Chivers was the first large British firm to locate a jam factory within a fruit orchard. Chivers was one of the largest jam manufacturers in Britain by the early twentieth century.
Stephen Chivers establishes the business
Stephen Chivers acquired a small freehold farm in Histon, Cambridgeshire in 1806. His son, John Chivers, served an apprenticeship to a fruit grower and began to cultivate fruit on the estate. However the journey to market in London took fifty hours.
Fruit was also sold at a depot in Bradford, Yorkshire. There it was discovered that much of their crop was being purchased by jam-makers. The family decided to cut out the middleman, and manufacture jam for themselves.
John’s son Stephen Chivers (1824 – 1907) made jam in a small barn on the family estate from 1873. The recipe came from a relative who was a chef at Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Two years later a factory was built on land adjoining the village railway station. The factory had doubled in size by 1889. The firm competed on quality rather than on price.
Marmalade, custard powder and table jellies were produced from the 1880s. Lemon curd and custard powder had been added to production by the end of the century, allowing for year round employment of staff.
Inspired by their strong Baptist faith, the Chivers family had a paternalistic attitude towards their staff, and employee-worker relations were good.
The firm began to can English fruits from 1894. By this year the company had over 400 regular employees, bolstered by seasonal workers during peak times.
Chivers was the largest jam manufacturer in the Midlands and the largest fruit grower in Britain by 1897.
Chivers enters into mass production
Chivers enjoyed nationwide distribution by 1900. The firm was incorporated in 1901.
1,200 tons of strawberry and raspberry jam were produced in 1906.
Olde English thick cut marmalade was introduced from 1907.
A new fruit canning factory was erected in 1907. Over 1,000 workers were regularly employed by the firm by 1907, with hundreds more hired during the fruit season. During peak times, 100 tons of jam were produced daily.
Chivers was converted into a public company in 1913.
The company had an output of up to 20,000 tons of jam per year by 1921. During the busy season between 2,000 and 3,000 workers were employed. Much of the machinery in the factory was built by Chivers engineers. One machine was able to fill 80,000 tins per day.
A raspberry canning factory was opened in Montrose, Scotland in 1925.
The Chivers farm extended to over 5,000 acres by 1925, of which 1,500 which given over to orchards.
A vegetable canning factory was established in Huntingdon in 1930.
The Chivers estate covered 6,000 acres by 1931. The company employed 3,000 people by 1935.
Chivers was the largest canner of fruits and vegetables in England by 1938. About 4,500 people were employed across four factories. The farms had been extended to 7,000 acres, with 3,000 given over to fruit. Between four and five tons of marmalade were produced each year.
Chivers lost its market leading position after 1945, due to a failure to install modern equipment.
A Chivers jam advertisement from 1952
All of the ordinary shares were held by descendants of the Chivers family until 1952. The company had an authorised share capital of £1.5 million in 1952. There was a large export trade, particularly to the United States and Canada.
Factories at Histon, Huntingdonshire and Montrose in Scotland covered a total of 2.5 million square feet. Freehold farms covered 8,000 acres, and leasehold covered 1,000 acres. There were also manufacturing facilities at York and Wisbech, and Newry in Northern Ireland. The management comprised of members of the Chivers family. There were around 4,000 employees.
Chivers is acquired by Schweppes
Chivers was acquired by Schweppes, the British soft drink manufacturer, for £1.6 million in 1959. It was a friendly takeover, approved by the Chivers board of directors, all of whom were family members, and owned the majority of the shares.
Schweppes merged the company with other large sweet spreads manufacturers: Hartley’s, Rose’s and Moorhouse, but concentrated production at Histon.
The Histon, Cambridgeshire plant (2010)
Schweppes was able to provide much needed capital and introduced modern management techniques.
The Chivers family bought back the farming estates from Schweppes in 1962.
The Huntingdon factory closed was in 1966.
The Chivers brand was withdrawn in Britain from 2004, with all products rebranded under the Hartley’s name. Chivers Olde English is produced in the United States under licence, and Chivers products are still produced in Ireland by an independent company.
Pink’s was the largest producer of jam and marmalade in the world by the late nineteenth century.
Edward Pink era
Edward Pink (1827 – 1910) was born in Durley, Hampshire. He relocated to London where he served an apprenticeship to a grocer. He established a preserves business in Holborn from 1860.
Thomas Pink (1855 – 1926)
His son, Thomas Pink (1855 – 1926), entered the business from 1867, at which point there were twelve employees. Edward Pink Jr later entered the business, and the firm became known as Edward Pink & Sons.
A factory had been established on Staple Street, Bermondsey, South London, where there was ample room for expansion, by 1871. The operation utilised steam-powered machinery by 1874. Over 400 people were permanently employed, rising to 600 during the busy seasons.
Scrupulous cleanliness was adhered to. The influential Dr Arthur Hassall (1817 – 1894) of The Lancet toured the company’s factory in 1874 and following scientific analysis of Pink products was able to vouch for their purity. Food adulteration was rife at the time, so this recommendation was hugely valuable for the firm.
Edward Pink & Sons added a small amount of apple jelly to its marmalade from 1874, in order to mellow the bitterness of the Seville oranges.
Edward Pink & Sons claimed to be “the largest manufacturer of preserves” by 1879. The firm catered largely to a working class market.
Edward Pink & Sons employed 263 men and 366 women, a total of 629 people, by 1881. From this time the firm added glucose to their jam, with the claim that this greatly improved the product.
Over 3,000 tons of jam were produced every year by 1882.
Edward Pink & Sons claimed to have the largest jam factory in the world by 1883. The factory site covered 4.5 acres by 1887.
E & T Pink
Thomas Pink became managing director of the firm from 1890, which henceforth became known as E & T Pink. Pink was a bold man, strong-willed and forthright. He was also hard-working, and a hands-on employer. Immediately after taking control of the business, he completely reorganised it.
In response to alleged intimidation of union members in 1892, the activist Clement Edwards (1869 – 1938) urged the Co-operative societies to boycott Pink products.
60 female workers in the finishing department went on strike in 1892 after their wages were reduced. They were all promptly replaced by new workers.
E & T Pink did not allow its workers to leave the premises during their lunch break, and did not provide a separate room where staff could rest during their break. A juryman described the situation as “shameful” in 1893. Following an appeal by John Burns MP (1858 – 1943) to Thomas Pink, permission was granted for outside breaks, and Pink opened a four storey, 1,000 seat capacity “mess house” for employees in 1894. It was probably the best-equipped staff building in London, according to the St James’s Gazette. Thomas Pink denied that this was an act of philanthropy, and stated his belief that treating his employees well would increase profits at his business.
There were 500 regular workers at E & T Pink by 1893, around 400 of whom were women. That year, 8,000 tons of jam were produced.
Edward Pink Sr retired in 1894, and Thomas Pink became sole proprietor of E & T Pink.
Pink employed 56 salesmen, 130 clerks, and over 1,800 workers during the busy season in 1894. His steam engines had a total of over 1,000 horse power. The factory covered ground of 4.5 acres, and had a floor space of eight acres.
E & T Pink was the largest manufacturer of jam in the world in 1894, with an average production of 40 tons per day. Pink controlled a twelfth of the British tapioca market. E & T Pink also claimed to be by far the largest manufacturer of marmalade in the world by the late nineteenth century.
Advertisement from 1890
Thomas Pink was a highly-gifted engineer: he designed the machinery for his pepper mills himself; he ground sixteen tons of pepper a week by 1894, and controlled an eighth of the British pepper trade.
Pink was innovative; he was the first British businessman to dictate his correspondence by phonograph. He conducted the majority of his business through the newly-invented telephone by 1894. A keen Conservative, Pink received a knighthood in 1904.
By appointing skilled heads of department, Sir Thomas Pink was able to reduce his time spent at E & T Pink. Pink preferred to find and promote from within his own business, in preference to hiring managers externally.
The Staple Street factory covered 7.5 acres of ground, with 15 acres of floor space, by 1899. There was a pepper mill at Hatcham, and two wharves at Horsleydown. A total of 2,000 people were employed. 10,000 tons of jam and marmalade were produced every year.
In 1901 Sir Thomas Pink estimated that he lost £1,000 to £1,500 a year due to petty thefts by his 2,500 employees.
Edward Pink died with an estate valued at £261,677 in 1910.
Profitability trouble and labour issues
E & T Pink was registered as a company in 1912.
Between 1910 and 1914 the business suffered heavy losses.
The factory was affected by a woman’s strike in 1911. The female workers managed to secure a wage increase of two shillings per week.
Pink’s women strikers in 1911
The Pink factory suffered a serious strike of around 1,000 people in 1914, involving most of the workforce except the clerical staff. The employees demanded an increase in their wages. Pink’s response was to close the entire factory, citing safety concerns for those among his workforce who remained loyal. This left a total of 1,200 to 1,500 people idle. Work resumed after Pink agreed to grant the minimum wage recommended by the Trade Board.
During the First World War, wartime contracts allowed E & T Pink to re-enter profitability, but following the end of the war, the losses returned.
A cooperage fire at Pink’s factory caused £20,000 worth of damage in 1918.
Sir Thomas Pink retired in 1919, and sold E & T Pink to the Van Den Bergh family.
Plaistowe merger and demise
E & T Pink was merged with Plaistowe, a fellow jam, marmalade and confectionery manufacturer, in 1920. The merger was motivated by anticipated economies of scale.
The merged company had an annual production of 24,000 tons of jam and marmalade, 7,500 tons of confectionery and 2,500 tons of Fulcreem food products. Total sales were over £2.75 million.
The company directors agreed that the Pink’s name had become noxious by 1921, and that a rebranding was necessary to increase sales.
After sustaining losses of £200,000 between 1920 and 1923, the E & T Pink subsidiary was liquidated, and the assets acquired by Plaistowe.
Following the merger, Sir Thomas Pink was retained in an advisory capacity, but had no directorial control. A keen smoker, drinker and meat eater, he died from heart failure at his London home following surgery in 1926. He left an estate valued at just over £275,000.
In his will Sir Thomas awarded a £750 annuity to his son, Thomas Bernard Pink (born 1882), who had emigrated to Canada in 1913, and after establishing himself in the Toronto real estate business, had not been heard from since 1914. It was believed that he enlisted in the Canadian army under an alias, served in France and became a casualty of war.
Plaistowe entered into receivership in 1926. This was blamed on losses made by the Pink side of the business, as well as the mismanagement of the merger of the production of the two firms. Plaistowe was acquired by Crosse & Blackwell in 1930, who merged operations with their Keiller jam and confectionery subsidiary.
The Bermondsey factory was demolished in 1935, and replaced by a housing estate.
Maypole Dairy was easily the largest retailer in Britain by 1913.
The Watson brothers and George Jackson
George Watson (1861 – 1930), Charles Henry Watson (1863 – 1927) and John Alfred Watson (1865 – 1931), were brothers born just outside Coventry to a prosperous farming family. They served as apprentices and later as assistants to George Jackson, a Birmingham dairy merchant.
Jackson had pioneered the sale of pure dairy butter at affordable prices by importing the product directly from Danish farmers. Jackson sold 30,000 tons of butter every year by 1893, and was the largest retailer of butter in the world.
Establishment of Maypole Dairy
Jackson’s strong reputation for butter meant that he was reluctant to branch out into margarine, which although gaining in popularity, was hampered by a downmarket image. However George Watson was free to take the chance, and he established the Maypole Dairy Company, with a margarine shop in Wolverhampton, from 1887. He was soon joined by his brothers, and outlets were opened across the Midlands. The shops also began to sell cheese and butter.
Maypole Dairy was a high volume, low margin business, and outlets were concentrated in working class areas.
Charles Watson was largely responsible for the expansion of the Maypole chain into Lancashire and Yorkshire.
George Watson introduced a profit-sharing scheme for management from 1890. Shortly afterwards, in a pioneering move, the scheme was extended to all employees.
Maypole Dairy was the largest retailer of margarine in Britain by 1895. The business had 60 shops, eight creameries in Ireland and one in England, and purchasing offices in Denmark and Sweden.
Maypole merges with George Jackson
Maypole and George Jackson underwent a merger in 1898, and the company was incorporated with a share capital of £1 million. George Watson became chairman. The company had 185 retail shops and 17 creameries.
Maypole acquired a margarine factory in Godley, Manchester, from Otto Monsted Ltd, a Danish company, in 1902. It was capable of producing 200 tons of margarine every week.
Maypole had 560 retail shops by 1908, and was the largest retailer of tea, butter and margarine in the United Kingdom.
A Maypole Dairy Store in Hartlepool
Maypole reported a net profit of over £550,000 (£425 million in 2015) in 1912, of which all but £50,000 was distributed among shareholders as a 212.5% dividend.* By this time there were 712 stores across the United Kingdom, and the leading lines were margarine and tea. That year, George Watson was appointed a baronet.
Maypole was the largest retail chain in Britain by a substantial margin by 1913, with over 800 shops.
Maypole, and the Dutch producers Jergens and Van den Bergh produced most of the margarine sold in Britain, with Maypole producing almost as much as the other two combined by 1913.
The Manchester margarine factory was sold to Lever Brothers in 1914.
Maypole acquired Otto Monsted’s margarine factory in Southall, Middlesex, and an edible oils refinery in Erith, South East London in 1915. The Southall factory covered 22,500 square yards, employed around 650 people and was the largest margarine factory in the world. It had a weekly output of 700 tons of margarine.
The Southall factory
Maypole margarine differed from competitors in that it was produced from tropical nuts and seeds rather than animal fats. Maypole established a groundnut operation in West Africa to provide raw material for margarine production in 1915. 25,000 to 30,000 tons of groundnuts were produced annually by 1919.
Maypole dominated the sale and manufacture of margarine in the United Kingdom, with a 50 percent market share by 1918. The Southall site produced over 2,000 tons a week. Margarine accounted for 85 percent of Maypole sales.
The interior of a Maypole Dairy shop
Acquisition by Home & Colonial
Maypole capital amounted to £3 million (equivalent to just under £1 billion in 2015) in 1919. Turnover exceeded £36.5 million (£13.8 billion in 2015) in 1921.
However shortly afterwards the company began to struggle with increased Dutch competition and the failure of its West African business. Six directors retired in 1924, including the chairman, George Watson, and they sold their stakes to Home & Colonial. Now the majority owner, Home & Colonial was itself controlled by Jurgens.
Maypole increased its product lines to include jam, marmalade and lard from 1925. In 1928 biscuits were added, and cheese was re-introduced in packaged form.
Maypole is absorbed into Unilever
Maypole had over 1,040 retail outlets and a total capitalisation of over £9 million by 1929. That year, Jurgens and Van den Bergh merged with Lever Brothers of Britain to form Unilever. Maypole was now contractually obliged to purchase all of its margarine from Unilever. The Maypole manufacturing site at Southall was rendered redundant by the Unilever purchase, and was re-appropriated for the production of Wall’s sausages and ice cream. The Erith refinery was also closed.
Unilever created a holding company for its grocery chains; Lipton, Home & Colonial and Maypole Dairy, called Allied Suppliers, in 1930. Allied Suppliers had a capital of £13.3 million, and was the largest grocery retailer in the world. Each retail company continued to be run independently, but there was co-operation in wholesale acquisitions and distribution.
George Watson died in 1930, leaving an estate valued at over £2 million (about £805 million in 2015).
Maypole’s West African venture was sold to the United Africa Company, which was controlled by Unilever, in 1931.
Maypole sold over 200,000 eggs in 1938.
There were 977 Maypole stores and 6,334 employees in 1939. Rivals such as Tesco, which utilised bulk purchasing from suppliers, began to challenge the vertical integration model practised by Maypole.
By 1943 all but two company directors, and practically all senior executives, were men who had started at the bottom ranks of the company and worked their way up.
Faced with continued rationing after the war, Maypole began to extend its product range to include additional staples such as bacon from 1947.
The Maypole name is phased out
The independent management of Maypole ended in 1964. The Maypole name was phased out in the 1970s, when increased competition from supermarkets saw Allied Suppliers decide to concentrate on their Home & Colonial brand. Allied Suppliers eventually morphed into Safeway (UK), and the rights to the Maypole brand are now owned by Morrisons Supermarkets.
Unilever continued to hold a 30 percent share of the global spreads market, until the divested their spreads unit in 2017.
* Currency conversions are calculated by measuring wealth relative to the total output of the economy at the time. All calculations are from measuringworth.com
Vestey Brothers was the largest meat business in the world. The business controlled one third of the refrigerated storage capacity in Britain and two thirds of multiple butchers shops. It accounted for 20 percent of all meat imported into Britain. The Vesteys became the second wealthiest family in Britain after the Royals.
Origins and early growth
William Vestey (1859 – 1940) and Edmund Hoyle Vestey (1866 – 1954) were born to Samuel Vestey, a Liverpool provisions merchant. The two brothers began their commercial lives as office boys working for their father.
William Vestey was sent to Chicago, the centre of the North American meatpacking trade, to scout for opportunities in 1876. He was surprised at the amount of meat that was wasted. He decided to can the surplus meat as corned beef and export it to Britain.
William Vestey (1859 – 1940)
William Vestey relocated to Argentina and began to export frozen partridges from 1890. Later, beef and mutton were added. Being among the first to realise the potential of refrigeration gave Vestey Brothers a competitive advantage against its rivals.
Vestey Brothers established Union Cold Storage as a subsidiary to manage their meatpacking and distribution network from 1897.
Vestey Brothers began to import eggs and chicken from China from 1906. Eggs had previously had poor availability, and Vestey’s low-cost frozen egg mix was to be a major factor in the subsequent growth of catering companies such as J Lyons.
Vestey established Blue Star Lines, a fleet of refrigerated vessels, with two second-hand steamers, in 1909.
The First World War
The business grew rapidly during the First World War, following a surge in meat prices.
Vestey Brothers acquired ranches and freezing works in Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela between 1913 and 1920.
Blackfriars Lighterage & Cartage Co was acquired in 1914, to give the company full control of its distribution in London.
Six million acres of land in the Australian interior were acquired during the First World War.
The Vesteys relocated their business headquarters from Britain to Buenos Aires in 1915 in order to avoid income tax, which had been increased in order to fund the war in Europe.
Vestey Brothers provided cold storage facilities free of charge for British supplies at Havre, Boulogne and Dunkirk during the First World War.
Inter-war period
Vestey Brothers had operations all over the world, and a capital of over £20 million by 1919. It was one of the largest British industrial concerns, and larger than all the other British freezing and cold storage companies combined. In meat-packing, only the American concerns of Armour and Swift were larger.
Vestey acquired £7 million of beef from the British government in a single deal in 1920.
Eastmans, with a chain of butchers shops in Britain, was acquired in 1920.
Union Cold Storage was the largest cold storage company in the world by 1920, with a share capital of £4,780,000 and a storage capacity of over ten million cubic feet. The Blue Star Line was the largest refrigerated fleet in the world.
William and Edmund became so rich that they didn’t live off the interest of their wealth, but the interest of the interest. William was raised to the peerage in 1922.
Union Cold Storage spent £4 million to acquire the subsidiaries of the Western United Investment Company in 1923. This included the British & Argentine Meat Company, James Nelson & Sons and Fletcher’s butchers shops.
Vestey Brothers was the largest meat business in the world by 1923.
Vestey Brothers acquired the Liebig company’s freezing facility at Fray Bentos in Uruguay in 1924.
Vestey Brothers was the largest retailer of meat in the world by 1925, with a chain of 2,035 butchers shops in Britain. Vestey was responsible for 25 percent of the meat that was exported from South America.
Union Cold Storage employed over 30,000 people, with a capital of £9.6 million, in 1925. It had over 450,000 cattle on ranches in Australia, South America and South Africa. The company handled 20 percent of Britain’s frozen meat imports, and operated a third of the country’s cold storage capacity.
Union Cold Storage was the tenth largest British public company by 1926.
Vestey Brothers opened a new refrigeration plant in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1927. With an annual capacity of 1.5 million cattle and 2.5 million sheep, it ranked among the largest in the world. The plant employed 3,000 people.
Vestey Brothers acquired William Angliss & Co, the largest meat business in Australia, in 1934.
Blue Star Lines had grown to include a fleet of around forty vessels by 1939.
Deaths of the founders
William Vestey conservatively valued Vestey Brothers at over £90 million in 1940. The family became the richest in Britain after the Royals.
William Vestey died in 1940, and was remembered as a modest and benevolent man. During the height of the Blitz he had continued to put in a full working day in London.
Edmund Vestey never retired. He collapsed at his office desk in 1954 and died the following day. Remembered as a shy and reticent man, he left an estate valued at £737,738.
The latter half of the twentieth century
The company retained its position throughout much of the rest of the century. In 1968 it was still the largest cold storage operator in Britain, and had also become a leading supplier of chicken. It remained on par in terms of scale with Armour and Swift.
A legal tax avoidance scheme operated by the Vestey family was revealed in 1980, to public outrage.
Vestey Brothers was considered to be the largest privately owned multinational in the world in the 1980s. It was the largest retailer of meat in the world.
Vestey sold off five of its seven North Australian ranches in 1984. Before the sale it had been the largest private landowner in Australia. After the sale it still raised about ten percent of all cattle in the country.
Speculation on the property market saw Union Cold Storage hampered by short term debt of £423 million by 1991.
Vestey announced it would close 600 of its 1,000 Dewhurst butchers shops in 1992. The business had been adversely affected by the growth of the supermarket chains.
Both Dewhursts and Union Cold Storage entered into administration in 1995. 213 of the Dewhurst shops were saved by a management buyout. The remnant Australian estates were sold off in 1996. The Blue Star Line was sold to P&O Nedlloyd for £60 million in 1998. The sale of the fleet allowed the group to finally re-emerge free of debt.
Vestey Group continues to trade today as a smaller organisation, focused on the sourcing, distribution and processing of meat. The Vestey family are still wealthy: they ranked 160th on the Sunday Times Rich List in 2015, with an estimated fortune of £700 million. Actor Tom Hiddleston is a direct descendant of Edmund Vestey.
Part I, about the early history of J Lyons, can be foundhere.
During the post-war period, J Lyons developed the first business computer in the world. It introduced household-name brands such as Ready Brek, Maryland Cookies and Wimpy Hamburger.
Growth and continued success of J Lyons
J Lyons was the largest catering company in the world, with a capital of £10 million and exports to fifty countries. There were 33,000 employees and 230 tea shops in 1954.
The Corner House restaurants and hotels alone employed over 4,000 workers in 1951. On normal Bank Holidays the Corner Houses could expect to serve 250,000 meals.
Lyons was a global leader in sales of packaged tea. Lyons had a weekly production of seven million buns, 1.25 million lbs of bread and 12.5 million pieces of confectionery.
Clerical work became so extensive that J Lyons determined to build the first business computer in the world. Based on a computer at Harvard University, Lyons engineers introduced LEO (Lyons Electronic Office), after six years of development in 1954. Large computers had previously only been used for military or scientific purposes. The 5,000 sq ft computer could perform the work of 300 clerks working at top speed, with fewer mistakes.
Lyons introduced the American-style hamburger chain to Britain when it opened a Wimpy franchise in the basement of a Lyons tea shop on 277 Oxford Street in May 1954. There were 1,100 Wimpy outlets in 34 countries by 1973.
Lyons Pure Ground Coffee was the highest selling coffee in Britain in 1953. Lyons launched its standard market teabag brand, Quick Brew, in 1955.
A “Big Four” held 70 percent of the British tea market by 1956. Lyons held second place behind Brooke Bond.
Maryland Cookies were introduced from 1956. The company launched Ready Brek instant porridge in 1957, to outstanding success.
J Lyons was the third-largest soft drink producer in Britain by 1960. Rose Kia-Ora, a joint venture with Schweppes, held nearly half of the squash market.
Lyons sold its confectionery subsidiary to Callard & Bowser in 1961. With the growth of television advertising, middle-size sweet manufacturers were forced to consolidate in order to reach a scale capable of launching their own campaigns.
Lyons retired most of its tea distribution vans from 1962. The vans had delivered to independent grocers throughout the country. The company had reasoned that business was transferring towards the supermarkets. The decision was premature however, and allowed rival Brooke Bond to increase its market share at the expense of Lyons.
Lyons acquired Eldorado of Liverpool, the fourth largest ice cream manufacturer in Britain, in 1963, and rebranded its ice cream business as Lyons Maid. The takeover took its share of the ice cream market to 34 percent, and Lyons was the second largest ice cream manufacturer in Britain (after Wall’s) throughout much of the twentieth century. The Zoom rocket shaped lolly was introduced in 1963. The FAB ice lolly was introduced in 1967. The Greenford ice cream factory was the second largest in the world by 1973.
The computer division required extensive capitalisation, so it was sold to English Electric in 1964.
Lyons had become the biggest supplier of pre-packaged cakes in Britain by 1966, and was the clear market leader with a 28 percent market share.
Lyons held more than two thirds of the packaged ground coffee market in 1966.
Throughout the 1960s J Lyons was joint third in the British tea market alongside Typhoo, with around 15 percent market share, behind Brooke Bond and the Co-operative Wholesale Society.
Lyons was probably the largest business in catering sales and supplies in Britain by 1969.
Lyons enters into decline
Lyons had seen its market share in tea decline to 13 percent by 1970, and it was far from the brand leader it once was. Quick Brew had an eight percent share of the popular tea market. It was strongest in the South of England, especially London, where it held 17 percent of the market. By this time Horniman and Black & Green had been positioned as the company’s premium tea brands. Horniman was the company’s biggest tea seller in South Wales, and Black & Green was strong in Manchester and the North West.
Lyons hotels held over 6,000 beds in 1970.
It was argued in The Spectator in 1968 that “You can grade the Lyons properties into four classes — redundant, non-profitable, underdeveloped — and Cadby Hall [the production centre].” The number of tea rooms had declined to 120 by 1969, and many were loss-making. The Coventry Street Corner House was closed in 1970. Between 1970 and 1972 the remaining tea rooms were converted into Jolyon Restaurants.
Cadby Hall was closed in 1972, with production relocated to Yorkshire and Northamptonshire. Nearly 3,000 staff were affected.
Lyons acquired Tetley Tea for £23 million in 1972. This gave Lyons the second highest market share for tea in both the British and American markets. In Britain Lyons now had 17 percent of the tea market, behind Brooke Bond on 40 percent.
A 25 percent stake in Fox’s Biscuits of Batley was acquired in 1972.
Baskin Robbins, the ice cream manufacturer with 1,600 stores in America, was acquired for £16 million in 1973.
Lyons encountered financial difficulties following the global oil crisis of 1973. They had borrowed £250 million to finance acquisitions in the early 1970s, mostly from non-British sources. Foreign loan repayments became expensive as the value of sterling fell. As a result, the company began to rapidly divest its core assets just to meet its liabilities.
J Lyons dropped from the top 100 companies in Britain by market capitalization in 1974. The company had a capitalization of £39.5 million and a turnover of £249 million in 1975.
The tearooms and corner houses fell prey to the more trendy coffee bars of Charles Forte, as well as the increasing appeal of fast food and ethnic cuisine. The last tea shop closed in 1976.
The 35 British hotels (with the exception of Tower Hotel) were sold to Forte’s Trust House Forte for £27.6 million, or just £4,000 per room, in 1976. Forte was transformed from the largest hotel operator in Britain, to probably the largest in the world. Forte promptly recouped £11 million in a year by cutting costs. The Economist described the deal as “phenomenally successful” for Forte, who acquired the hotels at a “knock-down price”.
Wimpy, with 676 UK outlets, was sold off to United Biscuits for £7 million in 1976.
The Salmon and Gluckstein families were forced to relinquish voting control over Lyons in 1976. By allowing ordinary shareholders to have votes, they hoped to acquire more capital, which was desperately needed. Previously the families had held six to seven percent of company equity but 61 percent of voting shares. By this time Lyons had a market capitalization of over £40 million and sales of £650 million.
Lyons is acquired by Allied Breweries, and the businesses are divested
Lyons was subject to a friendly takeover by Allied Breweries which valued the company at £64 million in 1978. The merged entity was known as Allied Lyons. The Cadby Hall sites were demolished in 1983.
The remnant Lyons food businesses were sold off throughout the early to mid 1990s.
Ready Brek was sold to Weetabix in 1990.
Lyons Maid had been loss-making for several years, mainly due to increased competition following the entrance of Mars into the ice cream market. It was sold to Clarke Foods for £12 million in 1991. There were 800 employees in Greenford, Middlesex and Liverpool. Clarke Foods was acquired by Nestle in 1992.
In 1994 the Lyons coffee businesses were divested: ground coffee to Paulig of Finland and instant coffee to Philip Morris.
After acquiring Pedro Domecq in 1994, Allied Lyons renamed itself to Allied Domecq.
Lyons biscuits of Blackpool, with a staff of 780, was sold to Hillsdown Holdings in 1994.
Lyons Cakes was sold to Tomkins of America for £35 million in 1995. The business employed 1,700 people in Britain and Ireland. Meanwhile, the Tetley Tea business was subject to a management buyout, valued at £190 million.
Lyons Quick Brew and Red Label teas were still available in Britain until relatively recently. Lyons remains the highest-selling tea brand in Ireland, with over a third of the market. Lyons Maid ice cream has been rebranded as Nestle. Lyons brand cakes, biscuits and freshly ground coffee are still sold, although without the presence they once had.
Lyons’ major weakness was nepotism. As late as the 1950s, the board was populated exclusively by family members. The Financial Times ran a headline, “Too much Salmon is bad for Lyons”. A non-family member chairman was not elected until 1977. Although a public company, the majority of voting shares were controlled by the founding families until 1976. But by then, it was too late to save the company extant.
James Pascall was one of the largest sugar confectionery manufacturers in Britain. The company claimed to have invented the individually-wrapped bon-bon. Pascall remains a leading sweets brand in Australia.
James Pascall establishes the business
James Pascall (1838 – 1918) was born in the south London town of Croydon. He was the son of a baker and confectioner of Huguenot descent.
James Pascall (1838 – 1918)
James Pascall worked as a salesman for Cadbury until 1866, when he established his own confectionery business in partnership with his brother Arthur Pascall. The two brothers had been taught how to make sweets by their father. The first premises was a small two room shop on Wells Street, off Oxford Street, London.
The business was to prove successful, and operations were relocated to a larger site at Valentine Place on Blackfriars Road from 1877.
Chocolate production was introduced from 1878.
The Blackfriars factory was largely rebuilt in 1895.
There were 300 employees, mostly women, by 1897.
A simple-minded employee deliberately burned down the factory in 1897, causing £20,000 worth of damage, and leaving only the offices intact. Rival confectionery manufacturers offered Pascall the use of their factories as a stop-gap measure.
By the turn of the century, one of the company’s most successful lines was Golden Maltex, a malt extract confectionery product. In marketing, the company focused on the purity of its products.
James Pascall is established as a limited company
James Pascall became a private limited company, with a capital of £50,000, from 1898.
Over 600 people were employed by 1902, and over 25 percent of production was exported.
James Pascall enjoyed strong relations with its staff. The standard working day was eight hours, and never more than ten hours, even during the busiest periods.
Expanding sales saw a new factory established at Mitcham in Surrey in 1904. The site offered ample opportunity for future expansion.
James Pascall employed over 2,000 people in Britain by 1915.
James Pascall acquired the licence to manufacture Life Savers for the British market from 1916.
Sydney Pascall and Edward Cassleton Elliott
James Pascall died in 1918 and his son, Sydney Pascall (1877 – 1949), was appointed as managing director and chairman.
Sydney Pascall (1877 – 1949)
James Pascall had a capital of £650,000 by 1920.
James Pascall formed a joint venture with Cadbury-Fry in the Australian market, and a factory was established at Hobart, Tasmania at a cost of between £300,000 to £400,000 in 1921. Wilfred Gover Pascall (1878 – 1958), the son of James Pascall, was appointed managing director of the operation.
The Queen and Princess Mary visited the Mitcham factory in 1921. The Prince of Wales awarded the company his royal warrant in 1922.
Company advertising in 1930 claimed that James Pascall was the originator of the individually-wrapped bon-bon.
James Pascall began to struggle with profit losses and an immense overdraft, and Sydney Pascall resigned as managing director in 1930, and as chairman in 1932, although he remained as a company director.
Edward Cassleton Elliott (1881 – 1964) was appointed chairman in 1932. He was what we would now term a business-turnaround specialist. Elliott reduced capital to £433,000, and soon returned the company to profitability.
The Blackfriars factory was destroyed in the Blitz during the Second World War.
The Mitcham factory employed around 1,000 people in 1949.
James Pascall made a profit before tax of nearly £500,000 in 1957. In both 1957 and 1958 an impressive dividend of 55 percent was paid out. The company had just over £2 million in assets by 1959.
Acquisition by Beecham and merger with R S Murray
James Pascall was acquired by Beecham for £2.5 million in cash in 1959. Pascall directors agreed to the deal, citing the pressure of increasing competition in the confectionery industry.
Beecham merged Pascall with its R S Murray confectionery subsidiary, best known for Murraymints, to create perhaps the fourth largest confectionery company in Britain. The production of Murray lines was concentrated at Mitcham.
The Chocolate Eclair product (chewy toffee with a milk chocolate centre) was introduced in 1960.
Pascall-Murray is acquired by Cadbury
Beecham chairman Henry George Lazell (1903 – 1982) explained, “we set up confectionery development laboratories, transferred some good marketing men, authorized development expenditure and an increased sales force and substantial advertising, but all to little effect”. Pascall-Murray lacked sufficient scale to make considerable profit, and Beecham decided to concentrate on its pharmaceuticals, soft drinks and toiletries businesses. Pascall-Murray was sold to Cadbury for £1.75 million in 1964.
The Pascall Chocolate Eclair was rebranded as Cadbury’s from 1965, and the filling was changed to Dairy Milk chocolate.
Cadbury marketed Pascall-Murray confectionery through its Fry subsidiary, and sales were buoyant, with the Mitcham factory working at full capacity.
Cadbury announced the closure of the Mitcham factory, which employed around 1,200 people, in 1970. Cadbury cited increased capacity at its other factories and persistent problems in sourcing sufficient labour at Mitcham. Production was largely transferred to Bristol, as well as Bournville.
The leading Pascall products in 1974 included Eclairs, Murraymints, bon-bons, fruit pastilles and marshmallows. Many of its sweets were sold in shops direct from the jar.
Cadbury expanded its confectionery subsidiary in 1989 with the acquisition of Bassett of Sheffield, best known for Liquorice Allsorts, and Trebor of London, best known for its mints.
Cadbury branded all of its fruit sweets under the Pascall name, and was introducing new Pascall branded products into the late 1990s.
Cadbury divested its British sugar sweets subsidiary to Tangerine Confectionery for £52 million in 2008.
Pascall products, such as bon-bons, have since been rebranded under the Bassett’s name in the UK. Pascall remains a major brand in Australia and New Zealand, where the brand survives as the sugar confectionery arm of Cadbury for that region.
Polo and Life Savers are ring-shaped mints. When two near identical products emerge in two separate markets, it can sometimes be a coincidence. Sometimes it’s just blatant imitation.
Life Savers
Clarence A Crane (1875 – 1931) was an American chocolate manufacturer. To offset low summer sales, he introduced the Life Saver mint in 1912. The ring-shape of the mint was initially created by mistake, but Crane liked its distinctiveness. The Life Savers name was chosen as the shape of the mint resembled life belts (life preservers in US English).
Life Savers were launched in the United Kingdom in 1916. James Pascall, confectionery manufacturers of London, held the licence to distribute the product. At a time when medical claims for products were unregulated, the mints were advertised as an aid to digestion.
US sales of Life Savers had reached $5 million a year by 1921, with distribution across 84,000 outlets.
Life Savers were manufactured in Britain from at least 1923. As well as the original peppermint, the confectionery was available in cinnamon, liquorice and clove flavours. Sales peaked in 1931, when 2.28 million packets were sold. However confectionery rationing and limited imports during the Second World War meant that sales were practically non-existent by 1947.
Polo
Rowntree of York believed that a ring-shaped mint had potential when combined with their manufacturing, advertising and distribution expertise and knowledge of the British market. They had developed the Polo in 1939, but rationing saw its introduction delayed until 1948. The Polo followed a wave of 1930s innovations at Rowntree that included Aero, Smarties and Kit Kat.
Rowntree management were aware of the similarity between the Polo and Life Savers, but as their rival had not taken any action to protect their rights to ring-shaped mints, Rowntree was free to introduce its own version. To prevent legal action they stated “Made by Rowntree’s” clearly on the packaging.
Life Savers struggled to compete with the domestic strength of Rowntree, and British sales of Live Savers ended in 1956.
Small scale imports of Life Savers resumed in 1984, for sale in US military bases in Britain. Life Savers were reintroduced to the UK, imported from South Africa, in 1996. The relaunch was to prove unsuccessful.
Kraft has operated in Britain for almost 100 years. Kraft brands include Dairylea and Philadelphia cream cheese.
Kraft enters the British market
James Lewis Kraft (1874 – 1953) was a Canadian of German descent. He began to sell cheese in Chicago from 1903. Kraft patented a pasteurisation process that extended the lifespan of cheese in 1916. He was the largest cheese manufacturer in the world by 1923.
James Lewis Kraft (1874 – 1953)
The Kraft Cheese Company established an office in Liverpool from 1924 in order to manage the sales of Kraft products imported from North America. There was an initial staff of two salesmen.
Sales were to prove promising, and Kraft acquired a factory on Silverdale Road, Hayes, Middlesex in 1926. The site had an initial staff of around 100 people. One of the earliest products was Dairylea cheese.
The Hayes factory was immediately profitable. James Kraft announced:
We have now so standardized the cheese industry that we can go any place in the world where a milk supply is available, manufacture cheese, and sell it at a profit. With this standardization as a basis, we are now laying a foundation for a business of international proportions, which we do not expect to be stopped by barriers of trade, race or language.
Kraft had enlisted the prestigious J Walter Thompson advertising agency to promote its wares by 1934. Promotional material focused on the consistent taste of Kraft cheese.
The Silverdale Road factory in Hayes (2006)
Kraft employed 8,000 people worldwide by 1940.
Kraft processed large quantities of cheese for the British Government during the Second World War. By 1943 all production was dedicated to the British armed forces.
Kraft produced only four products in post-war Britain: cheese, Dairylea, tomato ketchup and salad cream.
Two creameries in Shropshire were sold to Express Dairies in 1954.
Production relocates to Merseyside
Production was relocated to a new factory at Kirkby, Liverpool, from 1957. It employed over 1,500 people across a 53-acre site. Kraft claimed it was “the most modern food factory in Britain”. The Hayes factory, across a six-acre site, was sold to T Wall & Sons.
The relocation allowed Kraft to expand its British product range to include the Kraft Dinner, tomato chutney and margarine. Velveeta cheese, which had been discontinued during the war, was reintroduced. Philadelphia cream cheese was introduced from 1960.
Kraft established a dairy plant at Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, from 1962.
Kraft acquired Brains, a fresh meat company, in 1966.
Dairylea was the leading packaged cheese in Britain by 1968, and Kraft held 70 percent of the British processed cheese market. Kraft had managed to win around ten percent of the British margarine market, in a sector dominated by Unilever.
Kraft Foods UK had a turnover of £54 million in 1973. The company employed 4,350 people, including around 2,000 people at the Kirkby plant.
The head office had been relocated to Cheltenham by 1977 and the company employed around 3,000 people across the country.
Kraft closed its edible oil plant in Trafford, Manchester with the loss of 380 jobs in 1982.
Cheese production was relocated from Kirkby to more modern plants in Germany and Belgium in 1983. Margarine production and distribution work continued, but 930 out of 1,150 jobs were lost. Kraft also announced that it was looking for a buyer for the Haverfordwest plant. In total, the Kraft UK workforce was reduced from 3,200 to 1,850.
A further 60 jobs were lost at Kirkby in 1985.
Kraft is acquired by Phillip Morris
Kraft was acquired by the American tobacco company Philip Morris in 1988. Philip Morris had acquired General Foods in 1985, and they combined the Bird’s custard and Angel Delight brands, as well as a factory in Banbury, Oxfordshire, with the Kraft UK business.
Kraft acquired Terry’s of York from United Biscuits for £220 million in 1993.
Kraft sold its European margarine assets, including the 53-acre Kirkby factory and the Vitalite margarine brand, to Unigate for £77.25 million in 1996.
Kraft sold the Bird’s custard and Angel Delight brands to Premier Foods for £70 million in 2005.
Kraft closed the Terry’s site in York in 2005 and moved production to Poland, with the loss of 316 full time jobs, and 150 seasonal jobs.
Kraft acquired Cadbury of Bournville for £11.9 billion in 2009. The Cheltenham offices were closed in 2010 and relocated to Bournville. The company was renamed Mondelez from 2012.
James Keiller & Son was influential in popularising marmalade, and was the leading manufacturer of the preserve in the world throughout much of the nineteenth century.
Origins and growth
Dundee, in the east of Scotland, has a long history of fruit growing. Janet Keiller operated a small confectionery business at Seagate, Dundee from the 1760s. She produced jams, and modified a quince recipe to create “chip” (shredded peel) marmalade. It was believed that the addition of the fibrous orange peel aided digestion.
Her son James Keiller (1775 – 1839) took over the business from 1797, and the firm assumed his name. Marmalade was just one of their many product lines, which included jams, cakes and confectionery. The firm was known as James Keiller & Son by 1827.
Alexander Keiller (1821 – 1877) took over the firm from his father in 1839 when it was still relatively modest. Alexander Keiller was a warm but reserved man, with a steely determination. He moved the premises to Castle Street in 1845. He increased production with the introduction of steam-powered machinery. He employed 60 people by 1851.
Keiller established a dedicated bakery department from the 1850s.
Keiller marmalade jar (2016)
“Dundee marmalade” had secured a worldwide reputation by 1857. Keiller was already exporting, mostly to expatriates in countries such as Australia and South Africa. The Dundee factory employed an average of 150 people (mostly women), rising to 200 during the marmalade season. Nearly 15 tons of sugar were used every week. Jams, candied peels and confectionery were produced when Seville oranges were out of season.
Alexander established a factory at St Peter Port, Guernsey, from 1857. The Channel Island location was chosen to avoid mainland sugar duty. Managed by his brother William (1829 – 1899), for twenty years, the site accounted for one third of the company’s 1,000 ton a year output. Around 200 people were employed by 1878. However, profits were to prove disappointing, and Alexander eventually bought out his brother’s third share in James Keiller & Son.
By the 1860s, Keiller was filling millions of these earthenware pots every year. They were made by Maling of Newcastle upon Tyne.
At a time when manufacturer’s adulteration of food was rife, Keiller invited The Lancet‘s food adulteration expert, Dr Arthur Hassall, to examine their marmalade in 1859, which he declared to be pure and “the finest he had ever tasted”.
James Boyd (1848 – 1926) joined the firm in 1864. He was promoted to junior partner from 1874.
Keiller was the largest confectionery manufacturer in Britain by 1869. Around 300 people were employed at the Dundee site. Following the death of his father, John Mitchell Keiller assumed control of the company from 1877.
With the abolition of sugar duty in 1871, manufacturing offshore lost its rationale. The Guernsey operation was relocated to Tay Wharf at Silvertown, London from 1879. J M Keiller used the opportunity to oust his uncle William, and install James Boyd as manager of the new factory, where around 260 people were employed.
Until the 1870s the jam was made with a 1:1 fruit to sugar ratio, and only the juice and peel of the fruit were used in order to maximise sweetness. The abolition of sugar duty gave preserve manufacturers the incentive to use all the bitter innards of the fruit, and simply increase the sugar content to compensate. This produced notable economies but decreased the quality of the product.
Keiller was probably the largest jam, marmalade and confectionery manufacturing enterprise in the world by the late 1880s.
Formation of a limited company
James Keiller & Sons became a limited liability company with a capital of £300,000 (£35 million in 2015) in 1893. J M Keiller used this juncture as an opportunity to step back from management of the business, and James Boyd became managing director.
Marmalade output had risen to over 3,000 tons a year by 1897. A similar weight of confectionery was also produced.
When J M Keiller died in 1899 his gross estate was valued at £521,000. He was the last Keiller to sit on the company board of directors. His son, Alexander Keiller (1889 -1955), inherited the entire company.
The Silvertown site, described as one of the largest factories in England, was completely gutted by fire in 1899, with the damage estimated at over £100,000. 1,400 workers were temporarily thrown out of employment whilst it was rebuilt. The next year the Dundee factory at Albert Square also burned down, and was rebuilt at a cost of £30,000. The building, stock and machinery had been insured for £118,000.
Keiller had a turnover of £350,000 by 1900.
A German subsidiary was established in 1906 with capital of £150,000 and a factory at Tangermunde, close to the sugar beet growing fields.
James Keiller & Son had a capital of £400,000 by 1908, and company assets were valued at £443,000. Around 2,000 people were employed in 1914.
Keiller was exporting millions of jars of marmalade and jam every month to British troops in France by 1917. In one year during the First World War 43,000 tons of jam and marmalade were produced. W M Mathew asserts that Keiller was the principal supplier of jam and marmalade to the Army.
Alexander Keiller did not engage in management of the company, and sold his entire shareholding in 1918. Much of his stake was acquired by the Boyd family.
James Keiller & Son is acquired by Crosse & Blackwell
James Keiller & Son was acquired by Crosse & Blackwell, the largest food processor in the British Empire, in 1919. Robert Boyd, managing director of Keiller, became chairman of C&B. The amalgamation gave C&B between 17 and 20 percent of the British jam market. Keiller continued to function as an independent concern with its own management, and only limited operations were merged.
There were nearly 800 employees in Dundee in 1920. There were over 1,000 workers in London in 1922. Keiller was described as the largest preserve manufacturer in the world in 1921.
The collapse of the post-war economic boom saw Keiller profits drop from £500,000 in 1919 to under £69,000 in 1920. Keiller announced a trading loss of £555,000 in 1921.
The German subsidiary was liquidated in 1923, after debts owed to it failed to be repaid following the end of the war. A fruit pulping and canning operation at Wisbech, Cambridgeshire was sold to Smedley & Co of Evesham in 1923.
Keiller marmalade production began at the Crosse & Blackwell factory in Vincennes outside Paris, France in 1925.
A new bakery plant was opened at Mains Loan, Dundee in 1928.
The glass jar with a metal lid was introduced for the UK market in 1928. The white jars were retained for export production.
Keiller claimed to be the original inventor of the Dundee cake by 1929. Dundee cake was the highest selling line of the bakery division, followed by shortbread.
Keiller supplied the King (marmalade) and Queen (chocolate) by royal appointment by 1931.
Keiller gained a licence to produce Toblerone in the UK from 1932.
All Keiller chocolate and confectionery production was centralised at Dundee from 1935, taking the number employed to around 900.
The Silvertown factory was completely destroyed during the Blitz, and had to be rebuilt.
The Albert Square factory was closed in 1947, and production was relocated to new premises in the city at Maryfield.
Keiller operated a chain of bakeries around the Dundee area by 1946. Keiller opened its first retail shop in Blairgowrie, Scotland in 1948.
Shortbread was the company’s highest selling export by the 1950s. America, the Middle East and the Far East were the principal overseas markets.
Keiller preserves manufacturing was transferred from Silvertown to Dundee in 1952, leaving Silvertown to produce Crosse & Blackwell branded goods.
From Nestle to the present
Crosse & Blackwell was acquired by Nestle of Switzerland in 1960.
Following the takeover of Chocolat Tobler by Associated Biscuits in 1967, Keiller lost the licence to produce Toblerone.
Keiller ranked among the top six confectionery manufacturers in Britain in 1980, with a four percent market share and a workforce of 320 people. However Keiller became loss-making following a sales decline. The marmalade line operated for just one half-day a week. Nestle announced plans to close the factory.
Okhai of Dundee acquired Keiller, with a reduced workforce of 145. Okhai invested heavily to transform a site that had been losing £2 million a year into one that made an annual profit of £400,000. Export value increased from £500,000 to £4 million a year. 60,000 jars of marmalade were produced every day by 1985, and Okhai was awarded a Queen’s Award for export achievement.
Barker & Dobson acquired Keiller for £4.9 million in 1985. Barker & Dobson sold the Keiller preserves brand to Rank Hovis McDougall, who owned the Robertson’s preserves company, for £4.9 million in 1988. The preserves business had employed a staff of just 14, and production was relocated to the Robertson site in Manchester.
Barker & Dobson sold its confectionery arm to Alma Holdings, a rival sweet manufacturer, for £10 million in 1988. Alma relocated its headquarters to Dundee, and invested £8.5 million to transform the Keiller factory into one of the most modern confectionery plants in Europe. The staffing levels at the Dundee plant were doubled to around 500 people. Keiller was a leader in butterscotch production.
The high cost of borrowing combined with overcapacity in the industry saw Alma enter into receivership in 1992. The Keiller and Barker & Dobson brands were acquired by Craven of York for £3 million. Craven was subsequently renamed to Craven Keiller. It was the third largest sugar confectionery manufacturer in Britain, behind Trebor Bassett and Nestle.
Craven Keiller was acquired by Cadbury in 1996, who spun off their sweets arm as Monkhill, which was later acquired by Tangerine Confectionery. The Keiller brand was eventually phased out, and now no confectionery bears the name.
Keiller marmalade was withdrawn from sale in Britain, but is still produced as an export brand at Histon, Cambridgeshire by Hain Celestial. It is distributed to the North American and Australasian markets.
Lazenby’s was one of the largest sauce manufacturers in Britain. Their flagship Harvey’s fish sauce was a popular condiment in Victorian homes.
Peter Harvey
Peter Harvey (1749 – 1812) was a chef to the Duke of Bolton (1720 – 1794). Harvey had left to become the landlord of the Red Lion in Bagshot, a large posthouse with stabling for fifty horses, by 1793.*
Harvey relocated to the Black Dog Inn at Bedfont, Middlesex, situated on the Great Western Road, a major route from London, from 1798. The Black Dog functioned as a posthouse, and as the halfway house between London and Bagshot.
Harvey gained a reputation as a culinary perfectionist. His cuisine gained a keen following among the aristocracy, including the Prince of Wales. Foremost among his offerings was a thin, brown-black sauce.** It had a base of vinegar, soy sauce and mushroom or walnut ketchup, and was flavoured with anchovies, garlic and cayenne pepper. The sauce was matured in charred pine barrels, which helped to darken the liquid.
The Lazenby family grow the business
Peter Harvey gifted the sauce recipe to his sister Elizabeth in 1793. With her husband John Lazenby, provision merchant at 6 Edward Street (renamed Wigmore Street from 1869), Portman Square, London, wholesale manufacture of the sauce commenced.
“Harvey’s Sauce” soon became well-known throughout London. The product had national distribution by 1807. The success of the sauce was such that it inspired numerous counterfeit productions, and Peter Harvey signed every bottle to confer authenticity from 1805. Harvey died in 1812, and Elizabeth began to sign the bottles herself.
Harvey’s Sauce became embedded in contemporary culture. Lord Byron referred to the product in his poem Beppo (1817). Later, Thackeray, Dickens and Edith Wharton would also reference it in their works.
The business was eventually passed to Elizabeth’s sons; Henry Lazenby (1784 – 1851) and Edward Frederick Lazenby (1790 – 1830), who continued to pay their mother an annuity of £300. Henry Lazenby took full control of the business from 1818.
Control of the company had passed to Elizabeth’s grandson, William Howard Harvey Lazenby (1808 – 1875), by 1848.
The business employed around 25 people in the 1850s, rising to 35 men in 1861. That year a factory was opened at Trinity Street, Borough.
William had retired by 1871, and control of the company passed to his son, Walter Lazenby (1835 – 1910). William’s estate was valued at £50,000 in 1875, or roughly £5.2 million in 2015.
Walter Lazenby was to greatly expand the business. He built a large new factory in Bermondsey. He expanded the product range to include a variety of pickles and sauces. Products were exported across the world, with South Africa and Canada the principal foreign markets.
E Lazenby & Son was registered as a limited company with an authorised capital of £300,000 in 1895.
“Harvey’s Sauce” became a genericized trademark, so the product was rebranded as “Lazenby’s Sauce” from 1900 onwards.
By the time Walter Lazenby died in 1910 he had had built the company into one of the largest sauce manufacturers in Britain, with over 600 employees and a worldwide reputation. The Aberdeen Journal described the company’s fish sauce recipe as a “gold mine”, and Lazenby left an estate valued at £377,480.
Charles Lazenby (1863 – 1929) was appointed chairman of the company following the death of his father.
The principal trade was in pickles by 1911. The most popular pickled vegetables were cucumbers (gherkins imported from the South of France), onions (largely imported from the Netherlands) and cauliflower (from Kent and Cambridgeshire). Pickled walnuts (imported from the Netherlands) were also popular. Outside of London, the principal market for Lazenby pickles were the prosperous industrial areas of Yorkshire and Lancashire.
E Lazenby & Son employed 800 people and had contracts to supply the Army, the Navy, and forces in India, by 1914.
The Crosse & Blackwell/Nestle era
E Lazenby & Son was acquired by Crosse & Blackwell, a large manufacturer of preserved foods, in 1919. Charles Lazenby was appointed to the Crosse & Blackwell board as one of ten directors. The takeover facilitated greater distribution of Lazenby products.
The company left the original Wigmore Street premises in 1922. The Trinity Street factory was closed in 1925 and production was transferred to Bermondsey.
Charles Lazenby died in 1929 with a gross estate valued at £283,278.
Nestle of Switzerland acquired Crosse & Blackwell in 1960. E Lazenby branded foodstuffs continued to be sold in Britain until at least the late 1960s, but production may have ended with the closure of the Bermondsey factory in 1969.
Nestle sold off their Crosse & Blackwell operations in the early 21st century, and the (unused) rights to the E Lazenby name were acquired by Premier Foods. Nestle retains the rights to the Lazenby name in South Africa, where it survives as a popular brand of Worcestershire sauce.
Notes
The Red Lion at Bagshot played host to a reconciliation between Pitt the Elder (1708 – 1778), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and John Wilkes (1725 – 1797) following a duel between the two men that ended in both their guns misfiring.
An anonymous recollection from 1842 alleges that Charles Combers (c.1752 – 1825), a patron of the Black Dog, gifted his mother’s original sauce recipe to Peter Harvey.
