Category Archives: Food

Retail, Spreads & sauces

Cash cow: Maypole Dairy

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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.

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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.

southall
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.

maypoleinterior
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

Food, Retail

Meat the House of Vestey

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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
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.

6739_DEWHURST-BUTCHER

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.

Drink, Food, Hospitality, Tea

Lyons led by donkeys: the fall of a British empire (1945 – present)

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Part I, about the early history of J Lyons, can be found here.

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 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.

Confectionery

Life Saver: James Pascall

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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.

 

Confectionery

Which mint came first: Polo or Life Savers?

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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.

wint_o_green_roll

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.

An advert for Polo mints

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.

Food

Big cheese: Kraft in the UK

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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.

Confectionery, Spreads & sauces

Sticky situation: James Keiller & Son

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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.

A modern day jar of Keiller orange marmalade (for export only!)
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.
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 had been overtaken by Robertson’s and Frank Cooper’s in marmalade, and by Hartley’s, Chivers and Wilkin in jams by the 1970s.

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.

Spreads & sauces

Spread the wealth: a history of Hartley’s jam

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This is the story of how Hartley’s became the largest jam manufacturer in the world. It remains the leading brand of jam in Britain.

William Hartley establishes the business
William Pickles Hartley (1846 – 1922) was born in Colne, Lancashire, the only surviving son of a locksmith. He left school aged fourteen, and joined his mother’s modest grocery venture. Within two years he was running the business, which soon grew to become one of the largest wholesale grocers in Lancashire.

Due to the expense of strawberries jams in the early days were almost exclusively made of gooseberry, damson or a mixture of raspberry and gooseberry. Sales were almost entirely confined to the poorer classes, as the wealthy either made their own, or suspicious of the often adulterated products on the market, went without.

William Pickles Hartley (1846 – 1922)
William Pickles Hartley (1846 – 1922)

Hartley was an industrious man with a dedication to quality. Problems with suppliers led him to decide to produce his own jam. Full scale production began in 1871, with a staff of around twelve. The product was pure, containing nothing more than fruit and sugar. In the first year his output was 100 tons, sold to local grocers. Its high quality and keen pricing made it popular as an affordable substitute for butter.

Hartley lacked sufficient capital to develop both the grocery and the jam business: he determined that he had to give one up. Following the abolition of sugar duty in 1874, Hartley sold the grocery business and established a small jam factory in Bootle, Lancashire. Meanwhile, cheap grain imports saw vast amounts of agricultural land in Britain turned over to soft fruit production, which lowered crop prices. Hartley employed 150 people by 1881.

In 1883 Hartley produced 500 tons of damson jam, 400 tons of blackcurrant, 300 tons of gooseberry, 300 tons of raspberry, 200 tons of strawberry and 100 tons of blackberry. His principal markets were in Lancashire and Yorkshire.

Hartley enters into mass production at Aintree
Hartley acquired a 40 acre site at Aintree, Liverpool in 1886, and established a new factory. The site was chosen for its strong railway links. The works alone covered four acres and employed 1,420 people during peak times. The new factory was capable of producing 100 tons of preserves each day in the busy season of July and August. Marmalades and candied peel were produced throughout the rest of the year.

Hartley owned some fruit farms, and enjoyed good relations with contracted independent farmers. Fruit would be boiled into jam within a day of being picked. Exclusively English fruit was used in all jam production. Blackcurrants were sourced mainly from Cambridgeshire, and raspberries and strawberries came mainly from Kent and Somerset.

Hartley was a Primitive Methodist, and applied his Christian principles to business. Inspired by Titus Salt (1804 – 1876), Hartley built a model village across 50 acres for his workers. Like many other nonconformist denomination businessmen of the period, he introduced a profit-sharing scheme for his workforce. Wages were above average and free medical care was provided.

Hartley possibly suffered from what we would now classify as bipolar disorder. His biographer stated:

He was subject to great fluctuations of mood and these tended to vary with his health. At times nothing could thwart his amazing energy or daunt his radiant optimism. But when his nerves were badly worn or he was visited with the severe oppression on the top of his head, to which his friends at one period of his life so often heard him allude, this buoyancy gave way to depression and weariness.

Hartley opens a second factory at Bermondsey
Hartley’s was probably the leading jam in the North of England and the Midlands by the turn of the century. A factory was opened in Bermondsey, the centre for the fruit preserving trade, in order to cater for the London market, in 1901. The factory employed 700 people, processed 400 tons of fruit each week and produced ten million jars of preserves a year. The site covered two acres.

A view of the Hartley's site in Bermondsey
A view of the Hartley’s site in Bermondsey (author’s own work)

Hartley produced 14,500 tons of jam in 1907. Aintree employed between 600 and 2,000 people, depending on the season.

Hartley was the largest jam manufacturer in the world by 1912. The business was converted into a limited liability company in 1919.

Hartley donated generously to good causes. Towards the end of his life he gave away one third of his income. At the time of his death in 1922 he possessed an estate valued at £1 million.

The company continued to expand until 1925 when the death of the founder, increased competition and the Great Depression all took its toll. Diversification into fruit and vegetable canning from 1933 saw the company re-enter into growth.

William P Hartley is registered as a public company
William P Hartley Ltd become a public company with a capital of £1 million in 1936. The Aintree factory and warehouses covered eight acres. Jam manufacture was highly seasonal, but during peak periods upwards of 3,000 people were employed.

Black cherry jam was introduced during the Second World War, in response to demand from American servicemen.

In 1949 the factories employed 2,000 people, rising to 3,000 during the fruit season. During the pea season, 250,000 cans were processed every day.

The Aintree factory was largely rebuilt in 1951.

William P Hartley Ltd employed a workforce of 6,000 across four factories in England by 1956.

Hartley’s is acquired by Schweppes
William P Hartley Ltd was one of the largest canning and preserves companies in Britain when it was acquired by Schweppes, best known for soft drinks, for over £2 million in 1959. Company assets were valued at £1.1 million. Months earlier Schweppes had acquired Chivers, another leading preserve manufacturer. The combine, with a 25 percent market share in jam, displaced Robertson as the market leader in preserves in Britain.

Schweppes introduced Hartley’s New Jam from 1963. It utilised the new vacuum boiling process, which it was claimed improved product freshness against open vat boiling. The introduction of pineapple jam was to prove a great success, and soon accounted for nine percent of all New Jam sales.

Schweppes formed Hartley-Chivers Ltd in 1964. The manufacture of preserves was discontinued at Aintree in the mid-1960s, and production was relocated to the Chivers factory at Histon, Cambridgeshire, which was doubled in size.

The Schweppes takeover was to prove unsuccessful. Schweppes opened satellite depots, but extra handling of the jam resulted in decreased margins on what was already a low-profit product. Schweppes also ceased all own-label and bulk jam production, which lowered revenue.

Robertson had recaptured its lead in jam by 1969, with over a third of the market, while Schweppes held 15 to 20 percent. Supermarket own-label came third, followed by more expensive brands such as Wilkin and Frank Cooper.

Robertson held 26 percent of the jam market in 1971, while Hartley held 16 percent. Hartley tended to emphasise quality, while Robertson focused on value.

The Bermondsey factory was closed in 1975.

Hartleys_Best_Strawberry_Jam_340__82463

Premier Foods and Hain Celestial
Hartley Chivers became part of Premier Foods from 1981, following a management buyout. It was the largest manufacturer of preserves in Europe, and possibly the world. The Histon factory was fully modernised and, thanks to pulp imports from overseas, was able to produce year round.

Schweppes continued to produce soft drinks at the ten acre Aintree premises until its closure in 1984. The site was sold the following year to Liverpool County Council for £750,000.

Hartley Chivers claimed 30 percent of the British jam market in 1985, and produced 75 million jars a year, and 90 million cans of fruit and vegetables. It also held a 50 percent share of supermarket own-label preserve production.

The Chivers brand was discontinued from 2004, with all Chivers products rebranded as Hartley’s.

Hartley’s Best overtook Robertson’s jam in sales from 2005, as The Grocer reported that consumers were prepared to pay more for quality.

Premier Foods acquired Rank Hovis McDougall, which owned Robertson’s, in 2007. The acquisition gave Premier Foods a 35 percent share of the jam market. Robertson’s jam was phased out in favour of the Hartley’s brand from 2009. Robertson’s would continue as a mincemeat and marmalade brand.

The sweet spreads business of Premier Foods was sold to Hain Celestial for £200 million in 2012. The sale included the Hartley’s, Robertson’s, Frank Cooper’s and Rose’s preserves brands, as well as Gale’s honey and Sunpat peanut butter.

Spreads & sauces

Fishy tales: E Lazenby & Son

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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.

The Bermondsey factory in 2017. Photo credit.

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.
Spreads & sauces

Feast your eyes: Batty & Co of London

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Batty & Co of London was a pickle and sauce manufacturer. The business was acquired by Heinz in 1905 as part of their entry into the British market.

George Batty (1800 – 1874) was born in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, to a family with South Yorkshire roots. He moved to London and founded Batty & Co in 1824. Four years later he married Eliza Feast from Cheshunt, Herts.

Batty had acquired the recipes of the late Dr William Kitchiner (1775 – 1827), an eccentric but popular celebrity chef of the era, by 1834. Batty & Co produced Dr Kitchiner branded sauces, such as Salad Cream.

Batty formed a partnership with Robert Feast of Waltham Abbey, Essex, and they traded as Batty & Feast from 1836. Feast was almost certainly a relation to Batty through marriage. The merger combined Batty’s factory at 101-2 Leadenhall Street with Feast’s premises at 15-16 Finsbury Pavement, which were used as offices.

Batty & Feast employed 86 people by 1851. The firm wasn’t much smaller than Crosse & Blackwell, which employed 126 people.

Batty & Feast first introduced Nabob sauce at the Great Exhibition of 1851. The firm won the only prize medal for pickles at the exhibition. It was reported in the press that Queen Victoria showed a great interest in the Batty & Feast stand.

The partnership was dissolved by mutual consent in 1852, with George Batty taking on all liabilities. Feast retained the Finsbury offices, and Batty relocated his offices to Leadenhall Street. Batty decided to concentrate on the export trade, particularly Australia.

An independent examination in 1855 reported that Batty & Co “India Soy” comprised of “little more than treacle strongly flavoured with salt”. This was common practice at the time, but undoubtedly the company did not enjoy as high a reputation as Crosse & Blackwell. The company was fined five shillings plus costs for selling short measures of its products in 1867.

Batty & Co employed 110 people by 1861. The company produced around 80 tons of isinglass, made from fish and used for clarifying beer, in 1862.

Batty & Co employed between 50 and 100 men in 1871, the exact figure varying with the season. The company’s best known products, Nabob Pickle and Nabob Sauce, began to be advertised from the 1870s. The company claimed to have been the first to bottle calves feet in jelly, a popular product at the time.

Batty & Co declared bankruptcy in August 1874, with £34,000 in liabilities (£3.5 million in 2015). The company’s assets were said to be of “very considerable value” in The Times. George Batty died in October the same year.

The business was acquired by Slee, Slee & Co, vinegar manufacturers of Southwark, and Batty products remained in production.

In the late nineteenth century Batty & Co built a factory in Peckham. It had 38,000 sq ft of covered space and 33,750 sq ft of open space. The premises included a number of railway arches, 17 for storage and two for processing.

George Batty’s son established a similar business, Henry Batty & Co, in Edinburgh in 1884, which survived until 1926.

Batty & Co was incorporated as a limited company in 1901. The company was acquired by H J Heinz, who wanted a British manufacturing base, in 1905. The Batty brand was phased out in 1910 and its products were rebranded under the Heinz label. The Batty brand survived for a further few years in export markets.