Sarson’s is the leading brand of malt vinegar in Britain.
Early days
Sarson’s claimed in 1860 that the business had been established for “upwards of fifty years”, which suggests an establishment date of around 1810.
A Mr Sarson was established as a vinegar brewer on Craven Street, City Road, London, by 1822.
Premises had been removed to the corner of Brunswick Place, City Road, London by 1830.
James Sarson (born 1791) was head of the business by 1841.
Sarson’s “Pure Malt Vinegar” was being advertised in the press by 1842.
James Thomas Sarson (born 1821) had joined his father in business by 1846, and the firm began to trade as Sarson & Son.
Henry Sarson enters the business
Henry Sarson (born 1825), brother to J T Sarson, had joined the business by 1847.
James Thomas Sarson was described as a vinegar and mustard merchant in 1851. The business was relatively small at this time.
Sarson & Son branded its product as “Virgin Vinegar” from 1861 in order to indicate its purity at a time when food adulteration was rife. Most vinegar brewers added sulphuric acid to their product to decrease the necessary fermentation period.
Sarson & Son did not add caramel to darken their vinegar, unlike most brewers, so their product had a much lighter colour than its rivals.
Sarson was advertised as a high quality vinegar. It was packaged in capsulated bottles to prevent tampering, and sold through 3,523 outlets by 1871.
Henry Sarson employed 20 people, including four carmen, four van boys, three clerks, three women and six salesmen, by 1881. The business was still a relatively modest concern.
Henry Sarson & Sons; mass production
Henry Sarson’s two sons, Henry Logsdail Sarson (1861 – 1918) and Percival Stanley Sarson (1867 – 1951), had entered the business by 1892, which began to trade as Henry Sarson & Sons.
Percy Sarson was a keen businessman, with a feisty personality.
Henry Sarson retired from the business in 1893.
Henry Sarson & Sons had been converted into a private limited company by 1900.
Over one million gallons of vinegar were brewed in 1913.
In 1919 Sarsons fired an employee of 16 years service after she took her sick child to hospital.
In 1921 the company was accused of fixing the market to keep the price of malt vinegar artificially hight.
Acquisition by Crosse & Blackwell Crosse & Blackwell acquired Henry Sarson & Sons and Champion & Slee, another large London vinegar brewer, in 1929. The merger brought together the three largest vinegar brewers in the South of England. Crosse & Blackwell closed down the Sarson’s brewery and concentrated production at the Champion & Slee site.
The Crosse & Blackwell vinegar interests were merged with those of Distillers and Beaufoy Grimble to form British Vinegar with a capital of £450,000 in 1932.
Over five million gallons (around 23 million litres) of vinegar were brewed in 1950.
The Virgin Vinegar brand name was phased out in the 1950s.
Holbrooks & Co, with a vinegar brewery in Stourport, was acquired in 1954.
A site was acquired from the Co-op at Middleton, Manchester in 1968.
Subsequent ownership
Nestle of Switzerland took full control of British Vinegar in 1979.
The London vinegar brewery was closed in 1991.
The Stourport brewery was closed in 1999 with the loss of 22 jobs. Production was relocated to the larger Middleton site.
Sarson’s vinegar was the leading vinegar brand in Britain by 1999, with around a third of the market.
Sarson’s was acquired by Premier Foods in 2002. Over 5.5 million litres of vinegar were sold every year.
Mizkan of Japan acquired Sarson’s in 2012.
Sarson’s is made from a 9.5 percent alcohol barley wine that the company brews itself. The vinegar is matured for seven days in large oak vats.
Batger & Co was the largest jam manufacturer in Britain by the 1870s, and became one of the largest employers in East London, with a workforce of 2,000 people.
Batger & Co was acquired by Needlers in 1970. Is last-surviving product, Chinese Figs, was discontinued around the turn of the 21st century.
Origins
The Batger (pronounced Batch-er) family had a background in the London sugar refining trade. The business claimed that it was established by a Miss Batger in 1748.
John Batger (1754 – 1825), a Quaker, had established a grocery business at 16 Bishopsgate Street, London by 1783. He was manufacturing confectionery by at least 1813.
Batger & Co had a four-storey factory at 15-16 Bishopsgate Street by 1847.
Samuel Hanson & Son acquire Batger & Co
Batger & Co was acquired by Samuel Hanson & Son, wholesale grocers of Botolph Lane in Eastcheap, in 1856. There were around twelve employees.
An annual, expenses-paid excursion for staff was introduced from 1856. About 25 people were employed by around 1860.
A new factory was established at 103 Broad Street, Ratcliff, London from 1863.
Frederick Machin enters the business
Frederick Machin (1826 – 1902) and Samuel Hanson (1804 – 1882) had control of Batger & Co by 1864. Machin was responsible for the subsequent growth of a relatively small and declining business.
The Bishopsgate premises were divested in 1867.
Batger & Co employed 200 people by 1871. “Harlequin” Christmas crackers began to be produced from 1872.
Batger & Co was described as the largest jam manufacturer in Britain in 1873.
The Batger & Co factory covered two acres, all built upon, by 1875. 450 people were employed; rising to 550 at Christmas and 700 during the English fruit season, when jam was made. Around 2,000 tons of sugar and 1,000 tons of English fruits were used each year. Machinery was used extensively.
Frederick Machin had assumed full control of Batger & Co by 1880.
Batger & Co employed 400 people (250 men, 100 women and 50 boys) by 1881. The company was one of the largest manufacturers of jam and confectionery in London.
Batger & Co employed a workforce of 500 to 600 people during peak periods by 1887.
Batger & Co was one of the largest confectionery manufacturers in Britain by the turn of the 20th century. Nearly 1,000 workers were employed. Batger & Co was credited as the longest-established confectionery business in Britain.
Frederick Machin died in 1902 with a net personalty valued at £48,995. Control of the firm passed to his son, Stanley Machin (1861 – 1939).
Sir Stanley Machin (1861 – 1939) in 1932
Batger had introduced Chinese Figs by 1903. They were oval sweets consisting of real figs, fruit jelly and a sugar coating.
Christmas crackers were a major part of the Batger & Co business, and proved popular due to their high quality and low price.
A healthy export trade saw Batger & Co enjoy record sales in 1906, and the factory was extended.
Batger & Co was the largest ratepayer in East London by 1910.
Batger & Co employed a workforce of up to 2,000 people during peak periods by 1912. Joseph Hetherington (1873 – 1937) was manager of the confectionery factory by this time.
Batger & Co won a lucrative contract to supply the Army with jam during the First World War.
Chinese Figs were well-established as the most important confectionery line by 1920, with thousands of boxes sold during the festive period.
Batger & Co is acquired by Crosse & Blackwell
Batger & Co was acquired by Crosse & Blackwell for £522,902 in 1920. Batger retained its old management, and Stanley Machin was appointed a director of Crosse & Blackwell.
Batger & Co was the sole profitable Crosse & Blackwell subsidiary in 1923. However Crosse & Blackwell directors discovered that a confectionery business lacked synergies with a company largely concerned with preserves.
Machin and Hetherington family ownership
Crosse & Blackwell divested Batger & Co Ltd as a private company under the sole control of Stanley Machin and Joseph Hetherington in 1926.
Stanley Machin died in 1939. An obituary hailed him as one of the “leaders of commercial life in the City of London”.
Harold Stanley Machin (1891 – 1979) succeeded his father as managing director of Batger & Co.
The Broad Street factories were destroyed during the Blitz in 1940. A new factory was opened at 44 Southside, Clapham Common.
Batger & Co held a valuable contract to supply the J Sainsbury supermarket chain with own-label confectionery by the early 1960s.
Christmas cracker production is believed to have ended in around the late 1960s.
Sale to Needlers
Batger & Co was sold to Needlers Ltd of Hull, a rival confectionery manufacturer, for £263,000 in cash in 1970. John Hetherington and Colin Machin joined the Needlers board of directors.
The Batger factory in Clapham was sold for £330,000 in 1971, and production was relocated to Hull.
The last remaining Batger’s product, Chinese Figs, was discontinued around the year 2000. Its demise represented the end for one of the longest-established confectionery brands in Britain.
Fletcher’s was best known for its Tit-Bits and Tiger bottled sauces. Fletchers sauce was sold in Britain into the 1990s.
J P Fletcher establishes the business
Joshua Percy Fletcher (1879 – 1960) was the son of a prosperous coal merchant in Silsden, West Yorkshire. He had established himself as a drysalter (pickle manufacturer) by 1901.
Fletcher initially produced sauce at the Airedale Works in Shipley. He also had a glass bottle manufacturing plant in Leeds.
Fletcher’s (Shipley) Ltd was registered with a share capital of £20,000 in 1907.
J P Fletcher described his principal occupation as sauce manufacturing by 1911.
Fletcher’s acquired the rights to produce the popular Tit-Bits sauce from Stamp, Bointon, Junior & Co in 1913.
The sauce and bottling works were transferred to a model garden factory at Selby near York in 1915.
An employee profit-sharing scheme was introduced in 1917. This followed a larger scheme of employee welfare work, such as the encouragement of gardening and other outside interests.
Millions of bottles of Tiger Indian Sauce were sold each year by 1922. A fruity brown sauce, it was so-named because it used spices from the Indian subcontinent.
Arthur Lambert Foster (1880 – 1955) was managing director by 1931, with J P Fletcher assuming the role of chairman.
Foster was later joined in management by Tom Byass Fletcher (1912 – 1994), the only son of J P Fletcher.
Fletcher’s is acquired by HP Sauce
HP Sauce of Birmingham acquired Fletcher’s Sauce Co Ltd in 1947. HP was motivated by the opportunity to increase its presence in the North of England, particularly Yorkshire. The management of A L Foster and T B Fletcher was continued.
J P Fletcher died in 1960 and left an estate valued at £93,324.
Fletcher’s was a leading brown sauce in the East and West Ridings of Yorkshire as late as the 1970s.
HP sold the Selby site to Hazlewood Foods in 1982, and transferred the production of Fletcher’s sauces (to which they retained the rights) to their Birmingham site. Hazlewood manufactured pickles and cooking sauces at Selby.
The Selby pickle factory as of 2006
Tiger Sauce and Tit-Bits Sauce survived until as late as 1994. HP may have discovered that Fletcher’s sauces were cannibalising sales of HP Sauce, and there were synergies involved in concentrating on their leading product.
Meanwhile, Hazlewood was acquired by Greencore in 2000, who continue to operate the factory at Selby. It is the largest manufacturer of private label pickles and sauces in the UK.
The Slee & Co vinegar works were operated on the same site in London from 1812 until 1992.
Slee & Co was founded by Noah Slee at Church Street, Horsleydown, London in 1812. He was soon joined by Josias Slee (1773 – 1829), who emigrated to London from Honiton, Devon.
John Vickers joined in partnership from 1823, and the business traded as Vickers & Slee.
Josias Slee left the business in 1826.
Vickers & Slee was the fifth largest vinegar brewer in Britain and Ireland by 1832. The firm held about seven percent of the market.
In an age before refrigeration, vinegar was a much more important commodity than it is today, due to its preservative effect on foodstuffs.
John Vickers left the partnership in 1838.
The business was owned by Noah Slee, William Payne and Edward Richardson Slee (1815 – 1878), the son of Josias Slee, in the 1840s. Payne was a brother-in-law.
Noah Slee was declared bankrupt in 1842, and the business continued as Payne & Slee.
Payne & Slee was the fifth largest vinegar brewer in Britain by 1844.
An analysis conducted for The Lancet in 1852 found that Payne & Slee vinegar contained the highest amount of sulphuric acid of any of the major vinegar producers in Britain. The addition of sulphuric acid was a low-cost method of speeding up the acidification process of the vinegar, but it was considered hazardous for health.
Payne left the business in 1860.
The business employed 36 people in 1861.
The business traded as Slee & Slee by 1868.
49 people were employed in 1871.
The Horsleydown site sourced water using an artesian well, sunk to a depth of 303 feet. The water source was of a high quality for brewing vinegar, and had a high content of calcium sulphate and sodium chloride.
Slee, Slee & Co held a stock of nearly half a million gallons (c.2.3 million litres) of vinegar in 1874.
Batty & Co, sauce and pickle manufacturer of Finsbury Pavement, was acquired in 1874.
Edward Richardson Slee died with a personal estate valued at under £60,000 in 1878. His stake in the business was inherited by his son, Herbert Hutton Slee (1853 – 1933).
The business was run by Cuthbert Britton Slee (1818 – 1900) and Herbert Hutton Slee from 1878.
Slee, Slee & Co was one of the longest-established vinegar brewers in Britain by 1887. One of their vats had been in use since the reign of George III (1739 – 1820).
Export sales began in earnest, principally to New Zealand, from 1889.
The business became a limited company from 1895.
Batty & Co was sold to Heinz, who desired a British manufacturing facility, in 1905.
Champion & Co, vinegar brewers of City Road, London was acquired to form Champion & Slee Ltd in 1907. The company had a share capital of £140,000. The takeover was motivated by the scope for economies of scale. The Slee brand was phased out, but all production was relocated to the Slee premises, where there was ample room for expansion.
A large proportion of production was exported to foreign and colonial markets.
Champion & Slee was acquired by Crosse & Blackwell, who merged operations with Sarson’s, in 1929 The Champion brand was phased out in favour of Sarson’s.
Hammonds Sauce Co was the largest privately-owned sauce manufacturer in Britain. Hammonds became best known for its Chop Sauce, a light and spicy brown sauce.
Background
Herbert Bowdin Hawley (1880 – 1952) was born in Grassington, Yorkshire, the son of a farmer of 95 acres.
Hawley left home at the age of 21 with just £10. He worked in a grocer’s warehouse in Halifax, and later as a salesman. He had established himself as director of a soap manufacturing company in Shipley, near Bradford by 1911.
Herbert Hawley entered into partnership with his brother Richard to form H B and R Hawley Ltd, cake flour manufacturers, in 1914. H B Hawley acted as chairman of the company, which had a nominal capital of £50,000 in 1920.
Hammonds Sauce Co
H B Hawley founded a sauce manufacturing company, at Wellcroft Mills, Shipley, in 1924. Initially there were four employees.
As demand increased, additional space was acquired at the site in 1926 and again in 1928.
Expanding sales saw production relocate to a new factory at Dockfield Road, Shipley, from 1930. Hammonds Chop Sauce was introduced from that same year, and soon became the principal product.
The company took on the name of Hammonds Sauce Co from 1933.
Over one hundred people were employed by 1934.
The factory was expanded to accommodate increasing demand for Hammonds Chop Sauce around 1935.
During the Second World War most of the factory was requisitioned by the Admiralty as a storage warehouse, although production of Hammonds Chop Sauce continued.
H B Hawley was a keen bandmaster and composer, and he formed the Hammonds Sauce Works Band in 1946.
H B Hawley died in 1952, and left an estate valued at £27,000. He was hailed as one of the leading bandmasters in Yorkshire. His son, Horace Routledge Hawley (1910 – 1983), took over Hammonds Sauce Co.
Hammonds Sauce Co employed a staff of around 100 by 1954.
Goodall, Backhouse & Co of Leeds was acquired in 1959. Goodall’s were sauce manufacturers best known for Yorkshire Relish.
Hammonds Sauce Co was the largest privately-owned sauce manufacturer in Britain by 1974, with a range of 70 products. 34 million bottles of sauce were sold that year, with a significant proportion exported, largely to the United States. The American market was particularly fond of Hammonds Steak Sauce and Yorkshire Relish.
Horace Hawley retired as managing director in 1975, but continued as company chairman.
Loss of independence
Hammonds was acquired by US food conglomerate Pillsbury, best known in Britain for Green Giant sweetcorn, for £2.4 million in 1982.
Pillsbury centralised all production at a new £1 million factory on Harrogate Road, Bradford from 1985. The Goodall Backhouse factory in Leeds and the Hammonds factory in Shipley were closed.
Pillsbury was acquired by Grand Metropolitan in 1988 who sold the UK business to Dalgety in 1990. Hammonds had an annual turnover of £11 million in 1990.
Hammonds was acquired by Albert Fisher for £12 million in 1991. Albert Fisher ended sponsorship of the Hammonds Sauce Works band after 47 years in 1993.
Hammonds was acquired by Unigate in 1999. The Bradford factory was closed in 2002 and production was relocated to a former vinegar brewery on Whitelees Road, Littleborough, Lancashire.
McCormick, the American seasonings company, acquired Hammonds for £12.2 million in 2003. Hammonds Sauce largely served the catering industry.
The three principal ingredients in Hammonds Chop Sauce are water, sugar and modified corn starch as of 2020. The sauce derives its flavour from acetic acid, spirit vinegar, apple puree, molasses, tomato paste and spices.
Burgess’ Essence of Anchovies was introduced in 1775, and was the first branded sauce to enjoy a nationwide reputation in Britain. Burgess sauce is still sold.
John Burgess introduces Essence of Anchovies
John Burgess (1750 – 1820) was born in Odiham, Hampshire, the son of an affluent grocer. Burgess served an apprenticeship in London before he established his own premises at No. 101, the Strand by 1774. Burgess held the profession of “Italian warehouseman”, meaning he sold imported speciality foods such as hams and olive oil.
Burgess developed his reputation due to his keen business skills and his honesty. Growing trade saw the business relocate to larger premises at No. 107 the Strand from 1779.
Burgess introduced his Essence of Anchovies in 1775, and it was his best known product by 1788. The recipe was simple: anchovies were crushed, mixed with water and gently heated. Spices may have been added, and the sauce was strained.
His was the original Essence of Anchovies, but it inspired imitations from the likes of Elizabeth Lazenby, who began to sell her anchovy-based sauce from 1793.
His only son, William Robert Burgess (1778 – 1853), entered into an equal partnership with his father from 1800, and the firm became known as John Burgess & Son.
Burgess products were onboard Admiral’s Nelson’s HMS Victory in 1805. Lord Byron referenced Burgess’s fish sauce in his poem Beppo (1817). The novelist Walter Scott claimed that Burgess made the best fish sauce in 1823.
The second and third generation take control of the business
John Burgess died in 1820, and William Robert Burgess became sole proprietor.
By the early 1850s, due to public demand, Essence of Anchovies was adulterated with Armenian bole, an iron-rich clay, to imbue the sauce with a bright red colour. This was the standard industry practice at the time.
By the 1850s Lazenby and Crosse & Blackwell were encroaching upon Burgess’s market share with lower-priced imitations of Essence of Anchovies. W R Burgess stubbornly announced that the only change to Essence of Anchovies production that he would allow would be that twelve days pounding of fish by two men could be altered to six days pounding by four.
After the death of W R Burgess, the business was taken over by his wife, Elizabeth (1804 – 1884) and his son, Arthur Wellington Burgess (1840 – 1900).
A fire broke out at the firm’s pickling vaults and storehouses on the Strand in 1869. A large quantity of olive oil was destroyed.
Arthur Wellington Burgess was declared bankrupt in 1870, and the business was taken over by his mother and his sisters, Mary Ann Burgess and Louisa Elizabeth Burgess.
The Brooks family acquire control of John Burgess & Son
The business was acquired by the Brooks family, relatives of the Burgesses, in 1874.
John Burgess & Son was incorporated as a limited company in 1901.
The company relocated its manufacturing and offices to Hythe Road, Willesden in 1908.
The company was appointed purveyors to George V in 1911. That same year, Robert Falcon Scott took several bottles of Burgess’ Essence of Anchovies with him to the Antarctic.
The shop on the Strand was closed in 1914.
A Burgess gravy browning bottle from the mid 1990s
A takeover offer from George Mason & Co, the manufacturer of OK Sauce, was rejected in 1928.
The Willesden factory was damaged by German bombs in 1940.
John Burgess & Son is acquired by Rayner & Co
Rayner & Co acquired John Burgess & Son from the company directors, who were the sole shareholders, in 1954. Company operations were relocated to Edmonton, North London in 1960.
Burgess creamed horseradish was launched in 1960, following three years of research.
Rayner & Co had sales of just under £2 million in 1971. Burgess creamed horseradish was by now its leading product, a market leader in its field with sales of £100,000 a year. Sales of Essence of Anchovies had steadily declined from their Victorian heyday. Rayner & Burgess was established to jointly handle the increasing sales of both companies in 1972.
Burgess creamed horseradish was still available as late as 1993. It was a premium product.
Essence of Anchovies was still being produced as late as 1999. Latterly, its fans had included the celebrity chef Simon Hopkinson.
Rayner Burgess entered into liquidation in 2007. The Burgess brand was acquired by Greencore, a large Irish foods company. Burgess pickles and sauces continued to be sold as late as 2016. Burgess Gravy Browning is still produced for the catering trade and Asian export markets.
Champion & Co became the fourth largest vinegar brewer in Britain and Ireland.
The Champion family establish and grow the business
Champion & Co, vinegar brewers, traced its establishment to 1705.
In an age before refrigeration, vinegar was a much more important commodity than it is today, due to its preservative effect on foodstuffs.
William Champion (died 1799) had acquired a London vinegar brewery by 1794. The premises were situated in Shoreditch, on the corner where City Road meets Old Street, next to where the Old Street tube station is today.
Thomas Champion and Guy Champion
William Champion died suddenly whilst serving as Sheriff of London in 1799, and the business was passed to his son, Thomas Champion (1774 – 1846). The venture was to owe its subsequent growth, both at home and overseas, to the business acumen of Thomas Champion.
A bottle of Champion’s Celebrated Pure Malt Vinegar, likely dating from the 1920s
Thomas Champion was joined in partnership by a Francis Moore between 1813 and 1818, and the firm trade as Champion & Moore.
The firm traded as Champion & Green from 1821, after a Thomas Green entered the business. The firm had expanded into mustard production by 1830.
Guy Champion (1786 – 1846), brother to Thomas Champion, who had previously worked as a merchant in Spain, entered the business from 1830.
Guy Champion chanced upon a slave auction whilst abroad in Albania, and acquired a girl. He brought her back to England and married her.*
Champion & Green was the fourth largest vinegar brewer in Britain and Ireland by 1832, with a market share of 13 percent.
Thomas Green had left the business by 1839.
In 1840 the partnership between Guy and Percival Champion, Arthur Mann and William Henry Wright was dissolved. They had been trading under the name Champions, Mann & Wright. The business was transferred to Thomas Champion.
Guy Champion died in 1846. Thomas Champion died suddenly whilst organising the funeral arrangements for his brother.
George Willis and William Henry Wright took over Champion & Co, although the Champion family continued to hold a stake in the business.
James Bigwood takes control of Champion & Co
James Bigwood (1839 – 1919) was the son of a successful fish merchant. He acquired control of Champion & Co in 1868 and became managing director. Bigwood was an enthusiastic advocate of product purity, and was vehemently opposed to food adulteration.
James Bigwood (1839 – 1919) in 1898. Image used with the kind permission of the National Portrait Gallery.
Champion & Co produced well over 1.5 million gallons of vinegar every year by 1872. Two tons of mustard were produced every day. 170 people, mostly skilled workers, were employed.
The vinegar brewery was extended in 1873.
A large export market was developed in Australia and New Zealand.
A new 53,000 gallon vinegar vat was installed in 1883. It was constructed over three months from Kentish oak. It joined 46 other similarly-sized vats at the brewery.
The five and six-storied premises covered 4.5 acres of land by 1885.
Champion & Co was one of the largest mustard manufacturers in the world. Three million tins of mustard were produced per annum by the mid-1880s.
James Bigwood was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1885. Bigwood measured 6 ft 4 inches, and held the distinction of being the tallest MP. The Daily Mirror described his appearance as that of a “prosperous doctor”.
Champion & Co could produce up to 10,000 bottles of vinegar a day by 1894.
A Champion & Co bottle, believed to date from the 1890s. Image courtesy of Tim Gunnink
James Bigwood had been joined in business by his son, James Edward Cecil Bigwood (1863 – 1947) by 1901.
Champion & Co was the longest-established vinegar brewery in London by 1907.
The Bigwood family sell Champion & Co to Slee, Slee & Co
James Bigwood and J E C Bigwood sold Champion & Co to Slee, Slee & Co, a rival London vinegar brewer, in 1907. The merged business was registered as Champion & Slee, with a share capital of £140,000.
The City Road brewery, with its proximity to the City of London, had become highly valuable, and the Bigwoods were keen to realise its value. The Champion brewery site was demolished, and the land was used to build affordable housing. Champion & Co production was relocated to the Slee premises at Tower Bridge Road, where there was ample space for expansion.
Champion & Slee received a Royal Warrant to supply King George V in 1913.
The British vinegar industry suffered from overcapacity after the First World War. Champion & Slee was acquired by Crosse & Blackwell in 1929. Crosse & Blackwell closed down its own vinegar brewery and concentrated production at the Champion & Slee site.
Champion & Slee established a factory in Sydney from 1930. It produced 1.8 million bottles annually.
Champion’s vinegar continued to be advertised in Britain until the mid-1950s, after which it was phased out in favour of the Sarson’s brand, which was also owned by Crosse & Blackwell.
Champion’s vinegar continued to be sold in the Australian market until at least the late 1970s.
Notes
* According to to an account by Charles James Feret (1854 – 1921) in 1900.
Pink’s was the largest producer of jam and marmalade in the world by the late nineteenth century.
Edward Pink era
Edward Pink (1827 – 1910) was born in Durley, Hampshire. He relocated to London where he served an apprenticeship to a grocer. He established a preserves business in Holborn from 1860.
Thomas Pink (1855 – 1926)
His son, Thomas Pink (1855 – 1926), entered the business from 1867, at which point there were twelve employees. Edward Pink Jr later entered the business, and the firm became known as Edward Pink & Sons.
A factory had been established on Staple Street, Bermondsey, South London, where there was ample room for expansion, by 1871. The operation utilised steam-powered machinery by 1874. Over 400 people were permanently employed, rising to 600 during the busy seasons.
Scrupulous cleanliness was adhered to. The influential Dr Arthur Hassall (1817 – 1894) of The Lancet toured the company’s factory in 1874 and following scientific analysis of Pink products was able to vouch for their purity. Food adulteration was rife at the time, so this recommendation was hugely valuable for the firm.
Edward Pink & Sons added a small amount of apple jelly to its marmalade from 1874, in order to mellow the bitterness of the Seville oranges.
Edward Pink & Sons claimed to be “the largest manufacturer of preserves” by 1879. The firm catered largely to a working class market.
Edward Pink & Sons employed 263 men and 366 women, a total of 629 people, by 1881. From this time the firm added glucose to their jam, with the claim that this greatly improved the product.
Over 3,000 tons of jam were produced every year by 1882.
Edward Pink & Sons claimed to have the largest jam factory in the world by 1883. The factory site covered 4.5 acres by 1887.
E & T Pink
Thomas Pink became managing director of the firm from 1890, which henceforth became known as E & T Pink. Pink was a bold man, strong-willed and forthright. He was also hard-working, and a hands-on employer. Immediately after taking control of the business, he completely reorganised it.
In response to alleged intimidation of union members in 1892, the activist Clement Edwards (1869 – 1938) urged the Co-operative societies to boycott Pink products.
60 female workers in the finishing department went on strike in 1892 after their wages were reduced. They were all promptly replaced by new workers.
E & T Pink did not allow its workers to leave the premises during their lunch break, and did not provide a separate room where staff could rest during their break. A juryman described the situation as “shameful” in 1893. Following an appeal by John Burns MP (1858 – 1943) to Thomas Pink, permission was granted for outside breaks, and Pink opened a four storey, 1,000 seat capacity “mess house” for employees in 1894. It was probably the best-equipped staff building in London, according to the St James’s Gazette. Thomas Pink denied that this was an act of philanthropy, and stated his belief that treating his employees well would increase profits at his business.
There were 500 regular workers at E & T Pink by 1893, around 400 of whom were women. That year, 8,000 tons of jam were produced.
Edward Pink Sr retired in 1894, and Thomas Pink became sole proprietor of E & T Pink.
Pink employed 56 salesmen, 130 clerks, and over 1,800 workers during the busy season in 1894. His steam engines had a total of over 1,000 horse power. The factory covered ground of 4.5 acres, and had a floor space of eight acres.
E & T Pink was the largest manufacturer of jam in the world in 1894, with an average production of 40 tons per day. Pink controlled a twelfth of the British tapioca market. E & T Pink also claimed to be by far the largest manufacturer of marmalade in the world by the late nineteenth century.
Advertisement from 1890
Thomas Pink was a highly-gifted engineer: he designed the machinery for his pepper mills himself; he ground sixteen tons of pepper a week by 1894, and controlled an eighth of the British pepper trade.
Pink was innovative; he was the first British businessman to dictate his correspondence by phonograph. He conducted the majority of his business through the newly-invented telephone by 1894. A keen Conservative, Pink received a knighthood in 1904.
By appointing skilled heads of department, Sir Thomas Pink was able to reduce his time spent at E & T Pink. Pink preferred to find and promote from within his own business, in preference to hiring managers externally.
The Staple Street factory covered 7.5 acres of ground, with 15 acres of floor space, by 1899. There was a pepper mill at Hatcham, and two wharves at Horsleydown. A total of 2,000 people were employed. 10,000 tons of jam and marmalade were produced every year.
In 1901 Sir Thomas Pink estimated that he lost £1,000 to £1,500 a year due to petty thefts by his 2,500 employees.
Edward Pink died with an estate valued at £261,677 in 1910.
Profitability trouble and labour issues
E & T Pink was registered as a company in 1912.
Between 1910 and 1914 the business suffered heavy losses.
The factory was affected by a woman’s strike in 1911. The female workers managed to secure a wage increase of two shillings per week.
Pink’s women strikers in 1911
The Pink factory suffered a serious strike of around 1,000 people in 1914, involving most of the workforce except the clerical staff. The employees demanded an increase in their wages. Pink’s response was to close the entire factory, citing safety concerns for those among his workforce who remained loyal. This left a total of 1,200 to 1,500 people idle. Work resumed after Pink agreed to grant the minimum wage recommended by the Trade Board.
During the First World War, wartime contracts allowed E & T Pink to re-enter profitability, but following the end of the war, the losses returned.
A cooperage fire at Pink’s factory caused £20,000 worth of damage in 1918.
Sir Thomas Pink retired in 1919, and sold E & T Pink to the Van Den Bergh family.
Plaistowe merger and demise
E & T Pink was merged with Plaistowe, a fellow jam, marmalade and confectionery manufacturer, in 1920. The merger was motivated by anticipated economies of scale.
The merged company had an annual production of 24,000 tons of jam and marmalade, 7,500 tons of confectionery and 2,500 tons of Fulcreem food products. Total sales were over £2.75 million.
The company directors agreed that the Pink’s name had become noxious by 1921, and that a rebranding was necessary to increase sales.
After sustaining losses of £200,000 between 1920 and 1923, the E & T Pink subsidiary was liquidated, and the assets acquired by Plaistowe.
Following the merger, Sir Thomas Pink was retained in an advisory capacity, but had no directorial control. A keen smoker, drinker and meat eater, he died from heart failure at his London home following surgery in 1926. He left an estate valued at just over £275,000.
In his will Sir Thomas awarded a £750 annuity to his son, Thomas Bernard Pink (born 1882), who had emigrated to Canada in 1913, and after establishing himself in the Toronto real estate business, had not been heard from since 1914. It was believed that he enlisted in the Canadian army under an alias, served in France and became a casualty of war.
Plaistowe entered into receivership in 1926. This was blamed on losses made by the Pink side of the business, as well as the mismanagement of the merger of the production of the two firms. Plaistowe was acquired by Crosse & Blackwell in 1930, who merged operations with their Keiller jam and confectionery subsidiary.
The Bermondsey factory was demolished in 1935, and replaced by a housing estate.
Maypole Dairy was easily the largest retailer in Britain by 1913.
The Watson brothers and George Jackson
George Watson (1861 – 1930), Charles Henry Watson (1863 – 1927) and John Alfred Watson (1865 – 1931), were brothers born just outside Coventry to a prosperous farming family. They served as apprentices and later as assistants to George Jackson, a Birmingham dairy merchant.
Jackson had pioneered the sale of pure dairy butter at affordable prices by importing the product directly from Danish farmers. Jackson sold 30,000 tons of butter every year by 1893, and was the largest retailer of butter in the world.
Establishment of Maypole Dairy
Jackson’s strong reputation for butter meant that he was reluctant to branch out into margarine, which although gaining in popularity, was hampered by a downmarket image. However George Watson was free to take the chance, and he established the Maypole Dairy Company, with a margarine shop in Wolverhampton, from 1887. He was soon joined by his brothers, and outlets were opened across the Midlands. The shops also began to sell cheese and butter.
Maypole Dairy was a high volume, low margin business, and outlets were concentrated in working class areas.
Charles Watson was largely responsible for the expansion of the Maypole chain into Lancashire and Yorkshire.
George Watson introduced a profit-sharing scheme for management from 1890. Shortly afterwards, in a pioneering move, the scheme was extended to all employees.
Maypole Dairy was the largest retailer of margarine in Britain by 1895. The business had 60 shops, eight creameries in Ireland and one in England, and purchasing offices in Denmark and Sweden.
Maypole merges with George Jackson
Maypole and George Jackson underwent a merger in 1898, and the company was incorporated with a share capital of £1 million. George Watson became chairman. The company had 185 retail shops and 17 creameries.
Maypole acquired a margarine factory in Godley, Manchester, from Otto Monsted Ltd, a Danish company, in 1902. It was capable of producing 200 tons of margarine every week.
Maypole had 560 retail shops by 1908, and was the largest retailer of tea, butter and margarine in the United Kingdom.
A Maypole Dairy Store in Hartlepool
Maypole reported a net profit of over £550,000 (£425 million in 2015) in 1912, of which all but £50,000 was distributed among shareholders as a 212.5% dividend.* By this time there were 712 stores across the United Kingdom, and the leading lines were margarine and tea. That year, George Watson was appointed a baronet.
Maypole was the largest retail chain in Britain by a substantial margin by 1913, with over 800 shops.
Maypole, and the Dutch producers Jergens and Van den Bergh produced most of the margarine sold in Britain, with Maypole producing almost as much as the other two combined by 1913.
The Manchester margarine factory was sold to Lever Brothers in 1914.
Maypole acquired Otto Monsted’s margarine factory in Southall, Middlesex, and an edible oils refinery in Erith, South East London in 1915. The Southall factory covered 22,500 square yards, employed around 650 people and was the largest margarine factory in the world. It had a weekly output of 700 tons of margarine.
The Southall factory
Maypole margarine differed from competitors in that it was produced from tropical nuts and seeds rather than animal fats. Maypole established a groundnut operation in West Africa to provide raw material for margarine production in 1915. 25,000 to 30,000 tons of groundnuts were produced annually by 1919.
Maypole dominated the sale and manufacture of margarine in the United Kingdom, with a 50 percent market share by 1918. The Southall site produced over 2,000 tons a week. Margarine accounted for 85 percent of Maypole sales.
The interior of a Maypole Dairy shop
Acquisition by Home & Colonial
Maypole capital amounted to £3 million (equivalent to just under £1 billion in 2015) in 1919. Turnover exceeded £36.5 million (£13.8 billion in 2015) in 1921.
However shortly afterwards the company began to struggle with increased Dutch competition and the failure of its West African business. Six directors retired in 1924, including the chairman, George Watson, and they sold their stakes to Home & Colonial. Now the majority owner, Home & Colonial was itself controlled by Jurgens.
Maypole increased its product lines to include jam, marmalade and lard from 1925. In 1928 biscuits were added, and cheese was re-introduced in packaged form.
Maypole is absorbed into Unilever
Maypole had over 1,040 retail outlets and a total capitalisation of over £9 million by 1929. That year, Jurgens and Van den Bergh merged with Lever Brothers of Britain to form Unilever. Maypole was now contractually obliged to purchase all of its margarine from Unilever. The Maypole manufacturing site at Southall was rendered redundant by the Unilever purchase, and was re-appropriated for the production of Wall’s sausages and ice cream. The Erith refinery was also closed.
Unilever created a holding company for its grocery chains; Lipton, Home & Colonial and Maypole Dairy, called Allied Suppliers, in 1930. Allied Suppliers had a capital of £13.3 million, and was the largest grocery retailer in the world. Each retail company continued to be run independently, but there was co-operation in wholesale acquisitions and distribution.
George Watson died in 1930, leaving an estate valued at over £2 million (about £805 million in 2015).
Maypole’s West African venture was sold to the United Africa Company, which was controlled by Unilever, in 1931.
Maypole sold over 200,000 eggs in 1938.
There were 977 Maypole stores and 6,334 employees in 1939. Rivals such as Tesco, which utilised bulk purchasing from suppliers, began to challenge the vertical integration model practised by Maypole.
By 1943 all but two company directors, and practically all senior executives, were men who had started at the bottom ranks of the company and worked their way up.
Faced with continued rationing after the war, Maypole began to extend its product range to include additional staples such as bacon from 1947.
The Maypole name is phased out
The independent management of Maypole ended in 1964. The Maypole name was phased out in the 1970s, when increased competition from supermarkets saw Allied Suppliers decide to concentrate on their Home & Colonial brand. Allied Suppliers eventually morphed into Safeway (UK), and the rights to the Maypole brand are now owned by Morrisons Supermarkets.
Unilever continued to hold a 30 percent share of the global spreads market, until the divested their spreads unit in 2017.
* Currency conversions are calculated by measuring wealth relative to the total output of the economy at the time. All calculations are from measuringworth.com
Lazenby’s was one of the largest sauce manufacturers in Britain. Their flagship Harvey’s fish sauce was a popular condiment in Victorian homes.
Peter Harvey
Peter Harvey (1749 – 1812) was a chef to the Duke of Bolton (1720 – 1794). Harvey had left to become the landlord of the Red Lion in Bagshot, a large posthouse with stabling for fifty horses, by 1793.*
Harvey relocated to the Black Dog Inn at Bedfont, Middlesex, situated on the Great Western Road, a major route from London, from 1798. The Black Dog functioned as a posthouse, and as the halfway house between London and Bagshot.
Harvey gained a reputation as a culinary perfectionist. His cuisine gained a keen following among the aristocracy, including the Prince of Wales. Foremost among his offerings was a thin, brown-black sauce.** It had a base of vinegar, soy sauce and mushroom or walnut ketchup, and was flavoured with anchovies, garlic and cayenne pepper. The sauce was matured in charred pine barrels, which helped to darken the liquid.
The Lazenby family grow the business
Peter Harvey gifted the sauce recipe to his sister Elizabeth in 1793. With her husband John Lazenby, provision merchant at 6 Edward Street (renamed Wigmore Street from 1869), Portman Square, London, wholesale manufacture of the sauce commenced.
“Harvey’s Sauce” soon became well-known throughout London. The product had national distribution by 1807. The success of the sauce was such that it inspired numerous counterfeit productions, and Peter Harvey signed every bottle to confer authenticity from 1805. Harvey died in 1812, and Elizabeth began to sign the bottles herself.
Harvey’s Sauce became embedded in contemporary culture. Lord Byron referred to the product in his poem Beppo (1817). Later, Thackeray, Dickens and Edith Wharton would also reference it in their works.
The business was eventually passed to Elizabeth’s sons; Henry Lazenby (1784 – 1851) and Edward Frederick Lazenby (1790 – 1830), who continued to pay their mother an annuity of £300. Henry Lazenby took full control of the business from 1818.
Control of the company had passed to Elizabeth’s grandson, William Howard Harvey Lazenby (1808 – 1875), by 1848.
The business employed around 25 people in the 1850s, rising to 35 men in 1861. That year a factory was opened at Trinity Street, Borough.
William had retired by 1871, and control of the company passed to his son, Walter Lazenby (1835 – 1910). William’s estate was valued at £50,000 in 1875, or roughly £5.2 million in 2015.
Walter Lazenby was to greatly expand the business. He built a large new factory in Bermondsey. He expanded the product range to include a variety of pickles and sauces. Products were exported across the world, with South Africa and Canada the principal foreign markets.
E Lazenby & Son was registered as a limited company with an authorised capital of £300,000 in 1895.
“Harvey’s Sauce” became a genericized trademark, so the product was rebranded as “Lazenby’s Sauce” from 1900 onwards.
By the time Walter Lazenby died in 1910 he had had built the company into one of the largest sauce manufacturers in Britain, with over 600 employees and a worldwide reputation. The Aberdeen Journal described the company’s fish sauce recipe as a “gold mine”, and Lazenby left an estate valued at £377,480.
Charles Lazenby (1863 – 1929) was appointed chairman of the company following the death of his father.
The principal trade was in pickles by 1911. The most popular pickled vegetables were cucumbers (gherkins imported from the South of France), onions (largely imported from the Netherlands) and cauliflower (from Kent and Cambridgeshire). Pickled walnuts (imported from the Netherlands) were also popular. Outside of London, the principal market for Lazenby pickles were the prosperous industrial areas of Yorkshire and Lancashire.
E Lazenby & Son employed 800 people and had contracts to supply the Army, the Navy, and forces in India, by 1914.
The Crosse & Blackwell/Nestle era
E Lazenby & Son was acquired by Crosse & Blackwell, a large manufacturer of preserved foods, in 1919. Charles Lazenby was appointed to the Crosse & Blackwell board as one of ten directors. The takeover facilitated greater distribution of Lazenby products.
The company left the original Wigmore Street premises in 1922. The Trinity Street factory was closed in 1925 and production was transferred to Bermondsey.
Charles Lazenby died in 1929 with a gross estate valued at £283,278.
Nestle of Switzerland acquired Crosse & Blackwell in 1960. E Lazenby branded foodstuffs continued to be sold in Britain until at least the late 1960s, but production may have ended with the closure of the Bermondsey factory in 1969.
Nestle sold off their Crosse & Blackwell operations in the early 21st century, and the (unused) rights to the E Lazenby name were acquired by Premier Foods. Nestle retains the rights to the Lazenby name in South Africa, where it survives as a popular brand of Worcestershire sauce.
Notes
The Red Lion at Bagshot played host to a reconciliation between Pitt the Elder (1708 – 1778), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and John Wilkes (1725 – 1797) following a duel between the two men that ended in both their guns misfiring.
An anonymous recollection from 1842 alleges that Charles Combers (c.1752 – 1825), a patron of the Black Dog, gifted his mother’s original sauce recipe to Peter Harvey.
