CANNED FOODS

Prior to the development of refrigeration canning was a means of preserving food.

Batchelor's

Batcherlor s was founded in Sheffield as pea canning business. In 1945 it was acquired by Unilever. Two years later Poulton & Noel, which was based in Southall. In 1951 chicken noodle became Batchelor's first packet soup. In 1972 its Cup-a-Soup brand was launched.

See Also: FOOD BRANDS Unilever

Crosse & Blackwell

In 1900s Crosse & Blackwell was a leading canner of fish.

Like a number of other food manufacturers, Crosse & Blackwell, after having enjoyed a prosperous First World War, found the 1920s to be difficult. The Crosse & Blackwell factory at the northern end of Charing Cross Road was sold in 1921. The previous year a 120-acre site had been acquired in Branston, Staffordshire. Upon this a state-of-the-art factory was being built. However, because it was consumed disproportionately in London and because much the production was exported, productions costs proved to be higher than they had been in the metropolis when transportation was factored in. The factory was closed in 1925 and the site sold subsequently. Manufacturing capacity was boosted at the company's Bermondsey and Silvertown facilities.

The company's problems were compounded by the fact that the merger the Lazenby acquisition was poorly managed so that duplications and in efficiencies were created that its management failed to deal with.

During the Blitz the Silvertown factory was destroyed. It was rebuilt. Preserves production was transferred to Dundee. The plant then just made Crosse & Blackwell-branded foods.

Location: 157 Charing Cross Road, W1T 7RJ (blue, red)

Crimscott Street, SE1 3BH. Lazenby's factory.

Tay Wharf, Silvertown, E16 2EZ. Keiller's factory.

Donkin

In 1803 Bryan Donkin established a business that made Fourdrinier papermaking machines. In 1812 he opened the first commercial canning factory in Bermondsey.

Location: 55a Southwark Park Road (formerly Blue Anchor Road), SE16 3TZ

Maconochie Brothers

The brothers James Maconochie (1850-1895) and Archibald Maconochie (1855-1926) were fishmongers in Lowestoft. In 1873 they set up a canning business. Four years later they opened a second facility in Aberdeen. In 1897 the firm opened a factory of Westferry Road, Millwall. Its head office was moved there. Three years the business became a limited company. It became the leading supplier of canned goods to the Army. In 1903 the Pan Yan Pickle trademark was registered.

Maconochie Brothers drifted following the death of Archibald. In 1930 the Lowestoft fish canning factory was sold to the Co-operative Wholesale Society. The Millwall facility was destroyed by German aerial bombing in 1940. Its replacement was in Derbyshire. In 1948 the company became a public company. In 1953 Pan Yan was still the best-selling sweet pickle in Britain.

Maconochie Brothers's financial health was undermined by variable herring yields. In 1958 the company was acquired by H.S. Whiteside, which owned the Sun-Pat peanut butter brand. However, Maconochie was the victim of fraud by members of its own management. It was placed in receivership in 1965. Two years later it was bought by Rowntree Mackintosh. Nestle bought Rowntree Mackintosh in 1987. It already owned the Crosse & Blackwell pickle brand. Pin Yan was allowed to decline. In 2000 it was discontinued. Four years later the recipe for it was destroyed in a fire.

John Moir & Son

John Moir (1766-1833) was a provisions merchant in Aberdeen. In the early 1810s he became the first person to mass produce tinned fish. He sold it and other types of food into the export market. During the Crimean War both the British Army and the French Army bought his goods. In 1860 the firm started making marmalade for the domestic market. John Moir Clark (1836-1896) focused the business on London. He opened a factory at Glasshouse Fields, Brook Street. By the late 1870s its head office was on Leadenhall Street. In 1881 John Moir & Son became a limited company. An expansion into the United States proved to be a liability. In 1893 Clark went bankrupt in his private capacity. The company carried on.

Robert Falcon Scott took Moir tinned goods on his final expedition to Antarctica.

John Moir & Son had a highly profitable First World War. Thereafter, it went into a prolonged, steady decline. In 1950 it entered voluntary liquidation.

Location: 148 Leadenhall Street, EC3V 4QT (orange, blue)

9-10 Great Tower Street, EC3R 5AA. The head office from 1898. (purple, yellow)

C. & E. Morton

In 1849 John Morton (1830-1897), a Londoner, established a business in Aberdeen that supplied ships with preserved foods. Within a couple of years he was doing the same in London. Most of the goods that it tinned were exported. A head office was opened on Leadenhall Street. In 1872 the firm established a factory in Millwall. Many members of the initial workforce were East Coast Scots. In 1897 Morton's sons Charles Morton (1861-1944) and Edward Morton (1866-1960)

C. & E. Morton became a registered company in 1912. In 1923 the business started selling its wares in the U.K.. In 1945 Beechams bought the company. Production was concentrated upon the company's Lowestoft plant, which had been canning herring and vegetables. In early 1980s the Morton brand suffered from the growth of supermarket own-labels. In 1986 Morton Brands was sold. Two years later the Lowestoft factory was sold.

¹. In 1885 Morton tinsmiths established the soccer side Millwall F.C.

David Backhouse 2024