Category Archives: Food

Full of beans: Heinz in the UK

Heinz is best known in Britain for baked beans, tinned soup and condiments. The business became successful due to a dedication to quality, a concentration on relatively few product lines, and a strong commitment to marketing.

Background
Henry John Heinz (1844 – 1919) was born in Pennsylvania, the son of a Bavarian immigrant. He sold bottled horseradish sauce in Sharpsburg from 1869. He aimed to emulate the standard set by Crosse & Blackwell, then considered one of the greatest food businesses in the world. He packaged his products in clear glass bottles in order to demonstrate its quality. Heinz relocated his operations to Pittsburgh in 1872.

Henry John Heinz (1844 – 1919) in 1917

Fortnum & Mason of London held the highest reputation of all food retailers. H J Heinz cold-called on the head of its grocery department in 1886, and managed to persuade him to stock all of the seven product lines he brought with him.

Heinz was the largest pickle manufacturer in the world by 1891.

H J Heinz used the “57 varieties” slogan from 1892. He actually had more product lines than this, but decided that the tagline had a pleasing resonance.

Establishment of a British subsidiary
A British subsidiary was established to manage Heinz imports from North America in 1886. Heinz products were distributed in the North of England from 1899.

H J Heinz appointed Charles Hellen (1866 – 1944), a perfectionist and “the best man I’ve got” as general manager for Britain from 1905. Hellen spearheaded the acquisition of Batty & Co, makers of the popular Nabob Pickle, in order to gain a manufacturing site for Heinz products. The Batty brand was phased out in 1910.

Salad Cream was introduced in 1914, and was the first product that Heinz created specifically for the British market. It was supposedly formulated by Charles Hellen himself, although the recipe likely owed a debt to Batty’s own “Dr Kitchener’s Salad Cream” product.

Heinz UK was established as a private company in 1917.

H J Heinz died in 1919, leaving an estate valued at £1.1 million (about £115 million in 2015).

Heinz becomes a mass producer in the UK
Heinz UK sales quadrupled between 1919 and 1927.

A 22-acre factory site was established at Harlesden, London, from 1925. The larger factory, with a staff of 500, allowed Heinz to mass produce, and pass on the economies of scale to the consumer.

A view of the Harlesden site by Russell Trebor in 1992

Baked beans were manufactured in the UK from 1928. Soups and spaghetti production began in 1930. All products sold in Britain were manufactured domestically by 1933, except for four tomato-based products which were imported from Canada.

A new soup factory was established at Harlesden from 1934. The three-storey building produced millions of tins of soup a year, across eighteen different varieties. The extension saw the Harlesden site increased from 22 to 40 acres. The site produced 100 million cans a year by 1936.

Howard Heinz (1877 – 1941), the company president, donated £20,000 (£1.2 million) to buy aircraft for the British war effort in 1940. He also invited staff to send their children to America for the duration of the war at the company’s expense.

Heinz UK was converted into a public company, Heinz Ltd, valued at over £9 million, in 1948. The American parent company owned 91 percent of the shares.

A former munitions factory in Standish, Lancashire, was acquired to produce Heinz baby food in 1948.

Heinz Ltd grew sixfold between 1945 and 1956. The company employed around 5,100 people.

Heinz was granted a Royal Warrant to supply Queen Elizabeth II in 1955.

It was claimed that Heinz was the best known brand name in Britain in 1957. By this time the British ate more baked beans per capita than the Americans. By this stage Heinz products in Britain were formulated differently from the American versions, apart from Tomato Ketchup, which remained consistent across every market.

A second large factory is established in Wigan
Demand remained high for Heinz products, and a new factory was established outside Wigan in 1959. Situated on a 130-acre site, it was the largest food factory in the British Commonwealth. It cost £6.5 million to build and employed 2,500 people. Two thirds of production was dedicated to soup, and one third to baked beans.

Meanwhile, the Standish site was closed and administrative offices were relocated to Hayes, London.

A 1925 advertisement for Heinz Tomato Ketchup

Heinz was by far the largest producer of canned foods in Britain by 1960, and produced over one million cans of baked beans and over one million cans of soup every day. The company enjoyed far greater market share for its products (other than tomato ketchup) in Britain than it did in its home country.

Tinned ravioli was launched in 1965, and spaghetti hoops were introduced from 1969.

Heinz dominated the baked beans market with an 80 percent share by 1967. That year saw the popular “Beanz Meanz Heinz” slogan introduced. Heinz held 83 percent of the baby food market by volume in 1967. Heinz had 60 percent of the canned soup market (and 40 percent of the overall soup market) and 31 percent of the sauce market (behind HP) by 1968. The company had 80 percent of the tinned spaghetti market by 1969.

Heinz acquired a 40 percent stake in Manor Vinegar Brewery of Burntwood, Staffordshire in 1969. A supplier to Heinz since 1917, it was the single largest vinegar producing facility in Britain, and produced about five million gallons a year. Vinegar bottling was transferred from Harlesden to Burntwood.

Annual sales of Heinz Ltd surpassed £100 million (£1.2 billion in 2015) for the first time in 1972. Heinz of America acquired the eight percent of its British subsidiary that it did not already own for £7.7 million in 1977.

The Harlesden factory employed over 2,000 people in 1980.

Heinz sold its Manor Vinegar Brewery stake to Hazelwood Foods for £1 million in 1981.

The rise of supermarket own-label products
Heinz began to suffer from the late 1970s into the 1980s as supermarket own-label products began to take significant market share in traditional Heinz categories such as tinned soup. Own-label accounted for 37 percent of the baked bean market by 1982. Heinz reduced its workforce from 8,600 to 4,800 between 1975 and 1985.

High-speed automation was introduced to the Wigan and Harlesden factories in the mid to late 1980s.

A view of the Heinz factory outside Wigan (2009). Credit: David Ashcroft

Heinz marketing began to emphasise product quality in order to counteract the threat from own-label. The company began to manufacture own-label baked beans for supermarket chains such as Tesco from 1993. Heinz maintained that they only produced value beans for supermarkets, to a different recipe from their branded product, which enabled them to capture a greater share of the market without damaging their brand equity.

Heinz acquired Farley of Plymouth from Boots for £94 million in 1994. Farley was the largest manufacturer of infant formula in Britain.

The Harlesden factory was closed with the loss of 450 jobs in 2000. Production was relocated to Wigan.

Heinz acquired HP, with brands including Lea & Perrins and Daddies Sauce, for £470 million in 2005.

The HP factory in Aston, Birmingham, was closed in 2007. Production of HP Sauce was relocated to the Netherlands.

Kraft Heinz
Heinz merged with Kraft in 2015. The Wigan site received an investment of £113 million between 2015 and 2018.

Heinz employed around 2,100 people across the UK and Ireland in 2019. The 53-acre Wigan site produces over one billion cans of food each year, and is the largest food factory in Europe, and the largest canning plant in the world. In Britain, Heinz has the largest market share in tomato ketchup (80 percent), baked beans (70 percent), canned soup (70 percent), brown sauce (70 percent) and baby food.

Sauce material: an overview of brown sauce

HP is the highest-selling brown sauce in Britain and Canada. A1 has higher sales in the United States and Japan. Yorkshire Relish retains popularity in Ireland. OK sauce remains popular in China. In Japan they have their own brown sauce inspired by the English version called tonkatsu sauce.

Arguably the ur-type brown sauce was Lea & Perrins’ Worcestershire sauce. We don’t think of it as a brown sauce today, but its ingredients; molasses, vinegar, citrus fruits, tamarind, and its taste; sweet, bitter, savoury, tangy, spicy; almost certainly informed the earliest brown sauces.

The great celebrity chef of the early Victorian period, Alexis Soyer (1810 – 1858), formulated an early brown sauce, which was manufactured by Crosse & Blackwell from the late 1840s. His Sauce Succulente was described as, “thick, pulpy and of a reddish-brown colour. It contains vinegar, a considerable quantity of tomato, wheat flour, shallots, garlic, redcurrant jelly and several herbs”.

By the early 1850s the brown sauce market had been established. The products tended to include tomatoes, garlic, shallots, mushroom and walnut ketchup, raisins, tamarind, soybean, herbs, spices, and salt. Treacle and caramel were used for colour, and flour was used as a thickening agent. Some contained anchovies.

Brown sauce became popular as a byproduct of industrialisation. Meat that was imported from the country to the towns and cities was up to three days old, and brown sauce improved its flavour.

Henderson Brand introduced A1 sauce in 1862. The sauce contained tomatoes, raisins and orange marmalade.

Brand’s nephew George Mason introduced an imitation of A1 called OK in 1880. OK was thicker, and included more fruit, including mangoes and apples.

HP sauce was introduced in 1889. It is similar to A1 but thicker, and contains tamarind. Other ingredients in the original recipe include garlic, shallots, ground mace, tomato purée, cayenne pepper, ground ginger, raisins, flour, salt and malt vinegar.

HP, A1 and OK were all acquired by large conglomerates in the 1960s. HP was already the highest-selling brown sauce in Britain by this time. However its acquisition by Imperial Tobacco, one of the largest companies in the world, saw investment in new machinery at its factories and a huge increase in marketing spend. Large competitors, including Rank Hovis McDougall and Colman’s, could not compete with Imperial’s massive firepower, and one by one HP’s competitors faded away.

Brown sauce was highly regionalised in Britain as late as the 1970s, with HP the only national player. Daddies was strong in the South West, Fletcher’s was strong in the West and East Ridings of Yorkshire, while Heinz Ideal Sauce and Hammonds Chop Sauce were strong in the North Riding. OK sauce had a large share of the London market.

From the 1970s the supermarkets streamlined their product offerings, usually focussing on the market leader and an own-label brown sauce.

Yorkshire Relish: Goodall, Backhouse & Co

Yorkshire Relish was the highest-selling bottled sauce in the Victorian era. It was advertised as “the most delicious sauce in the world”.

Goodall, Backhouse & Co is established
Robert Goodall (1831-1870) was born in Market Weighton, Yorkshire. After serving an apprenticeship to a chemist, he established a small chemist’s shop on Wade Lane, Leeds from 1853.

Goodall entered into partnership with two chemists, William Powell (1836-1900), his brother-in-law and former apprentice, and Henry Backhouse (1829 – 1876), to acquire the business of Bell & Brooke, Leeds wholesale chemists, from Thomas Bell (1801 – 1878), who was retiring, in 1858.

The firm, now known as Goodall, Backhouse & Co, moved to Bell & Brooke’s larger premises at 46 Boar Lane. Goodall held 50 percent of the equity in the firm, and Backhouse and Powell each held a 25 percent stake.

Many chemists of the era branched out into consumer goods products, and Goodall began to manufacture “Yorkshire Relish” using a family recipe from 1865. It was a thin sauce, comparable to Worcestershire, but it was fruitier and did not contain anchovies.

The base of Yorkshire Relish consisted of shallots, soy sauce, garlic and malt vinegar. It was flavoured with 27 “Eastern spices” including black pepper. The sauce was matured in wooden vats for at least 14 months and up to three years.

yorkshirerelish

Robert Goodall died in 1870, and his stake in the business was inherited by William Powell. The firm relocated from Boar Lane to White Horse Street in 1873, and retail activities were discontinued. The firm developed as pharmaceutical wholesalers and sauce manufacturers. William Powell became sole proprietor of the business from 1876, following the death of Henry Backhouse.

Goodall Backhouse operated the largest sauce factory in the world by 1874. The steam-powered factory was largely mechanised, and occupied a six-floor building.

Every bottle of Yorkshire Relish was embossed with a willow tree logo to confer authenticity by 1870. Over 670,000 bottles of Yorkshire Relish were sold in August 1872. Yorkshire Relish holds trademark no. 3,101; it was among the first names to be registered when trademarks were introduced in 1876.

William Powell Bowman (1862 – 1955), the nephew of William Powell, entered the business from 1877.

Eight million bottles of Yorkshire Relish were sold in 1885. Yorkshire Relish even received a recommendation from Charles Perrins (1864 – 1958) of Lea & Perrins, manufacturers of the original Worcestershire sauce.

The White Horse Street factory was doubled in size in 1886. The business employed a workforce of 400, including 100 people directly involved in Yorkshire Relish production and bottling.

When asked to account for the popularity of Yorkshire Relish, W P Bowman responded; “it is good and cheap, never varies in its quality, and its uniform excellence is now thoroughly established”.

Goodall Backhouse advertised heavily, and had an annual marketing spend of £40,000 to £50,000 per annum by 1888.

Goodall Backhouse was involved in a landmark House of Lords legal case against the Birmingham Vinegar Brewery, who had begun to manufacture an imitation product which they branded as “Yorkshire Relish”, in the 1890s. The case ruled that only Goodall Backhouse could use the name. Powell spent £25,000 in legal fees to defend his trademark rights against other businesses between 1892 and 1900.

Under the astute leadership of William Powell the business became one of the largest sauce manufacturers in the world. There were around 500 employees at the firm by 1900.

William Powell Bowman takes control of the business
William Powell died a lifelong bachelor in 1900, and left the firm to two nephews. William Powell Bowman gained a two thirds stake, and Frank Boyce received one third.

The factories occupied some ten acres of floor space by 1907, and the wage bill ran to over £80,000 (£8.5 million in 2015). Thirteen million bottles of Yorkshire Relish were sold each year. It remained the highest selling sauce in the world as late as 1911.

Bowman bought the remaining third of the company from Boyce for £36,000 (around £2.7 million in 2015) in 1916. Bowman was joined by his eldest son, George Edward Bowman (1901 – 1979), from 1921.

Following the introduction of import tariffs in Ireland in 1933, Charles Ernest Hogg established Goodall’s of Ireland, which produced the sauce for that market under licence.

Goodall Backhouse became a limited company with a capital of £125,000 (£8 million in 2015) from 1934.

A thick version of Yorkshire Relish was introduced from 1935, under the initiative of George Edward Bowman. It was made from apples, tomatoes, dates, tamarinds and spices. It allegedly had a more subtle, and fruitier taste than rivals such as HP and Daddies.

Goodall Backhouse was awarded a royal warrant from George V.

The company’s drugs business and properties on White Horse Street in Leeds were spun off as a separate company called “Goodalls (Leeds), Ltd” in 1937. George Edward Bowman remained as a director of the drugs business. The remnant foods business, mostly employed in the manufacture of Yorkshire Relish, had a staff of over 300 people and a works located on Sovereign Street.

George Edward Bowman had taken over as managing director of Goodall Backhouse by 1947, with William Powell Bowman serving as governing chairman.

Death of W P Bowman and sale of the business
William Powell Bowman died in 1955. A reserved man, he was said to have never suffered a day of illness in his life.

Goodall Backhouse struggled in the wake of the death of W P Bowman. His successor, George Edward Bowman, was an excellent salesman, but not a natural business manager.

Goodall Backhouse was sold to Hammonds Sauce Co of Shipley, Yorkshire in 1959. Hammonds (then, as now) was a largely regional brand, whereas Yorkshire Relish had a national presence and a large export market.

Hammonds was acquired by Pillsbury in 1982. Pillsbury closed the Leeds factory in 1985 and relocated all Hammonds production to a new £1 million factory in Bradford.

Pillsbury was acquired by Grand Metropolitan in 1988 who sold Pillsbury UK to Dalgety in 1991. Dalgety sold Hammonds to Albert Fisher for £12 million later that year.

Yorkshire Relish was available in thin, thick, spicy and fruity varieties by 1994. Only the thick version was available by 1996.

Hammonds was acquired by Unigate in 1999. The thick version of Yorkshire Relish had been discontinued due to low sales by 2001.

The Bradford factory was closed in 2002 and production of Hammonds sauces was relocated to a former vinegar brewery in Lancashire.

Hammonds is currently owned by McCormick, the American spice company. McCormick also own the rights to the Yorkshire Relish trademark.

Thin Yorkshire Relish is still produced by Robert Roberts in Ireland. The product has a base of vinegar, sugar and soy sauce. The thick version is also produced, under the name “YR Sauce”.

Worth their salt: a history of Cerebos

Cerebos became the largest producer of salt in the world, and introduced the successful Bisto gravy brand to Britain. Cerebos salt remains a leading brand in France, South Africa and Australia.

Cerebos acquired a number of consumer food brands in Britain, including Sharwood’s, Saxa salt, Paxo stuffing, Scott’s Porage Oats and Atora suet.

George Weddell introduces Cerebos
George Weddell (1855 – 1916) was born at Kelso in the Scottish borders. He relocated to Newcastle upon Tyne from 1879 and established a reputation as a well-respected chemist.

Weddell was appointed managing director of the pharmacy subsidiary of Mawson & Swan. The firm was controlled by Joseph Swan (1828 – 1914), who had invented the incandescent light bulb in 1880.

Weddell developed a new pourable table salt in the late nineteenth century. By increasing the phosphate content to three percent the salt was less prone to absorb atmospheric moisture. A partnership was formed, Mawson, Swan & Weddell, in order to manufacture the new salt. Branded as “Cerebos”, the product was marketed for its healthful properties and quickly gained sales, particularly at the premium end of the market.

Cerebos helped to popularise the idea of a refined packaged salt, at a time when the product was normally sold in blocks which contained impurities.

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The business was registered as a company, Cerebos Ltd, in 1894. The company had a share capital of £250,000 (£24 million in 2014).

A factory was established in France in order to supply the Continental market in 1901.

Cerebos acquired the Greatham Salt and Brine Works near Hartlepool from Furness Withy for £33,500 (£3.2m in 2014) in 1904. Company headquarters were relocated from Newcastle to the newly-acquired site.

Saxa was launched as a lower-cost sister brand to Cerebos salt from 1909.

Bisto gravy powder, a mixture of salt, corn flour and caramel colouring, was introduced in 1910. It quickly became the second highest-selling product after Cerebos salt.

500 to 600 workers were employed at Greatham by 1916.

William Henry Collins grows the business
William Henry Collins (1873 – 1947) had entered the company as a salt loader in 1893. He worked his way up to sales manager of the London business. He was appointed chairman and managing director of Cerebos in 1918. Much of the subsequent growth of the business was credited to Collins.

The Middlewich Salt Company was acquired for £30,000 in 1919 in order to reduce the company’s dependence on a single manufacturing site.

The Greatham factory canteen in 1924
The Greatham factory canteen in 1924

The Greatham factory was one of the best-equipped food factories in the world by 1930. By this time Bisto outsold Cerebos salt, but both brands were household names, and Saxa continued to grow in popularity.

Millions of packets of salt were sold every month by 1937.

The French subsidiary was sold in 1938-9.

John Crampton of Wythenshawe in Manchester was acquired in 1939. Established in 1849, it originally specialised in pepper and spices, but by this time also produced Paxo, the leading brand of stuffing in Britain. Cerebos improved the distribution of Crampton products.

The Greatham factory employed nearly 1,000 people, mostly women, by 1944.

A subsidiary was established in South Africa in 1945.

William Henry Collins died in 1947 with an estate valued at £955,758. Throughout his life he had made charitable donations to the value of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Cerebos expands at home and overseas
Cerebos was the largest producer of domestic salt in the world by 1953.

A large new factory was established in Melbourne, Australia to produce Bisto and salt from 1953. Klembro, the manufacturer of Gravox gravy powder, was also acquired.

A&R Scott of Fife was acquired in a deal which valued the company at £600,000 in 1953. Best known for the Porage Oats brand, it was the largest producer of porridge in Britain, and employed 500 people.

Cerebos acquired Brand & Co, the Vauxhall-based producer of A1 sauce, for over £4 million (£83.1 million in 2014) in 1959.

Cerebos was valued at £40 million by 1961. By this time the company controlled the majority of the British salt-processing industry, and was the largest salt producer in the world. Greatham was the largest domestic saltworks in Britain. The company operated twelve factories in Britain, as well as plants in Ireland, Australia, France and Africa.

Canada Vinegars of Toronto was acquired in 1961 to provide a Canadian manufacturing and distribution base for Cerebos products.

Brand’s Chicken Essence had established strong sales in Asia by the early 1960s.

A factory for producing Cerebos and Saxa salt was established in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1962.

Sharwood of Sittingbourne in Kent, best known for Green Label chutney, was acquired for £1 million (£18.7 million in 2014) in 1962.

Hugon & Co of Manchester was acquired for £8.5 million (£159 million in 2014) in 1963. Hugon produced Atora, the leading suet brand in Britain.

A G Linfield, best known for Chesswood canned mushrooms, was acquired in 1963. Production was relocated to Vauxhall.

Diversification away from the core lines of salt, Bisto and Paxo had a negative impact on profit margins. Economies were found by rationalising production. The Sittingbourne factory was closed in 1966, and the Vauxhall factory was closed in 1967, with all production relocated to Greatham. Cerebos realised £900,000 from the sale of the Vauxhall site.

Overseas operations contributed to 15 percent of profits by 1968.

Cerebos enjoyed a strong reputation with retailers, and employed an efficient computer-controlled distribution network, with 16 depots. However its profits were stagnating. Salt suffered from low growth, and many of its other product lines, such as porridge, were declining.

Acquisition by Rank Hovis McDougall
Rank Hovis McDougall (RHM), one of the largest food producers in Britain, acquired Cerebos for £61 million (£944.8 million in 2014) in 1968. The merger created a group with a market capitalization of over £180 million (£2.8 billion in 2014). It was a gentlemanly merger, completed after two months of negotiations.

An article in The Sunday Times argued that RHM had paid “£10 million too much” for “brand leaders in virtually stagnant or declining markets; plus a lot of also-rans”. Scott’s had lost its market leadership in porridge to Quaker Oats and Ready Brek. Brand’s meat and fish paste sales were dwarfed by Shippam’s and Sutherland, and Crosse & Blackwell, Epicure and Marela led Sharwood in pickle sales.

Salt manufacturing was centralised at Middlewich in Cheshire from 1970. RHM invested heavily at the Greatham plant, and it was their largest food factory. Its principal products were, in order, canned soups, Brand’s Essence of Chicken and Beef, Brand’s pastes and spreads and Sharwood’s. 30 million cans of soup were produced every year.

Production of Atora suet and Chesswood mushrooms were transferred to Greatham in 1974. The increase in production saw 1,000 people employed at the site.

Saxa displaced Cerebos as the highest-selling salt in Britain from the 1970s onwards.

Bisto instant gravy granules, the first of its kind in the world, were launched in 1976.

RHM sold the Canadian subsidiary to Campbell’s Soup in 1979.

RHM sold A&R Scott to Quaker Oats in 1982.

RHM established a separate subsidiary, Cerebos Pacific, to handle its growing Asian sales in 1982. Brand’s Chicken Essence contributed to 84 percent of Asian sales.

RHM sold a 30 percent stake in Cerebos Pacific in 1984.

RMH divested Cerebos South Africa in the 1980s.

RHM sold its 70 percent stake in Cerebos Pacific to Suntory of Japan for £186 million in 1990.

460 people were employed at the Middlewich site in 1991.

The 18-acre Greatham site was closed with the loss of 180 jobs in 2001.

RHM was acquired by Premier Foods for £1.2 billion in 2007.

Saxa, Bisto, Sharwood, Paxo and Atora all lead their respective categories in Britain. Cerebos salt remains popular in France, Australia and South Africa, and is still sold in Britain.

Crunch time: Britain’s crisp wars

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.

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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.

 

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

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.

More than OK: George Mason & Co

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.

Biscuit empire: Huntley & Palmers (Part I)

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.

 

A breath of fresh air: Callard & Bowser

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.

A history of Terry’s of York

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.