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Grocery
& Confectionery Products 1920-1939
Although limited
production of some grocery and
confectionery items started at Cadby Hall
before 1920 regular production did not
commence until after the new Greenford tea
factory became operational in 1921. This
vast new production facility enabled
management to diversify from tea and
coffee into a range of different grocery
and confectionery products which were
progressively introduced to complement the
expanding growth of packet tea and ground
coffee sales. Management were so proud of
their new factory (others were greatly
impressed) that arrangements were made for
the King and Queen to visit the facilities
in 1923. The precise date when grocery and
confectionery operations started are not
known but a toffee advertisement appeared
in the Lyons Mail journal of August 1922
and it must be assumed that toffee
production commenced sometime before this.
Indeed in the Lyons Mail of 1922 it was
reported: 'Although we are supplying a
great number of outlying districts, there
are still enormous possibilities for the
development of the Lyons' Tea business,
and elaborate plans have been drawn up
whereby no village containing any shop at
all will remain without having Lyons' Tea
and other Lyons' commodities on sale, such
as Custard Powder, Jelly Crystals,
Chocolate, Toffee and Tomato Sauce.' Other
early grocery lines were liquid coffee
essence which sold under the brand name of
Lyons' Coffee & Chicory Essence (later
this was called BEV and it became a best
seller during the war years). Cocoa and
drinking chocolate too were greatly
expanded when the Greenford factory came
on stream. Soon afterwards salad cream was
added under the brand of Lyonaize. Both
the tomato sauce and salad cream products
had strong competition from the
well-established Heinz brands and as a
consequence they were not very successful.
A lemonade alternative called Lyonsade was
also introduced. The custard powder and
jelly crystals were moderately successful
but again were competing with the strong
branded products of Bird's Custard Powder
and Chivers and Hartley's jelly. Dried
milk and cream powders were introduced
under the brand name of Milkal (milk
powder) and Kookal (cream powder). These
products were made at a factory in the
West Country, under the direction of a
former Lyons laboratory chemist, and the
operation was eventually sold to United
Dairies Ltd. Jams, marmalade, mincemeat
and tinned fruit were also added to the
grocery lines but these were made at the
Rannoch Road factory in Fulham. The jam
was made only for the Lyons departments
(jam tart production being a large user)
but the marmalade was sold to retailers in
attractive stone jars. Honey too was
processed and sold in a way that gave it
the appearance of cream. Baked beans in
tomato sauce were also made here but only
for use in the Lyons own catering
establishments; there is no evidence that
baked beans were sold to retailers.
Chocolate and
Confectionery
Chocolate was first
produced at Cadby Hall from 1913 and when
production moved to the new Greenford
factory in 1921 a Chocolate Sales
Department was created to manufacture and
sell a large range of chocolate and
confectionery items. This department grew
in size despite the number of established
chocolate companies then competing for
business. A large part of chocolate
production (slab chocolate) ended up with
other food departments; the ice cream
department for example used it for choc
ices, the bakery used it in the production
of chocolate Swiss Rolls and Choc Rolls
and the Corner Houses used it in the
production of their own specialised hand
made chocolates. By 1939 it had been
necessary to establish four distribution
depots in the London area and twelve
provincial depots from Newcastle in the
north to Plymouth in the south and Ashford
in the east to Swansea in the west. A
specialist sales operation was established
to market the large range of chocolate and
confectionary items. Some of the more
popular chocolates were Dickens Chocolates
and after 1925 Nippy Chocolates.
Confectionery lines included: Wine Gums,
Barley Sugar, Humbugs, Toffee, Jellied
Fruits, Acid Tablets, Bullseyes,
Butterscotch, Almond Rock, Buttered
Brazils, Créme de Menthe, Turkish
Delight, Sugared Almonds, Fudge, Petit
Fours, Biscuits, Slam Bar, Crispy Fingers,
Jakko Bars, Buzz Bars and much more.
Special Christmas fancy boxes were
introduced to meet all pockets from the
extravagant to those of modest means. The
Chocolate & Confectionery departments
continued to thrive right up the Second
World War when raw materials such as sugar
and cocoa beans became increasingly more
difficult to obtain. This severely
restricted the manufacture of all
confectionery items and more effort was
concentrated on the production of food.
After the war the Chocolate &
Confectionery Department attempted to
restart their production but ingredients
were still in short supply, right up to
1954, and with more emphasis being placed
on food the Chocolate and Confectionery
Department suffered from investment.
Nevertheless a number of new confectionery
products emerged (Buzz Bars, Mint Chocs
(introduced in July 1947), Jallolates,
Bullseyes, American Candies and Truffles
to name a few) but the business never
regained its once prominent position.
Compared with the other production
departments of the company the Chocolate
& Confectionary Department was a
Cinderella operation and management came
to the conclusion that to make progress it
would be essential to operate on a much
larger scale. To do this meant either
investing heavily in promotion and
advertising, or acquiring one or more
companies to add to the recently formed
subsidiary Rolls Confectionery Ltd. The
alternative was to withdraw from the
business altogether and this is the
conclusion which management came to.
Accordingly, in May 1960 (effective on 1
July 1960) the chocolate and confectionary
businesses were sold to Callard &
Bowser Ltd, a subsidiary of Arthur
Guinness Sons & Co Ltd. The
manufacture of chocolate couverture, used
in the firms own factories and the Maison
Lyons range of chocolates/confectionery,
continued and remained unchanged. In fact
the Couverture Department boomed in the
late 1960s and to meet demand new
machinery was installed in 1969 which
enabled the factory to more than double
its output. The average output per week
was 65 tons with Lyons Maid, Symbol
Biscuits, Bread Division, Findus Eskimo
Frood, Hotels, Catering Division, Town
& County Catering, Catering Sales and
Bakery all taking couverture product.
In
1986 Lyons Tetley, as Lyons Groceries Ltd
had become, decided to use their salesmen
to sell a chocolate product made by one of
France's major chocolate manufacturers,
Poulain. It was called Super Rocher and
this type of product was known in the
confectionery trade as a 'countline', i.e.
it was sold singly from a carton on the
counter. Foil wrapped and weighing 43g,
each chocolate was priced at 30p. As the
name implies, the Super Rocher was
considerably larger than a conventional
chocolate and was made from a mix of milk
chocolate, hazelnuts and praline;
typically European. Though Super Rocher
had been available in the UK on a limited
basis from 1985, it was not the first, or
only, product of this kind to be sold in
the UK. Others were already established
such as the market leader, Ferrero Rocher
from Italy, with a major share of sales in
the UK estimated to be £40 million.
Other brands included Suchard Bouchee,
Coté d'Or Bouchée, Rowntree
Mackintosh's Savana and Eclipse and Terry
of York's Pyramint. The terms of the
business arrangement with Poulain are not
known but there would not seem to have
been any cost of sales attached with the
deal as salesmen were already employed to
call on confectioners to sell Lyons
Tetley's Cluster Bars (see below)
Coffee
Variants and Grocery Products 1950-1990
Throughout the war years
the liquid coffee essence known as BEV
soared as its use in hospitals, factory
canteens, ARP Stations and the home
continued to grow. One if its benefits was
that no sugar was needed to sweeten the
drink when this commodity was still
rationed; even after 1945 its sales
continued to be buoyant right into the
1950s. Another coffee product was
introduced in the late 1940s called
Quoffy. Its production process
consisted of a blend of ground coffee
which was brewed in a specially designed
plant to produce concentrated liquor many
time stronger than ground coffee. This was
then blended with glucose and sprayed into
a chamber, 40 feet high, where the
moisture was evaporated from the spray by
currents of hot air turning the mixture
into a fine powder, very similar to
instant coffee as we know it today (see
Subsidiary Companies Sol Café and
Sol Tenco). Quoffy, like most soluble
coffees, readily absorbed moisture and as
a consequence it was packed in sealed tins
in an air-conditioned area of the factory.
Quoffy sold well in the late 1940s and
early 1950s and the production process was
running seven days a week in 1951. Another
coffee product called Chico was launched
in 1952. This was similar to Quoffy, made
with chicory, but was less expensive. Much
of the UK generated interest in coffee
drinking was introduced during the Second
World War by American servicemen stationed
in the UK.
Ready Brek
Although the Chocolate and
Confectionary businesses did not perform
well after the war the Tea, Coffee and
Grocery sectors were moderately
successful. It has already been said that the
Second World War caused considerable
disruption to some food processes and none
more so than in the production of ice
cream. During this period the government
imposed severe restrictions on its
production bringing it a virtual
standstill from September 1940 until
December 1944. The lack of milk
solids in ice cream making caused immense
difficulties for manufacturers, who turned
to alternatives such as dextrinised wheat
flour but by 1942 the government
prohibited all ice cream manufacture.
With
the cessation of ice cream manufacture,
the Cadby Hall chemists turned their
attentions to dextrinised wheat flour and
a sugar substitute which they called
Malogel. This continued to be produced for a period after
the war, since bakery management
discovered it had a sweetening and
texturing effect when used in some cake
recipes. When ice cream production resumed
on 8 December 1944 the Malogel process
transferred to Greenford, where it played
an important role in the development of
the successful Ready Brek cereal.
After
the abolition of rationing, the Tea
Division became more autonomous and it
began to experiment with items other than
tea. Walter Pitts, a factory manager in
charge of Malogel, started to experiment
with a liquid made from oat flakes. After
passing this through the roller driers
used in the making of Malogel he found
that the resulting dried mixture could be
reconstituted with milk to form a highly
acceptable porridge substitute.
Large-scale manufacture initially proved
difficult but with Kenneth Gluckstein's
encouragement and
through Lyons' engineering innovations the
problems were eventually overcome. The new
product was launched in 1957 as Ready
Brek, an instant porridge.
Made from rolled oats, oat flour and malt
extract, consumers simply had to add hot
milk (and sugar if desired). At first,
Ready Brek sales were very
promising, but after five years they
reached a plateau. Extensive market
research at this time indicated, to Lyons'
utter surprise, that people who ate
traditional porridge did not buy Ready
Brek at all. Half the
consumption was accounted for by children,
of whom 70 per cent were under the age of
fifteen. The idea that instant porridge
was in itself attractive was therefore
false, and Lyons decided to reposition
Ready Brek to a children's market. Using clever advertising
aimed at mothers and their children, Lyons
succeeded in matching the product with its
market. By 1964 Ready Brek was the largest single contributor to the Tea
Division's profits, apart from tea itself.
Television commercials used the slogan
'Ready Brek - central heating for kids'
and depicted children supposedly glowing
in winter weather after eating the hot
breakfast cereal. By the mid-1970s, having
added chocolate and butterscotch flavours,
Ready Brek was established in third place in the UK cereal
market, taking an even greater share of
business in the autumn and winter months.
A Baby-Brek alternative was added in
October 1973. The new product was the
result of two years extensive research and
was an oat cereal with added vitamins and
protein designed for babies between three
months and two years. Lyons Tetley (as the
company became known in April 1973) drew
upon the latest medical research,
especially into infant obesity, and with
the help of a leading pediatrician,
produced a baby food to ensure a balanced
diet, if used as directed. As well as
explicit, precise directions printed on
the pack, a measuring spoon was included
to help mothers give their babies the
right amount of food.
The
breakfast cereal market was further
exploited by the introduction of '8 till
1' which, after test marketing, was
expanded nationally in April 1972.
Comprising a mixture of oats, wheat,
raisins, hazelnuts and demerara sugar, the
new packet cereal was aimed at the growing
muesli market but cost slightly less than
the competition. As its name suggested, '8
till 1' was marketed as a
health food which prevented 'mid-morning
hunger pangs'. It was introduced to 300
trade guests, including Sir John Cohen
of Tesco, at a
cocktail party on 4 February 1972.
At
conferences in Harrogate and Coventry in
August 1984 Lyons Tetley announced a
re-launch of their Ready Brek cereal with
dramatic presentations of their plans.
While disco lights stabbed the stage and
the sound of pop music filled the hall a
group of young dancers appeared and
performed the latest 'Brek' dance - a
variation on a craze then sweeping the
country called break-dancing. In the past,
Ready Brek advertising was aimed primarily
at mothers, the famous halo-type glow
emphasizing how warming the product was
for their children. The new strategy was
aimed at children themselves and was
intended to show how much fun Ready Brek
was. The re-launch was complimented by a
£2 million TV advertising campaign
featuring a 'Joe Cool'-type figure who ate
Ready Brek and then 'Brek' dances down the
street with youthful jinks. The
reorientation of advertising towards
children was followed in 1983 with a BMX
(bicycle with front wheel small than rear)
promotion further increasing sales by 10
per cent. Packaging was given a new look,
and while still keeping the Ready Brek
glow, the children on the packaging were
dressed in leisure clothes instead of
school uniforms thus a more fun image.
Some of the product descriptions were also
changed, for example Chocolate flavour was
renamed Coco Brek and a new Fruit'n'Nut
Brek was introduce. The new packs went
into the shops in August in time for the
TV advertising in September. Sales showed
an instant success and the Greenford
factory was hard pressed to keep demand
satisfied. Following the re-launch of
Ready Brek at least one, and sometime two,
promotions were aimed at children each
year covering a wide range of interests
and helped to maintain Lyons Tetley's
market position in the cereal market as
number three.
1986
saw the introduction of Ready Eddie. This
followed a survey which indicated that as
many as 30 per of children were found to
have some influence over their mother's
choice of family breakfast cereal. Testing
of a commercial showed a tremendous
response to Ready Eddie; children reacted
positively at every stage, to the
character itself, to the storyline and the
music. Ready Eddie possessed a magical
ability to transform himself into a train,
a puff of smoke or anything he chose, and
in these guises embarked on a series of
adventures designed to enthrall younger
television viewers. In 1987 Lyons
introduced a new range of Ready Brek
cereal aimed at the older child in the
7-10 age range. The new variety was called
Country-Brek and was claimed to have more
taste and texture than the smooth, creamy
Ready Brek. The change in texture was
achieved by the introduction of wheat
bran. The back of the packs featured a
series of three cartoon adventures titled
'Ready Eddie's guide to being totally and
completely brill at ‚'school,
athletics and pop music'. The pack
detailed his phenomenal achievements in
each discipline. On the back of the
Country Brek pack, Ready Eddie
demonstrated his amazing prowess at
welly-throwing. The launch products
contained an in-pack sheet of eight Ready
Eddie transfers. A wall chart could be
obtained by sending away 95p plus two
proofs of purchase. The wall chart
stretched from outer space to the depths
of the oceans and came complete with a
variety of stick-on glow-in-the-dark Ready
Eddies in various guises. In December 1987
a Ready Eddie book was published
containing jokes, puzzles, cartoons etc.
The book 'Fifty Brill Things To Do Before
Breakfast' had thirty large pages in full
colour. Lyons Tetley continued to use
Ready Eddied in various promotional
campaigns right up into the 1990s and he
proved to be one of their most famous and
successful characters. Ready Brek itself
had been a very successful product having
been in continuous production for 33
years. The first sale of Ready Brek is
claimed by Fred Reynolds . It was on New
Year's Day, he remembers, that he and a
colleague took the warming winter cereal
on to the streets of west London for the
first time. He also remembers the first
large-scale marketing support for the new
product ‚ a cereal bowl offer. This
was followed by a Stanley Matthews Soccer
Coaching Series. In June 1990 Lyons Tetley sold the
Ready Brek and cereal business (including
their cereal Cluster Bars made at Wrexham
(see below) to Weetabix. Part of the sale
was an agreement to continue to
manufacture Ready Brek in the Grocery
factory at Greenford for 12 months
thereafter.
Tea Division
Reorganisation
By 1963 the Tea Division's
marketing team (which included the grocery
department) had undergone a reorganisation
which had taken two years to plan and
implement. Two senior brand managers were
appointed each responsible for a Brand
Group; R. C. Davis who joined from J.
Walter Thompson, and B. H. Silverman who
was previously with McCann-Erickson and
Lintas. Later in the year a more radical
change took place when the sales force
converted from a van selling operation to
a sales representative operation who took
orders which were delivered later. The
salesmen were equipped with cars and gave
up their vans. In January 1968 The Tea
Division were integrated with Symbol
Biscuits and the 125 salesmen's journeys
were replaced by 177. Order forms for tea
and biscuits products were merged by
computer, for 32,000 dealers, and eleven
miles of paper, two foot wide, were
printed in time for the new changes. In
March 1969 the brand marketing of Tea
Division was changed again. Instead of two
brand groups under Brand Group Managers,
three Market Planning Managers supervised
the three main sections, or Profit Centres
as Tea Division preferred to call them:
Tea & Coffee, Groceries and Biscuits.
Shortly afterwards the division became
Lyons Groceries Ltd with Frank Merry as
chairman. In 1970 a new administration
block was built at Greenford. Also in 1969
Lyons acquired W. Symington & Co Ltd,
the soup and table jelly manufacturers
(see separate subsidiary entry on this
site). This formed part of the grocery
sector but operated independently under
its own chairman. After the Tetley Tea
Company acquisition in late 1972 Lyons
Groceries Ltd and the Tetley Tea Company
were merged (April 1973) to form Tetley
Tea Ltd.
Pudding & Pastry
Mixes
Pastry mixes were made,
and sold, by Lyons in the 1930s and most
probably before that. A 1938 cake
catalogue lists Puff Pastry and Flaky
Pasty Mix, Pure Beef Suet and Ready Mix
Steamed Puddings. Like many of the cake
items these products were dropped during
the war years and mixes did not re-emerge
until 1957 with Ready Brek. By the mid to
late 1960s there was evidence of a decline
in the United Kingdom packet tea market
and these losses were offset by the
continuing growth of Ready Brek and other
cereal products. Pudding mixes, which had
been re-introduced in about 1964 (the
precise date is not known) also began to
make headway but no investment in these
lines took place until the early 1970s
when there was a National re-launch of the
mixes. One of the main reasons for the
interest being shown by housewives in
instant mixes was the increasing cost of
processed food. Not wanting to give up
their traditional cakes many turned to the
more sophisticated ready mixes. The six
Lyons Tetley products were Short Pastry
Mix in 8 oz. and 12 oz. packs; Sponge
Pudding Mix, Sweetened Suet Mix and
Unsweetened Suet Pudding Mix, in 8 oz.
packs; Batter Mix in 6 oz. packs and
Sponge Cake Mix in 8.5 oz. packs. The
recommended retail prices were 14.5p for
the 12 oz. Short Pastry and 11.5p for the
rest. Stronger colours were used on the
new packaging giving a more distinctive
visual impact. All the ingredients,
including sugar, were included with only
Sponge Cake Mix requiring a fresh egg.
Following the re-introduction of the mixes
a cooking accessory in the form of
chocolate chips was launched under the J.
Lyons & Co name and was called Polka
Dots. It is thought that this line was
marketed by the Groceries Department but
they were probably made by the Chocolate
Department both of which were based at
Greenford. The pure chocolate chips could
be used in the preparation of biscuits
where they required no treatment or they
could melted to a paste and used for
sponge topping or filling or for pouring
over ice cream. Indeed six recipes were
printed on the packaging of Polka Dots
which referred to Lyons Sponge Cake Mix
and Lyons Sponge Pudding Mix. In 1988
Parfait Plain Chocolate was introduced to
complement Polka Dots. These mixes and
accessories were followed in 1976 by White
Bread Mix, Doughnut Mix and Brown Bread
Mix. In April 1977 Tetley launched a
Cheesecake Mix with real fruit topping.
Called Lyons Continental Dessert Cakes the
four flavours joined a fast-growing
cheesecake market. Each pack
(Blackcurrant, Cherry, Apricot and
Redcurrant) was 11 oz. and could make six
generous portions. The retail price was
49p which represented about thirty per
cent of the cost of frozen cheesecakes at
that time; their closest rival in terms of
quality and appearance. Tetley's
management predicted that the market was
worth £3 million a year and by the
spring of 1978 they would have thirty per
cent of the market. In April 1978 two new
flavours were added; Hazelnut & Coffee
Dessert Cake and Mint & Chocolate
Flavour Dessert Cake. Both products, like
their forerunners, were made by adding
milk and butter as necessary and left in
the fridge for an hour before being
served. However, the new products
(Hazelnut & Coffee and Mint &
Chocolate) did appear to sell well because
in March 1981 they were replaced by
Strawberry and Pineapple. By now, 1981,
the cheesecake mix market was worth
£9 million a year, with fruit topped
varieties accounting for 30 per cent of
sales by volume. Lyons Tetley claimed to
be the clear market leader in this sector
with 66 per cent of total volume sales
recorded in October/November 1980. In 1982
a subtle name change was introduced for
the cheesecake mixes. Instead of Lyons
Continental Dessert Cakes, Lyons
Continental Desserts was substituted
because research and experienced showed
that they were being used as desserts
after a meal rather than as cakes. It was
not only a change in name which occurred
at this time, the packs contained 10 per
cent more fruit topping and the weight of
the packs increased to 355g from 330g. The
five flavours were: Cherry, Blackcurrant,
Strawberry, Pineapple and Apricot. In 1983
a promotion offering five weekends for
two, with all expenses paid and £100
in spending money, at luxury hotels in
Europe was introduced. The competition was
linked to the Egon Ronay organisation in
which entrants had to identify four
languages used for the phrase: 'Thank you
for a wonderful meal' and describe what
really makes a good meal; the sold called
eliminator. A meal at the restaurant of
their choice, chosen from the Egon Ronay
TWA Guide to Good Restaurants in Europe,
was part of the prize for the winners, who
spent a weekend at a luxury hotel in the
same city. Entries had to be accompanied
by two proofs of purchase from the
Continental Desserts range. The packs also
featured a 50p off coupon for the Egon
Ronay Lucas Guide for gourmets on a family
budget.
In June 1977 a rather
unusual quick-meal product was launched
called Savoury Sizzles. When cooked these
took on the appearance of large crisps.
The savoury fries were made by adding
water to the mix and spoonfuls were then
added to hot pan oil, for about two
minutes, and were then eaten hot, either
as a snack or an accompaniment to another
dish. Each 80g sachet made about twelve
Savoury Sizzles in either Smokey Bacon or
Cheese & Onion flavours.
New home mixes were
introduced in November 1978; Farmhouse
bran-based bread and Gingerbread Men, the
first time either product has been
available in mix form. At the same time
Lyons Tetley re-launched their White Bread
Mix and Doughnut Mix with new formulation
and packaging for both. Two Brand names,
Baking Day for the bread mixes and Teatime
Treats for the cakes, were chosen to
establish a firm identity for the new
ranges and with them Lyons Tetley's aim to
expand their share of the £16 million
home-baking market. The two Baking Day
bread mixes were aimed at those families
who preferred 'old-fashioned' crusty oven
bread. They were intended to be an
improvement on shop bread not a
substitute. Both bread mixes were produced
in flexible 10 oz. pouches and with the
simple addition of 8.5 fluid ozs. of water
each produced a 14 oz. loaf. Instruction
on the packaging enabled a tin, Coburg or
plaited loaf to be made. The retail price
for both was 19.5p, cheaper than existing
brands. The Gingermen Mix, available in a
7 oz. carton, produced up to 10 individual
biscuits. An easy cut-out on the back of
the packet removed the difficulty of
creating proper shapes. The retail price
was 19p. Pudding mixes were also
re-launched in April/May 1979 under the
name of Complete Mixes. The three mixes -
batter, pastry and suet - had by now
already established a reputation for
quality and convenience but it was felt
time to change the packaging and
introduced some recipes on the packaging.
The Complete Batter Mix was especially
successful especially in the period
leading up the Shrove Tuesday (pancake
day). It was also used for Yorkshire
pudding and Toad-in-the-Hole, traditional
British foods.
From about 1976 all these
mixes had been tested in a special kitchen
at Greenford to ensure that the advice and
claims on the packaging were accurate.
Linda Claridge was responsible for testing
the mix products and had joined Lyons
Tetley after three years training for a
Home Economics Certificate at Harrow
Technical College. The course included
recipe development and food photography.
Her job was to ensure that clear
instructions for making up the contents,
which she did by trying out different
methods, oven temperatures and cooking
times, until the best results were
achieved. Linda also made up recipes which
were printed on the packaging and press
handouts to help stimulate consumer
interest. Another part of her work was to
assist in the development of new products
or extensions to existing ranges. She
worked closely with the Quality Assurance
Laboratory and advised on photography to
ensure an accurate image representation
for the consumer.
Cluster Bars
In 1985 Lyons Tetley
entered the snack confectionery market,
reported to be worth £21 million per
year, with the launch of the Cluster Bars
which, at the time, was said to be the
their biggest product launch since Ready
Brek in 1957. Formulated after intensive
consumer research the ingredients included
fruit, nuts, oats, crisped rice and honey.
This market was said to be one of the
fastest-growing in the grocery trade.
Though cereal bars were initially
conceived as a health-food store line,
just over half of sales at that time were
distributed through the grocery trade with
the remainder being sold in health-food
shops, chemists and
confectioners/tobacconists/newsagents.
Several different makes of cereal bar were
available in the UK at this time but
market research indicated that only one in
three people had ever bought one. Many
consumers found they were too brittle and
difficult to eat and so Lyons Tetley's
introduced both a chewy and crunchy type.
Each of the four bars launched had a
different combination of nuts and fruit
added to the basic oats, rice and cane
sugar base. The two chewy bars were
Apricot & Choc Chip and Apple &
Hazelnut and the crunchy types; Hazelnut
& Raisin and Peanut and Almond.
Cluster was launched in the north of
England under the banner of Appleford's, a
health food company which joined Lyons
Tetley from Vine Products, part of the
Allied-Lyons wines, spirits and soft
drinks division. In charge of the product
was Chris Croucher, National Account
Manager, Confectionery. 'Clusters' were
made in the Wrexham factory and by the
spring of 1986 the demand for Cluster Bars
had so increased that the Wrexham factory
had to upgrade its packing facilities from
a hand operation to one controlled by
machine. The installation of the new line
coincided with the launch of a new variety
Cluster Bar; Chewy Milk Chocolate Chip and
Raisin. The production process for Cluster
Bars was similar for all varieties. The
mix was cooked in a machine known as an
evaporator, it was next rolled out into a
continuous bar about three feet wide and
was then transported by a conveyor belt
through a cooling tunnel at the start of
which chocolate chips were sprinkled on
(if that was required). Once clear of the
tunnel the slab was guillotined into 30g
bars and each bar passed through a metal
detector. The bars then went through the
first wrap machine which sealed them in
their distinctive wrappers. Each wrapper
was stamped with the date and exact time -
to the minute - it was produced. The bars
then passed through a check-weigher before
going to either multipack or carton
machines. The Wrexham factory operated 24
hours a day with three, eight-hour shifts
of nineteen staff. A total of eighty
people in the factory, mainly on
production.
Chocolate Biscuits
In the autumn of 1988
Lyons Tetley offered chocolate biscuits as
a promotion for Tetley Teabags. The
take-up was enormous and even after the
promotion ended members of the public
continued to write in asking where they
could be obtained. As a result Lyons
Tetley and Symbol Biscuits, who made the
biscuits at their Blackpool factory, got
together to market them jointly under the
Tetley Tea Folk brand. Symbol continued to
make and pack the biscuits and distributed
them to all sectors of the grocery trade.
Made of rolled oats and covered in milk
chocolate the Tetley Tea Folk biscuits
were packed in fives and sold for 41p.
They had the benefit of being sold under a
strong brand name.
The Lyons Tetley grocery
business was sold to Weetabix in 1990.
See Also: Subsidiary
Companies (DCA, Margetts Preserves Ltd,
Sol Café, Sol Tenco, Symbol
Biscuits Ltd) and Products Index (Group 4
& 5).
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