Edward Manwaring (1842 – 1884) was born in Burwash, Sussex, the son of an innkeeper. He served an apprenticeship with a grocer who dealt in imported foodstuffs.
Manwaring established his own pickles business on Old Kent Road, London in May 1863. He was aided by a £100 loan from the Samuel Wilson Trust. By 1871 he employed eight men and five boys in Camberwell.
Edward Manwaring (1866 – 1931) was born in Camberwell, London. Following the death of his father in 1884 he took over the business.
Edward Manwaring was chairman and managing director of the company until his death in 1931. His estate was valued at £51,431.
Edward Manwaring Limited acquired the Haywards pickles brand in 1956. The company renamed itself Haywards Food Products.
The business was managed by great grandsons of the founder, Edward and Stuart Wade, by the 1960s.
Haywards Food Products was acquired by Melbray Food Group in 1963 for £450,000.
Pearce Duff is the leading powdered blancmange brand in Britain.
Origins
Pearce Duff was established by William Pearce and William Henry Duff (1793 – 1874), a Hampshire-born cook, in 1847. Baking powder and egg substitute powder were produced from a private home.
Growing sales saw the business relocate to a factory at Long Lane, Borough, London by the mid-1860s. Newspaper advertising had commenced by 1866.
Control of the business had passed to George Pearce and Daniel Duff (1837 – 1917) by 1884.
Relocation to Rouel Road
Pearce Duff relocated to the former premises of Young & Co, a glue manufacturer of Rouel Road in Bermondsey, from 1890.
The factory was briefly closed in August 1911 due to worker intimidation by striking employees.
The Pearce Duff factory on Rouel Road/Spa Road, Bermondsey
In 1914 the partners were Daniel Duff, Mrs Elizabeth Jane Duff (born 1870), Daniel Duff Jr (1879 – 1953), James Thomas Hosking (1856 – 1922) and Leslie George Cockhead (1861 – 1947). Nearly 500 people were employed at the five-storey Rouel Road factory.
J T Hosking retired from the partnership in 1916.
Daniel Duff died with an estate valued at £65,091 in 1917.
Pearce Duff had been registered as a private limited company by 1937. Daniel Duff Jr was appointed managing director.
L G Cockhead died with an estate valued at £90,327 in 1947. His nurse, with whom he was romantically involved, was granted an inheritance of £20,000.
Daniel Duff Jr died with an estate valued at £165,026 in 1953.
Introduction of automation; acquisitions
Mechanisation and automation of the factory was completed in the mid-1950s. A fully-automated plant for manufacturing custard powder was installed in 1957. Products were exported to 77 countries.
The business remained family-owned, and four members of the Duff family sat on the board of directors. Nearly 30 percent of production was exported in 1962.
A factory was acquired at Annan, Dumfriesshire to manufacture jellies in 1965.
Hugh Bidwell (1934 -2013) was appointed managing director of Pearce & Duff in 1970, and became chairman from 1971.
Pearce Duff acquired Marela from W R Grace of New York in 1973. Marela manufactured pickles and Fardon’s sauces and vinegar. In return, W R Grace and Barings Bank took a 40 percent stake in Pearce Duff. The acquisition gave Pearce Duff an annual turnover of around £4.5 million.
The Bermondsey and Annan factories were closed with the loss of 300 jobs in 1974. Production was relocated to a new factory at Dunstable, near Luton, where 250 people were employed.
Sales worth over £3 million in the Middle East and West Africa led Pearce Duff to win a prestigious Queen’s Award for Export Achievement in 1979.
Pearce Duff sorbet mix, probably from the 1980s
James Ashby & Sons, tea and coffee importers of London, was acquired in 1983. The purchase took Pearce Duff annual turnover to over £16 million.
Pearce Duff loses its independence
Hugh Bidwell and Sir Kenneth Cork (1913 – 1991) held a majority stake in Pearce Duff by 1984. That year they sold the business to Gill & Duffus, the largest cocoa trader in the world, for £4 million.
Dalgety acquired Gill & Duffus the following year. Dalgety merged Pearce Duff with its own Spillers Homepride division.
Pearce Duff products such as custard powder and baking powder were eventually discontinued in Britain, leaving only the blancmange powder to remain in production.
Dalgety sold its food ingredients business, including Pearce Duff, to Kerry Group of Ireland in 1998.
Pearce Duff blancmange powder is manufactured in Rotherham, Yorkshire. 700,000 units, to the retail value of £500,000, were sold in 2006.
Pearce Duff custard powder is sold in Pakistan and Spain, and Pearce Duff remains the leading brand of baking powder in West Africa and the Middle East.
Borwick’s was the highest-selling baking powder in the world.
George Borwick establishes the business
George Borwick (1807 – 1889) was born in Cartmel, Lancashire. He worked as a teacher in West Bromwich and married Jane Hudson (1807 – 1868), the daughter of a Congregationalist minister, in 1831.
Borwick’s brother in law, Robert Spear Hudson (1812 – 1884), had introduced the first successful commercial soap powder in 1837. A trained chemist, Hudson gifted his formula for baking powder to Borwick.
Borwick relocated to 18 Aldermanbury, London, to work as a wholesale agent selling Hudson’s washing and bleaching powder as well as his new baking powder, from 1844.
“Borwick’s German Baking Powder” received a recommendation from the private baker to Queen Victoria in 1849.
The firm traded as Borwick & Priestley, wholesale druggists and drysalters of 24 and 25 London Wall, London, between 1850 and 1852.
Borwick also introduced a successful egg powder.
Dr Hassall (1817 – 1894) analysed Borwick’s baking powder in 1855 and found it to consist of tartaric acid, soda (or maybe potassium carbonate), ground rice, a small amount of wheat flour and possibly a little sugar.
Borwick’s sales averaged £12,000 to £14,000 a year between 1845 and 1857.
Borwick’s baking powder and egg powder became some of the first widely-known consumer products in Britain.
George Borwick employed 75 men and boys and 8 girls in 1861.
Growing sales saw premises relocated to 24 Chiswell Street, Finsbury from 1864.
George Borwick & Sons
Robert Hudson Borwick (1845 – 1936) and Joseph Cooksey Borwick (1847 – 1913), sons of George Borwick, entered the business in 1865 after a brief period working as manufacturing confectioners. They were made partners by 1870, and the firm traded as George Borwick & Sons.
George Borwick & Sons was awarded a Royal Warrant for supply of baking powder to the Queen of the Netherlands in 1870.
George Borwick had retired to Devon by 1881, and he died in 1889. The value of his personal estate was estimated at £259,740. The firm was left to Robert and Joseph, whilst his eldest son Alfred (born 1837) inherited his estate at Walthamstow.
600,000 packets of Borwick’s baking powder were sold every week by 1896.
Robert Borwick was knighted in 1902.
George Borwick & Sons was registered as a limited liability company with a capital of £100,000 in 1902.
Joseph Borwick died with property valued at £159,419 in 1913.
Robert Borwick had retired from active management of George Borwick & Sons by 1915. His eldest son, Robert Geoffrey Borwick (1887 – 1961), took over as chairman of the business.
Robert Borwick was created a baronet in 1916, and elevated to the peerage from 1922. He died in 1936 with an estate valued at £361,000.
George Borwick & Sons had its premises at 42-44 Croydon Road, London by 1949.
Takeover and subsequent history
George Borwick & Sons was sold to H J Green & Co of Brighton, a traditional family-managed manufacturer of sponge mixes, in 1955.
H J Green was acquired by Pillsbury of Minneapolis in 1964.
A new factory was established at Rotherham, Yorkshire, in 1979.
Pillsbury was taken over by Grand Metropolitan in 1989. H J Green was sold to Dalgety in 1990. Dalgety sold its food ingredients business, including H J Green, to Kerry Group of Ireland in 1998.
Borwick’s baking powder continues to be sold across Britain.
Brown & Polson introduce corn flour to Britain
Starch manufacturers John Polson (1800 – 1843), William Polson (1810 – 1893) and John Brown (1806 -1889) merged their interests to form Brown & Polson with a factory at Thrushcraig in Paisley, Scotland from 1842.
Brown & Polson had been appointed starch manufacturer to Queen Victoria by 1853.
John Polson Jr (1825 – 1900) discovered a method for manufacturing pure starch from maize, which he called corn flour. He patented the process in 1854. It was the first corn flour to be manufactured in Britain. Advertised as a substitute for arrowroot, corn flour was used as a thickening agent for foods, and used to make custard, blancmange, puddings and cakes.
Production was relocated to the Royal Starch Works at Carriagehill, Paisley from 1857. The Thurscraig works were divested.
William Polson left the partnership to enter into starch manufacture independently from 1857.
In a major promotional coup for the business, the influential Dr Hassall confirmed the purity of Brown & Polson corn flour in 1858.
Brown & Polson employed 32 men and 60 women in 1861.
Brown & Polson employed around 200 people by 1871. The business introduced a profit-sharing scheme for its workforce from 1873.
By 1879 the partners were John Polson Jr, John Brown and John Armour Brown (1839 – 1924).
John Polson Jr was a practical and thrifty man, as well as a generous benefactor.
John Polson Jr (1825 – 1900)
John Armour Brown was head of the business by 1881. He was a strong, practical man, with a keen intellect.
Brown & Polson employed 277 people in 1881, including 89 men, 14 women, 86 boys and 88 girls.
Brown & Polson converted the by-product of corn flour manufacture into animal feed, which by 1884 had become a significant part of the business in its own right.
Brown & Polson was considered an enlightened employer. The firm was proud to announce in 1893 that a worker had never encountered the loss of a life or a limb in their factories, and the workforce had never gone on strike.
Brown & Polson office building, Paisley
Currie & Co, starch and corn flour manufacturer of Murray Street, Paisley, was acquired from the executrix of James Currie Auchencloss in 1897.
John Polson Jr died with an estate valued at £349,059 in 1900.
Brown & Polson acquired William Polson & Co in 1904.
Brown & Polson is formed as a private company
Brown & Polson Limited was formed as a private company with a capital of £500,000 in 1920.
William Wotherspoon, a Paisley starch manufacturer, was acquired in 1923. William Mackean, another Paisley starch manufacturer, was also acquired.
John Armour Brown died with an estate valued at £231,654 in 1924.
Brown & Polson had branched out into blancmange powder by 1933.
Share capital was increased to £600,000 in 1935.
Brown & Polson is acquired by Corn Products Co
Corn Products Co of the United States, which had a factory at Trafford Park, Manchester, acquired Brown & Polson in 1935.
The head office was relocated to Wellington House, 125-130 the Strand, London, from 1946.
Brown & Polson sold 200,000 tons of starch a year by 1952.
The William Mackean factory in Paisley was closed in 1954.
The Wotherspoon factory at Maxwellton, Paisley was closed in 1957. 40 staff were relocated to the Brown & Polson factory, but 170 jobs were lost.
Corn Products Co merged with Bestfoods of America in 1959.
A massive explosion at the Paisley animal feeding-stuff drying plant killed five men in 1962. 900 workers were employed at the factory, and fatalities would have been much higher if the incident had occurred during the day shift.
Brown & Polson employed over 500 people in 1962. The head office was relocated to Claygate, Surrey from 1963.
A £750,000 extension of the Paisley site was completed in 1964.
Brown & Polson acquired Frank Cooper, an Oxford marmalade manufacturer for £866,250 in cash in 1964. Marmalade production was relocated to the Brown & Polson factory in Paisley from 1967.
Knorr stock cubes and soups were manufactured at Paisley from the mid-1960s.
Brown & Polson held the licence to manufacture Gerber baby food for the British market between 1965 and 1979. The company held 13 percent of the British baby food market in 1969.
A Brown & Polson instant custard powder was introduced from 1978.
Brown & Polson blancmange mix was discontinued in Britain in the 1990s.
The Paisley factory employed 450 people in 1992, mostly in the manufacture of Knorr stock cubes and Hellmann’s mayonnaise.
Knorr production was relocated to more modern plants in France and Italy from 1993, with the loss of 345 jobs in Paisley.
Closure of the Paisley factory and sale to Premier Foods
Unilever acquired Corn Products Co (by now known as Bestfoods) in 2000.
The Paisley factory was closed in 2002. 66 jobs were lost as mayonnaise production was relocated to the Netherlands.
Unilever sold Brown & Polson to Premier Foods in 2003.
Brown & Polson corn flour is still available in Britain and India.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Keen & Co was perhaps the largest mustard manufacturer in the world before it was overtaken by Colman’s in the 1860s.
Thomas Keen establishes a mustard factory
English mustard became an increasingly popular condiment throughout the eighteenth century, with production largely centered at Durham and Tewkesbury.
Thomas Keen became the first commercial producer of mustard powder in the City of London from 1742, with a factory at Garlick Hill.
By 1792 the partners were Henry Sutton (died 1799), John Keen and Joseph Smith, and the firm traded as Sutton, Keen & Smith.
The factory was entirely destroyed by fire in 1806.
The business traded as Keen, Son & Co by 1811.
A Joseph Teale exited the business in 1824, leaving John Keen, John Henry Keen and James Keen (1780 – 1849) as partners.
John Keen retired in 1828, leaving Thomas Keen (1800 – 1862) and James Keen (died 1849) as sole partners.
The business was known as Keens & Welch by 1841. James Keen died in 1849, leaving Thomas Keen and John Welch (1805 – 1856) as partners.
Thomas Keen was a wealthy man by 1851; he kept nine servants in his household.
Keen Robinson Bellville & Co
Thomas Keen died in 1862, and Thomas Keen & Son was merged with Robinson & Bellville of Holborn, manufacturers of patent barley. The merged firm traded as Keen Robinson Bellville & Co.
Keen’s mustard was described as “world famous” by the Morning Post in 1868.
William John Bellville (1829 – 1891) was sole proprietor of the firm by 1876.
William John Bellville (1829 – 1891)
Keen operated the largest mustard factory in London by 1881, and it was supposedly the oldest mustard factory in the world. Additional factory premises were acquired at Denmark Street, London, in the 1880s.
William John Bellville died with an estate valued at £638,000 in 1891. The firm was inherited by his wife, Emma Bellville (born 1847).
The Garlick Hill premises was said to the oldest factory in the City of London by 1892. It spanned five floors. Most mustard seed was grown in the East of England, although some was imported from the Netherlands. There were extensive granaries in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire and Boston, Lincolnshire. The firm employed over 1,000 people, and was notable for not employing women, except for in sack mending.
Keen Robinson is acquired by J & J Colman
The business was registered as Keen Robinson, with a capital of £300,000, from 1893.
Keen Robinson was acquired by J & J Colman of Norwich, a rival mustard manufacturer, in 1903. Frank Ashton Bellville (1870 – 1937) joined the Colman’s board of directors.
It appears that Keen’s mustard advertising was immediately withdrawn in favour of the Colman’s brand.
Production was centralised at Colman’s Carrow Works in Norwich from 1925.
The two brothers and heirs to the Keen Robinson fortune both died in 1937. Frank Ashton Bellville left an estate valued at £394,397, and William John Bellville (1868 – 1937) left an estate valued at £393,709.
The Keen’s mustard brand appears to have been phased out in Britain following the Second World War.
Colman was sold to Unilever in 1995.
The Australian rights to Keen’s mustard, where the brand remains popular, were sold to McCormick & Co in 1998.
Unilever continue to produce Keen’s mustard for the Canadian market.
