HP is the highest-selling brown sauce in Britain and Canada. A1 has higher sales in the United States and Japan. Yorkshire Relish retains popularity in Ireland. OK sauce remains popular in China. In Japan they have their own brown sauce inspired by the English version called tonkatsu sauce.
Arguably the ur-type brown sauce was Lea & Perrins’ Worcestershire sauce. We don’t think of it as a brown sauce today, but its ingredients; molasses, vinegar, citrus fruits, tamarind, and its taste; sweet, bitter, savoury, tangy, spicy; almost certainly informed the earliest brown sauces.
The great celebrity chef of the early Victorian period, Alexis Soyer (1810 – 1858), formulated an early brown sauce, which was manufactured by Crosse & Blackwell from the late 1840s. His Sauce Succulente was described as, “thick, pulpy and of a reddish-brown colour. It contains vinegar, a considerable quantity of tomato, wheat flour, shallots, garlic, redcurrant jelly and several herbs”.
By the early 1850s the brown sauce market had been established. The products tended to include tomatoes, garlic, shallots, mushroom and walnut ketchup, raisins, tamarind, soybean, herbs, spices, and salt. Treacle and caramel were used for colour, and flour was used as a thickening agent. Some contained anchovies.
Brown sauce became popular as a byproduct of industrialisation. Meat that was imported from the country to the towns and cities was up to three days old, and brown sauce improved its flavour.
Henderson Brand introduced A1 sauce in 1862. The sauce contained tomatoes, raisins and orange marmalade.
Brand’s nephew George Mason introduced an imitation of A1 called OK in 1880. OK was thicker, and included more fruit, including mangoes and apples.
HP sauce was introduced in 1889. It is similar to A1 but thicker, and contains tamarind. Other ingredients in the original recipe include garlic, shallots, ground mace, tomato purée, cayenne pepper, ground ginger, raisins, flour, salt and malt vinegar.
HP, A1 and OK were all acquired by large conglomerates in the 1960s. HP was already the highest-selling brown sauce in Britain by this time. However its acquisition by Imperial Tobacco, one of the largest companies in the world, saw investment in new machinery at its factories and a huge increase in marketing spend. Large competitors, including Rank Hovis McDougall and Colman’s, could not compete with Imperial’s massive firepower, and one by one HP’s competitors faded away.
Brown sauce was highly regionalised in Britain as late as the 1970s, with HP the only national player. Daddies was strong in the South West, Fletcher’s was strong in the West and East Ridings of Yorkshire, while Heinz Ideal Sauce and Hammonds Chop Sauce were strong in the North Riding. OK sauce had a large share of the London market.
From the 1970s the supermarkets streamlined their product offerings, usually focussing on the market leader and an own-label brown sauce.
Yorkshire Relish was the highest-selling bottled sauce in the Victorian era. It was advertised as “the most delicious sauce in the world”.
Goodall, Backhouse & Co is established
Robert Goodall (1831-1870) was born in Market Weighton, Yorkshire. After serving an apprenticeship to a chemist, he established a small chemist’s shop on Wade Lane, Leeds from 1853.
Goodall entered into partnership with two chemists, William Powell (1836-1900), his brother-in-law and former apprentice, and Henry Backhouse (1829 – 1876), to acquire the business of Bell & Brooke, Leeds wholesale chemists, from Thomas Bell (1801 – 1878), who was retiring, in 1858.
The firm, now known as Goodall, Backhouse & Co, moved to Bell & Brooke’s larger premises at 46 Boar Lane. Goodall held 50 percent of the equity in the firm, and Backhouse and Powell each held a 25 percent stake.
Many chemists of the era branched out into consumer goods products, and Goodall began to manufacture “Yorkshire Relish” using a family recipe from 1865. It was a thin sauce, comparable to Worcestershire, but it was fruitier and did not contain anchovies.
The base of Yorkshire Relish consisted of shallots, soy sauce, garlic and malt vinegar. It was flavoured with 27 “Eastern spices” including black pepper. The sauce was matured in wooden vats for at least 14 months and up to three years.
Robert Goodall died in 1870, and his stake in the business was inherited by William Powell. The firm relocated from Boar Lane to White Horse Street in 1873, and retail activities were discontinued. The firm developed as pharmaceutical wholesalers and sauce manufacturers. William Powell became sole proprietor of the business from 1876, following the death of Henry Backhouse.
Goodall Backhouse operated the largest sauce factory in the world by 1874. The steam-powered factory was largely mechanised, and occupied a six-floor building.
Every bottle of Yorkshire Relish was embossed with a willow tree logo to confer authenticity by 1870. Over 670,000 bottles of Yorkshire Relish were sold in August 1872. Yorkshire Relish holds trademark no. 3,101; it was among the first names to be registered when trademarks were introduced in 1876.
William Powell Bowman (1862 – 1955), the nephew of William Powell, entered the business from 1877.
Eight million bottles of Yorkshire Relish were sold in 1885. Yorkshire Relish even received a recommendation from Charles Perrins (1864 – 1958) of Lea & Perrins, manufacturers of the original Worcestershire sauce.
The White Horse Street factory was doubled in size in 1886. The business employed a workforce of 400, including 100 people directly involved in Yorkshire Relish production and bottling.
When asked to account for the popularity of Yorkshire Relish, W P Bowman responded; “it is good and cheap, never varies in its quality, and its uniform excellence is now thoroughly established”.
Goodall Backhouse advertised heavily, and had an annual marketing spend of £40,000 to £50,000 per annum by 1888.
Goodall Backhouse was involved in a landmark House of Lords legal case against the Birmingham Vinegar Brewery, who had begun to manufacture an imitation product which they branded as “Yorkshire Relish”, in the 1890s. The case ruled that only Goodall Backhouse could use the name. Powell spent £25,000 in legal fees to defend his trademark rights against other businesses between 1892 and 1900.
Under the astute leadership of William Powell the business became one of the largest sauce manufacturers in the world. There were around 500 employees at the firm by 1900.
William Powell Bowman takes control of the business
William Powell died a lifelong bachelor in 1900, and left the firm to two nephews. William Powell Bowman gained a two thirds stake, and Frank Boyce received one third.
The factories occupied some ten acres of floor space by 1907, and the wage bill ran to over £80,000 (£8.5 million in 2015). Thirteen million bottles of Yorkshire Relish were sold each year. It remained the highest selling sauce in the world as late as 1911.
Bowman bought the remaining third of the company from Boyce for £36,000 (around £2.7 million in 2015) in 1916. Bowman was joined by his eldest son, George Edward Bowman (1901 – 1979), from 1921.
Following the introduction of import tariffs in Ireland in 1933, Charles Ernest Hogg established Goodall’s of Ireland, which produced the sauce for that market under licence.
Goodall Backhouse became a limited company with a capital of £125,000 (£8 million in 2015) from 1934.
A thick version of Yorkshire Relish was introduced from 1935, under the initiative of George Edward Bowman. It was made from apples, tomatoes, dates, tamarinds and spices. It allegedly had a more subtle, and fruitier taste than rivals such as HP and Daddies.
Goodall Backhouse was awarded a royal warrant from George V.
The company’s drugs business and properties on White Horse Street in Leeds were spun off as a separate company called “Goodalls (Leeds), Ltd” in 1937. George Edward Bowman remained as a director of the drugs business. The remnant foods business, mostly employed in the manufacture of Yorkshire Relish, had a staff of over 300 people and a works located on Sovereign Street.
George Edward Bowman had taken over as managing director of Goodall Backhouse by 1947, with William Powell Bowman serving as governing chairman.
Death of W P Bowman and sale of the business
William Powell Bowman died in 1955. A reserved man, he was said to have never suffered a day of illness in his life.
Goodall Backhouse struggled in the wake of the death of W P Bowman. His successor, George Edward Bowman, was an excellent salesman, but not a natural business manager.
Goodall Backhouse was sold to Hammonds Sauce Co of Shipley, Yorkshire in 1959. Hammonds (then, as now) was a largely regional brand, whereas Yorkshire Relish had a national presence and a large export market.
Hammonds was acquired by Pillsbury in 1982. Pillsbury closed the Leeds factory in 1985 and relocated all Hammonds production to a new £1 million factory in Bradford.
Pillsbury was acquired by Grand Metropolitan in 1988 who sold Pillsbury UK to Dalgety in 1991. Dalgety sold Hammonds to Albert Fisher for £12 million later that year.
Yorkshire Relish was available in thin, thick, spicy and fruity varieties by 1994. Only the thick version was available by 1996.
Hammonds was acquired by Unigate in 1999. The thick version of Yorkshire Relish had been discontinued due to low sales by 2001.
The Bradford factory was closed in 2002 and production of Hammonds sauces was relocated to a former vinegar brewery in Lancashire.
Hammonds is currently owned by McCormick, the American spice company. McCormick also own the rights to the Yorkshire Relish trademark.
Thin Yorkshire Relish is still produced by Robert Roberts in Ireland. The product has a base of vinegar, sugar and soy sauce. The thick version is also produced, under the name “YR Sauce”.
OK was the highest-selling brown sauce in London as late as the 1970s. It was withdrawn from the British market in the 1990s, but Unilever continued to produce it for export to Asia.
George Mason & Co is established
Henderson Brand (1805 – 1893) A1 sauce, a popular brown sauce, from 1862. He employed two nephews, George and John Mason.
The Mason brothers entered into business for themselves, as competitors to Brand, from 1879. They established a small factory at 417-419 King’s Road, Chelsea. Their first products, OK Sauce and beef and chicken extracts, were direct imitations of Brand & Co products. They also supplied “invalid foods” for local hospitals.
OK Sauce contained raisins, cane sugar, mangoes, ginger, bell peppers, mace, nutmeg, cloves, British herbs, cinnamon, shallots, malt vinegar, garlic, lemons, oranges and tomato purée. No cereal-based thickening agent, artificial colouring or added chemical preservatives were used. Salt and vinegar acted as natural preservatives.
John Mason left the venture shortly afterwards, to leave George Mason as sole proprietor. George Mason took on investors to form a private limited company called George Mason & Co in 1884.
The business began to struggle, and George Mason was forced to resign his directorship in 1891.
Percy Cooper and the growth of OK Sauce
Percy Cooper (1863 – 1931) was an engaging man, who worked as an amatuer actor and magician during his spare time. He became a salesman for George Mason & Co from 1891. He was appointed general manager the following year.
Cooper was promoted to Manager and Secretary from 1895. He saw great potential in the sauce market, and decided to focus production and marketing efforts on OK Sauce. He relocated production to larger premises at St George’s Hall in Walham Green, Fulham, from 1896. Cooper named the new site ‘the Chelsea Works”.
OK Sauce won the only gold medal for sauce at the Festival of Empire exhibition in 1911. George Mason & Co were purveyors by appointment to the House of Lords, and also supplied the House of Commons.
An additional factory was opened at Southfields, Wandsworth, in order to cope with increasing demand for OK Sauce, from 1920.
Ownership of George Mason & Co was divided fairly evenly between the Cooper and Ripley families from 1920.
Rex Cooper expands OK Sauce nationwide
Rex Cooper, son of Percy Cooper, was appointed as general manager from 1925.
Both factories were closed in 1928 and production was centralised at a single larger site at Southfields, which was also named the Chelsea Works. 43,200 bottles of OK Sauce were produced daily. Rationalised production at an efficient site allowed the company to lower prices for the consumer.
The former factory in Southfields, Wandsworth (2012)
Percy Cooper died suddenly in 1931, and Rex Cooper assumed his position as managing director.
Distribution of OK Sauce was mainly limited to Southern England and South Wales. A dedicated northern sales team was established to boost sales nationwide from 1936.
Wartime restrictions meant that by 1945 only OK Sauce, mustard, Worcester sauce and fruit chutney were produced.
OK Sauce sales surpassed £1 million for the first time (about £21 million in 2015) in 1960.
Acquisition by Reckitt & Colman
Reckitt & Colman, manufacturers of Colman’s mustard, were keen to enter the brown sauce market, and acquired George Mason for £826,575 (equivalent to £14.5 million in 2013) in cash in 1964. Rex Cooper joined the Colman’s board of directors.
Rex’s son Brian Cooper was appointed managing director in 1965. Rex Cooper died the following year, leaving £77,514 (£1.3 million in 2013).
The Southfields factory was closed with the loss of 150 jobs in 1969. Colman’s explained that Mason’s had “long since outgrown” the London factory, and production was relocated to Norwich.
By 1969 caramel and concentrates were added to OK sauce for colouring, and gum tragacanth and manucol ester were added for appearance.
The brown sauce market in Britain was highly regional as late as 1970, and OK claimed the largest share of the London market.
The British grocery sector was increasingly in the hands of large supermarket chains by the mid-1970s. Supermarkets focused on a limited product range, and also introduced own-label products in categories such as brown sauce. This placed pressure on OK Sauce, which was a less-prominent brand than HP Sauce, its major rival.
OK Sauce is withdrawn from the UK, but continues to be produced for Asian markets
Colman’s was acquired by Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant, in 1995.
OK Sauce appears to have disappeared from British shelves in the mid to late 1990s. Many of its customers switched to HP Fruity as the closest available alternative.
OK Sauce continues to be manufactured by Unilever for export to Asia.
OK Sauce
OK is a dark brown sauce. It is fruity, peppery, tangy, sweet and sour. Its fruit content is listed as 39%. It has quite an Oriental profile, and perhaps contains star anise. It perhaps shares similarities with a puréed fruit chutney.
The recipe appears to have changed over time. Mangoes are no longer contained in the sauce, and dates are now present. The label now claims that there are no artificial colours, flavourings or sweeteners added. Modified maize starch is added as a thickener.
The sauce can be used in much the same way as HP, and I can highly recommend it as an accompaniment to bacon or sausage. Chinese restaurants use it with shredded beef, shredded chicken and spare ribs.
Huntley & Palmers became the largest manufacturer of biscuits in the world.
George Palmer (1818 – 1897) was born to a Quaker farming family in Somerset. His mother was a cousin of Cyrus and James Clark, founders of the well-known shoe manufacturing business.
George Palmer (1818 – 1897)
George Palmer was apprenticed to an uncle as a miller and confectioner in 1832. In 1841 he entered into a partnership with a cousin by marriage, Thomas Huntley (1802 – 1857), who owned a firm in Reading, founded in 1822, which sold high quality biscuits across much of southern England.
Huntley and Palmer took over a disused silk factory on the bank of the Kennet & Avon canal in 1843. Palmer introduced steam power and mechanisation to the business. With engineer William Exall, Palmer introduced the first continuously-running biscuit machinery in the world in 1846.
Huntley & Palmer employed 500 people by 1850. Sixteen tons of biscuits were produced every week by 1851, with distribution across England.
When Huntley died in 1857, annual turnover of the firm was £125,000 (around £12.5 million in 2014). George Palmer bought out Huntley’s son and took into partnership his brothers, Samuel and William Isaac Palmer, the former managing the London office and the latter running the factory.
Huntley & Palmers was producing thousands of tons of biscuits every year by 1865. Ship’s biscuit was a major product. The firm responded quickly to consumer demand: following the success of the Pearl biscuit introduced by rival Peek Frean of Bermondsey, Huntley & Palmers introduced their own version within a matter of months.
800 men and boys were employed by 1865. By this time Huntley & Palmers had introduced a compulsory employee sick fund, and provided a reading room at a small cost to subscribing workers.
Huntley & Palmers employed nearly 1,000 people by 1867.
The second generation of the Palmer family took over the management of the business from 1867-8. By now the business was easily the largest biscuit manufacturer in the world. Around 25 percent of production was exported. Sales grew as afternoon tea became a middle class tradition.
Nearly 2,500 people were employed by 1872.
The Thin Arrowroot biscuit was introduced from 1884. The Breakfast biscuit, an unsweetened alternative to toast, was introduced from around 1892.
Nearly 400 varieties of biscuit and cake were produced by 1892. Leading product lines included the Ginger Nut, Milk, Empire and Colonial biscuits. During peak periods, close to 5,000 men and women were employed.
Joseph Hatton (1837 – 1907), the editor of the Sunday Times, suggested that George Palmer could be described as the “father of modern Reading”. The huge population growth of the town was largely due to the biscuit industry.
By the 1890s the Huntley & Palmer name was one of the best known brands in the world.
George Palmer died in 1897. That year the firm produced 23,000 tons of biscuits and recorded a turnover of over £1.25 million (c. £142 million in 2014).
Callard & Bowser was the leading manufacturer of butterscotch in the world. The founding-family sold the business in the 1930s and its successive owners included Guinness, United Biscuits and Kraft.
Callard & Bowser developed a large market for Altoids mints in the United States from the 1980s, and eventually discontinued all other lines in order to focus on their leading product.
The growth of a family business
Daniel James Callard (1824 – 1903) was born in London to a prosperous non-conformist family. Members of the Callard family had been bakers in the metropolis since the seventeenth century, and Daniel Callard became a master baker himself.
Daniel Callard had entered into partnership with John Carrick Bowser (1828 – 1912), his brother-in-law, by 1855. The two men established a wholesale grocery business at St John’s Wood. The business initially manufactured infant formula, but began to concentrate on confectionery production from 1861.
Daniel Callard bought out John Bowser’s stake in the business in 1872, but continued to trade under the established name of “Callard & Bowser”. The firm grew through strong branding and a dedication to product quality and purity, at a time when standards were often inconsistent.
Daniel Callard received the 80th trademark issued in Britain in 1876. By this time butterscotch, Turkish delight and boiled sweets were established as the core products.
Callard & Bowser logo (1896)
Daniel Callard employed 41 people by 1881. He had passed control of the business to his son, James Percival Callard (1859 – 1940), by 1891.
Growing sales saw the business relocated to Duke’s Road, Euston by 1894.
Daniel Callard died with an estate valued at £99,570 (around £11 million in 2015) in 1903.
Callard & Bowser butterscotch consisted of 11.7 percent butter fat and 79.3 percent sugar, according to an analysis conducted for the British Medical Journal in 1907.
James Callard sold the business to his son-in-law after the First World War. Callard & Bowser was the largest producer of butterscotch in the British Empire.
Major Allnatt acquires Callard & Bowser
Callard & Bowser was sold to Major Alfred Ernest Allnatt (1889 – 1969) in 1933. Allnatt was best-known as a publicity-shy and eccentric property developer.
Allnatt relocated production to land he owned at Western Avenue, Park Royal, adjacent to the London branch of the Guinness brewery. Cream Line toffee was introduced from 1937, and was to prove one of the more successful products.
Callard & Bowser acquired William Nuttall of Doncaster, best known for the Mintoes boiled sweet, in 1948. The Nuttall factory was large and modern and the business had a strong export trade. The acquisition cemented Callard & Bowser’s position as one of the largest toffee manufacturers in Britain.
Callard & Bowser is sold to Guinness
Callard & Bowser was acquired by Guinness in 1951. Major Allnatt was retained as chairman. Guinness wanted to diversify from its core brewing operation, and had decided to establish a confectionery subsidiary. The company was able to acquire Callard & Bowser at a depressed price as sweet rationing remained in force. The sweet ration was lifted in 1953, and this was to prove a major boon for the confectionery industry.
Profits from confectionery, amounting to £850,000 between 1951 and 1956, were reinvested into the business. Rileys of Halifax, best known for Toffee Rolls, and Lavells, a confectionery store chain, were acquired. Guinness invested heavily to install new factory equipment. A factory on Silverdale Road at Hayes, Middlesex was acquired in 1956.
Rolls Confectionery of Greenford, Middlesex was purchased from J Lyons & Co in 1961.
Callard & Bowser was not an extensive advertiser, and instead concentrated on developing strong relationships with wholesalers and retailers.
Callard & Bowser toffees were a favourite confectionery of United States President John F Kennedy (1917 – 1963).
Callard & Bowser was the largest manufacturer of nougat in Britain by 1974.
The Park Royal factory was divested in 1974. Guinness indicated that rationalisation was essential in order to control costs in a highly competitive industry. Production was relocated to the Hayes factory, where there was space for expansion. All 250 staff at Park Royal were given the opportunity to transfer to the Hayes site.
Callard & Bowser had become unprofitable by the early 1980s. The Nuttall factory in Doncaster was closed down with the loss of 125 jobs in 1981. Production was transferred to Halifax.
Callard & Bowser had a turnover of £17 million in 1981. The business employed 1,186 people.
Takeover by Beatrice Foods
Guinness sold Callard & Bowser to Beatrice Foods of Chicago for £4 million in 1982 in order to focus on its core brewing operation.
Beatrice Foods merged Smith Kendon into Callard & Bowser to form the eighth-largest confectionery manufacturer in Britain. Smith Kendon produced Altoids Curiously Strong Mints at Bridgend in Wales.
Callard & Bowser operated autonomously from its parent company.
The business continued to operate at a loss due to a declining sugar confectionery market. 135 jobs at Hayes and Halifax were lost in 1982.
High business rates and an inefficient ageing factory saw the Hayes site closed down with the loss of 500 jobs in 1983. Production was transferred to Bridgend, which received heavy investment.
Callard & Bowser was growing rapidly by the mid-1980s. It was the largest manufacturer of butterscotch in the world and claimed 25 percent of the British toffee market. Around half of all production was exported to 65 different countries.
Sale to United Biscuits
Beatrice Foods sold Callard & Bowser to United Biscuits in 1988, in an attempt to reduce debt. United Biscuits paid £21.5 million in cash, a price that represented 83 times annual earnings at Callard & Bowser. The Halifax and Bridgend sites employed 240 white collar staff and just over 400 hourly-paid employees. The Times reported that United Biscuits had acquired “one of the best-known and most traditional names in confectionery, famed for its butterscotch”.
United Biscuits integrated Callard & Bowser with their own Terry’s confectionery subsidiary, best known for the Chocolate Orange, to form the Terry’s Group. The merged business held three percent of the British sugar confectionery market.
United Biscuits did not advertise Callard & Bowser products, but instead investing in packaging design and product formulation. The strategy worked: a 29 percent share of the toffee market had grown to 34 percent by 1992.
Confectionery production was discontinued at Halifax in 1992.
Takeover by Kraft
United Biscuits sold the Terry’s Group to Kraft of Chicago in 1993.
Altoids had enjoyed considerable success in the United States from the late 1980s. Altoids were the highest selling peppermint in the United States by 1997, with annual sales of 40 million tins.
Riley’s Toffee Rolls were discontinued in the mid-1990s in order to accommodate increased Altoids production. Cream Line toffees were discontinued in 2001, and the remaining lines, with the exception of Altoids, were discontinued in 2004.
Sale to Wrigley
Kraft sold Callard & Bowser, along with its Lifesavers mint brand, to Wrigley of Chicago for $1.48 billion in 2004. The Bridgend factory exported 8,000 tonnes of Altoids to America every year.
Wrigley closed down the Bridgend plant with the loss of 173 jobs in 2005. 90 percent of production was exported to America, so it made economic sense to transfer manufacturing to the United States. The Callard & Bowser and Nuttall’s brands were discontinued, with the exception of Altoids.
Mackintosh was the largest manufacturer of toffee in the world. The company introduced iconic brands such as Quality Street, Rolo and Toffee Crisp.
Violet Mackintosh creates a new toffee
John Mackintosh (1868 – 1920) and his wife Violet (1866 – 1932) opened a pastry shop in Halifax, Yorkshire, in 1890. The couple were lifelong members of the Methodist New Connexion denomination (United Methodist Church from 1907).
Business was to prove slow, so Violet Mackintosh invented a new product: a unique chewy toffee which blended the qualities of Yorkshire butterscotch and American caramel. Previously English toffee had referred to a hard boiled sweet.
The product was to prove a great success, and soon the product began to be distributed across Britain.
Mackintosh becomes the largest manufacturer of toffee in the world
John Mackintosh was the largest toffee manufacturer in the world by 1905. He sold an average of one hundred tons of toffee every week in England. He claimed to be the largest consumer of butter in the world.
Export sales proved promising, and Mackintosh established a factory in Germany, outside of Dusseldorf, from 1906.
A factory was opened at Brockville, Ontario in Canada in 1908. It had a manufacturing capacity of seven tons of toffee a day.
Over 8,000 tons of toffee were sold in Britain every year by 1910.
The German business was closed shortly before the First World War.
John Mackintosh Ltd employed some 1,000 people by 1914.
A factory had been established in Australia by 1914.
John Mackintosh died from a heart attack in 1920. He left an estate valued at over £150,000, and his company had assets of £350,000.
Control of the business passed to Harold Mackintosh (1891 – 1964), the eldest son of the founder.
Company shares were first offered to the public in 1921 in order to fund the duty on John Mackintosh’s estate.
Mackintosh could produce seven million pieces of toffee every day by 1921. The company employed 2,000 people in factories in Britain and overseas by 1932.
Acquisition of A J Caley and new product launches A J Caley, the Norwich chocolate manufacturer, was acquired from Unilever for £138,000 in 1933. The loss-making operation had a capital of £1 million and employed 1,000 people.
Mackintosh overhauled the business, repositioning it into the premium quality sector. Mackintosh combined its expertise in toffee with Caley’s expertise in chocolate. As a result, the Quality Street sweet tin was launched in 1936. This was quickly followed by the Rolo in 1937. The Rolo was designed to fit easily inside a pocket, and was an immediate success. A J Caley sales grew eightfold between 1933 and 1938.
Mackintosh supplied over 10,000 tons of confectionery to the British armed forces during the Second World War, principally toffee and butterscotch.
Quality Street had overtaken Mackintosh’s toffee to be regarded by the company as its premier product by the early 1950s. Rolo was perceived as an adequate rival to the foremost Cadbury and Rowntree lines.
Further product launches included Munchies (1957), Caramac (1959), Tooty Frooties and Toffee Crisp (both 1963) and Toffo (1964).
Mackintosh employed 5,000 people, including 2,000 at Norwich, by 1962. The company opened a new factory in Halifax, Yorkshire, in 1964.
Mackintosh became one of the “Big Five” of British chocolate manufacturers, alongside Cadbury, Rowntree, Mars and Nestle.
Fox’s of Leicester, manufacturer of Glacier Mints, was acquired for £1 million in cash in 1969.
Mackintosh merges with Rowntree
Mackintosh underwent a friendly merger with Rowntree of York to form Rowntree Mackintosh in 1969. At the time, Mackintosh shares were still majority held by family interests. Rowntree dominated the merger, which was seen as a defensive move following a £49 million bid for Rowntree from General Food of America. The merged company held 25 percent of the British confectionery market.
Quality Street had the largest sale of any confectionery assortment in the world by 1972.
Rowntree was acquired by Nestle of Switzerland in 1988. The Norwich factory was closed in 1994.
Toffo was discontinued in Britain in 2012. It continues to be manufactured and sold in the Middle East.
The Halifax factory continues to manufacture Quality Street, as well as Easter eggs and After Eights.
Mackintosh toffee is still sold in Canada and Australasia. It is also available in Britain as a variety within the Quality Street assortment.
Fox’s Glacier Mints are the leading mint-flavoured boiled sweets in Britain.
Walter Fox establishes the business
Walter Richard Fox (1862 – 1951) was born into a Baptist Leicestershire farming family. He built up a wholesale grocery business on York Road in Leicester.
Fox was an inventor, and began to manufacture confectionery from 1895. Within two years he had expanded his range to include over 100 different product lines.
Eric Fox invents Glacier Mints
Walter Fox was joined in business by his son, Eric Smart Fox (1890 – 1963), from 1914. Eric Fox had spent four years in the United States in order to learn American business methods and advertising techniques.
Eric Fox was to become the driving force of the company. He persuaded his father to redirect the company focus from low-cost sweets towards premium-priced confectionery.
Eric Fox invented the first transparent peppermint by mistake during the First World War. Wartime obstacles prevented Fox from installing the necessary machinery to mass produce the product. Clear Mint Fingers were finally introduced from 1918, and were sold in large glass jars. Acting on his wife’s advice, Fox renamed the sweets Glacier Mints from 1919, and introduced the polar bear trademark. Glacier Mints became the leading product.
Eric Fox believed in the potential for Glacier Mints, and advertised extensively in newspapers. Glacier Mints soon became the leading product for the company.
Fox’s made the transition from a local business to a national concern. Expanding sales saw the business relocate to Oxford Street, Leicester from 1923, where production was increased eightfold. The export market began to be pursued from 1924.
Eric Fox would later relate that he had not set out to make a lot of money, but to serve the public with a quality product.
Walter Fox retired from the business in 1935.
A factory was established in Castlereagh, Belfast, from 1954. Around 200 people were employed.
Fox’s Glacier Fruits were introduced from 1956.
Eric Smart Fox died with an estate valued at £150,000 in 1963. He was succeeded as chairman by his son, Bruce Vaughan Fox (1918 – 2009).
The Castlereagh plant was closed with the loss of around 100 jobs in 1964.
The Fox family sell the business; subsequent owners
Fox’s relocated to purpose-built premises at Braunstone, Leicester, from 1967. It was the most modern automated confectionery plant in Europe. The business employed around 400 people.
Fox’s had taken on debt in order to build the new factory, and consequently lacked sufficient capital for expansion. The company was acquired by Mackintosh & Son of Halifax for £984,000 in cash (around £14 million in 2014) in 1969. It was reasoned that Mackintosh would be able to improve distribution of Fox’s products and increase exports. Mackintosh was acquired by Rowntree of York later that year.
The Leicester factory began to produce the fruit-flavoured variants of Rowntree’s Polo mint brand from the 1980s.
Rowntree was acquired by Nestle of Switzerland in 1988.
Declining sales meant that the future of the Leicester factory was in doubt by 2000. The business was saved when it was acquired by Northern Foods for £8.4 million in 2001. Nestle relocated production of the fruit-flavoured Polo mints to a factory in the Czech Republic. Northern Foods closed its Croydon confectionery factory, and relocated production of Paynes Poppets and Just Brazils brands to the Leicester site.
Fox’s was subject to a £9.4 million management buyout in 2003. Renamed as the Big Bear Group, the business acquired other brands such as Sugar Puffs cereal.
Big Bear was acquired by Raiso Group of Finland for £80 million in 2011. Raiso was best known for the Benecol health drink.
Fox’s employed around 150 people in 2014. Its leading brands were Glacier Mints, XXX strong mints, Payne’s Poppets and Just Brazils.
Big Bear Confectionery was sold to Valeo Foods in 2017.
The Leicester factory was closed in 2019 and production was transferred to York.
Brand’s A1 became the highest-selling brown sauce in the world. Brand’s Essence of Chicken is a popular health supplement in Asia.
Henderson William Brand
Henderson William Brand (1805 – 1893) was born in Durham, North East England, the son of Thomas Brand, an innkeeper and brewer.
Henderson Brand probably worked in his father’s kitchen, and it is likely that he possessed a precocious culinary talent, as by the age of twelve he was employed in the kitchen of the Prince Regent (1762 – 1830) as “under cook”.
A bottle of A1 sauce, manufactured in Britain for export to Singapore (2018)
The Prince Regent was a confirmed gastronome who had previously employed Marie-Antoine Careme (1784 – 1833), the founder of modern haute cuisine, and one of the greatest chefs of his era. Brand thus had an excellent opportunity to develop his culinary repertoire in one of the greatest kitchens in Europe.
The Prince Regent became King George IV from 1820. Brand was promoted to “Yeoman of the Mouth”, a position akin to that of sous chef, from 1822.
Brand was appointed head chef to Thomas William Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (1754 – 1842) from 1826. Coke was a charismatic man, and regularly held large dinner parties to discuss his agricultural improvements. His magnificently-equipped kitchen at Holkham Hall in Norfolk boasted a fireplace large enough to roast an ox.
Brand published an updated version of Simpson’s Cookery, a popular cookbook, in 1834.
Brand established a factory/shop on 11 Little Stanhope Street in Mayfair, London from 1835. His first product was Essence of Chicken, using a recipe he had allegedly developed for the convalescent king. Effectively a concentrated consomme, it was made by heating chopped meat inside a pot, and then separating the fibre and fat to leave a clear amber “liquid essence”. It was recommended as a substitute for brandy in relieving exhaustion and nervous ailments.
Shortly afterwards, Brand introduced Essence of Beef at the request of a Dr Druitt.
Brand was a skilled chef, but perhaps a lacklustre businessman, and he was declared bankrupt in 1843. Brand & Co was acquired by a Mr Withall.
H.W. Brand
Henderson Brand re-emerged from 1858, trading as “H.W. Brand”. He was appointed Cook and Co-Manager of the Cuisine at the 1862 International Exhibition in London. It was at the Exhibition that he first introduced “Brand’s International Sauce”. It contained vinegar, Eastern spices, and dried fruits including raisins, sultanas, dates, oranges and tomatoes. At the Exhibition it was ranked “A1”, and thus became known by this name.
A1 sauce was soon introduced to the general public, and was an immediate success. It was distributed by the great food wholesalers of the period, including Crosse & Blackwell, J T Morton, E Lazenby & Son, and Batty & Co. By 1865 it was in use by the Royal household, and available at the dining rooms of the House of Lords and House of Commons.
Dence & Mason take over Brand & Co
Thomas Dence (1840 – 1918) acquired Brand & Co from Mr Withall for £5,000 in 1873. Dence was born in London to a Kentish grocer.
Thomas Dence (1840 – 1918) in 1904
Dence was joined in partnership by John James Mason (1833 – 1896), who managed the business. Mason was to prove instrumental in improving the range of foods for convalescents at Brand & Co.
Brand & Co had acquired H.W. Brand, including the rights to A1 sauce, by 1886.
Increasing sales saw a new site established at Vauxhall from 1887. There were two facilities; a meat processing plant and a sauce factory. The meat plant was described as the largest kitchen in Britain. Production was also expanded into soups and meat pastes.
Meanwhile, Henderson William Brand died in 1893 as a sadly forgotten figure who received no newspaper obituaries.
Sales of A1 sauce were such that Brand & Co struggled to meet demand, and so the business never actively sought out export markets. Gilbert Heublein (1849 – 1937), a German-born spirits distributor resident in Connecticut, was impressed by A1 sauce following a visit to England. After much effort he acquired the exclusive United States distribution rights to A1 sauce from 1894.
A Heublein advertisement in 1895 claimed that A1 held over 50 percent of the British bottled sauce market. It was described as a milder version of Worcestershire sauce.
John James Mason died with an estate valued at £151,811 in 1896.
Brand & Co products received royal warrants from Edward VII, the Tsarina of Russia and the Empress of Germany.
Brand & Co had entered into relative decline by the turn of the twentieth century. Its meat extracts had fallen behind competitors such as Bovril, Liebig’s and Armour’s. The business lacked focus, energy and drive.
Brand & Co employed 200 people by 1906. The business processed about six tons of meat every day. Staff were provided with a canteen, smoking room and club room.
Brand & Co is registered as a company
Brand & Co was registered as a private limited company in 1907. The company continued to be managed by the children, and later grandchildren, of Mason and Dence.
Brand & Co struggled to meet increasing consumer demand, and Heublein established a factory to produce A1 sauce in Connecticut from 1916.
Thomas Dence died as a highly wealthy man in 1918, with an estate valued at over £917,672. He was succeeded as chairman of Brand & Co by his son, Alexander Henry Dence (1876 – 1949).
Brand’s Essence of Chicken had been introduced to Singapore by the early 1930s.
A1 sauce had been established as one of the leading condiments in the United States by the 1930s.
Brand’s Essence of Chicken (2015)
Colin Sturtevant Dence (1907 – 1996) had been appointed managing director of Brand & Co by 1939.
The Vauxhall works were hit by a German bomb during the London Blitz in 1940. Four staff members were killed.
Heublein claimed that A1 was the highest-selling thick sauce in the world by 1948.
Brand & Co became a public company from 1949. The business employed 650 people, and the Vauxhall site occupied 2.5 acres. Brand’s Essence and A1 sauce remained the principal products, and exports accounted for 26 percent of production.
Brand & Co received a Royal Warrant to supply A1 sauce to George VI.
A1 sauce sold in Canada in 1956 listed its ingredients as tomato puree, orange marmalade, raisins, onions, garlic, malt vinegar, sugar, salt, tragacanth (an emulsifier and thickening agent), spices and flavourings.
Brand & Co is acquired by Cerebos
Brand & Co was acquired by Cerebos for £4.5 million in 1959. Cerebos produced a range of well-known packaged food brands including Bisto, Saxa salt, Paxo and Scott’s Porage Oats.
Sales of Brand’s Essence of Chicken had been successfully established in Asia by 1961. The product was highly-popular as a health supplement amongst the ethnic Chinese of Malaysia and Singapore. A semi-luxury product, it enjoyed high margins.
Cerebos began to manufacture A1 sauce in Canada from 1962, and in South Africa from 1963.
The Vauxhall factory was closed in 1967, and the valuable site was sold for £900,000. Keybridge House now stands in its place. Brand & Co production was relocated to the Cerebos plant in Greatham, County Durham. Sales of Brand’s tinned soups were growing, and the Greatham site offered ample space for expansion.
Cerebos was acquired by Rank Hovis McDougall (RHM) for £61 million in 1968. That same year, Brand & Co won a Queen’s Award for Industry for export achievement.
An American bottle of A1 sauce (2016)
Southeast Asia was the largest market for Brand & Co by the early 1970s, led by sales of Chicken Essence. Factories were established in Singapore and Malaysia at this time. Significant amounts of A1 sauce were exported to Okinawa in Japan.
After suffering considerable profit losses, production of soups and Brand’s meat pastes were discontinued in 1977. A1 sauce also ceased to be distributed in Britain from around this time.
Production of Brand’s Essence ended in Greatham in 1978-9. The factory machinery was transferred to Indonesia, where the product enjoyed a large market.
84 percent of RHM’s Asian profits came from Brand’s Essence of Chicken by the mid-1980s. Brand’s Essence of Chicken held a two third share of its category in the Asia Pacific region. Over four million bottles of Brand’s Essence of Chicken were sold in Singapore in 1985.
Present day
Brand’s Essence of Chicken remains popular in Asia, with reported sales of around £330 million in 2018. A1 sauce is widely sold across North America, where it is manufactured by Kraft. Premier Foods, the successor to RHM, still export A1 sauce from Britain to Asian and European markets.
A1 sauce recipe divergence
As previously mentioned, the original A1 sauce contained vinegar, Eastern spices, and dried fruits including raisins, sultanas, dates, oranges and tomatoes. The English and American A1 sauces have diverged over the years, and neither remains true to the original recipe. The English version no longer contains oranges, raisins or sultanas, whilst the North American versions have removed the dates.
A1 sauce from Britain contains tomatoes, malt vinegar, spirit vinegar, sugar, dates, salt, carob gum (a thickening agent), ginger, caramel colouring, onion powder, nutmeg, black pepper and cayenne pepper.
A1 sauce in the United States contains tomato puree, spirit vinegar, corn syrup, salt, raisin paste, crushed orange puree, mixed spices, garlic powder, caramel colouring, onion powder, potassium sorbate (a preservative), xanthan gum (a thickening agent) and celery seeds.
A1 sauce for the Canadian market is made from malt vinegar, spirit vinegar, tomato puree, sugar, modified cornstarch (a thickening agent), salt, orange juice concentrate, raisin juice concentrate, black treacle, spices, caramel colouring, citric acid and beet powder.
The leading brown sauce in Britain is HP. The leading brown sauce in the US is A1.
Broadly speaking, A1 is a cross between HP Sauce and Worcestershire Sauce. HP is sharper and thicker, whereas A1 is a little more fruity. You can find the imported American sauce in larger Tesco supermarkets in the UK. It pairs well with beef, especially in casseroles and meatloaf.
A1 is a British invention, introduced by Henderson William Brand in 1862, when he was co-manager of the cuisine at the International Exhibition in Hyde Park. He submitted the sauce before the Royal Commission for use in the Exhibition’s restaurants. The Chief Commissioner reportedly declared the sauce to be “A.1.”
Gilbert Heublein (1849 – 1937), a German-born spirits distributor resident in Connecticut, visited England and encountered A1 sauce. He was impressed, and after much effort he acquired the exclusive US distribution rights to A1 sauce from 1894. He gained the US production rights from 1916.
A1 was phased out in Britain in the 1970s, forced out of a crowded brown sauce market which included HP, Daddies and supermarket own-label nationally, as well as OK, Heinz Ideal, Hammonds and Fletcher’s Tiger Sauce at a regional level.
The brand is currently owned by Kraft in the US. In Britain, the trademark is currently owned by Premier Foods.
How did J Lyons become the largest catering business in the world within 30 years?
J Lyons is established, and the first tea rooms are opened
Barnett Salmon (1829 – 1897) and Isidore Gluckstein (1851 – 1920) established a successful chain of tobacconists.
Montagu Gluckstein (1854 – 1922), a salesman for the firm, lamented the poor state of catering at trade exhibitions. He suggested that the public could be provided with a better offer than beer and sandwiches. Gluckstein and Alfred Salmon partnered with Joseph Lyons, a distant relative, to form J Lyons & Co with a capital of £5,000. J Lyons & Co successfully provided catering for the Newcastle Exhibition of 1887. Contracts for other exhibitions soon followed.
J Lyons & Co was established as a public company with a capital of £120,000 in 1894. The original stakeholders were Montagu Gluckstein, his brother Isidore Gluckstein, brother-in-law Barnett Salmon (maternal grandfather to Nigella Lawson) and Joseph Lyons. Montagu Gluckstein was the de facto chairman of the business.
The first Lyons tea shop opened in September 1894 at 213 Piccadilly. It had 200 seats and a £30,000 lease. After a year the shop had made a profit of £11,400, and the company was able to pay a dividend of ten percent.
The first Lyons Tea Room was sited at 213 Piccadilly
The early tea room exteriors were enticing and extrovert, and the interiors were often glamorous, and intended to evoke the great Victorian exhibitions and Parisian cafes.
The Lyons tea shop girls went on strike in protest against low wages in 1895.
J Lyons establishes Cadby Hall
Cadby Hall was opened in Hammersmith to centrally produce baked goods for the company’s 17 tea shops from 1896. There were 37 tea shops in London by 1900, and expansion had begun in the provinces, with six branches in Manchester, four in Liverpool, and two in both Leeds and Sheffield.
Quality was good and prices were reasonable. The tea rooms were particularly popular throughout the daytime with lower middle class office workers. Cinema and theatre-goers patronised the chain on an evening.
The first Lyons Corner House was opened on Coventry Street in 1909. The Corner Houses were much larger than the tea rooms, with a greater appeal to the middle classes. Live bands and an informal atmosphere helped to cement their popularity. The Coventry Street outlet became the Lyons flagship outlet, and seated 2,000 diners on multiple floors. It was the largest restaurant in the world. A second Corner House, capable of seating 1,200 diners, was opened at the Strand in 1915.
J Lyons was one of the largest caterers in the world by 1911. Half a million meals were served every day through 200 shops and restaurants. The company employed over 12,000 people, including 2,000 people at Cadby Hall. The Cadby Hall works covered ten acres and included sixteen bakehouses, five cold storage rooms and three butchers’ shops.
20,000 people were employed by 1913. J Lyons was the largest baker in London, the largest tea merchant in the world and the largest restaurant operator in the world.
J Lyons dismissed all naturalised German and Austrian employees from its staff in 1914.
J Lyons also expanded into hotels, building the Regent Palace Hotel in London at a cost of £600,000. Opened in 1915, it was the largest hotel in Europe, with 1,028 bedrooms.
Lyons tea was far and away the market leader by 1915: five million packets were sold every week by 160,000 shopkeepers. The company accounted for one in four cups of tea sold in London.
Lyons had a capital of over £2 million by 1917.
Tea, coffee, bread, cakes, ice cream and groceries which had originally been produced for the tea rooms began to be sold directly to the customer, all manufactured at the company’s Hammersmith site.
In 1918 Lyons acquired two leading packet tea companies, positioned second and fourth place in the market respectively: Horniman of London and Black & Green of Manchester. The acquisitions were intended to increase Lyons’s market share in the North of England: Horniman was strong in Yorkshire and G&B strong in the North West.
The company had a share capital of £3.5 million by 1919. By this time Lyons was likely the largest catering company in the British Empire. There were 182 tea shops by 1919, making it easily the largest chain of its kind in the country.
Largest caterer in the world; Greenford plant is established
Cadby Hall was struggling to meet demand by 1919, so Lyons acquired a 30-acre freehold manufacturing site at Greenford, on the outskirts of London. Lyons opened the largest tea packing plant in the world there in 1920. Coffee, cocoa and confectionery production were also transferred to Greenford. It was the sixth largest manufacturing site in Britain.
J Lyons was the largest catering business in the world by 1921. Cadby Hall boasted the largest bakery in the world.
The Trocadero Restaurant was acquired in 1921.
There were over 22,000 employees by 1922. There were 160 Lyons tea shops in London, and a further 50 throughout Britain.
It was calculated that seven million people drank Lyons tea each week in 1922.
Lyons began construction on the Cumberland Hotel at Marble Arch, the largest hotel in Europe, in 1922. It had 1,500 rooms and a Corner House.
The Coventry Street Corner House was extended in 1923 to create what was likely the largest restaurant in the world, with seats for 4,500 diners. It also boasted the largest chocolate shop in the world. It was open 24 hours a day.
An interior view of the Lyons Corner House on Coventry Street in 1942
Ice cream manufacture at Cadby Hall had reached the mass production scale by 1923.
Lyons was the 20th largest company in Britain by 1930, with a market value of £12.1 million and 30,000 employees. It was the largest catering company in the world. Over ten million meals were sold each week. Lyons held 14 percent of the packet tea market, with over 1.25 million packets sold every day. 600,000 Swiss rolls were sold every week.
The teashop chain continued to grow strongly until the onset of the Great Depression. Teashop losses between 1934 and 1938 totalled £374,000. Despite this, due to its manufacturing and hotel concerns, the company remained the largest catering company in the world in the latter half of the 1930s.
Lyons directly employed over 42,000 people by 1937.
Lyons produced 3.5 million gallons of ice cream in 1939.
Lyons had 253 tea rooms by 1939. Due to wartime labour shortages, self service was introduced to the tea rooms from 1941, and rolled-out across the chain from 1945.
