Category Archives: Food

Food

Baking point: George Borwick & Sons

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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.

Confectionery

Clarnico of Hackney Wick (1872 – 2019)

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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.

 

Spreads & sauces

Yeast resistance: Marmite

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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.

marmite_-_Feb_2013

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.

Biscuits & cakes

Cracking the market: a history of Jacob’s

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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.

Spreads & sauces

Playing ketchup: Geo Watkins

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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.

 

Confectionery

Worth a mint: Barker & Dobson

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How did Barker & Dobson become one of the largest confectionery manufacturers in Britain?

Origins
Joseph Dobson (1801 – 1864) established a grocery shop on Henry Street in Liverpool from 1834. He was declared bankrupt in 1841.

Using the maiden name of his wife, he commenced trade as Barker & Dobson from 1844 and the business was relocated to Paradise Street.

Dobson was declared bankrupt again in 1861. One of the trustees of the estate was George Bassett (1818 – 1886), confectioner of Sheffield.

Barker & Dobson had relocated to 6 Duke Street by 1870. The main business was in imported French confectionery.

Jacobson era
The business was taken over by Henry Dobson Jacobson (1867 – 1961), grandson of Joseph Dobson, in 1889.

Jacobson was to prove the impetus behind the subsequent growth of Barker & Dobson. He relocated the business to Hope Street and entered into confectionery and chocolate manufacturing. Over 100 people were employed in sweet and chocolate manufacture by 1897. The leading product line was Walnut Toffee, with sales of over 900 kg a week.

Barker & Dobson operated three confectionery shops which specialised in the sale of imported confectionery from France, Germany and America.

Jacobson was a great believer in the power of advertising, and bought space in newspapers, and invested in enticing product labels and packaging.

A 1929 advertisement for the Barker & Dobson Verona chocolate assortment from Britannia & Eve.

Barker & Dobson established a factory and head office at Franklin Place, in the Everton district of Liverpool, in 1906.

Barker & Dobson was incorporated as a public company from 1919 in order to fund expansion.

Premises had been established at London as well as Liverpool by 1924.

A disused tram depot on Whitefield Road, Liverpool was acquired and converted into a factory in 1926. The new factory adjoined the Franklin Place site.

Barker & Dobson had a authorised share capital of £500,000 by 1928. The business employed over 1,200 people.

H D Jacobson became chairman, and appointed his brother, Percy Isidore Jacobson (1873 – 1961), as managing director.

Sale to Scribbans-Kemp
Barker & Dobson was one of the largest manufacturers of chocolate and boiled sweets in Britain by the post-war period. Following the Second World War the company began to struggle to meet demand for its products, and required an increase in capital.

Barker & Dobson was acquired by Scribbans-Kemp of Birmingham, a large cake and biscuit manufacturer, in 1952. Scribbans-Kemp established a new sugar confectionery factory and offices in 1955.

Bensons, a sweet manufacturer based in Bury, Lancashire, was acquired in 1956-7.

P I Jacobson died with a gross estate of £353,003 in 1961. H D Jacobson also died in 1961 with a gross estate of £865,359.

Fryer & Co of Nelson, Lancashire was acquired for £1.2 million in 1965. The company had invented the jelly baby, and produced the Victory V cough sweet.

Scribbans-Kemp changed its name to S K Holdings in the early 1970s.

Waller & Hartley of Blackpool, with the Hacks cough sweet brand, was acquired for £4.7 million in 1972.

18 percent of production was exported to 86 different countries in 1972. The principal foreign markets were North and South America. The Everton Mint remained the highest-selling product line.

S K Holdings changed its name to Barker & Dobson from 1973.

The five confectionery factories in Lancashire employed over 2,000 people by 1974. The Liverpool factory produced 250 tons of sweets per week.

The Blackpool and Southport factories were closed with the loss of 450 jobs in 1974.

Barker & Dobson distributed Ferrero products such as Tic-Tacs for the British market from 1974.

Financial difficulties
Barker & Dobson suffered heavy losses in the mid-1970s. A stake in Hacks Malaysia was divested in 1976.

Barker & Dobson was forced to remove the 0.2 percent chloroform component from its Victory V sweet recipe from 1981, due to a change in the law. Sales of their highest-selling product immediately slumped by 25 percent.

The Barker & Dobson factory in Dublin was closed in 1982.

The Whitefield Road factory was closed with the loss of about 360 jobs in 1983. The sugar confectionery market was in decline, and the ageing factory would have needed extensive repairs in order to remain operational. 200 administrative staff remained at the Whitefield Road offices.

Only Bury and Nelson remained as large factories within the company. There were also smaller factories in Dundee and east London.

Barker & Dobson held the British distribution rights for Marabou products, such as the Daim/Dime chocolate bar, by 1984.

Barker & Dobson sold its newsagents business, with 150 outlets, to Guinness for £10 million in 1985. A high-class chocolate shop on Bond Street, London was retained.

Keiller, the butterscotch and marmalade manufacturer, was acquired for £4.9 million in 1985.

The highest-selling product lines in 1985 were Hacks, Victory V and Everton Mints.

The Whitefield Road offices were closed in 1985, and headquarters were relocated to Bury.

Barker & Dobson acquired Budgens supermarkets, with 148 outlets, from Booker McConnell for £80 million in 1986.

Subsequent owners
Alma Holdings acquired the heavily loss-making confectionery subsidiary of Barker & Dobson for £10 million in 1988. The deal created the fourth largest sugar confectionery manufacturer in Britain.

Alma entered into receivership in 1992, and Hacks and Victory V were sold to Cadbury for £3.1 million, with production relocated to their Trebor Bassett factories. Barker & Dobson and Keiller were acquired by Portfolio Foods for £3 million.

The Barker & Dobson brand was withdrawn in 2008 alongside the Pascall and Sharp’s names, with traditional sweets consolidated under the Taveners brand.

Hacks remains a leading confectionery brand in Malaysia.

Vinegar

Henry Sarson & Sons

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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.

Confectionery

For your pleasure: George Payne & Co

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George Payne & Co became the largest tea merchant firm in the world. The business is best-known today for Poppets, a chocolate-coated toffee confectionery.

Largest tea merchants in the world
George Daniel Payne (1845 – 1927) was a tea buyer and blender for Brooke Bond. He was recognised as a forthright figure.

Payne established George Payne & Co, tea and coffee blenders, from 1896. The factory was at Queen Elizabeth Street, Tower Bridge, Bermondsey. James Finlay & Co, a Scottish tea merchant, held a 30 percent stake in the venture.

George Payne & Co blended and packed own-label tea for J Sainsbury, a grocery chain, under the Red Label name, from 1903. George Payne & Co was the largest tea merchant business in the world by 1910.

George Payne & Co expanded into cocoa production from 1905, and this led to their entrance into the confectionery market from 1910. The Tower Bridge factory was extended to five storeys to accommodate increasing production.

Payne’s enters into mass production of confectionery
A new confectionery factory was opened at Croydon Road, Beddington in 1919. Built across one storey on a 55-acre site, it produced cocoa, chocolate and confectionery. It prospered by concentrating on a limited number of product lines.

The Croydon Road, Beddington site, c.1991

George Daniel Payne died in 1927 and left a gross estate valued at £81,491. Management of the business was taken over by Robert Henry Payne (1892 – 1946).

The Tower Bridge factory was rebuilt following a destructive fire in 1929.

One of the most popular product lines was the dragée, a bite-sized sweet with a chocolate coating, based on a confection popular in Vienna. The name was eventually anglicised to Payne’s Poppets, and the trademark was registered in 1936.

Poppets quickly became a leading product for the business. They were popular with cinema and theatre-goers as their cardboard-box packaging made them less noisy and more convenient to handle. Also, the “polished” chocolate coating did not readily melt, which reduced mess.

George Payne & Co employed 500 people by the late 1930s.

Robert Henry Payne died with an estate valued at £163,567 in 1946. Management of the business was taken over by his brother, Ronald George Payne (born 1910).

By the mid-1950s Poppets were available in a variety of flavours: Milk and Plain assortment, Brazils, Hazelnut, Almonds and All Nut assortment and Vanilla and Peppermint Creams.

Despite the success of Poppets, George Payne & Co continued as one of the largest tea blenders in Britain.

James Finlay & Co increased its stake in George Payne & Co to take overall control of the business in the 1950s.

The Tower Bridge site was closed in 1990 and tea processing was relocated to a new site at Elmsall, near Pontefract in Yorkshire.

Just Brazils was a top ten boxed chocolate by 1996, and Poppets was the eighth highest selling children’s confectionery.

Subsequent ownership
James Finlay & Co decided to focus on their tea and coffee interests. The George Payne & Co confectionery business was sold to Northern Foods for £10 million in 1998.

George Payne & Co was the 48th largest confectionery manufacturer in the world in 2000. It had an annual turnover of $120 million, and employed 500 people.

The Beddington factory had become outdated, and offered limited potential for expansion. It was closed with the loss of 157 jobs in 2002, and production was relocated to Leicester.

Northern Foods sold its confectionery arm, including Fox’s glacier mints as well as Payne’s, to Big Bear for £9.4 million in 2003.

The Leicester factory was closed in 2019, and production of Poppets was relocated to York.

Biscuits & cakes

Strange but true: Meredith & Drew

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Meredith & Drew became the largest biscuit manufacturer in Europe.

William Meredith
William Meredith (1803 – 1868) was born in Bristol. He established a bakery at Shadwell in East London in 1830. William George Drew (1813 – 1867) was employed as his principal assistant. Following a quarrel between the two men, William Drew left the business to establish his own biscuit bakery in 1852.

William Meredith established a steam-powered factory on Commercial Road East, and focused on the public house trade for his biscuits, pound cakes and Banbury cakes. The business traded as Meredith & Son by 1856.

Drew & Sons
William Drew established a steam-powered factory on Shadwell High Street. Like Meredith, he focused on supplying the public house and hotel trade with biscuits. He employed 30 men by 1861.

William Drew died from a heart attack in 1867, and an obituary described him as “a man of remarkable energy and enterprise”, remembered for his charitable interests. Management of the business passed to his wife Barbara Drew, and his only son, Lear James Drew (1840 – 1917).

Drew & Sons produced over 100 different biscuit varieties by 1877.

Meredith & Drew
Frederick Meredith and Lear Drew merged their interests as Meredith & Drew, with a capital of £107,000, in 1891. The merged business was one of the largest biscuit manufacturers in Britain.

Meredith & Drew received its first Royal Warrant, from Queen Victoria, in 1894.

The Meredith & Drew factory at Shadwell was extended in 1896. Production was still concentrated on the manufacture of biscuits for the hospitality industry, particularly public houses and hotels.

Meredith & Drew was one of the best known businesses in the East End of London by 1897. The company had developed a reputation for fair treatment of its customers and workforce. Lear Drew was chairman with H D Rawlings (1836 – 1904) as vice chairman.

The Wright stuff
Meredith & Drew merged with Wright & Son of Shadwell through an exchange of shares in 1905. Thomas Reuben Wright (1868 – 1923) was appointed managing director of the company.

Lear Drew died with an estate valued at £30,986 in 1917. He was remembered as a genial man.

Thomas Reuben Wright died with an estate valued at £73,530 in 1923.

The Shadwell factory employed a workforce of around 1,000 people by 1925.

A factory was acquired at Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire in 1927.

Meredith & Drew launched the Betta Biscuit, a low-cost product, from 1931. Its success allowed the business to grow to become the largest biscuit manufacturer in Europe by 1934.

Meredith & Drew had six factories across England by 1939. The London site, which was also the largest, was destroyed during the Blitz in 1940, and production was permanently relocated to plants at Oldham, Brighouse and High Wycombe. A factory was also acquired at Halifax. Company headquarters were relocated to Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

Schoolchildren help to load Meredith & Drew biscuit tins onto a lorry, to be sent to liberated Europe (1945)

The merger of McVitie & Price and Macfarlane Lang to form United Biscuits in 1948 saw Meredith & Drew lose its position as the largest biscuit manufacturer in Britain.

29 different biscuits were produced in the post-war period, including shortcake, digestive, Marie, Nice, bourbon, custard cream and ginger nut.

Meredith & Drew employed 2,500 people and employed an authorised share capital of £1 million by 1951. Geoffrey Anthony Edward Drew Wright (born 1908), son of T R Wright, was managing director.

A new factory was established at Cinderford, Gloucestershire in 1951. It employed 300 people and focused on cream cracker production.

Four factories were closed in the 1950s and production was centralised at Halifax, Cinderford and Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

The Cinderford factory was closed with the loss of 346 jobs in 1962. Production was transferred to the Halifax and Ashby-de-la-Zouch plants, which were extended and modernised.

Own-label production for Marks & Spencer and a strong presence in the licensed trade saw Meredith & Drew control around five percent of the British potato crisp market by 1963.

Crisps contributed to an increasing share of turnover, and the Ashby-de-la-Zouch facility began to struggle to meet demand. A new crisp factory with a staff of 280 was acquired in Lanarkshire in 1963.

Meredith & Drew was strong in own-label production, savoury biscuits, the catering trade and potato crisps in 1967.

United Biscuits era
Meredith & Drew, with four percent of the British biscuit market, was acquired by United Biscuits for £2 million in 1967.

United Biscuits acquired Kenyon, Son & Craven, the manufacturer of KP nuts, for £3.5 million in 1968. Kenyon, Son & Craven was merged into Meredith & Drew.

Meredith & Drew crisps were rebranded under the stronger KP name. Meredith & Drew advertising was wound down, and rationalisation saw the Meredith & Drew biscuit brand retired in the early 1980s.

The Halifax site was closed with the loss of 990 jobs in 1989, and production was relocated to Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

The Ashby-de-la-Zouch biscuit factory was closed with the loss of 900 jobs in 2004.

United Biscuits continues to employ around 2,000 people in Ashby-de-la-Zouch through its distribution centre and KP Snacks factory.

The Meredith & Drew brand was reintroduced as a premium biscuit brand with a focus on the catering trade from 2018.

Confectionery

Needlers confectionery

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Needler’s was one of the largest regional confectionery firms in Britain.

Fred Needler
Fred Needler (1865 – 1932) was born in Arnold, a hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, about nine miles outside Hull.

Needler became general assistant to a small confectioner on Osborne Street, Hull from 1881. His employer was an alcoholic, an unreliable, blustering and bullying man. Conditions were bad, and the hours were long.

The business failed in 1886, and Needler borrowed £100 to buy the equipment and establish his own confectionery business at nearby Hanover Square. Needler manufactured chocolate and boiled sweets, and initially worked 15.5 hour days.

A Needler's delivery van
A Needler’s delivery van

Needler relocated to larger premises on Brook Street in 1890. By this time around ten people were employed.

The growing business removed to a larger site at Spring Street from 1896.

The business was registered as Fred Needler Ltd in 1902. The company directors were recruited from Needler’s staff of 50.

The company relocated to a new factory on Sculcoates Lane from 1906, and changed its name to Needlers Ltd.

Fred Needler was a charming man, and highly principled and scrupulous. He was a staunch Primitive Methodist, and was guided by three principles: honesty, quality and fair treatment of his workforce. From the beginning there was an extensive profit-sharing scheme for staff. The company also covered sick pay and early retirement due to illness. Two holiday homes were established in seaside resorts. Newly-wed female employees were awarded a “dowry”.

The company employed over 1,400 people by 1924. The Prince of Wales toured the factory in 1926. Sales outlets were opened in Newcastle and London in 1929. Needlers opened a 6.5 acre recreation ground adjacent to its works for the use of its staff in 1930.

Fred Needler died in 1932 with an estate valued at £147,596. He had donated generously to local charities throughout his life. By this time Needlers was one of the largest businesses in Hull, with 2,000 employees.

Arthur and Raymond Needler
Fred Needler was succeeded by his son,  Arthur Percival Needler (1900 – 1976). The company struggled during the Great Depression.

Needler chemists discovered a method to produce clear (or glace) fruit drops by adding lactic acid in 1938. The glace drop was to prove a major success for the company.

A P Needler retired in 1970 and was succeeded by his son, Raymond F Needler. Needler immediately acquired Batger & Co, a London toffee manufacturer, and centralised all production at Hull. Following the acquisition, Needlers employed 750 people.

Needlers experienced mixed success throughout the 1970s, and was steadily loss-making by the early 1980s. The problems were blamed on a shift in public taste from sugar confectionery to chocolate, and the decline of the traditional corner sweet shop due to the growth of the supermarkets. In order to reduce costs, a large number of low-margin, low-volume product lines were discontinued in 1977, and the workforce was downsized from 750 to 400.

Increased exports and private-label contracts allowed Needler to re-enter profitability in 1984.

Loss of independence and closure of the factory
Needler was acquired by Hillsdown Holdings for £3.4 million the following year.

Needler failed to invest in modern machinery, and entered a period of steady decline.

Needler was acquired by Blue Bird Confectionery for £3.85 million in 1996.

Blue Bird Confectionery had an annual turnover of $66 million and 120 employees in 2000.

Ashbury Confectionery of Corby, a leading own-label chocolate manufacturer, acquired Blue Bird in 2001. The Hull factory was closed the following year.

Ashbury Confectionery entered administration in 2015, and was acquired by Baronie, a Belgian chocolate manufacturer.

Needler branded chocolates are still produced as of 2018.