victorian period. It was probably the largest supplier of food to the British armed forces during the First World War.

Establishment and early growth
James Maconochie (1850 – 1895) was born in Wakefield, the son of the chief prison warden. He established a fishmongers business in Lowestoft, Suffolk, in 1870. Archibald White Maconochie (1855 – 1926) eschewed his ambition to become an army officer, and joined his brother in the growing business from around 1872.

The Maconochie brothers entered into the canning of herring for the London market from 1873. In an age before widespread artificial refrigeration, canned fish was a much more important commodity than it is today.

Archibald White Maconochie (1855 – 1926) in 1901

The largest fish canners in the world
A new factory was established at Lowestoft in 1877. It was the largest fish and meat canning factory in Britain.

Archibald Maconochie, a colourful figure, soon took the lead in the venture, and combined a shrewd business mind with high energy (he professed to never feeling tired). An inventive man, he also developed many of the firm’s patents himself. James Maconochie took responsibility for export sales in the British colonies.

A second factory, for canning herring, was established at Fraserburgh, Aberdeen in 1883. Maconochie Brothers was the largest producer of tinned fish in the world. Maconochie Brothers also entered into the production of pickles, potted meats, soup and sauces.

The fish canning factory at Fraserburgh was the largest in Britain, and possibly the world by 1886, and employed over 350 workers during peak periods. 97 million fish were canned in the 1888 season.

The Lowestoft site employed over 1,000 people by 1889.

Archibald Maconochie was a strong-willed and uncompromising man. Even after making his fortune he continued to travel in the third class train carriage. When asked why he did this, he responded, “simply because there’s not a fourth!”

Archibald Maconochie was involved in an altercation with one of his tinsmiths in 1888. Maconochie punched his employee in the mouth in a blow that knocked him to the ground, and then proceeded to strangle, repeatedly punch, and threaten to kill him. As a result of the incident Maconochie was fined £2 and ordered to pay court costs.

Whilst undoubtedly an overreaction, Maconochie’s anger stemmed from the powerful position of the tinsmiths, to whom hundreds of production days were lost due to strikes. Maconochie invested heavily in canning technology in an attempt to negate their influence, and by the turn of the century manual smoldering had been replaced by high pressure sealing.

Valuable army contract work
Maconochie Brothers was a pioneer in long-life military rations. The Maconochie “Patent Emergency Ration” had been introduced by 1889. It contained three tins which could supply a soldier’s daily food needs. The largest tin contained meat and farina, a form of milled wheat with a high carbohydrate content. The second tin contained soup, and the third tin contained cocoa.

James Maconochie died in 1895. He was remembered as a kindly man.

The rapid expansion of colonial sales saw the establishment of a new factory across a three acre site on Westferry Road in Millwall, London in 1897. The headquarters of the business were also relocated to Millwall.

Maconochie Brothers had a production capacity of 100,000 tins of food per day by 1900, and was the largest tinned foods producer in the world.

Archibald Maconochie represented East Aberdeenshire as a Member of Parliament between 1900 and 1906. As MPs were forbidden from holding government contracts, Maconochie Brothers was incorporated as a limited company with a capital of £100,000 in 1900. Maconochie continued to effectively control the company, personally holding 80 percent of the shares in the business, with family members holding the remainder.

Maconochie Brothers was the largest single food supplier to the British Army between 1900 and 1905, with contracts worth a total of £1 million. At its peak the company engaged 1,500 people in British military contract production. Maconochie Brothers supplied around 45 percent of British army rations during the Second Boer War (1899 – 1902).

The Pan Yan Pickle trademark was first registered in 1903. The brand had achieved substantial success by 1907.

Maconochie Brothers reverted to private ownership from 1908. The business was the largest supplier of tinned fish in the world, with up to 30 percent of the British market. Between 250 and 300 tons of herring were canned daily during the season at Fraserburgh.

The army food supply contract remained in place throughout the First World War. Maconochie Brothers was probably the largest supplier of food to the British armed forces during the conflict. Best known at this time for its tinned stew, “Maconochie” became military shorthand for a meat ration.

An image of the Maconochie army ration. Image used under licence of the Imperial War Museum.

Corporal R Derby Holmes wrote memorably of the Maconochie ration in 1918:

It is my personal opinion that the inventor brought to his task an imperfect knowledge of cookery and a perverted imagination. Open a can of Maconochie and you find a gooey gob of grease, like rancid lard. Investigate and find chunks of carrot and other unidentifiable material, and now and then a bit of mysterious meat… [the British soldier] regards it as a very inferior grade of garbage… he’s right.

Pan Yan was easily the highest-selling pickle in the world by 1924. It contained mangoes and vegetables in a sweet-sour sauce. An unofficial recipe for Pan Yan pickle during this period suggested it contained marrow, onion, apple, tomato, gherkin, tamarind, mustard, sugar and vinegar.

The Millwall works employed over 1,000 people by 1926.

Death of Archibald Maconochie and subsequent decline
Archibald Maconochie died in 1926, and left a net personalty valued at £107,985. His will contained an unusual codicil stipulating that if any of his children were to marry a Roman Catholic they should be disinherited.

The company suffered following the loss of Maconochie’s strong leadership. The two Lowestoft factories were sold to the Co-operative Wholesale Society in 1928-29 and 1932.

Pan Yan pickle had annual sales of over four million bottles by the mid-1930s.

The Millwall factory was destroyed by German bombs in 1940, and a new site was acquired at Hadfield, Derbyshire.

In the post-war period the Fraserburgh factory employed 500 people and the Hadfield site employed about 550 people.

Maconochie Brothers was converted into a public company with an authorised capital of £600,000 in 1948.

Pan Yan remained the highest-selling sweet pickle in Britain as late as 1953.

H S Whiteside and Rowntree
Inconsistent herring yields rendered the Fraserburgh site unprofitable, and it was closed with the loss of 190 jobs in 1958.

Maconochie Brothers became loss-making, and the company was acquired by H S Whiteside, the manufacturer of Sun-Pat peanut butter, for £287,000 in 1958. H S Whiteside had a reputation as a business-turnaround specialist.

H S Whiteside announced that as a result of the introduction of new management and marketing techniques, Maconochie Brothers had re-entered into profitability by 1960. However management was later found to have engaged in fraud, and had underreported the extent of profit losses. The business entered into receivership in 1965. Rowntree Mackintosh, a confectionery manufacturer, acquired Sun Pat, Pan Yan, the Hadfield site and the Maconochie Brothers brand name for £500,000 in 1967.

Decline of Pan Yan Pickle
Rowntree Mackintosh was acquired by Nestle of Switzerland in 1987. Nestle already owned Crosse & Blackwell, best known for Branston Pickle.

At some stage mangoes were removed from the Pan Yan Pickle recipe. By the 1990s its ingredients were listed as swede, sugar, apples, carrots, vinegar, modified starch, gherkins, acetic acid, peppers, onions, spices, caramel and flavourings. After years of falling sales, largely due to the success of Branston Pickle, production of Pan Yan was discontinued in 2000.

Nestle sold its British ambient foods business, including Sun Pat and Gale’s honey, to Premier Foods in 2002.

The only known recipe for Pan Yan pickle was destroyed in a factory fire in 2004.

The Hadfield site was closed with the loss of 250 jobs in 2005.

Vinegar

Henry Sarson & Sons

1 Comment

Sarson’s is the leading brand of malt vinegar in Britain.

Early days
Sarson’s claimed in 1860 that the business had been established for “upwards of fifty years”, which suggests an establishment date of around 1810.

A Mr Sarson was established as a vinegar brewer on Craven Street, City Road, London, by 1822.

Premises had been removed to the corner of Brunswick Place, City Road, London by 1830.

James Sarson (born 1791) was head of the business by 1841.

Sarson’s “Pure Malt Vinegar” was being advertised in the press by 1842.

James Thomas Sarson (born 1821) had joined his father in business by 1846, and the firm began to trade as Sarson & Son.

Henry Sarson enters the business
Henry Sarson (born 1825), brother to J T Sarson, had joined the business by 1847.

James Thomas Sarson was described as a vinegar and mustard merchant in 1851. The business was relatively small at this time.

Sarson & Son branded its product as “Virgin Vinegar” from 1861 in order to indicate its purity at a time when food adulteration was rife. Most vinegar brewers added sulphuric acid to their product to decrease the necessary fermentation period.

Sarson & Son did not add caramel to darken their vinegar, unlike most brewers, so their product had a much lighter colour than its rivals.

Sarson was advertised as a high quality vinegar. It was packaged in capsulated bottles to prevent tampering, and sold through 3,523 outlets by 1871.

Henry Sarson employed 20 people, including four carmen, four van boys, three clerks, three women and six salesmen, by 1881. The business was still a relatively modest concern.

Henry Sarson & Sons; mass production
Henry Sarson’s two sons, Henry Logsdail Sarson (1861 – 1918) and Percival Stanley Sarson (1867 – 1951), had entered the business by 1892, which began to trade as Henry Sarson & Sons.

Percy Sarson was a keen businessman, with a feisty personality.

Henry Sarson retired from the business in 1893.

Henry Sarson & Sons had been converted into a private limited company by 1900.

Over one million gallons of vinegar were brewed in 1913.

In 1919 Sarsons fired an employee of 16 years service after she took her sick child to hospital.

In 1921 the company was accused of fixing the market to keep the price of malt vinegar artificially hight.

Acquisition by Crosse & Blackwell
Crosse & Blackwell acquired Henry Sarson & Sons and Champion & Slee, another large London vinegar brewer, in 1929. The merger brought together the three largest vinegar brewers in the South of England. Crosse & Blackwell closed down the Sarson’s brewery and concentrated production at the Champion & Slee site.

The Crosse & Blackwell vinegar interests were merged with those of Distillers and Beaufoy Grimble to form British Vinegar with a capital of £450,000 in 1932.

Over five million gallons (around 23 million litres) of vinegar were brewed in 1950.

The Virgin Vinegar brand name was phased out in the 1950s.

Holbrooks & Co, with a vinegar brewery in Stourport, was acquired in 1954.

A site was acquired from the Co-op at Middleton, Manchester in 1968.

Subsequent ownership
Nestle of Switzerland took full control of British Vinegar in 1979.

The London vinegar brewery was closed in 1991.

The Stourport brewery was closed in 1999 with the loss of 22 jobs. Production was relocated to the larger Middleton site.

Sarson’s vinegar was the leading vinegar brand in Britain by 1999, with around a third of the market.

Sarson’s was acquired by Premier Foods in 2002. Over 5.5 million litres of vinegar were sold every year.

Mizkan of Japan acquired Sarson’s in 2012.

Sarson’s is made from a 9.5 percent alcohol barley wine that the company brews itself. The vinegar is matured for seven days in large oak vats.

Confectionery

A refreshing change: Trebor

1 Comment

Trebor is best known today for its Extra Strong and Softmints. It also introduced Refreshers, Fruit Salad and Black Jack sweets. Trebor was the largest sugar confectionery manufacturer in Britain when it was acquired by Cadbury in 1989.

Establishment
Robertson & Woodcock was established when William Woodcock (a sugar boiler), Robert Robertson (a grocer), Sydney Herbert Marks (a salesman) and Thomas King (a grocer) invested £100 each in a partnership to manufacture boiled sweets from 1907.

There was a factory at Forest Gate, London, called the Trebor Works. Confectionery was sold under the Trebor brand.

A view of the Trebor factory at Forest Gate

Horse-drawn vans were replaced by motor vehicles for distribution purposes from 1915.

Sydney J Marks (1900 – 1980), the son of S H Marks, was sent to Germany to learn the latest production methods in 1925. Information he acquired on powdered sugar enabled Robertson & Woodcock to introduce its two most famous products. Refreshers were introduced from 1935, and Extra Strong Peppermints were launched in 1937.

A new factory was established on a five-acre site in Chesterfield from 1939. The site was chosen as it lowered distribution costs for the Midlands and the North of England. Initially around 300 people were employed.

S J Marks became managing director in 1941. By this time the company was controlled by the Marks family. S J Marks was a brilliant but autocratic businessman.

Sugar was rationed during the Second World War, so a sugar and lard mixture was used to make the product go further.

Control of Jamesons Chocolates was acquired in 1959.

Trebor Sharps
Edward Sharp & Sons of Maidstone, a toffee manufacturer, was acquired in 1961.

Sharps and Trebor were merged in 1968 to form Trebor Sharps, a mid-sized confectioner based at Woodford Green, Essex.

An overseas trade flourished, and by the late 1960s, the company was the largest exporter of sugar confectionery in Britain, sending 15 percent of production to nearly 70 countries. More mints were sold in Nigeria than in the domestic market, and the United States was the largest export destination.

Clarnico, the confectionery subsidiary of Clarke, Nickolls & Coombs, was acquired for £750,000 in 1969. The acquisition made Trebor the fourth largest confectionery company in Britain.

Sydney J Marks became president of Trebor from 1970, and his son, John Marks (1930 – 2012), became chairman.

Trebor was the leading sugar confectionery manufacturer in Britain by 1978. Led by its Extra Strong brand, the company held 30 percent of the mints market.

Guided by his Christian convictions, John Marks developed a paternalistic relationship with his workforce. The business banned night shifts from 1981, in the belief that it was disruptive to domestic life.

The loss-making confectionery arm of Maynards, best known for wine gums, was acquired for £8.1 million in 1986.

Trebor was the leading sugar confectionery manufacturer in Britain by 1986, with a twelve percent market share, including 50 percent of all hard mint sales. It was the market leader in boiled sugar sweets and branded mints.

Trebor is sold to Cadbury
Unfortunately the business found itself under increasing pressure from the bigger confectionery firms, with larger marketing budgets. Trebor was sold to Cadbury for £120 million in 1989. The Marks family gifted 15 percent of the sale value to their workforce.

Many of the 3,000 strong workforce were to lose their jobs. Redundancy costs were low, as many workers were only employed on three-month contracts.

Cadbury recouped some of its takeover costs by divesting Trebor House, the head office and factory in North London.

Trebor Extra Strong was the second-highest selling sugar confectionery line in Britain by 1997, behind only Polo mints. Trebor Softmints were the third-highest seller. Maynards Wine Gums were the fourth best-seller.

The Chesterfield factory was closed with the loss of 245 jobs in 2005. The closure was blamed on an outdated plant and declining sales of Fruit Salads and Black Jacks.

Food

Soaring success: Alfred Bird & Sons

Leave a comment

Alfred Bird & Sons was one of the most successful food companies in Britain at the turn of the twentieth century. Bird’s Custard is one of the most widely recognised brands in the UK, with 99 percent customer recognition.

Alfred Bird invents an eggless custard powder
Alfred Bird (1811 – 1878) established a chemist’s shop on Bell Street, Birmingham, in 1837. He produced a baking powder, which allowed bread to be made without yeast, and then an eggless custard powder.

Alfred Bird (1811 – 1878), date unknown

Alfred Bird & Sons was formed to mass produce these inventions from 1843. Larger premises were established on Worcester Street.

Alfred Bird & Sons won a contract to supply baking powder to provide fresh bread for the British troops during the Crimean War in 1855.

Alfred Frederick Bird takes over from his father
Alfred Frederick Bird (1849 – 1922) became sole proprietor of the business following the death of his father in 1878.

Alfred Frederick Bird (1849 – 1922) in 1918. Image used with kind permission from the National Portrait Gallery.

A large new factory was built at 35 Moor Street, Birmingham in 1886, but it burned down a year later, with thousands of pounds worth of damage. A new factory was opened on Gibb Street in the Digbeth district of Birmingham.

Sales increased by 275 percent between 1892 and 1901.

Alfred Bird & Sons became a limited company in 1900 with an authorised capital of £300,000. Profits more than doubled between 1900 and 1907. Company capital was increased to £400,000 in 1908.

Alfred Frederick Bird was created a baronet in 1922. He died shortly afterwards, and was heralded as a pioneer of modern advertising. He left an estate valued at £653,656.

Alfred Bird & Sons is sold to General Foods
Sir Robert Bland Bird (1876 – 1960) succeeded his father as chairman of Alfred Bird & Sons.

Sir Robert Bland Bird (1876 – 1960) in 1924. Image used with kind permission from the National Portrait Gallery.

The three birds logo was introduced in 1929.

Alfred Bird & Sons (Ireland) was established in Dublin in 1934.

A five day working week was introduced from 1937.

Import restrictions in the post-war period led General Foods of America, best known in Britain for Grape Nuts cereal, to acquire Alfred Bird & Sons for £403,000 in 1947. Sir Robert Bird was retained as company chairman. The two companies shared some similarities; C W Post (1854 – 1914), who had invented Grape Nuts, had also been an extensive advertiser.

General Foods introduced its Maxwell House instant coffee to the British market from 1954.

Sir Robert Bird retired as chairman of Alfred Bird & Sons in 1956, and was the last member of the Bird family to be connected with the business. He died in 1960, and left an estate valued at £360,103.

Monkhouse & Glasscock, a rival manufacturer of custard powder, was acquired in 1958. The chairman was the uncle of the comedian Bob Monkhouse. The factory was immediately closed.

Production is relocated to Banbury; Bird’s is sold to Premier Foods
Expanding production saw the Digbeth factory become increasingly cramped. General Foods relocated Bird’s production to a new factory in Banbury, Oxfordshire from 1966. Situated across 42 acres and built at a cost of £6 million, it employed 1,300 people. It was one of the most modern food factories in Europe.

birdsdigbeth
The Digbeth factory on Gibb Street

Bird’s managed to persuade 72 percent of its permanent male employees to relocate to Banbury. Cash grants were offered to negate relocation costs for workers. Workers generally found the standard of living to be higher in the new location.

Alfred Bird & Sons was formally renamed to General Foods from 1967. By this time Maxwell House was the largest brand for the business, with a 30 percent share of the British instant coffee market.

General Foods had annual UK grocery sales of £24 million by 1969, and its brands included Bird’s custard, Angel Delight, Maxwell House coffee and Grape Nuts cereal.

General Foods acquired Philip Morris in 1985 for $5 billion to become the largest consumer goods company in the United States. Kraft of Chicago was acquired in 1988, and the business became known as Kraft General Foods. The name was changed to Kraft from 1995.

Kraft sold the Bird’s Custard and Angel Delight brands to Premier Foods for £70 million in 2004. Production was transferred to a site in Ashford, Kent. Kraft retained the Banbury factory.

Kraft spun-off its global snacks business as Mondelez in 2012. Mondelez use the Banbury site to produce Kenco instant coffee.