Category Archives: Food

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.

Canned food

Herring aid: Maconochie Brothers

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Maconochie Brothers was the largest tinned food manufacturer in the world during the late Victorian period. It was probably the largest supplier of food to the British armed forces during the First World War.

Establishment and early growth
James Maconochie (1850 – 1895) was born in Wakefield, the son of the chief prison warden. He established a fishmongers business in Lowestoft, Suffolk, in 1870. Archibald White Maconochie (1855 – 1926) eschewed his ambition to become an army officer, and joined his brother in the growing business from around 1872.

The Maconochie brothers entered into the canning of herring for the London market from 1873. In an age before widespread artificial refrigeration, canned fish was a much more important commodity than it is today.

Archibald White Maconochie (1855 – 1926) in 1901

The largest fish canners in the world
A new factory was established at Lowestoft in 1877. It was the largest fish and meat canning factory in Britain.

Archibald Maconochie, a colourful figure, soon took the lead in the venture, and combined a shrewd business mind with high energy (he professed to never feeling tired). An inventive man, he also developed many of the firm’s patents himself. James Maconochie took responsibility for export sales in the British colonies.

A second factory, for canning herring, was established at Fraserburgh, Aberdeen in 1883. Maconochie Brothers was the largest producer of tinned fish in the world. Maconochie Brothers also entered into the production of pickles, potted meats, soup and sauces.

The fish canning factory at Fraserburgh was the largest in Britain, and possibly the world by 1886, and employed over 350 workers during peak periods. 97 million fish were canned in the 1888 season.

The Lowestoft site employed over 1,000 people by 1889.

Archibald Maconochie was a strong-willed and uncompromising man. Even after making his fortune he continued to travel in the third class train carriage. When asked why he did this, he responded, “simply because there’s not a fourth!”

Archibald Maconochie was involved in an altercation with one of his tinsmiths in 1888. Maconochie punched his employee in the mouth in a blow that knocked him to the ground, and then proceeded to strangle, repeatedly punch, and threaten to kill him. As a result of the incident Maconochie was fined £2 and ordered to pay court costs.

Whilst undoubtedly an overreaction, Maconochie’s anger stemmed from the powerful position of the tinsmiths, to whom hundreds of production days were lost due to strikes. Maconochie invested heavily in canning technology in an attempt to negate their influence, and by the turn of the century manual smoldering had been replaced by high pressure sealing.

Valuable army contract work
Maconochie Brothers was a pioneer in long-life military rations. The Maconochie “Patent Emergency Ration” had been introduced by 1889. It contained three tins which could supply a soldier’s daily food needs. The largest tin contained meat and farina, a form of milled wheat with a high carbohydrate content. The second tin contained soup, and the third tin contained cocoa.

James Maconochie died in 1895. He was remembered as a kindly man.

The rapid expansion of colonial sales saw the establishment of a new factory across a three acre site on Westferry Road in Millwall, London in 1897. The headquarters of the business were also relocated to Millwall.

Maconochie Brothers had a production capacity of 100,000 tins of food per day by 1900, and was the largest tinned foods producer in the world.

Archibald Maconochie represented East Aberdeenshire as a Member of Parliament between 1900 and 1906. As MPs were forbidden from holding government contracts, Maconochie Brothers was incorporated as a limited company with a capital of £100,000 in 1900. Maconochie continued to effectively control the company, personally holding 80 percent of the shares in the business, with family members holding the remainder.

Maconochie Brothers was the largest single food supplier to the British Army between 1900 and 1905, with contracts worth a total of £1 million. At its peak the company engaged 1,500 people in British military contract production. Maconochie Brothers supplied around 45 percent of British army rations during the Second Boer War (1899 – 1902).

The Pan Yan Pickle trademark was first registered in 1903. The brand had achieved substantial success by 1907.

Maconochie Brothers reverted to private ownership from 1908. The business was the largest supplier of tinned fish in the world, with up to 30 percent of the British market. Between 250 and 300 tons of herring were canned daily during the season at Fraserburgh.

The army food supply contract remained in place throughout the First World War. Maconochie Brothers was probably the largest supplier of food to the British armed forces during the conflict. Best known at this time for its tinned stew, “Maconochie” became military shorthand for a meat ration.

An image of the Maconochie army ration. Image used under licence of the Imperial War Museum.

Corporal R Derby Holmes wrote memorably of the Maconochie ration in 1918:

It is my personal opinion that the inventor brought to his task an imperfect knowledge of cookery and a perverted imagination. Open a can of Maconochie and you find a gooey gob of grease, like rancid lard. Investigate and find chunks of carrot and other unidentifiable material, and now and then a bit of mysterious meat… [the British soldier] regards it as a very inferior grade of garbage… he’s right.

Pan Yan was easily the highest-selling pickle in the world by 1924. It contained mangoes and vegetables in a sweet-sour sauce. An unofficial recipe for Pan Yan pickle during this period suggested it contained marrow, onion, apple, tomato, gherkin, tamarind, mustard, sugar and vinegar.

The Millwall works employed over 1,000 people by 1926.

Death of Archibald Maconochie and subsequent decline
Archibald Maconochie died in 1926, and left a net personalty valued at £107,985. His will contained an unusual codicil stipulating that if any of his children were to marry a Roman Catholic they should be disinherited.

The company suffered following the loss of Maconochie’s strong leadership. The two Lowestoft factories were sold to the Co-operative Wholesale Society in 1928-29 and 1932.

Pan Yan pickle had annual sales of over four million bottles by the mid-1930s.

The Millwall factory was destroyed by German bombs in 1940, and a new site was acquired at Hadfield, Derbyshire.

In the post-war period the Fraserburgh factory employed 500 people and the Hadfield site employed about 550 people.

Maconochie Brothers was converted into a public company with an authorised capital of £600,000 in 1948.

Pan Yan remained the highest-selling sweet pickle in Britain as late as 1953.

H S Whiteside and Rowntree
Inconsistent herring yields rendered the Fraserburgh site unprofitable, and it was closed with the loss of 190 jobs in 1958.

Maconochie Brothers became loss-making, and the company was acquired by H S Whiteside, the manufacturer of Sun-Pat peanut butter, for £287,000 in 1958. H S Whiteside had a reputation as a business-turnaround specialist.

H S Whiteside announced that as a result of the introduction of new management and marketing techniques, Maconochie Brothers had re-entered into profitability by 1960. However management was later found to have engaged in fraud, and had underreported the extent of profit losses. The business entered into receivership in 1965. Rowntree Mackintosh, a confectionery manufacturer, acquired Sun Pat, Pan Yan, the Hadfield site and the Maconochie Brothers brand name for £500,000 in 1967.

Decline of Pan Yan Pickle
Rowntree Mackintosh was acquired by Nestle of Switzerland in 1987. Nestle already owned Crosse & Blackwell, best known for Branston Pickle.

At some stage mangoes were removed from the Pan Yan Pickle recipe. By the 1990s its ingredients were listed as swede, sugar, apples, carrots, vinegar, modified starch, gherkins, acetic acid, peppers, onions, spices, caramel and flavourings. After years of falling sales, largely due to the success of Branston Pickle, production of Pan Yan was discontinued in 2000.

Nestle sold its British ambient foods business, including Sun Pat and Gale’s honey, to Premier Foods in 2002.

The only known recipe for Pan Yan pickle was destroyed in a factory fire in 2004.

The Hadfield site was closed with the loss of 250 jobs in 2005.

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

A refreshing change: Trebor

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Trebor is best known today for its Extra Strong and Softmints. It also introduced Refreshers, Fruit Salad and Black Jack sweets. Trebor was the largest sugar confectionery manufacturer in Britain when it was acquired by Cadbury in 1989.

Establishment
Robertson & Woodcock was established when William Woodcock (a sugar boiler), Robert Robertson (a grocer), Sydney Herbert Marks (a salesman) and Thomas King (a grocer) invested £100 each in a partnership to manufacture boiled sweets from 1907.

There was a factory at Forest Gate, London, called the Trebor Works. Confectionery was sold under the Trebor brand.

A view of the Trebor factory at Forest Gate

Horse-drawn vans were replaced by motor vehicles for distribution purposes from 1915.

Two popular chew sweets, the Fruit Salad and the Black Jack, were introduced in the 1920s.

Sydney J Marks (1900 – 1980), the son of S H Marks, was sent to Germany to learn the latest production methods in 1925. Information he acquired on powdered sugar enabled Robertson & Woodcock to introduce its two most famous products. Refreshers were introduced from 1935, and Extra Strong Peppermints were launched in 1937.

A new factory was established on a five-acre site in Chesterfield from 1939. The site was chosen as it lowered distribution costs for the Midlands and the North of England. Initially around 300 people were employed.

S J Marks became managing director in 1941. By this time the company was controlled by the Marks family. S J Marks was a brilliant but autocratic businessman.

Sugar was rationed during the Second World War, so a sugar and lard mixture was used to make the product go further.

Control of Jamesons Chocolates was acquired in 1959.

Trebor Sharps
Edward Sharp & Sons of Maidstone, a toffee manufacturer, was acquired in 1961.

Sharps and Trebor were merged in 1968 to form Trebor Sharps, a mid-sized confectioner based at Woodford Green, Essex.

An overseas trade flourished, and by the late 1960s, the company was the largest exporter of sugar confectionery in Britain, sending 15 percent of production to nearly 70 countries. More mints were sold in Nigeria than in the domestic market, and the United States was the largest export destination.

Clarnico, the confectionery subsidiary of Clarke, Nickolls & Coombs, was acquired for £750,000 in 1969. The acquisition made Trebor the fourth largest confectionery company in Britain.

Sydney J Marks became president of Trebor from 1970, and his son, John Marks (1930 – 2012), became chairman.

Trebor was the leading sugar confectionery manufacturer in Britain by 1978. Led by its Extra Strong brand, the company held 30 percent of the mints market.

Guided by his Christian convictions, John Marks developed a paternalistic relationship with his workforce. The business banned night shifts from 1981, in the belief that it was disruptive to domestic life.

The loss-making confectionery arm of Maynards, best known for wine gums, was acquired for £8.1 million in 1986.

Trebor was the leading sugar confectionery manufacturer in Britain by 1986, with a twelve percent market share, including 50 percent of all hard mint sales. It was the market leader in boiled sugar sweets and branded mints.

Trebor is sold to Cadbury
Unfortunately the business found itself under increasing pressure from the bigger confectionery firms, with larger marketing budgets. Trebor was sold to Cadbury for £120 million in 1989. The Marks family gifted 15 percent of the sale value to their workforce.

Many of the 3,000 strong workforce were to lose their jobs. Redundancy costs were low, as many workers were only employed on three-month contracts.

Cadbury recouped some of its takeover costs by divesting Trebor House, the head office and factory in North London.

Trebor Extra Strong was the second-highest selling sugar confectionery line in Britain by 1997, behind only Polo mints. Trebor Softmints were the third-highest seller. Maynards Wine Gums were the fourth best-seller.

The Chesterfield factory was closed with the loss of 245 jobs in 2005. The closure was blamed on an outdated plant and declining sales of Fruit Salads and Black Jacks.

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.

Confectionery

By gum: Wrigley’s in the UK

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Wrigley’s pioneered sales of chewing gum in Britain. The business held 93 percent of the British gum market in 2016.

Establishment of the business
William Wrigley Jr (1861 – 1932), an American chewing gum manufacturer, formed a British subsidiary in 1911. With a capital of £2,000 he established a warehouse on Lambeth Palace Road and an office at 164 Piccadilly. Heppell’s, a Piccadilly chemist, made the first sales of Wrigley’s chewing gum.

Wrigley found it difficult to convince Edwardian Britons to chew gum at a time when sucking on a boiled sweet in public was against the social norm. The big change came with the First World War;

British soldiers began to chew gum as a relief from boredom during the First World War, and brought the habit back home.

Murison and Wembley
Stanley Lorimer Murison (1881 – 1932), a salesman, was appointed managing director from 1921. A quiet and determined man, he invested heavily on advertising, and the company grew under his leadership.

Murison relocated the warehouse and office operations to Tottenham Court Road.

Wrigley advertised that their chewing gum was manufactured using only refined chicle, pure sugar and flavouring. The main two flavour varieties sold were Spearmint and “P.K.” (triple-distilled peppermint).

Eleven acres of former British Empire Exhibition land at Wembley were acquired in order to establish a factory in 1925. The site was chosen due to its strong transport links. Build, land and equipment costs totalled £200,000. The factory was opened in 1927 with 350 employees. A large proportion of Wembley production was exported overseas; to Europe, India, Egypt and South Africa.

Over 109 million packets of Wrigley gum were sold in Great Britain in 1929. Wrigley’s was the only sugar-coated chewing gum produced in Britain.

Company capital was reduced from £200,000 to £150,000 in 1930. Wrigley claimed that due to high sales of its product, it required less capital.

Wrigley produced several tons of chewing gum in Britain every day by 1933. Its factory had a capacity of 300,000 sticks of gum a day.

wrigley1940s

The Second World War saw production levels soar, largely fuelled by British and Empire military consumption. Britain was the second largest exporter of chewing gum in the world by 1940, largely due to the Wrigley factory.

American GIs stationed in Britain also helped to promote the habit of chewing gum. Coupled with extensive advertising, sales reached the mass market level in the post-war period.

The business relocates to Plymouth
Expanding sales saw the company outgrow the Wembley facility. The factory and head office were relocated to a 39 acre site outside Plymouth in 1970. 25 percent of Wembley employees relocated to Plymouth. The 3.5 acre Wembley site was sold for £500,000.

Orbit, Britain’s first sugar-free gum, was launched in 1977. Wrigley’s Extra was introduced from 1989. Airwaves was launched in 1997. Extra Mints were launched in 2004.

Wrigley was acquired by Mars, the chocolate manufacturer, in 2008.

Wrigley employed nearly 500 people in Britain and Ireland in 2015, including 230 people at the Plymouth factory. Around 25 percent of Plymouth production is exported overseas. Wrigley held 90 percent of the British chewing gum market in 2017.

Confectionery

All in their hands: Walters’ Palm Toffee

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Walters’ Palm Toffee was one of the largest toffee manufacturers in Britain.

Nathan Walters establishes the business
Nathan Baraf Walters (1867 – 1957) was a Jewish Romanian from Botosani. He established a toffee manufacturing business at Poplar, London in 1887. Palm Toffee was the main product, so-called because it was made from palm butter.

Walters was naturalised as a British subject in 1899.

Walters’ enters into mass production
Production was relocated to a former aircraft factory at Westfields Road, Acton from 1926. Located on a 1.5 acre site, it was one of the largest toffee manufacturing plants in Britain.

Walters’ Palm Toffee Ltd had a share capital of £240,000 in 1928. That year, export sales to Europe and the British Empire began.

Palm Toffee was a high quality product available at a reasonable price. It appears to have been mainly produced for the working class market.

Around 800 people were employed at the Acton factory by 1935, including 200 night workers.

The factory was destroyed by fire in 1935. The colossal blaze could be witnessed from miles away. Major Arthur Baraf Walters (1892 – 1973), a director of the company and son of the founder, collapsed at the scene from shock and had to be hospitalised. The factory was rebuilt.

Nathan Walters died in 1957. He left the entirety of his estate to Jewish charities, and his four sons received nothing. The Walters family unsuccessfully contested the last will in the Probate Court.

walters_Palm_Toffee_tin,_pic1

The end of sugar rationing in 1954 saw a boom in confectionery sales. However by the end of the 1950s this boom was over, as an increasingly prosperous society began to favour chocolate. As a result of this financial pressure and stagnation, the industry began to consolidate.

Walters’ is acquired by J & P Holland
Walters’ Palm Toffee became loss-making, and was acquired by J & P Holland of Southport, the largest toffee manufacturers in the world, in a friendly takeover which valued the business at £385,000 in 1960.

J A & P Holland closed the Acton factory in 1961. Production of Palm confectionery was transferred to Holland factories in Southport and Birmingham.

Palm Toffee remained in production as late as the 1970s.

Does anyone remember Palm Toffee? Did one of your relatives work at the Acton factory? Feel free to leave comments below.

 

Confectionery

On point: Edward Sharp & Sons

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Edward Sharp & Sons was the largest toffee manufacturer in the world.

Edward Sharp establishes a confectionery factory
Edward Sharp (1854 – 1931) was born in Maidstone, Kent. He was a dedicated Congregationalist.

After attending the local grammar school, Sharp became an apprentice at the Springfield Mill, a Maidstone paper factory where his father was manager.

Sharp was dismissed after he declined to raise his cap to the managing director, Richard James Balston. Sharp later referred to the incident as, “the finest day’s work I have ever done in my life”.

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Sharp established a grocery business on Week Street, Maidstone. His wife began to make homemade sweets, principally toffee and nougat, which Sharp sold in his shop from 1878.

The business was initially modest, and Sharp employed one man and one boy in 1881. Sharp acted as his own salesman, and travelled around Kent on his bicycle.

The confectionery sideline was to prosper, and Sharp divested his grocery business in 1898 and established a dedicated toffee factory in a former roller skating rink on Sandling Road, Maidstone.

Kreemy Toffee helps to establish sales, and a new factory is built
Sharp introduced a new type of creamy nougat. It was recast by the works manager, Alfred Edward Malins (1867 – 1933), to create a creamy toffee, which was branded as “Kreemy Toffee” from 1910.

A new factory, the Kreemy Works, was established at St Peter’s Street, Maidstone, from 1912. Increased capacity allowed Edward Sharp to begin to distribute Kreemy Toffee nationwide.

Sharp’s success was credited to improved methods of manufacture, careful advertising and a national increase in toffee sales during and following the First World War. The business claimed to be the largest toffee manufacturer in the world in 1922, and Sharp was made a baronet.

Sharp’s wife died in 1925, and to widespread surprise he married his secretary when he was 74 years old in 1928. Sharp died in 1931 and left an estate valued at £156,367.

Sharp’s sons Herbert Edward Sharp (1879 – 1936) and Wilfred James Sharp (1880 – 1945) became joint-managing directors of the company.

Edward Sharp & Sons toffee sales continued to grow, and it was the largest toffee manufacturer in the world in 1933. The company owed its success to heavy advertising and a quality product.

H E Sharp died in 1936 and left an estate valued at £79,943.

Restricted supplies of raw materials forced Sharps to concentrate on the export trade during the Second World War and up to the early 1950s.

W J Sharp died in 1945 and left an estate valued at £194,219. John Rayner Edgar Sharp (1917 – 1994) and Harold Sharp, grandsons of the founder, became joint-managing directors.

An illustrated Sharps toffee tin

Sharps was one of the foremost sugar confectionery manufacturers in Britain in 1951. The business targeted the high-quality market. Super Kreem toffee was the highest-selling product line. The factory could produce 600 wrapped sweets a minute.

Employees were allowed to consume as much confectionery as they could eat on the premises, but were not permitted to take produce home.

Sugar rationing ended in 1953, and butter rationing ended in 1954. To cope with increasing sales, 24-hour production was introduced, and 350 men were employed on the night shift alone by 1954.

Edward Sharp & Sons loses its independence, the brand is withdrawn and the factory is closed
Following the post-rationing boom, an increasingly affluent society began to favour chocolate over sugar confectionery. Edward Sharp & Sons was acquired by Trebor, a privately-owned London confectionery manufacturer, in 1961. The sales forces were merged in 1968, and the company became known as Trebor Sharp.

The Maidstone plant focused on Easter eggs, toffee, fudge and chocolate-coated products by 1980.

Trebor Sharp was acquired by Cadbury in 1989.

Sharp’s toffee was discontinued in 1998.

The Maidstone factory was closed as part of an efficiency drive in 2000, with the loss of over 300 jobs. The factory had produced Softmints, toffee and fudge. Manufacturing was relocated to Chesterfield and Sheffield. The factory was demolished and replaced by housing in 2002.

The brand was relaunched as Sharps of York from 2004. The Sharps brand was acquired by Tangerine Confectionery in 2008 and products were rebranded under the Taveners name.