Fox’s Glacier Mints are the leading mint-flavoured boiled sweets in Britain.
Walter Fox establishes the business
Walter Richard Fox (1862 – 1951) was born to a Baptist Leicestershire farming family. He built up a wholesale grocery business on York Road in Leicester.
Fox was an inventor, and began to manufacture confectionery from 1895. He was producing over 100 different lines by 1897.
Eric Fox joins the business and introduces Glacier Mints
Walter Fox was joined in business by his son, Eric Smart Fox (1890 – 1963), from 1914. Eric Fox had spent four years in the United States in order to learn American business methods and advertising techniques. Eric Fox became the driving force of the company, and persuaded his father to move away from low-cost sweets and produce premium-priced confectionery.
Eric Fox invented the Glacier Mint, which would on to become the leading product for the business, by mistake during the First World War. It was the first time a transparent peppermint sweet had been introduced. Wartime obstacles prevented Fox from installing the necessary machinery to mass produce the product. Clear Mint Fingers were finally introduced from 1918, and were sold in large glass jars. Acting on his wife’s advice, Fox renamed the sweets Glacier Mints from 1919, and introduced the polar bear trademark.
Eric Fox drove the growth of the company from a purely local business to a national concern. He believed in the potential for Glacier Mints, and advertised extensively in newspapers.
Expanding sales saw the business relocate to Oxford Street, Leicester from 1923. Production was increased eightfold. The export market began to be pursued from 1924.
Eric Fox would later relate that he had not set out to make a lot of money, but to serve the public with a quality product.
Walter Fox retired from the business in 1935.
A factory was established in Castlereagh, Belfast, from 1954. Around 200 people were employed.
Fox’s Glacier Fruits were introduced from 1956.
Eric Smart Fox died with an estate valued at £150,000 in 1963. He was succeeded as chairman by his son, Bruce Vaughan Fox (born 1918).
The Castlereagh plant was closed with the loss of around 100 jobs in 1964.
The Fox family sell the business; subsequent owners
Fox’s relocated to purpose-built premises at Braunstone, Leicester, from 1967. It was the most modern automated confectionery plant in Europe. The business employed around 400 people.
Fox’s had taken on debt in order to build the new factory, and consequently lacked sufficient capital for expansion. The company was acquired by Mackintosh & Son of Halifax for almost £1 million in cash (around £14 million in 2014) in 1969. It was reasoned that Mackintosh would be able to improve distribution of Fox’s products and increase exports. Mackintosh was acquired by Rowntree later that year.
The Leicester factory began to produce the fruit-flavoured variants of Rowntree’s Polo mint brand from the 1980s.
Rowntree was acquired by Nestle of Switzerland in 1988.
Declining sales meant that the future of the Leicester factory was in doubt by 2000. The business was saved when it was acquired by Northern Foods for £8.4 million in 2001. Nestle relocated production of the fruit-flavoured Polo mints to a factory in the Czech Republic. Northern Foods closed its Croydon confectionery factory, and relocated production of Paynes Poppets and Just Brazils brands to the Leicester site.
Fox’s was subject to a £9.4 million management buyout in 2003. Renamed as the Big Bear Group, the business acquired other brands such as Sugar Puffs cereal.
Big Bear was acquired by Raiso Group of Finland for £80 million in 2011. Raiso was best known for the Benecol health drink.
Fox’s employed around 150 people in 2014. Its leading brands were Glacier Mints, XXX strong mints, Payne’s Poppets and Just Brazils.
Big Bear Confectionery was sold to Valeo Foods in 2017.
The Leicester factory was closed in 2019 and production was transferred to York.
Watney’s Red Barrel had become the highest-selling keg bitter in the world by the mid-1960s. The beer’s relaunch as Watney’s Red in 1971 represented one of the most notorious failures in brand management in recent British history. What went wrong?
The birth of Watney’s Red Barrel
Watney, Combe & Reid was formed by the amalgamation of three London breweries in 1898. Production was concentrated at the Watney brewery at Mortlake, and the Reid and Combe sites were closed. Watney, Combe & Reid was the third largest brewer in the British Isles, behind only Guinness and Bass.
Watney, Combe & Reid was the second most highly valued public company in Britain in 1905, and members of the founding families grew hugely wealthy. Charles Combe (1837 – 1920) died with a net estate valued at £956,139, or over £374 million in 2023 prices. Claude Watney (1867 – 1920) left a net estate valued at £498,461 (approx. £195 million in 2023).
Watney, Combe & Reid introduced the Red Barrel as their in-house trademark from 1930.
A Watney’s Red Barrel beer font. Image used with permission.
Watney, Combe & Reid was the first British brewer to successfully introduce a draught “container beer” in 1931. Unlike cask conditioned beer would only remain fresh for days, container beer was filtered, pasteurised and stored under pressure with carbon dioxide, which allowed it to retain its condition for months. The beer could withstand tropical heat and a lengthy shipping period, which rendered it ideal for export. The product was soon available in outlets where cask beer could not be sold, such as Royal Navy ships, Cunard liners and Middle Eastern oil fields.
Watney’s Container Bitter was introduced to the domestic market from 1935. It was initially sold at the East Sheen Lawn Tennis Club, where its improved shelf life was to prove ideal for the intermittent trade of a sports club. Sales were expanded to other clubs and hotels.
Watney’s Red Barrel is rolled out
Simon Harvey Combe (1903 – 1965) was appointed chairman of Watney, Combe & Reid in 1950. He was a forceful figure who had shot his way out of German captivity during the Second World War and been awarded with the Military Cross.
Following the war a large proportion of the managers of free houses had neither the time nor the experience to correctly handle cask beer, and quality had suffered. Customers increasingly turned to bottled beer, which, although more expensive, offered more consistent quality, and accounted for one third of beer sales by 1953. Catering to this trend, Watney’s Red Barrel was introduced as a bottled pale ale from 1950.
Meanwhile Watney, Combe & Reid began to expand outside of its London heartland. Tamplin & Sons of Brighton, with 400 public houses in Sussex, was acquired in 1953. Henty & Constable of Chichester, with 253 licensed premises in Sussex and Hampshire, was acquired in 1954.
Flowers Breweries of Luton and Stratford upon Avon launched Flowers Keg in May 1955. It was the first container beer to be introduced to the mass market, and popularised “keg” as a generic term. Flowers initially distributed the beer to free trade outlets across London and the South East of England with insufficient sales to stock cask beer, such as golf clubs and private parties, or public houses with insufficient cellar space. Demand for Flowers Keg was to prove surprisingly high, and the product was soon distributed across the brewery’s tied estate and sold to rival brewers.
The success of Flowers Keg convinced Watney, Combe & Reid to introduce the keg version of Red Barrel to British public houses from 1956. It was brewed with Norfolk malt and Goldings hops, and was naturally matured for several weeks. Sales initially targeted free trade outlets, and cask beer continued to dominate the tied estate.
Watney, Combe & Reid acquired Mann, Crossman & Paulin of Whitechapel to form Watney Mann in 1958. The merger allowed the group to reclaim its position as one of the largest brewers in Britain, and strengthened Watney’s position in hitherto underrepresented markets such as Essex, Luton and Coventry. Production was concentrated at the Mortlake and Whitechapel breweries, which were modernised.
Watney’s Red Barrel was the most widely-distributed keg beer by the late 1950s, aided by the brewery’s large tied estate of 3,670 public houses and extensive free trade accounts.
Watney Mann fights the takeover threat
Charles Clore (1904 – 1979) had become a pioneer of the hostile takeover in Britain in the early 1950s. He bought companies that had undervalued property assets, which he then sold and leased back, or redeveloped. Clore commented, “in some businesses the profits earned show that existing assets are not being employed in the fullest capacity… [no] business can afford to have its resources remaining stagnant.”
Clore attempted to acquire Watney Mann for £27 million in 1959, in what was the largest takeover bid in British history. Clore planned to modernise the “smoky, smelly, barnlike premises” of Watney Mann by introducing comfortable seating, removing the distinction between saloon and public bars, and improving the food offering. Pubs in areas with high footfall, such as city centres, would be sold off and converted into shops.
The directors of Watney Mann, descendants of the founding families, were horrified. According to TIME magazine, Clore was “the first outsider ever to challenge the clubby, clannish old families who dominate British brewing through a tangle of interlocking directorates”. The Evening Standard commented on the threat, “it threw the whole brewery world into confusion. Here was an outsider trying to storm his way in. It must not be allowed to happen”. Simon Combe was convinced that Clore would “redevelop all the properties and close the breweries”, and that his workforce would lose their jobs. He derided the bid as, “preposterous … deplorable for the brewing industry and a disaster for Watney’s”.
The takeover attempt was to ultimately prove unsuccessful, but it became apparent that Watney Mann was not immune to the threat of market forces. The management team were galvanised. The company property portfolio was reassessed for the first time since 1929 and valued at £34 million. The Stag brewery site at Pimlico was sold off for £6 million. Watney sped up plans to modernise its tied estate of public houses, and Milner Gray (1899 – 1997) was hired to design a new corporate identity.
Watney’s Red Barrel grows and cask ale is phased out
Watney Mann continued to expand by acquisition in order to meet demand for additional brewing capacity. 1960 saw the acquisition of Phipps, with 1,171 licensed premises within a 60-mile radius of Northampton, for £11 million, Ushers of Trowbridge with 900 licensed premises for £4 million and Wilson & Walker of Manchester, with around 1,124 public houses, for nearly £11.5 million. Watney Mann ended the year as the largest brewing group in Britain, with around 6,600 licensed premises.
Keg beer sales grew, initially at the expense of bottled beers. Customers, particularly the young, appreciated the consistent taste, and it commanded a premium price and superior profit margins. Watney’s Red Barrel was heavily advertised, and was the highest-selling keg bitter in Britain by 1961, with estimated annual sales of around 150,000 barrels, mostly concentrated in the South of England and London.
Watney’s Red Barrel became the first nationally-distributed draught beer in Britain. The success of keg saw the introduction of rival beers from the national brewers, including Whitbread Tankard, Worthington E, Younger’s Tartan Special, Double Diamond and Courage Tavern.
Watney Mann held 34,000 free trade accounts by 1963. Cask beer had been phased out from the 2,000 tied houses in London and the South of England by the end of 1963, and the Manchester and West Country houses were earmarked to follow.
Watney’s Red Barrel was successfully introduced overseas. A higher strength version with an ABV of 5.2 percent was exported to northern France and Belgium from 1962. Nearly 5,000 barrels of Red Barrel were exported to Northern Europe in 1965. A modified version of Watney’s Red Barrel, reformulated to suit the American palate, was introduced in the United States from 1963 and was sold in 100 outlets by 1967. Licensed production of Red Barrel commenced at the Murphy’s brewery in Cork, Ireland, from 1966.
It was claimed that Watney’s Red Barrel was the highest-selling keg beer in the world by 1966. Peter Crossman (1908 – 1989), who had succeeded Simon Combe as chairman of Watney Mann, predicted that cask beer would be extinct by 1978. This view was echoed by A G Manners, the chairman of Bass, who commented, “people today want a beer which they know is standard and always in proper condition- which they cannot always get today in cask beer”.
Watney Mann continued to expand by acquisitions throughout the 1960s. The takeover targets included the Morgan Brewery of Norwich (1961); Bullard & Sons and Steward & Patteson of Norwich (1963), with 1,800 public houses for £16.5 million; and Drybrough of Edinburgh (1965), with 140 tied houses, for £2 million.
Peter Crossman became convinced that the British beer market was saturated, and decided to expand into continental Europe. The Delbruyers brewery of Chatelet was acquired in 1966 and the site was used to brew Watney’s Red Barrel. This was followed by the acquisition of Brasseries Vandenheuvel of Brussels with 1,740 outlets (1968) and Maes with 700 outlets (1969) to position Watney Mann as the second largest brewer in Belgium.
Watney Mann announced plans to centralise production at its breweries in Mortlake, Manchester, Norwich and Edinburgh in 1970. The Trowbridge, Whitechapel and Brighton breweries would be closed. Production of cask ales had largely ceased by this time, and local names would be phased out in favour of the Watney brand. A range of 80 beers in 1969 had been rationalised to 35 by 1971.
Watney’s Red Barrel is replaced by Watney’s Red
Watney’s Red Barrel volumes peaked in 1969. Sales then entered into decline and fell behind rivals Double Diamond and Whitbread Tankard. Double Diamond offered greater consistency than Red Barrel, as it was only brewed in one place: Burton upon Trent, and it was believed that its sweeter taste and higher strength rendered it more appealing. Meanwhile it was claimed that Red Barrel suffered from inferior marketing.
For Julian Crawshay (1923 – 2009), a marketing director for Watney Mann, “a beer developed for the 1950s is not right for the 1970s”. A spokesman for Leo Burnett, the Watney Mann advertising agency, described Red Barrel as “a golf club beer, all bitter and sharp”. Watney’s Red Barrel would be replaced by a new product which would appeal to the growing 18-35 demographic. Leo Burnett account manager Gordon Barrett emphasised, “the flow of continuity really had to be punctured quite severely”.
Watney’s Red was introduced in April 1971 following two years of development and experimentation with 30 different recipes. It was a “completely different beer”, crafted to be darker, fizzier and slightly sweeter. Watney Mann marketing director Giles Myrtle described how the new beer offered “a better palate”, with more body, a smooth mouthfeel, a creamy head and good lacing.
Watney’s Red was designed as a session beer, with greater drinkability and less of an aftertaste. Julian Crawshay explained, “we were looking for the customer who settles in his local pub and drinks eight or ten pints in an evening”.
For writer Frank Baillie the beer was “well balanced … with a burnt malty characteristic”. Meanwhile The Economist opined that the new product tasted “bland”. Journalist Roger Protz recalled that it tasted “like liquid Mars bars”.
A Watney’s Red Revolution print advertisement from 1971. Designed by C.R Holland.
The product launch for Watney’s Red was supported by a £500,000 television and poster campaign. Controversially, portrayals of Castro, Khrushchev and Mao were used alongside with the tagline, “long live the Watney’s Red revolution”. Cowl conversion on 30,000 Red Barrel keg dispensers cost a further £100,000. Pub interiors and exteriors were painted red in order to promote the new beer.
Watney Mann claimed that Red was “the most successful” new beer introduction “for years”.’ Watney’s Red initially enjoyed a 15 percent sales boost against Red Barrel, and was the brewery’s most profitable beer, although Watney’s Special Bitter sold in slightly higher volume. Around 350,000 barrels of Watney’s Red were produced in 1972, accounting for between 20 to 25 percent of Watney Mann sales.
The public backlash
Watney Mann was subject to a hostile takeover by Grand Metropolitan, the owner of Truman’s Brewery of London and a host of hospitality concerns, for £405 million in 1972. At the time it represented the largest takeover in British history. The acquisition placed Grand Metropolitan in control of over one third of London’s public houses.
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) pressure group had been established in 1971. CAMRA rallied against the rise of keg beer, which it argued lost much of its flavour due to the process of filtration and pasteurisation. Robert B Semple Jr of the New York Times reported:
Public Enemy Number One for CAMRA is Watney’s, in part because the standardized exterior of a Watney pub, with its bright red background and white lettering, seems to CAMRA to typify the kind of corporate thinking that produces the homogenized beer sold within.
A Watney Mann spokesman characterised CAMRA members as a “cranky bunch”, and cited market research that supposedly demonstrated that the public preferred keg beer.
Watney’s paraphernalia on display in Carry On Abroad (1972)
Watney’s Red sales began to decline following a successful launch, and volumes remained stubbornly behind those of Double Diamond. The recipe was adjusted twice to increase ABV and original gravity in 1973. Richard Boston (1938 – 2006), a beer writer for The Guardian, derided the tactic as “desperate”, and argued that “Watney’s themselves are becoming uncomfortably aware that people don’t like their beer”.
A “word-of-mouth campaign [had] degenerated Watney and its products; a campaign that started as a whisper and built up to such a roar that some observers felt that the very existence of Watney as ‘a name’ was at stake”, wrote Kenneth Gooding of the Financial Times.
The impact of cost-cutting
Why did Watney Mann become the target for the most virulent criticism from CAMRA? There is evidence to suggest that Watney beers really did taste worse than those of their competitors.
An anonymous former head brewer of a Drybrough subsidiary told The Scotsman, “it had got to the stage in the industry where we were brewing by committee. The market research men said what they wanted, then the accountants and everyone else. It seems the brewer’s palate came a long way down the line”. John Keeling, who worked as a laboratory technician for Watney Mann during the 1970s, echoed this view, arguing that the company, “seemed to manage by formula and brew beer by formula. What drove them was how to use science to make beer cheaper, not better”.*
The evidence of cost-cutting is clear. The company brewed with a grist of up to 50 percent raw barley with added bacterial enzymes in an effort to lower production costs from 1971. The proportion of raw barley had been increased to up to 70 percent of the grist from 1973.** The beer was also subject to excessive pasteurisation, and was, according to Keeling, “well oxidised by the time it reached four weeks, to be honest … the predominant flavour at shelf life was oxidised beer. But [Watney’s] didn’t seem to care about that, because they weren’t as interested in flavour.”***
Watney Mann responds
Concerned by criticism of the company, as well as by falling sales of its flagship beer, Grand Metropolitan installed Anthony Tennant (1931 – 2011) as marketing and sales director for Watney Mann in late 1973. Following a market research study Watney Mann acknowledged that the introduction of Watney’s Red had “backfired”. Marketing director Stephen Lewis explained, “people felt that we had over-rationalised our products after taking over smaller breweries”.
Tennant withdrew marketing support for Watney’s Red from 1975, and Ben Truman Export Draught was offered as an alternative premium keg bitter. Double Diamond and Whitbread Tankard continued to lead in sales, and Watney’s Red had fallen behind Worthington E, Younger’s Tartan Special and Courage Tavern by 1976.
Tennant introduced Watney’s Fined Bitter, a cask beer served under pressure, to the London tied estate in early 1976. A Watney’s spokesman commented, “this is a commercial move, not a labour of love. There is now a demand for traditional beers and we are climbing aboard the bandwagon”. The beer was later renamed Stag.
In a bid to rescue the company’s reputation local brands such as Tamplin’s, Usher’s and Wilson’s were revived, and greater autonomy was devolved to nine regional subsidiaries from September 1976. Scheduled brewery closures at Trowbridge and Halifax were reversed. Pub exteriors were now painted “varying shades of anything but red”, reported the Vancouver Sun. Efforts were made to reach out to CAMRA.
In 1977 a Watney’s spokesman admitted, “we used to think it was good to be big. Today we think it’s good to be small”. Watney’s London Bitter, a traditional unpressurised cask bitter, was introduced in 1978. Plastic and chrome public house interior decoration began to be phased out in the late 1970s. New pub signs emphasised local and traditional beers.
Red is dead and the re-emergence of cask beer
Following years of low sales, Grand Metropolitan announced that Watney’s Red would be discontinued in May 1979. The fate of the beer was “a constant warning to over-zealous marketing men in any industry who try to push traditional consumer tastes too far, too fast”, argued David Manasian in Management Today.
Cask ale was sold across half of Watney’s tied estate by 1979. The company produced 14 different cask ales by 1980. Webster’s Yorkshire Bitter was introduced from 1982 and became the core cask ale brand. Pressurised cask beer had been phased out by 1983.
The Red Barrel corporate logo was discontinued in 1982. Watney’s Red Barrel continued to be produced for overseas markets, where the brand lacked the noxious reputation it had developed in Britain, including the United States and Belgium, where it had become the highest selling pale ale by 1984.
Grand Metropolitan acquired Ruddles Brewery of Rutland in order to increase its presence in the cask ale market for £14 million in 1986. The brewery received a £5 million investment in order to double output, and a further £1 million was spent on advertising the brand.
Watney Mann exits the brewing industry
The Belgian brewing interests were divested for £28 million in 1986. Drybrough, with 187 public houses, was sold to Allied Lyons for £48.5 million in 1987.
Grand Metropolitan sold its brewing interests to Courage for £316 million in 1991. Watney’s branded products such as Special Bitter and Special Mild had been discontinued by the mid-1990s. Red Barrel continued to be sold in the United States until the mid-1990s. Red Barrel remained available in Belgium, France and Spain into the late 1990s.
What remains of Watney Mann? Watney’s Scotch Ale survives in Belgium, and Mann’s Brown Ale remains available throughout Britain.
Postscript
What is the lesson of the history of Watney’s Red? It is a cautionary tale of what can happen when marketing and cost-cutting become overly powerful. What ultimately matters with a drinks brand is that its taste resonates with the customer base. Brands die when company management loses sight of the fundamentals.
Further reading
* The blogs of Boak & Bailey and Ron Pattinson are invaluable sources of Watney Mann information.
* The Red Barrel: a history of Watney Mann by Hurford Janes (1963)
Bovril beef extract was introduced into Britain in 1886. The product was a great success, and the business grew to become one of the largest companies in Britain.
Background and introduction of Bovril
John Lawson Johnston (1839 – 1900) was an Edinburgh butcher with an interest in military and medical provisions. He developed Johnston’s Fluid Beef, a beef broth product, in the 1860s.
Johnston described his manufacturing process. He used steam to separate the albumin from the beef. The albumin was mixed with lean beef which had had all of its water, fat and gelatine removed. The mixture was then dried and ground to a fine powder. This powder was then added to beef extract to create Fluid Beef.
Johnston won a three-year contract to supply one million tin cans of Fluid Beef to the French army in 1874. He established operations in Canada in order to be closer to his source of beef.
A caricature of John Lawson Johnston (1839 – 1900) by Spy for Vanity Fair (1897)
Johnston began to produce a concentrated version of Fluid Beef, which enjoyed lower distribution costs, from 1875.
The Canadian operations were destroyed by fire in 1884. Johnston returned to Britain, “intending to do nothing. But before long I found idleness too hard work”. Johnston discovered a new way to make albumin soluble which created an improved beef extract he called Bovril. He established a modest factory at Trinity Square, London with a staff of two people, and introduced Bovril to Britain in 1886. Johnston was inspired whilst smoking a cigar to name the product by combining the Latin “bo” meaning ox, with “vril”, the mysterious life-force in the novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s The Coming Race (1871).
The classic bulbous brown Bovril bottles were introduced from 1888, by which time the product was distributed throughout 3,000 pubs and shops.
Bovril enters into mass production
The Bovril company was registered with a capital of £150,000 in 1889. Anew factory was established at Old Street, London.
Virol malt tonic was introduced from 1889, followed by Stelna corned beef.
Beef began to be sourced from Argentina and Uruguay from 1890.
Bovril was one of the first consumer goods to be advertised on a large scale. Advertising focused on its healthful properties. Pope Leo XIII (1810 – 1903) endorsed the product in advertisements, as he did for coca wine (a predecessor of Coca-Cola). An electric sign advertising Bovril was erected at Ludgate Circus, London from 1892.
The London factory employed over 200 people by 1896.
The Bovril advertisement on Ludgate Circus, London (1918)
The lightweight and nutritious properties of Bovril led to it being taken on expeditions by the likes of Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton. Edmund Hillary brought it with him on the Everest Expedition.
Bovril flotation
The Bovril company was sold to the financier E T Hooley (1842 – 1903) for £2 million in 1896. Johnston had privately believed that even £1.5 million would be a ridiculous price to pay for the business.
Hooley floated the company for £2.5 million, but stripped the business of its working capital, and promised higher dividends than the company could afford. Hooley walked away with his profit, but Johnston, who remained as chairman, was forced to loan the company £150,000 just to keep it afloat.
Bovril was available in over 100,000 retail establishments by 1896, as well as most hospitals and infirmaries.
George Lawson Johnston takes over as chairman
John Lawson Johnston died in 1900, and was succeeded by his son George Lawson Johnston (1873 – 1943) as chairman of Bovril.
Bovril was ranked as the 35th largest British company as measured by share capital in 1905.
George Lawson Johnston (1873 – 1943) in 1940.
Bovril’s principal meat supplier entered into an exclusive contract with Liebig’s, its main rival, in 1906. In order to ensure supply, Bovril acquired half a million acres of land in Argentina in 1908. Beef also continued to be sourced from Australia and New Zealand.
Bovril was a major supplier to the British armed forces during the First World War. The company earned the goodwill of the British public by its refusal to increase the price of its product during the conflict.
Bovril acquired Marmite of Burton-upon-Trent and Ambrosia, a Devon-based producer of milk-based desserts, in 1924.
The Old Street factory was capable of producing 57,600 bottles of Bovril every day by 1927.
Bovril, with 310,000 cattle, had the largest herd under single ownership in Argentina by 1930. The company owned 1.3 million acres in Argentina and nine million acres in Australia.
20 to 30 pounds of good quality, lean beef were used to make one pound of Bovril.
Bovril had a market value of £10.8 million by 1930, making it the 23rd most highly-valued company in Britain.
According to a profile of Bovril for TIME magazine in 1932:
a meeting of the Bovril directorate would resemble a meeting of the British Cabinet, were it not for the fact that the Bovril board has the honor of including a member of the royal family (addicted to Bovril since Edward VII) but whose name is discreetly withheld.
Stelna had been rebranded as Bovril corned beef by 1936.
Ambrosia Creamed Rice was introduced in 1936.
The Old Street factory was hit three times during the Blitz, but a total of only four working days were lost.
Post-war period
The Argentina cattle were descended from Bovril-bred pedigree bulls from Ampthill in Bedfordshire. The Santa Elena abattoir employed 3,000 skilled workers, and was one of the most modern factories in Argentina.
An advertisement from the early 1900s. Bovril had Papal approval
Bovril, Ambrosia creamed rice and Bovril corned beef were all market leaders in Britain by 1957.
The Old Street factory broke a new record when 131,868 bottles of Bovril were produced in a single day in 1961. Production volumes of Bovril began to decline from the mid-1960s.
Bovril instant beef stock was launched in 1966. The Ambrosia purchase brought with it dairies, and Bovril processed 42 million gallons of milk in 1966.
Production of Bovril was relocated from Old Street to Burton-upon-Trent, in the English Midlands, from 1967.
Acquisition by Cavenham Foods
Bovril was acquired by Cavenham Foods, controlled by James Goldsmith (1933 – 1997) for £14.5 million in 1971. Goldsmith had identified the Bovril management, led by Lord Luke (1905 – 1996), as clueless.
Bovril’s dairy interests, including three dairies in Devon and two in Ireland, were sold six weeks later to Grand Metropolitan for £6.3 million. The Bovril Argentinian interests were divested for £3 million in 1973.
Cavenham focused on marketing the three principal brands: Bovril, Marmite and Ambrosia.
Bovril advertisement c.1900
Subsequent ownership
Bovril (including Marmite and Ambrosia) was sold to Beecham, a drugs and consumer goods company, for £42 million in cash in 1980. Bovril employed 1,400 people in Britain across sites in Burton-upon-Trent and Devon. Beecham planned to use its international marketing expertise to increase sales worldwide.
Following a merger with SmithKline Beckman, Beecham decided to focus on its pharmaceuticals business, and sold Bovril (including Marmite and Ambrosia) to CPC, an American food company which owned Hellman’s mayonnaise and Knorr, for £157 million in cash in 1990. The number of employees had halved to 700 since 1980.
Ten million jars of Bovril were sold in 1994. Production had halved by 1998.
CPC (now renamed Best Foods) was acquired by Unilever in 2001. Unilever sold Ambrosia to Premier Foods for £105 million in 2003.
In the wake of an European Community ban on the export of British beef, Unilever changed the composition of Bovril from beef stock to yeast extract from 2004. The ban was lifted in 2006, and Bovril began to be made from beef again.
3.5 million jars of Bovril were consumed in Britain in 2009. Bovril also has a large export market in Malaysia, Singapore and China.
The protein content of Bovril was increased by 15 percent in 2017.
W H Smith had almost 1,300 branches, a turnover of over £1.1 billion and just under 15,000 employees in 2013.
Early history
Henry Walton Smith (1738 – 1792) established a news stand on The Strand, London, in 1792. Smith died just a few months later and was eventually succeeded by his son, William Henry Smith. The business became involved in distributing newspapers throughout the provinces.
W H Smith opened his first railway station bookstall at Euston in 1848. Railways were the booming industry of the period. W H Smith had bookstalls on all the major railway lines, and many secondary lines, by the 1860s. W H Smith and its main newsagent rival John Menzies, were the first large-scale retail chains to emerge in Britain.
The business became a partnership when William Henry Smith was joined by his son, William Henry Smith II.
The Smith’s bookstalls became a national symbol in Victorian England. Annual turnover had surpassed £1 million (c. £115 million in 2014) by 1888.
Inevitably, the railway companies became greedy and began to demand extortionate rents from the highly profitable news stands. Smith’s realised that its bookstalls received about half of their business from non-train users. Worried about its dependence on the railway companies, Smith’s began to open stores on high streets from 1905.
8,285 people were employed by 1911. In 1914-5 turnover topped £2 million (c.£200 million in 2014), and reached £4.2 million (c. £220 million) by 1924-5.
W H Smith opened their first branch overseas in Paris in 1903. Brussels followed in 1920 and in 1936 the Queen Mary liner got its own branch.
In 1929 the partnership was registered as a private limited company in order to pay the death duties of Freddy Smith.
By 1933 Smith’s had 48 wholesale branches, 311 bookshops and 1,400 bookstalls. The company employed around 13,500 people and was one of the single largest employers in the country.
Smith’s goes public
By 1947-8 turnover was £10.4 million (£355 million). In 1948, W H Smith was valued at £9.75 million. William Smith, 3rd Viscount Hambleden, died that year, and his stake in the company was valued at £8.2 million. Smith’s was forced to go public in 1949 in order to fund the 75 percent death duty owed to the government.
The Canadian market was entered in 1950, when the first shop opened in Toronto.
In 1955, 18,104 people were employed at the company.
In 1951 there were 944 railway stalls, but by 1971 this number had fallen to 319. This reflected a trend towards high street outlets, which were larger and more profitable. In the 1960s outlets of a previously unprecedented size were opened in Bradford, Brighton, Stockport and Nottingham.
Smith’s ran a private library service until 1961. It was never particularly profitable, but the company reasoned that it attracted visitors to the stalls, who often bought other items. Lower book costs and the rise of the public library spelled the end for the venture. However, the loss of the library trade was more than made up for by Smith’s taking on gramophone records and cassette tape sales.
Smith’s employed capital of over £21 million in 1965 (around £365 million in 2014). By 1966 the company had 19,547 employees.
W H Smith was one of the fastest growing British companies during the 1970s.
In 1992 the W H Smith Group employed 29,320 people worldwide, including around 26,000 in the UK.
By 1996 the company had a turnover of £2.7 billion and 33,000 employees.
In 1996 the head office was mostly relocated from London to Swindon in order to reduce costs.
Today, around half of Smith’s units are in “travel” locations (railway stations, airports, motorway services) and half are located on high streets.
Smith’s had almost 1,300 branches, a turnover of over £1.1 billion and just under 15,000 employees in 2013. There were over 1,700 stores by 2020, mainly driven by international growth.
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.
Origins of the business
West & Wyatt was established in London in 1706. The firm had a sizable trade in salted fish and held Royal Warrants to supply George III, George IV and William IV.
Edmund Crosse (1804 – 1862) and Thomas Blackwell (1804 – 1879) joined West & Wyatt as apprentices in 1819, and became firm friends. Richard West died in 1824 and William Wyatt retired in 1830. Crosse and Blackwell borrowed £600 and acquired the business. Supposedly, Crosse sourced the ingredients and Blackwell created the recipes. Early products included fish sauce and Soho sauce, an accompaniment to game.
Relocation to Soho Square; mass production begins
Crosse & Blackwell received a Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria in 1837. The business grew to employ 21 people. The expanding business relocated from 11 King Street (now Shaftesbury Avenue) to 21 Soho Square in 1839.
Crosse & Blackwell became the first business in the world to mass produce jam from 1841.
Crosse & Blackwell had a capital of £26,000 in 1844. The business had a particularly successful export trade, and produced 75 different sauces and pickles and 25 varieties of soup, as well as potted meats, jams and honey. Preserved foods were luxury items, aimed at the wealthy.
Crosse & Blackwell opened the first large-scale salmon cannery in the world in Cork, Ireland, in 1849.
Crosse & Blackwell grew due to a rise in luxury food sales, and a steadfast dedication to quality. Standards of freshness and cleanliness were paramount.
Crosse & Blackwell employed 126 people in 1851.
A second Soho Square building was acquired in 1857.
Mushroom ketchup ranked as the firm’s most popular sauce in 1857, with 77,000 litres sold that year. 120,000 tins of sardines were sold in 1859, and 300 tons of sugar were used in jam-making.
Crosse & Blackwell was the leading preserved goods producer in the world by 1860. Nearly one million jars of pickles were produced every year, using over 100,000 gallons of vinegar. 249 people were regularly employed, with hundreds more employed as seasonal workers. A contractor in East Ham employed 400 women to pick and prepare 12,000 bushels of onions every year.
Edmund Crosse died with an estate valued at £140,000 in 1862.
Edmund Meredith Crosse (1846 – 1918) and Thomas Francis Blackwell (1838 – 1907) followed their fathers into the business.
Crosse & Blackwell operated 38,000 square feet of factory and warehouse space in the Soho Square area by 1865. Nearly 400 people were employed.
British trading links with India saw the introduction of products with an Eastern influence such as Major Grey’s Chutney, Colonel Skinner’s Mango Relish and Captain White’s Oriental Pickle.
By 1867 the business used one ton of sugar daily, and annually 240,000 gallons of vinegar. 450 tons of fruit were preserved. 200,000 gallons of pickles were produced.
Continued expansion resulted in premises at Soho Square, Sutton Place, George Yard, Denmark Street, Stacey Street, Dean Street and Earl Street by 1868.
The business was awarded warrants from Emperor Napoleon III of France and the King of Belgium in 1868.
Crosse & Blackwell sold two million bottles of pickles and 800,000 tins of sardines in 1869. The firm imported nearly half a million tins of lobster into England in 1871. The business employed up to 1,000 people during peak periods.
Thomas Francis Blackwell becomes senior partner
Thomas Blackwell Sr died in 1879 with an estate valued at under £160,000. T F Blackwell succeeded his father as senior partner.
Thomas F Blackwell (1838 – 1907), date unknown
In 1880 around 1,200 people were regularly employed, around 400 to 500 of which were women. That year, 20,000 bushels of onions were pickled. The firm’s brewery produced 500,000 gallons of vinegar each year. 60,000 bottles of pickles were produced every week. Over one million tins of soup were sold annually; turtle, mock turtle and oxtail were among the most popular variants.
Crosse & Blackwell was the largest jam manufacturer in England, using around 3,000 tons of sugar a year by the late 1880s. The firm commenced exports of jam to the United States, despite a 30 percent import tariff.
Crosse & Blackwell was described as “probably the largest employer of labour in London” in 1887.
Crosse & Blackwell became a limited liability company with a capital of £570,000 in 1892. T F Blackwell was appointed company chairman. About one million gallons of vinegar were produced every year.
Crosse & Blackwell was one of the largest food manufacturers in the world by 1898. The company employed around 2,000 people, mostly unskilled labourers. There were factories at Soho Square; Charing Cross Road; Soho Wharf in Lambeth, Victoria Wharf at Millwall, a vinegar brewery on the Caledonian Road, a lemon squeezing factory at Vauxhall and a branch factory in Cork, Ireland.
T F Blackwell died in 1907, leaving an estate of £979,659 (£103 million in 2013). He was regarded as one of the merchant princes of British business; a strong man with high integrity. He continued to work at the company until a few days before his death.
By this time Crosse & Blackwell had established a number of employee benefits, including a savings bank with superior interest rates as well as athletic and recreational clubs.
Brand’s A1 became the highest-selling brown sauce in the world. Brand’s Essence of Chicken is a popular health supplement in Asia.
Henderson William Brand
Henderson William Brand (1805 – 1893) was born in Durham, North East England, the son of Thomas Brand, an innkeeper and brewer.
Henderson Brand probably worked in his father’s kitchen, and it is likely that he possessed a precocious culinary talent, as by the age of twelve he was employed in the kitchen of the Prince Regent (1762 – 1830) as “under cook”.
A bottle of A1 sauce, manufactured in Britain for export to Singapore (2018)
The Prince Regent was a confirmed gastronome who had previously employed Marie-Antoine Careme (1784 – 1833), the founder of modern haute cuisine, and one of the greatest chefs of his era. Brand thus had an excellent opportunity to develop his culinary repertoire in one of the greatest kitchens in Europe.
The Prince Regent became King George IV from 1820. Brand was promoted to “Yeoman of the Mouth”, a position akin to that of sous chef, from 1822.
Brand was appointed head chef to Thomas William Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (1754 – 1842) from 1826. Coke was a charismatic man, and regularly held large dinner parties to discuss his agricultural improvements. His magnificently-equipped kitchen at Holkham Hall in Norfolk boasted a fireplace large enough to roast an ox.
Brand published an updated version of Simpson’s Cookery, a popular cookbook, in 1834.
Brand established a factory/shop on 11 Little Stanhope Street in Mayfair, London from 1835. His first product was Essence of Chicken, using a recipe he had allegedly developed for the convalescent king. Effectively a concentrated consomme, it was made by heating chopped meat inside a pot, and then separating the fibre and fat to leave a clear amber “liquid essence”. It was recommended as a substitute for brandy in relieving exhaustion and nervous ailments.
Shortly afterwards, Brand introduced Essence of Beef at the request of a Dr Druitt.
Brand was a skilled chef, but perhaps a lacklustre businessman, and he was declared bankrupt in 1843. Brand & Co was acquired by a Mr Withall.
H.W. Brand
Henderson Brand re-emerged from 1858, trading as “H.W. Brand”. He was appointed Cook and Co-Manager of the Cuisine at the 1862 International Exhibition in London. It was at the Exhibition that he first introduced “Brand’s International Sauce”. It contained vinegar, Eastern spices, and dried fruits including raisins, sultanas, dates, oranges and tomatoes. At the Exhibition it was ranked “A1”, and thus became known by this name.
A1 sauce was soon introduced to the general public, and was an immediate success. It was distributed by the great food wholesalers of the period, including Crosse & Blackwell, J T Morton, E Lazenby & Son, and Batty & Co. By 1865 it was in use by the Royal household, and available at the dining rooms of the House of Lords and House of Commons.
Dence & Mason take over Brand & Co
Thomas Dence (1840 – 1918) acquired Brand & Co from Mr Withall for £5,000 in 1873. Dence was born in London to a Kentish grocer.
Thomas Dence (1840 – 1918) in 1904
Dence was joined in partnership by John James Mason (1833 – 1896), who managed the business. Mason was to prove instrumental in improving the range of foods for convalescents at Brand & Co.
Brand & Co had acquired H.W. Brand, including the rights to A1 sauce, by 1886.
Increasing sales saw a new site established at Vauxhall from 1887. There were two facilities; a meat processing plant and a sauce factory. The meat plant was described as the largest kitchen in Britain. Production was also expanded into soups and meat pastes.
Meanwhile, Henderson William Brand died in 1893 as a sadly forgotten figure who received no newspaper obituaries.
Sales of A1 sauce were such that Brand & Co struggled to meet demand, and so the business never actively sought out export markets. Gilbert Heublein (1849 – 1937), a German-born spirits distributor resident in Connecticut, was impressed by A1 sauce following a visit to England. After much effort he acquired the exclusive United States distribution rights to A1 sauce from 1894.
A Heublein advertisement in 1895 claimed that A1 held over 50 percent of the British bottled sauce market. It was described as a milder version of Worcestershire sauce.
John James Mason died with an estate valued at £151,811 in 1896.
Brand & Co products received royal warrants from Edward VII, the Tsarina of Russia and the Empress of Germany.
Brand & Co had entered into relative decline by the turn of the twentieth century. Its meat extracts had fallen behind competitors such as Bovril, Liebig’s and Armour’s. The business lacked focus, energy and drive.
Brand & Co employed 200 people by 1906. The business processed about six tons of meat every day. Staff were provided with a canteen, smoking room and club room.
Brand & Co is registered as a company
Brand & Co was registered as a private limited company in 1907. The company continued to be managed by the children, and later grandchildren, of Mason and Dence.
Brand & Co struggled to meet increasing consumer demand, and Heublein established a factory to produce A1 sauce in Connecticut from 1916.
Thomas Dence died as a highly wealthy man in 1918, with an estate valued at over £917,672. He was succeeded as chairman of Brand & Co by his son, Alexander Henry Dence (1876 – 1949).
Brand’s Essence of Chicken had been introduced to Singapore by the early 1930s.
A1 sauce had been established as one of the leading condiments in the United States by the 1930s.
Brand’s Essence of Chicken (2015)
Colin Sturtevant Dence (1907 – 1996) had been appointed managing director of Brand & Co by 1939.
The Vauxhall works were hit by a German bomb during the London Blitz in 1940. Four staff members were killed.
Heublein claimed that A1 was the highest-selling thick sauce in the world by 1948.
Brand & Co became a public company from 1949. The business employed 650 people, and the Vauxhall site occupied 2.5 acres. Brand’s Essence and A1 sauce remained the principal products, and exports accounted for 26 percent of production.
Brand & Co received a Royal Warrant to supply A1 sauce to George VI.
A1 sauce sold in Canada in 1956 listed its ingredients as tomato puree, orange marmalade, raisins, onions, garlic, malt vinegar, sugar, salt, tragacanth (an emulsifier and thickening agent), spices and flavourings.
Brand & Co is acquired by Cerebos
Brand & Co was acquired by Cerebos for £4.5 million in 1959. Cerebos produced a range of well-known packaged food brands including Bisto, Saxa salt, Paxo and Scott’s Porage Oats.
Sales of Brand’s Essence of Chicken had been successfully established in Asia by 1961. The product was highly-popular as a health supplement amongst the ethnic Chinese of Malaysia and Singapore. A semi-luxury product, it enjoyed high margins.
Cerebos began to manufacture A1 sauce in Canada from 1962, and in South Africa from 1963.
The Vauxhall factory was closed in 1967, and the valuable site was sold for £900,000. Keybridge House now stands in its place. Brand & Co production was relocated to the Cerebos plant in Greatham, County Durham. Sales of Brand’s tinned soups were growing, and the Greatham site offered ample space for expansion.
Cerebos was acquired by Rank Hovis McDougall (RHM) for £61 million in 1968. That same year, Brand & Co won a Queen’s Award for Industry for export achievement.
An American bottle of A1 sauce (2016)
Southeast Asia was the largest market for Brand & Co by the early 1970s, led by sales of Chicken Essence. Factories were established in Singapore and Malaysia at this time. Significant amounts of A1 sauce were exported to Okinawa in Japan.
After suffering considerable profit losses, production of soups and Brand’s meat pastes were discontinued in 1977. A1 sauce also ceased to be distributed in Britain from around this time.
Production of Brand’s Essence ended in Greatham in 1978-9. The factory machinery was transferred to Indonesia, where the product enjoyed a large market.
84 percent of RHM’s Asian profits came from Brand’s Essence of Chicken by the mid-1980s. Brand’s Essence of Chicken held a two third share of its category in the Asia Pacific region. Over four million bottles of Brand’s Essence of Chicken were sold in Singapore in 1985.
Present day
Brand’s Essence of Chicken remains popular in Asia, with reported sales of around £330 million in 2018. A1 sauce is widely sold across North America, where it is manufactured by Kraft. Premier Foods, the successor to RHM, still export A1 sauce from Britain to Asian and European markets.
A1 sauce recipe divergence
As previously mentioned, the original A1 sauce contained vinegar, Eastern spices, and dried fruits including raisins, sultanas, dates, oranges and tomatoes. The English and American A1 sauces have diverged over the years, and neither remains true to the original recipe. The English version no longer contains oranges, raisins or sultanas, whilst the North American versions have removed the dates.
A1 sauce from Britain contains tomatoes, malt vinegar, spirit vinegar, sugar, dates, salt, carob gum (a thickening agent), ginger, caramel colouring, onion powder, nutmeg, black pepper and cayenne pepper.
A1 sauce in the United States contains tomato puree, spirit vinegar, corn syrup, salt, raisin paste, crushed orange puree, mixed spices, garlic powder, caramel colouring, onion powder, potassium sorbate (a preservative), xanthan gum (a thickening agent) and celery seeds.
A1 sauce for the Canadian market is made from malt vinegar, spirit vinegar, tomato puree, sugar, modified cornstarch (a thickening agent), salt, orange juice concentrate, raisin juice concentrate, black treacle, spices, caramel colouring, citric acid and beet powder.
The leading brown sauce in Britain is HP. The leading brown sauce in the US is A1.
Broadly speaking, A1 is a cross between HP Sauce and Worcestershire Sauce. HP is sharper and thicker, whereas A1 is a little more fruity. You can find the imported American sauce in larger Tesco supermarkets in the UK. It pairs well with beef, especially in casseroles and meatloaf.
A1 is a British invention, introduced by Henderson William Brand in 1862, when he was co-manager of the cuisine at the International Exhibition in Hyde Park. He submitted the sauce before the Royal Commission for use in the Exhibition’s restaurants. The Chief Commissioner reportedly declared the sauce to be “A.1.”
Gilbert Heublein (1849 – 1937), a German-born spirits distributor resident in Connecticut, visited England and encountered A1 sauce. He was impressed, and after much effort he acquired the exclusive US distribution rights to A1 sauce from 1894. He gained the US production rights from 1916.
A1 was phased out in Britain in the 1970s, forced out of a crowded brown sauce market which included HP, Daddies and supermarket own-label nationally, as well as OK, Heinz Ideal, Hammonds and Fletcher’s Tiger Sauce at a regional level.
The brand is currently owned by Kraft in the US. In Britain, the trademark is currently owned by Premier Foods.
This is the story of how Marks & Spencer became one of the largest retailers in Britain.
Michael Marks establishes the business
Michael Marks, a Russian-Jewish immigrant, established a “Penny Bazaar” in the Kirkgate open market in Leeds, Yorkshire in 1884. Marks sold haberdashery goods, and no item cost more than one penny.
Marks soon opened a stall at the covered market in Leeds, which was open seven days a week. Outlets were then established in the booming cotton towns, such as Warrington, Birkenhead and Wigan.
A Marks & Spencer Penny Bazaar in Cardiff
The steady expansion of the business saw Marks recruit Thomas Spencer, a cashier, as a partner in 1894. There were 12 shops and 24 stalls in covered markets by 1901.
Spencer retired in 1903, and Marks & Spencer was registered as a limited liability company.
Simon Marks revolutionises the business
By the time Michael Marks died in 1907 there were over 60 retail outlets. He was succeeded as head of the company by his son, Simon Marks (1888 – 1964).
Simon Marks noted the rapid growth of the low-price Woolworth chain in Britain during the 1920s. He travelled to the United States in 1924 in order to discover the secrets behind its rival’s success.
Open his return to Britain Marks decided to cut out the middleman, and deal directly with manufacturers. On the basis that it was the merchant rather than the manufacturer who knew the customer best, Marks & Spencer would design its own clothing and goods, and then find a contractor who could produce to the specifications and cost.
Simon Marks declared that his ethos was to give everyone, “a little bit of luxury, to make a factory girl look like a debutante”.
The penny pricing system had ended during the First World War, but a new five shilling price-ceiling was introduced from 1924.
Marks & Spencer had 125 stores by 1926, and the business was floated on the stock exchange in order to fund further expansion. That year, Marks was joined by his brother-in-law, Israel Sieff, as joint-managing director.
Marks & Spencer employed 11,555 people by 1935, and ranked as the 55th largest employer in Britain.
Opening new stores, and the redevelopment of existing stores, allowed Marks to reposition the business from a working class market to a classless one. Repositioning meant that Woolworth was no longer a competitor by the mid-1930s. Symbolically, a state-of-the-art outlet was opened on Oxford Street, London, in 1938.
Marks & Spencer began to concentrate on clothing, which accounted for two thirds of sales by the 1930s. 80 percent of sales were in clothing by 1938, with the remainder in food. The business had built a niche in-between the value shops and the department stores. Marks & Spencer was able to boast that 92 percent of its goods were manufactured in Britain by 1939.
The Second World War resulted in the abandonment of the price-ceiling principle.
Marks & Spencer held a five percent share of the clothing market in Britain by 1950.
Marks & Spencer employed 28,403 people in 1955.
Simon Marks continued to revolutionise the business. He removed unnecessary bureaucracy by ending inventory tracking in 1957. Marks reduced overheads and passed on the savings to the customer. Any item of clothing could be returned without a receipt provided it bore the company’s trademark.
The Marble Arch outlet in London made for money per square foot of retail space than any other store in the world by 1961.
Marks & Spencer was the fifth most highly-valued public company in Britain by 1963, with a market value of £435 million.
Simon Marks died in 1964. His obituary in The Times described him as “one of the great formative influences in the social and economic life of England during the past generation”.
How did J Lyons become the largest catering business in the world within 30 years?
J Lyons is established, and the first tea rooms are opened
Barnett Salmon (1829 – 1897) and Isidore Gluckstein (1851 – 1920) established a successful chain of tobacconists.
Montagu Gluckstein (1854 – 1922), a salesman for the firm, lamented the poor state of catering at trade exhibitions. He suggested that the public could be provided with a better offer than beer and sandwiches. Gluckstein and Alfred Salmon partnered with Joseph Lyons, a distant relative, to form J Lyons & Co with a capital of £5,000. J Lyons & Co successfully provided catering for the Newcastle Exhibition of 1887. Contracts for other exhibitions soon followed.
J Lyons & Co was established as a public company with a capital of £120,000 in 1894. The original stakeholders were Montagu Gluckstein, his brother Isidore Gluckstein, brother-in-law Barnett Salmon (maternal grandfather to Nigella Lawson) and Joseph Lyons. Montagu Gluckstein was the de facto chairman of the business.
The first Lyons tea shop opened in September 1894 at 213 Piccadilly. It had 200 seats and a £30,000 lease. After a year the shop had made a profit of £11,400, and the company was able to pay a dividend of ten percent.
The first Lyons Tea Room was sited at 213 Piccadilly
The early tea room exteriors were enticing and extrovert, and the interiors were often glamorous, and intended to evoke the great Victorian exhibitions and Parisian cafes.
The Lyons tea shop girls went on strike in protest against low wages in 1895.
J Lyons establishes Cadby Hall
Cadby Hall was opened in Hammersmith to centrally produce baked goods for the company’s 17 tea shops from 1896. There were 37 tea shops in London by 1900, and expansion had begun in the provinces, with six branches in Manchester, four in Liverpool, and two in both Leeds and Sheffield.
Quality was good and prices were reasonable. The tea rooms were particularly popular throughout the daytime with lower middle class office workers. Cinema and theatre-goers patronised the chain on an evening.
The first Lyons Corner House was opened on Coventry Street in 1909. The Corner Houses were much larger than the tea rooms, with a greater appeal to the middle classes. Live bands and an informal atmosphere helped to cement their popularity. The Coventry Street outlet became the Lyons flagship outlet, and seated 2,000 diners on multiple floors. It was the largest restaurant in the world. A second Corner House, capable of seating 1,200 diners, was opened at the Strand in 1915.
J Lyons was one of the largest caterers in the world by 1911. Half a million meals were served every day through 200 shops and restaurants. The company employed over 12,000 people, including 2,000 people at Cadby Hall. The Cadby Hall works covered ten acres and included sixteen bakehouses, five cold storage rooms and three butchers’ shops.
20,000 people were employed by 1913. J Lyons was the largest baker in London, the largest tea merchant in the world and the largest restaurant operator in the world.
J Lyons dismissed all naturalised German and Austrian employees from its staff in 1914.
J Lyons also expanded into hotels, building the Regent Palace Hotel in London at a cost of £600,000. Opened in 1915, it was the largest hotel in Europe, with 1,028 bedrooms.
Lyons tea was far and away the market leader by 1915: five million packets were sold every week by 160,000 shopkeepers. The company accounted for one in four cups of tea sold in London.
Lyons had a capital of over £2 million by 1917.
Tea, coffee, bread, cakes, ice cream and groceries which had originally been produced for the tea rooms began to be sold directly to the customer, all manufactured at the company’s Hammersmith site.
In 1918 Lyons acquired two leading packet tea companies, positioned second and fourth place in the market respectively: Horniman of London and Black & Green of Manchester. The acquisitions were intended to increase Lyons’s market share in the North of England: Horniman was strong in Yorkshire and G&B strong in the North West.
The company had a share capital of £3.5 million by 1919. By this time Lyons was likely the largest catering company in the British Empire. There were 182 tea shops by 1919, making it easily the largest chain of its kind in the country.
Largest caterer in the world; Greenford plant is established
Cadby Hall was struggling to meet demand by 1919, so Lyons acquired a 30-acre freehold manufacturing site at Greenford, on the outskirts of London. Lyons opened the largest tea packing plant in the world there in 1920. Coffee, cocoa and confectionery production were also transferred to Greenford. It was the sixth largest manufacturing site in Britain.
J Lyons was the largest catering business in the world by 1921. Cadby Hall boasted the largest bakery in the world.
The Trocadero Restaurant was acquired in 1921.
There were over 22,000 employees by 1922. There were 160 Lyons tea shops in London, and a further 50 throughout Britain.
It was calculated that seven million people drank Lyons tea each week in 1922.
Lyons began construction on the Cumberland Hotel at Marble Arch, the largest hotel in Europe, in 1922. It had 1,500 rooms and a Corner House.
The Coventry Street Corner House was extended in 1923 to create what was likely the largest restaurant in the world, with seats for 4,500 diners. It also boasted the largest chocolate shop in the world. It was open 24 hours a day.
An interior view of the Lyons Corner House on Coventry Street in 1942
Ice cream manufacture at Cadby Hall had reached the mass production scale by 1923.
Lyons was the 20th largest company in Britain by 1930, with a market value of £12.1 million and 30,000 employees. It was the largest catering company in the world. Over ten million meals were sold each week. Lyons held 14 percent of the packet tea market, with over 1.25 million packets sold every day. 600,000 Swiss rolls were sold every week.
The teashop chain continued to grow strongly until the onset of the Great Depression. Teashop losses between 1934 and 1938 totalled £374,000. Despite this, due to its manufacturing and hotel concerns, the company remained the largest catering company in the world in the latter half of the 1930s.
Lyons directly employed over 42,000 people by 1937.
Lyons produced 3.5 million gallons of ice cream in 1939.
Lyons had 253 tea rooms by 1939. Due to wartime labour shortages, self service was introduced to the tea rooms from 1941, and rolled-out across the chain from 1945.
Associated Portland Cement was the largest manufacturer of cement in the world throughout much of the twentieth century. It became best known for its Blue Circle brand.
Foundations
At the turn of the twentieth century the British cement industry was faced with increasing competition from Continental and American producers. Henry Osborne O’Hagan (1853 – 1930) arranged for the merger of 24 British cement manufacturers, mostly based in the Thames area, to form Associated Portland Cement (APC) in 1900. O’Hagan was appointed vice chairman of the business, which was the largest cement company in the world.
APC held a 45 percent share of the British cement market and employed 6,147 people in 1903. It had the eighth highest capitalisation of any publicly-quoted company in Britain in 1905, ahead of Guinness, Dunlop and Lever Brothers.
APC made its first overseas investment when it acquired the Tolceta works in Mexico in 1909. Before the First World War works were also acquired in South Africa and British Columbia.
APC acquired a further 33 British competitors in 1911, giving it control of 80 percent of the productive capacity of the British cement industry. The company was a cartel designed to maintain prices in the domestic market at just below those of foreign imports.
APC received large orders for the construction of trenches during the First World War.
O’Hagan stepped down in the post-war period, after he opposed the proposed further expansion of the company.
Alfred Cecil Critchley (1890 – 1963), a board member in the post-war period, suggested that the company use a single brand name, Blue Circle, for its cement products.
Alfred Cecil Critchley (1890 – 1963) in 1942
APC controlled 75 percent of British cement production in 1922.
Due to increasing sales of concrete, APC established the largest cement works in Europe at Northfleet in 1926. The works was well-sited for the raw materials of clay and chalk, and the location on the banks of the River Thames allowed for convenient export of finished product.
APC was the 15th most valuable public British company in 1930, with an estimated market value of £13.9 million.
The Red Triangle cement and brick group was acquired for over £2 million in 1931. Following the acquisition APC held 70 percent of the British cement market.
APC employed 6,720 people in 1935. The company had 16 managing directors, and no central chairman. Instead, each managing director was allocated responsibility for a committee within the company, i.e. sales or finance. Because APC was comprised of numerous component companies, there were an additional 40 ordinary directors .
APC acquired Alpha Cement in 1938. Following the takeover APC controlled 84 percent of the British cement market, and directly employed about 8,000 people.
P L Payne argued that the company failed to turn its monopoly power to its advantage. It has been suggested that the APC acquisitions destroyed, rather than added, value.
The economist George Stigler (1911 – 1991) calculated that between 1900 and 1960 APC acquired 125 percent of British cement production capacity, yet its market share had declined to just 70 percent by 1960.
Post Second World War period
Cement works in Australia and New Zealand were acquired after the Second World War. A new cement plant was established at Selangor, Malaysia, in 1954.
Two new cement works were established at Cauldon in Staffordshire and Westbury in Wiltshire in 1954. Each site had an annual capacity of 175,000 tons, and the total cost amounted to £5 million. Following their construction, APC operated 26 cement works in Britain.
APC employed 11,000 people in 1955. It was the largest cement group in the world, and claimed to offer the product at the lowest cost.
APC enjoyed a huge growth in profits between 1955 and 1965. APC was the 15th largest public company in Britain in 1965, with a market capitalization of £138.3 million. It controlled two thirds of the British cement industry.
APC built plants overseas, and became known for its expertise in low-cost cement manufacturing. A notable APC contract was the Aswan Dam in Egypt, which used 150,000 tons of cement.
APC established a new cement works at Northfleet in 1968. The plant cost £35 million and had an output of 3.5 million tons a year.
APC employed a capital of £246 million in 1974, and had a British workforce of 18,325.
Difficulties, diversification and sale
APC struggled when the 1970s oil crisis led to increased fuel prices, due to the highly energy intensive nature of cement production. It was also overly dependent on a shrinking domestic market which accounted for over half of profits.
John Milne (born 1924) was appointed managing director from 1975. Faced with a declining domestic cement market, Milne hired McKinsey & Co, management consultants, in 1975.
APC changed its name to Blue Circle from 1978.
The Aberthaw Cement Works, Wales in 2009. The site was acquired by Blue Circle in 1983.
The British workforce was reduced by more than half to 6,500 between 1974 and 1982. It was announced that a further 1,200 jobs would be lost in 1983.
Blue Circle was the 74th most highly-valued public company in Europe in 1982.
Milne relocated company headquarters from London to Berkshire, on the basis that it was closer to his own home. The site chosen, at Aldermaston, also housed the Ministry of Defence’s nuclear weapons research facility. The company staff association protested such a risky move during the Cold War. Milne stood up at the annual general meeting and declared that if nuclear war was announced, he wanted to be under the first bomb, and the relocation went ahead.
A declining British cement market saw Blue Circle consolidate; it acquired Aberthaw Cement Works, the fourth largest cement manufacturer in Britain, for £26.3 million in 1983.
Following advice from McKinsey, Blue Circle also began to diversify. It acquired Armitage Shanks of Staffordshire, the largest manufacturer of ceramic baths, sinks and toilet bowls in Britain, for £35 million in 1980.
Bermid Qualcast, a cooker and lawnmower manufacturer, was acquired in a hostile takeover which valued the company at £217 million, in 1987.
Diversification aided profits in the short term, but disguised the fact that cement sales were declining. Blue Circle spent £58 million to reduce its cement production capacity by 15 percent in 1992.
Blue Circle had declined to become the third largest cement manufacturer in the world by 1991. That year the bathrooms business was sold to American Standard for £253 million, and the heating business was sold to Baxi for £480 million.
Blue Circle employed 19,690 people in 1992.
Blue Circle was forced to leave its Aldermaston headquarters in 1993, following a nuclear leak from the MOD facility.
Blue Circle invested £700 million to expand its presence in Asia. However subsequent price wars depressed the company’s share price, and rendered the business vulnerable to a takeover.
Blue Circle was the sixth largest cement manufacturer in the world when it was acquired by Lafarge, its French rival, for £3.4 billion in 2001. The merger created the largest cement manufacturer in the world.
The Northfleet Cement Works were closed with the loss of 240 jobs in 2005. The site had exhausted its raw materials. All workers were offered jobs at other Lafarge sites.
