Andrew Buchanan
From ‘Captains of Industry’ by William S. Murphy. Published 1901.
MR. ANDREW BUCHANAN, OF MESSRS. JOHN BUCHANAN 8, BROTHERS, LIMITED, CONFECTIONERS, GLASGOW.
CONFECTIONERY is seldom associated with the serious business of life in common thought. It comes to us in the happy days of childhood, the high-days and holidays of youth, the merry party, the festive hour, moments of abandon, as the rough old ballad says:—
"Oor Jock's clean ower the lugs in love,
An' wha is't wi' but Jenny;
He took her tae the gundy shop
And wared on her a penny."
Only when we have victoriously vanquished the common cares of life and feel free to enjoy the fleeting pleasure of the moment do we listen to the confectioner and taste his tempting wares. It is a remarkable and happy sign of the times, therefore, that the consumption of confectionery has attained such proportions as to rank its manufacture among the great industries of the country. Not very long ago confectionery was regarded as an art to be privately practised, a branch of cookery, a mere adjunct of luxury. But in these days the manufacture of confections is an industry employing thousands of workers in factories, vieing both in size and equipment with the largest cotton mills and engineering shops. We are not called upon to inquire into the causes of this remarkable advance. Probably among the chief causes are the cheapening of sugar, the general diffusion of wealth and heightening of ideals of comfort among the masses, and the energy, enterprise, and ability displayed by confectioners themselves.
One fact is worthy of note in this connection, namely, that all the great manufacturers of confectionery have been men of the highest character and pronounced religious views. Cadbury, Fry, and Rowantree are Quakers, and others whom it would be invidious to name are equally worthy and benevolent. We venture to believe that the high and serious character of its leaders has helped greatly 10 put an industry hitherto considered trifling and irregular into the front of the industrial army.
The pious founders whose names we have cited were . . . . . . . . .
Alexander's talent lay in book-keeping and counting-house work; while Andrew combined practical with keen business sagacity. Each kept to his own department, and all laboured unsparingly, their average working hours surpassing the powers of ordinary men to endure. Within a few years the firm removed their factory to Holmhead Street, and fitted it up in what was then the newest style. In the planning of these works the firm's sagacity seems to have been stultified by exceeding modesty; for the business quickly outgrew the new premises to such an extent that the machinery had to be kept going day and night.
In 1869 the old Phoenix Foundry, near Cowcaddens, the foundry in which many British cannon were made in the days before the Crimean war, had been abandoned, and was for sale. It was a large property in a populous centre, and bidders were timid. The Messrs. Buchanan, however, spurred on by business necessity, ventured to offer, and obtained the property at the upset price. Building was forthwith begun, and in 1870 the firm entered their present premises.
The progress of a confectionery manufacturing business is difficult to present in figures. Labour-saving machinery, by increasing the productiveness of each employee, lessens the number of workers proportionately to the output. The prices of confections decreased three-fold during the last twenty years of the nineteenth century. By artistic combinations of colour and material confectioners have made weight of their products no criterion of value. In the early years of business the Messrs. Buchanan produced on the average about 60 cwt. per week.
In 1900 the average weekly output was 2000 cwt. In Cadogan Street they employed 50 persons, all working by hand. The number of their employees is now close on a thousand, machinery the most elaborate and productive notwithstanding. As may be expected in a factory situated in the very heart of Glasgow, where building ground is so valuable, the premises of John Buchanan & Brothers rise six storeys above the basement. This height, however, has not saved them from the necessity of extension. Bit by bit the firm has gradually acquired nearly the whole wide block hounded by Stewart Street, Ann Street, and Maitland Street, the greater part of which is already occupied by their works.
On the ground floor are the counting-house, essence stores, stables, van-sheds, engine room, furnaces, and warehouse. Above are the despatch departments on one side, and on the other the vacuum pans boiling plant, and other heavy machinery requiring strong driving power. To describe all the different departments the various processes would require technical skill which we cannot profess, and special interest on the part of our readers which it would be foolish to assume.
Suffice it to say that a confectionery work seems quite a fairyland of manufacture, a pantomime of machinery. Here the jacketed pans revolve in rows and oscillate, nod and gape, there the vacuum pans stand stiff and straight with a strangely lifelike aspect; lozenge machines, resembling little web-printing presses, send out batch after batch of "conversations;" in flat white moulds the multi-coloured syrups form into shapely jujubes; fondants of every shape and hue pile up in heaps beside their makers; flowers and fruits grow under artistic hands. Looked into closer, it is very simple, but the processes are so rapid and the effects so pretty you prefer to wonder. Then what quantities are there of things served out to consumers by the ounce or by the pound; hundredweights of chocolate, tons of sweets, jelly-cans by the million. Nor does quantity stale appreciation, for every single sweet or preserve is as dainty as if manufactured by itself. The employees, who are mostly girls and women, go cheerily about their labours, trig and cleanly, evidently on the friendliest terms with their tasks.
We understand that the workers not only receive the highest rate of wages paid for the same quality of labour, but also receive a bonus on the profits of the year's work. Nor can the Messrs. Buchanan be said to be untouched by the best sentiment of the time in other respects, for they seek to encourage hand labour of an artistic kind, cultivating a special trade in the highest class of confections with that aim in view. To further that end, instead of setting up a working exhibit in the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1901, Messrs. Buchanan took a space in the Industrial Hall, and there showed specimens of the confectioner's art of an artistic quality that surprised even the professional experts and delighted the general public.
The senior partner of Messrs. John Buchanan & Brothers is, as we have said, Mr. Andrew Buchanan, whose life-story is intertwined with the history of the firm. His life and character are identified with the business he has helped to build up. Wealth and success have not spoilt the simplicity of his nature; he is as ready to wield a hammer, mend a not or even use a broom as the poorest boy in his employment, when no other hand is available, esteeming no useful labour beneath the dignity of a man. Dignified and self-respecting, shrewd and keen, he has the generous temper that unbends at the right moment and forgives weakness.
Mr. Buchanan has given to his business what others may have afforded to public service; his outlook may not be of the widest, and candour must allow that he has chosen a narrower path of life than many another man less happily circumstanced. But his work is genuine of its kind, and he is generously appreciative of the labours of others in other fields. Though long a resident in the city, Mr. Buchanan has not lost his love for the country and the recreations of river, field, and wood. He likes a fishing excursion, when the salmon are in season, and rents the mansion-house of Cawdor, partly for the sake of the fine shooting which the estate affords. A patron of art, and a frequent visitor to the beautiful health resorts of his native country and England, Mr. Buchanan uses the world with due appreciation of the rational delights it affords — and always, be it added, with generous heart toward the less fortunate, and humble thankfulness to the great Giver of all good.