All posts by T Farrell

Crepe expectations: Grout & Co

Grout & Co was the largest manufacturer of crepe in Britain.

Grout & Co is established
Joseph Grout (1781 – 1853) was born in Bocking, Essex. The family were apparently descended from Huguenot refugees from the Low Countries, and anglicized their name from Groot.

Joseph Grout became a saddle and harness maker. He began to manufacture “Norwich crepe”, a lower cost imitation of French crepe, at Patteson’s Yard, Magdalen Street, Norwich, from 1806.

Grout was the first person in Britain to produce crepe. He was soon joined in partnership by his brother George Grout (1781 – 1860).

Large mills were soon established at Lower Westwick Street, Norwich.

A silk factory was established at a former military barracks at St Nicholas Road, Great Yarmouth from 1815. The Yarmouth site was selected due to its lower labour costs.

An average of 3,908 people were directly employed in 1825. A large proportion of employees were young women aged 16 to 24.

A silk crepe factory had been established at Ponder’s End, Enfield, by 1829.

The capital invested by Grout & Co amounted to £143,546 in 1832. Around one third of raw silk came from Bengal, one third from China and one third from Italy.

The Great Yarmouth site was destroyed by fire in 1832, and had to be rebuilt.

Mills were established at Ditchingham, Norfolk, around 1833.

The largest manufacturer of crepe in Britain
The Grout brothers became extremely wealthy, and had entered into retirement by 1835. Management of the firm was taken over by William Martin (died 1849), a close relative.

The Great Yarmouth factory employed 1,100 workers in 1837. 970 people were employed at Norwich, and 560 were employed at Ditchingham.

Following the death of William Martin in 1849, the firm was managed by John Brown, a Mr Robison and a Mr Hall.

The Norwich, Yarmouth and Ditchingham mills regularly employed over 2,000 people by 1854. The predominant manufacture was gauze, which was then sent to the Ponder’s End factory to be converted into crepe for mourning purposes.

Grout & Co was the largest manufacturer of crepe in Britain by 1862. Over 3,000 workers were employed. The Norwich factory was the principal production site.

Grout & Co was the leading crepe manufacturer in Britain in 1887. There were warehouses in London, Manchester, Paris and New York, and factories at Norwich, Great Yarmouth, Ditchingham and Ponder’s End.

Crepe went out of fashion in Britain, and almost all production was exported to Latin countries by 1890. That year, manufacturing was centralised at Great Yarmouth, and all other factories were closed. The company also expanded into other textiles.

Grout & Co and Courtauld dominated English crepe manufacture by this time.

Grout & Co was registered as a company in 1894.

The Great Yarmouth factory employed around 1,000 workers in 1907.

Crepe bandages were manufactured from 1920.

Grout & Co produced silk parachutes during the Second World War.

Sale of the company and closure of the factory
Grout & Co was acquired by Carrington & Dewhurst, the largest manufacturer of filament fabrics in Europe, in 1962.

Carrington & Dewhurst merged with Viyella to form Carrington Viyella in 1970, one of the largest textile manufacturers in Europe.

The factory was relocated to Harfreys Industrial Estate, Great Yarmouth, from 1975. Grout & Co focused on the production of crepe bandages.

Smith & Nephew acquired the Great Yarmouth factory from Coats Viyella in 1994. The factory was closed in 1996.

Clarnico of Hackney Wick (1872 – 2019)

Clarnico was the largest sugar confectionery manufacturer in Britain during the interwar period. The Clarnico Mint Cream continued to be produced until 2019.

Establishment of Clarnico
Clarke Nickolls & Co was established as a jam and marmalade manufacturer at Hackney Wick in East London in 1872. There was an initial workforce of ten people.

Robert Coombs (1836 – 1919) joined the business as a partner from 1875, and developed a sugar confectionery manufacturing subsidiary called Clarnico.

George Mathieson (1844 – 1940) and Alexander Horn (1851 – 1923) joined the business as partners soon afterwards, and were instrumental in its subsequent expansion. Mathieson and Horn both came from the village of Insch in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

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The growth of the sugar beet industry in Britain, with a consequent reduction in ingredients costs, allowed Clarnico to enter into rapid growth. Clarke, Nickolls & Coombs employed 300 people by 1881.

Clarke, Nickolls & Coombs is established as a public company; a profit-sharing scheme is introduced
Clarke, Nickolls & Coombs was incorporated as a public company with a share capital of £80,000 in 1887. It was one of the largest confectionery companies in Britain. Control of the business was in the hands of George Mathieson and Alexander Horn by this time, and Mathieson was appointed managing director.

Mathieson and Horn introduced a profit-sharing scheme for the workforce from 1890. After paying a six percent dividend, the company split the remaining profit equally between the shareholders and the workforce. 840 people shared a total of £1,700 in 1893. The scheme gave staff the incentive to work harder, and enhanced employee retention levels.

The business grew rapidly throughout the 1890s. 1,000 men were employed in 1891. Around 1,300 people were employed by 1892, around 1,500 in 1896, and 2,000 by 1899. The factory site covered five acres by 1896.

Clarnico becomes the largest sugar confectionery manufacturer in Britain
Clarnico Caramels became the best known product, and Clarnico was the largest producer of unwrapped caramels in Britain.

The Hackney Wick site had over ten acres of floorspace by 1908. Over 3,000 people were employed by 1911.

The Clarnico Mint Cream had been introduced by 1912.

Clarnico was the largest sugar confectionery company in Britain during the interwar period. Over 700 different varieties of sweets were produced. The Clarnico site was the largest sugar confectionery factory in Britain.

Clarnico formed a joint venture with R S Murray & Co to establish an Irish factory from 1926.

The Clarnico factory suffered significant bomb damage during the London Blitz in 1940.

An overhead view of the Clarnico Works in 1921. Image used with kind permission of Britain From Above.

Clarnico distributed £700,000 in profits to its workforce between 1890 and 1944, a figure beaten only by J T & J Taylor of Batley and Reckitt & Colman.

Clarnico Murray held around ten percent of the Irish confectionery market by 1969.

Clarnico is acquired by Trebor
The sugar confectionery market had become stagnant by the end of the 1960s. Competition was further hampered by the emergence of larger rivals. Clarnico became loss-making and was sold to its London-rival Trebor for £900,000 in 1969. The merged business was the fourth largest confectionery manufacturer in Britain.

The Clarnico factory in London was closed down in 1973. Clarnico products continued to be sold, including Mint Creams, fudge, Fruit Jellies and Chocolate Peppermint Creams.

The Irish manufacturing presence was closed down in 1974, and the market was thereafter served by imports from Britain.

Trebor was acquired by Cadbury for £120 million in 1989.

The product range was pared down until only the Clarnico Mint Cream remained. Manufacturing was relocated to France and the product was sold under the Maynards Bassetts brand. The sweet was discontinued in 2019, after over 100 years in production, thus ending the Clarnico link to confectionery.

 

Suite success: Maple & Co

Maple & Co was the largest furniture retailer in the world.

John Maple establishes the business
John Maple (1815 – 1900) was born in Greenhurst, Sussex, the son of a small farmer. He served an apprenticeship at a general store.

Maple partnered with James Cook to form Maple & Cook, furnishers and drapers of Tottenham Court Road, London, with a capital of £500 in 1840.

Cook left the firm by mutual consent in 1847, and the business traded as John Maple & Co.

Maple managed the business on a low-margin principal. He claimed to have the largest furniture showroom in the world by 1850.

John Blundell Maple grows the business
John Blundell Maple (1845 – 1903) entered his father’s business from 1861. He was made a partner in 1867.

Hundreds of salesmen were employed at Tottenham Court Road by 1874.

John Blundell Maple had taken control of the business by 1880. A dapper, yet modest, kindly and genial man, the subsequent growth of the business was mainly to his credit. Maple had “unbounded energy, enterprise and commercial genius” according to the Leeds Mercury.  An obituary would later describe his “great shrewdness and energy, and capacity for acquiring a complete mastery of all the details of the business”.

John Blundell Maple in 1901

At J B Maple’s initiative, the firm furnished many of the great hotels and houses throughout the British Empire and Europe. One furnishing bill for a great London hotel amounted to £100,000.

Maple & Co was the largest furniture retailer in the world by 1885.

The Tottenham Court Road premises covered four acres by 1888. Maple & Co directly employed 2,051 people.

In order to meet demand, the vast majority of production was subcontracted. John Crossley & Sons, a carpet manufacturer, represented one of the largest suppliers.

Maple & Co furnished all the Courts of Europe. Most members of the British Royal Family had been supplied, including Queen Victoria.

Maple & Co becomes a limited liability company
Maple & Co was converted into a limited liability company with a capital of £2 million in 1891.

J B Maple paid for the reconstruction of University College Hospital at a cost of £120,000 in 1896.

John Maple died with an estate valued at £892,503 in 1900.

3,000 people were employed at the Tottenham Court Road premises by 1903. The Daily Mail commented that Maple goods furnished “half the palaces of Europe, and the bulk of the best modern mansions in Great Britain”.

John Blundell Maple died in 1903. He ranked as one of the richest British businessmen of his era, and his estate was valued at £2.2 million. Maple had been a generous philanthropist throughout his life. Clare Henry Regnart (1842 – 1932) became company president.

An Argentinian subsidiary was established in 1906.

Clare Henry Regnart retired in 1930 and was succeeded as company president by his son, Charles Clare Regnart.

Subsequent owners and demise
Maple & Co, with 20 British stores and five overseas, was acquired by Macowards of Cardiff for £14.4 million in 1972. That year the Tottenham Court Road head office and flagship store was closed for redevelopment. The resulting fiasco saw shares plummet to ten percent of their 1972 value by 1977.

There were 45 British and two French stores in 1977.

Maple & Co was acquired by Waring & Gillow, a furniture retailer, for £9.7 million in 1980.

Waring & Gillow was acquired by Asda, a supermarket chain, in 1989. Maples was subject to a management buyout in 1993.

Maples entered into receivership in 1997, a result of high debts and poor trading. The company targeted the upper mass market, and had 24 stores including nine larger out-of-town sites, and a staff of 340.

The Tottenham Court Road location was acquired by Furniture Village. Eight stores were sold to Allders.

Yeast resistance: Marmite

Marmite is a thick, black yeast extract product. Around 25 million jars are sold every year.

The Marmite business is established
German scientist Justus von Liebig (1803 – 1873) discovered that spent brewers’ yeast was edible in the late nineteenth century. By adding vegetable extracts, it could be rendered as nutritious as meat extract.

The Marmite Food Extract Company was incorporated in 1902 to exploit the potential of the product. Company headquarters were based in London with a factory at Burton upon Trent. The company was headed by a retired Swiss sugar merchant called Frederick Wissler.

Marmite, as a vegetable and yeast extract, competed against the Bovril and Liebig meat extracts that were popular at the time. Marmite had the advantage of retailing for around half the price of its rivals.

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The business grew rapidly, and a second factory was established at a former brewery in Camberwell Green, London, from 1907.

Marmite enjoyed a growing reputation as a health product, and it was added to soldiers’ rations during the First World War as a Vitamin B1 deficiency preventative.

Following the death of the company’s first chairman, Marmite was acquired by Bovril in 1924.

The Camberwell factory was closed in 1927 and production relocated to a new site at Vauxhall.

Post-war developments
The Burton factory was relocated to Wellington Street from 1952.

The Vauxhall factory was closed in 1967.

A new £1 million factory was established at Burton upon Trent to produce both Bovril and Marmite from 1968. The factory employed 450 people.

Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company, acquired Marmite in 2000.

Marmite was launched in squeezy bottles in 2006.

The Burton factory produced 25 million jars of Marmite in 2015. Around 15 percent of the total is exported, mostly to former British colonies. Sri Lanka is a major market, where it is mixed into porridge.

A mixture of ale and lager yeasts are used to create Marmite. Much of the yeast is still sourced from the MolsonCoors (formerly Bass) and Marston’s breweries in Burton. The automated factory employs around 60 people. Marmite is matured for seven days before distribution.

How Bryant & May met their match

Bryant & May was the largest matchstick manufacturer in Britain. It remains a leading premium brand of matches.

Establishment
William Bryant (1804 – 1874) and Francis May (1803 -1885), two Quakers from Plymouth, entered into partnership to manufacture tallow and candles from 1844.

Bryant & May acquired the British rights to the safety match from Carl Lundstrom (1823 – 1917) of Sweden in 1855. The product proved so successful that Lundstrom struggled to meet demand. A factory was established at Fairfield Road, Bow, London, from 1861. As was usual for the time, a workforce consisting partly of children was employed.

Remnants of the Bow factory

Wilberforce Bryant (1837 – 1906), the son of William Bryant, joined the partnership. Francis May left the partnership in 1864.

About 1,500 people were employed by 1871. The Graphic commented that the workforce were “by no means the miserable, emaciated, half-starved creatures whom some of our readers might expect to see. On the contrary they were, as a rule, stout, ruddy and decently dressed, and the younger children especially seemed full of spirit”.

William Bryant died with a personal estate valued at under £160,000 in 1874.

Introduction of white phosphorus matches
Bryant & May began to manufacture “strike anywhere” matches, which used white (also called yellow) phosphorous, which could cause phosphorus necrosis among workers.

Bryant & May employed at least 5,000 people by 1876.

A visitor in 1881 commented in the New Monthly Magazine on the “cheerful labour” of the workforce, and denied the existence of cruel managers, fire risk and ill health caused by phosphorus.

Bryant & May had developed a considerable export trade by 1881. The Fairfield Works covered over six acres. Matchbox making and labelling employed 3,000 females within their own homes throughout the local neighbourhood.

Bryant & May was registered as a limited liability company in 1884. That year, Bell & Black, its Bow rival, was acquired to form the largest match manufacturer in Britain.

Gilbert Bartholomew (1852 – 1911), the secretary and manager of Bell & Black, was appointed managing director of Bryant & May.

Bryant & May produced around 300 million matches a day by 1886.

1,200 young women went on strike at the Bow factory in 1887.

1,400 young women went on strike at the Bow factory in 1888. Bryant & May management acquiesced to almost all of the strikers’ demands. An unpopular system of fines for misbehaviour was ended. It appeared that foremen had misrepresented the strikers’ position to the company directors, who subsequently requested that complaints be addressed directly to them in future, in order to avoid further misunderstandings.

Bryant & May employed around 2,000 workers in 1895, including around 1,200 to 1,500 women and girls.

Operations were established in Brazil from 1895.

Phosphorus necrosis cover-up
Bryant & May recorded 47 cases of phosphorus necrosis amongst its workforce between 1878 and 1898. A new law meant that every case of phosphorus poisoning had to be referred to the Government from 1893. However the company failed to report 17 cases, including six deaths. None of the deaths were attributed to necrosis poisoning, but the disease may have been a contributory factor.

Gilbert Bartholomew readily admitted the company’s guilt. He argued that matchmaking was a safer trade than many others such as brick-making or linen-weaving, and suggested that Bryant & May would support a ban on the sale of phosphorus matches, which had around 90 percent of the market.

Bryant & May were liberal employers for the period. The deaths went unreported due to a desire to maintain that strong public image.

Wilberforce Bryant subsequently announced that the company would abolish the use of white phosphorus from 1900.

Twentieth century and growth through acquisition
Bryant & May soon found keen competition in the match market. The Diamond Match Company used a Beecher match-making machine which could manufacture superior matches at half the cost of the Bryant & May product. Bryant & May acquired the Diamond Match Company for £480,000 in order to avoid a costly trade war in 1901. The acquisition gave Bryant & May the rights to the Swan Vesta brand of matches, and a large factory in Litherland, Liverpool.

A 34 percent stake in the Lion Match Co of South Africa was acquired in 1905.

An Australian factory was established in Melbourne in 1909.

Bryant & May had a productive capacity of over 90 billion matches and over 100,000 miles of wax vestas and tapers per annum by 1909. The Litherland factory employed around 1,000 people.

Moreland & Son of Gloucester, manufacturer of England’s Glory matches, was acquired in 1913.

The Moreland factory

The Bow and Litherland factories each covered seven acres by 1914.

Bryant & May employed 3,500 workers by 1921.

A factory was established in Glasgow from 1921. The Scottish Bluebell matchstick brand was introduced.

Bryant & May acquired the English interests of Maguire, Paterson & Palmer, match manufacturers of Garston in Liverpool, in 1922. With the acquisition of its last substantial British rival, Bryant & May would only contend with competition from imported matches from Sweden.

Bryant & May had an authorised share capital of £2 million by 1922. The company owned, or had large stakes in, factories in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and South America.

Bryant & May had the largest share of the Brazilian match market by 1926.

Merger with Swedish Match
Bryant & May merged with the British subsidiary of the Swedish Match Company to form the British Match Corporation in 1927. The company had a nominal capital of £6 million. Swedish Match held a stake of approximately one third of British Match.

British Match employed 1,000 people and produced 45 billion matches in 1934. British Match was the 35th largest company in Britain, with a market value of £8.1 million by 1935.

The Litherland factory was destroyed during the Blitz in 1941, and production was relocated to Garston.

The decline of matchmaking
Bryant & May held around 55 percent of the British match market in 1971. However the market was in decline, and factory closures were to prove inevitable. The Bow factory closed with the loss of 250 jobs in 1971. British Match entered into disposable lighter production as matchstick sales declined.

British Match employed 12,200 people in 1973, including 4,600 in the United Kingdom.

British Match was keen to diversify its product portfolio. It acquired Wilkinson Sword, with around half of the British shaving razor market, for £19 million in 1973. The company was renamed Wilkinson Match.

The Gloucester match factory was closed in 1975.

Swedish Match sold its shareholding in Wilkinson Match to Allegheny of Pittsburgh, a large American steel business, in 1978.

The marketing and administration departments at Bow were transferred to the Wilkinson Sword headquarters at High Wycombe in 1980.

Allegheny acquired full control of Wilkinson Match in 1980.

The Glasgow factory was closed in 1981.

The Garston site had been largely automated by 1986. It was the last remaining match factory in Britain. It employed 317 people, and had a productive capacity of 35 billion matches per annum.

Allegheny sold Wilkinson Match to Swedish Match in 1987. This resulting in Swedish Match holding over 80 percent of the British match market, and nearly half of the disposable lighter market.

The Garston factory was closed with the loss of 96 jobs in 1994. It marked the end of match manufacturing in Britain. Sales had declined due to the decline of smoking and open fires, as well as the removal of excise duty from disposable lighters. Production was relocated to Sweden.

A J Caley of Norwich

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Up in smoke: a history of Gallaher

Gallaher became the largest independent buyer of tobacco in the world. Its cigarette brands, including Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut, remain widely sold today.

Establishment
Thomas Gallaher (1840 – 1927) was the son of a prosperous Protestant miller who owned the Templemoyle Grain Mills in Eglinton, Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

Gallaher served an apprenticeship with Robert Bond, a general merchant on Shipquay Street, Londonderry, in the early 1850s.

With £200 he borrowed from his parents, Gallaher opened a tobacconist business at 7 Sackville Street, Londonderry, in 1857. He manufactured and sold Irish roll pipe tobacco.

The expanding business was relocated to York Road, Belfast from 1863. A five-storey factory was built on the site in 1881. 600 people were employed.

A factory was opened at 60 Holborn Viaduct in London in 1888, followed by a Clerkenwell factory a year later.

Gallaher was converted into a limited liability company with a capital of £1 million in 1896.

A new £100,000 factory was established in Belfast in 1897. The seven-acre site was probably the largest tobacco manufacturing plant in the world.

Thomas Gallaher disliked machine-made cigarettes, but eventually relented to market pressure, and began to produce the Park Drive brand from 1902.

Thomas Gallaher declined to join the great tobacco combines of the age, Imperial Tobacco and the American Tobacco Company. Consequently, he controlled the largest independent tobacco company in the world by 1903.

Gallaher bought his raw materials directly, and by cutting out the middleman he was able to keep his costs low. He was the largest independent purchaser of American tobacco in the world by 1906, and bought only the highest grade of crop.

The atmosphere at the Belfast factory was described as familial. Midday meals were served at cost-price. Gallaher was the first man in Belfast to reduce the working week from 57 to 47 hours. The company employed 3,000 people by 1907.

Gallaher determined to focus on the Park Drive brand from 1907. Sales were supported by national advertising.

Gallaher acquired the six-acre Great Brunswick Street premises of the Dublin City Distillery for £20,000 in 1908. He used the site to build a large tobacco factory.

Gallaher established bonded warehouses in Belfast, and was credited with helping to transform the city into a major shipping port.

Extensive tobacco plantations had been acquired in Virginia by 1914, and Gallaher was the largest purchaser of tobacco in the world.

Gallaher had the largest tobacco factory in Europe at York Street in Belfast by 1920. The site could produce 40,000 cigarettes an hour by 1927.

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The York Road, Belfast site

Gallaher continued to work at his desk every day until a few months before he died in 1927. He was remembered as a courteous, kindly man, a generous employer, and a highly talented businessman. His plain ways endeared him to people. He left an estate valued at £503,954.

His stake in the company was largely passed to his nephew, John Gallaher Michaels (1880 – 1948). Michaels had worked for his uncle for many years, and had managed the American operations.

Public offering
The Constructive Finance & Investment Co, led by Edward de Stein (1887 – 1965), acquired the entire share capital of Gallaher for several million pounds in 1929, and offered shares to the public.

Why Michaels divested his stake in Gallaher remains unclear, but he, his uncle and his brother all lacked heirs, so he may have simply wished to retire.

A new factory was established at East Wall, Dublin at a cost of £250,000 in 1929. Following the introduction of a tariff on businesses not majority-owned by Irish residents in 1932, the East Wall factory was closed with the loss of 400 jobs.

Imperial Tobacco acquired 51 percent of Gallaher for £1.25 million in 1932, in order to forestall a potential bid for Gallaher by the American Tobacco Company. Gallaher retained its managerial independence.

Acquisition trail and subsequent growth
De Stein pursued cigarette sales. Gallaher was the fourth largest cigarette manufacturer in Britain by 1932.

Gallaher acquired Peter Jackson in 1934. The company manufactured Du Maurier cigarettes, which was the first popular filter-tip brand in Britain. Gallaher also acquired the International Tobacco Company, which brought the Nelson cigarette brand.

E Robinson & Son, manufacturers of Senior Service cigarettes, was acquired in 1937. Senior Service had been highly successful within the Manchester area, but Robinson’s had lacked the capital to take the brand nationwide.

A 1955 advertisement for Senior Service cigarettes

J Freeman & Son, cigar manufacturer of Cardiff, was acquired for £680,000 in 1947 in order to gain access to the machine-made cigar market.

Gallaher acquired Cope Brothers of Liverpool, proprietor of the popular Old Holborn rolling tobacco brand, in 1952.

Tobacco rationing ended in 1955, and was to prove an impetus for the growth of Gallaher. Benson & Hedges was acquired, mainly for the prestigious brand name, but also to provide a further manufacturing site for Senior Service, in 1955. The acquisition also brought with it the Hamlet cigar brand.

Gallaher became one of the fastest-growing companies in Britain during the 1950s, largely due to its encroachment upon Imperial Tobacco’s market share. Senior Service and Park Drive had become respectively the third and fourth highest-selling cigarettes in Britain by 1959, and Gallaher held 30 percent of the British tobacco market. Other leading brands included Nelson, Du Maurier and Olivier cigarettes, Old Holborn and Condor tobacco and Manikin and King Six cigars.

De Stein retired as chairman in 1960.

Gallaher acquired J Wix & Sons, the fast-growing manufacturer of Kensitas cigarettes, from the American Tobacco Company for £13 million in 1961. The deal boosted Gallaher’s share of the British tobacco market from 30 to 35 percent.

A major new factory was established at Ballymena, Northern Ireland, in 1961.

A large factory was established at Airton Road, Dublin in 1963.

Silk Cut was launched as a low-tar brand in 1964.

Gallaher employed 15,000 people in 1965.

Benson & Hedges was the leading king-size cigarette brand in Britain by 1966. However king-size cigarettes only held four percent of the total cigarette market.

Sales of unfiltered cigarettes, such as Park Drive, plummeted in the late 1960s. Gallaher was slow to address the new demand for filtered cigarettes, and its share of the total cigarette market had dwindled to 27 percent by 1968.

American Tobacco, the second largest cigarette manufacturer in the United States, acquired control of Gallaher after Imperial Tobacco divested most of its stake in the business in 1968.

Sales of Silk Cut began to grow rapidly in the early 1970s as increasing health concerns regarding tobacco led consumers towards the low-tar and reduced nicotine brand.

American Tobacco acquired full control of Gallaher in 1974.

Du Maurier cigarettes were discontinued in 1979.

Declining domestic market and overseas acquisitions
800 production jobs were lost in 1982 due to falling sales.

The Belfast factory was closed with the loss of 700 jobs in 1988. Production was relocated to Ballymena.

A cigar factory in Port Talbot, Wales was closed with the loss of 370 jobs in 1994.

American Tobacco listed Gallaher on the London Stock Exchange from 1997.

Liggett-Ducat, a Russian cigarette manufacturer, was acquired for £298 million in 2000. Gallaher invested a further £40 million in the business.

The Manchester cigarette factory was closed with the loss of nearly 1,000 jobs in 2000-1. Production was transferred to Ballymena, where 300 extra jobs were created.

Austria Tabak was acquired for £1.4 billion in 2001. The purchase brought with it market leading positions in Austria and Sweden.

Gallaher became the fifth largest cigarette manufacturer in the world.

Gallaher is acquired by Japan Tobacco
Gallaher was acquired by Japan Tobacco for £7.5 billion in 2007.

European headquarters were relocated from Britain to Geneva, Switzerland, in an effort to reduce tax, in 2008.

The Ballymena site, the last remaining tobacco factory in Britain, was closed with the loss of 860 jobs in 2017. Production was relocated to Eastern Europe.

Senior Service cigarettes were discontinued in Britain in 2020. Kensitas cigarettes remain available but with limited distribution.

Japan Tobacco held 45 percent of the British tobacco market in 2021.

Cracking the market: a history of Jacob’s

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Club chocolate biscuit was introduced from 1919.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Aintree site employed 2,800 people by 1983.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Steely resolve: Consett Iron Company

The Consett Iron Company was the largest steel manufacturer in the world.

The Derwent Iron Works were established Consett, County Durham, in 1840. The works were the largest in England by 1860, with eleven blast furnaces on a site of over 70 acres and a workforce of nearly 4,000 men and boys.

A view of the Consett steel works in 1979 (Credit to Wayne Phillips)

Despite its scale, the company was notoriously unprofitable. When the Northumberland and Durham District Bank failed, the Derwent Iron Works owed the bank £960,000.

The works were acquired by the newly-formed Consett Iron Company for £295,318 in 1864. Capital was £400,000. The company was controlled by John Henderson (1807 – 1884), and two Quakers, Joseph Whitwell Pease (1828 – 1903) and David Dale (1829 – 1906). The company had 18 blast furnaces, only seven of which were in use.

The Consett Iron Co employed 4,000 to 5,000 men in 1865.

William Jenkins (1825 – 1895), a Welshman, was appointed general manager from 1869, having previously managed the works of John Guest. Jenkins was largely credited with the turnaround of the Consett works.

A political Liberal, and a staunch churchgoer, Jenkins was a humane and kind man, and generally retained his workforce, even during slack trading periods. He had a keen commercial mind and was a strong judge of character.

45,038 tons of iron were produced in 1869. Company share capital amounted to £352,732.

The Consett Iron Co operated the largest iron plate works in the world by 1875. The company employed 5,000 people by 1878.

The Consett Iron Co manufactured 1,600 tons of iron plate every week by 1880. 132,085 tons of iron and steel were produced in 1890, and the company had a share capital of £736,000.

The Consett Iron Co was the largest steel manufacturer in the world by 1894. The company was remarkably profitable, a testament to its strong management.

The Consett Iron Co had a share capital of £3.5 million in 1922.

The Consett Iron Co established a steelworks at Jarrow, Tyneside from 1940.

The company’s seven collieries were nationalised in 1947.

The Consett Iron Co had an authorised capital of £19 million in 1955. 6,300 people were employed at the Consett and Jarrow sites.

The Consett Iron Co employed 7,337 people in 1965.

The Consett Iron Co was nationalised in 1967 and became a part of British Steel.

The Consett steel works were closed due to overcapacity in the industry in 1980. Almost 4,000 jobs were lost.

Playing ketchup: Geo Watkins

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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