J. S. Fry and Sons
of 25 Union Street, Bristol , a chocolate company
The chocolate business was established in 1728.
1761 Joseph Fry and John Vaughan purchased the chocolate business of Walter Churchman. Company renamed Fry, Vaughan and Co.
1777 Chocolate works moved from Newgate Street to Union Street, Bristol.
1787 Joseph Fry died. Firm was renamed Anna Fry and Son.
1795 Joseph Storrs Fry assumed control. He patented a method of grinding cocoa beans using a Watt steam engine. As a result factory techniques were introduced into the cocoa business.
1803 Anna Fry died and Joseph Storrs Fry went into partnership with a Dr. Hunt. The business was renamed Fry and Hunt.
1822 Dr. Hunt retired, Joseph Storrs Fry took his sons on as partners and the firm was renamed J. S. Fry and Sons. The company became the largest commercial producer of chocolate in Britain.
1835 Joseph Storrs Fry died and his sons took full control of the company.
1847 The Fry's chocolate factory, located in Keynsham, near Bristol, moulded the first ever chocolate bar suitable for widespread consumption.
1851 Listed at 12 Union Street, Bristol as 'Fry, J. S. and Sons, chocolate and cocoa manufacturers' [1]
1855 Exhibited chocolate and cocoa at the 1855 Paris Exhibition
1866 The firm began producing the Fry's Chocolate Cream bar
Over 220 products were introduced in the following decades, including production of the first chocolate Easter egg in UK in 1873.
But the company gradually lost its dominant share of the market to the more aggressively marketed products of the rival Quaker establishments of Rowntree and of Cadbury.
1885 The company registered a trademark for Fry's Pure Concentrated Soluble Cocoa.
1886 Joseph Storrs Fry (1826-1913) took over as head of the firm
1896 The company was registered on 1 January, to acquire the business of chocolate and cocoa manufacturers of the firm of the same name. [2] The firm became a registered private company. It was run by the Fry family, with Joseph Storrs Fry, grandson of the first Joseph Storrs Fry, as the chairman.
Near the start of World War I the company was the largest employer in Bristol.
1913 Joseph Storrs Fry (1826-1913), grandson of the first J. S. Fry, died
1914 Fry's Turkish Delight (or Fry's Turkish bar) introduced.
1918 Formation of a holding company. 'Arrangements have been made for uniting the business interests of Cadbury Brothers, Limited), Bournville, and J. S. Fry and Son, (Limited), Bristol, by the formation of a Holding Company. The two companies, Cadbury Brothers (Limited) and J. S. Fry and Sons (Limited), will continue to carry on business in their own names and under their own management, and the identity and goodwill of each company, as they now exist, will be maintained. The preference shares and other securities of the two companies, which are quoted on the Birmingham and Bristol Stock Exchanges, will not be disturbed, as the Holding Company will acquire only the ordinary shares of Cadbury Brothers (Limited) and the deferred ordinary shares of J. S. Fry and Sons (Limited), all of which are held privately. The management of Bournville will continue under the chairmanship of Mr. George Cadbury, and its present directors. The works were moved from Bridge Street, Birmingham, to Bournville in 1879. Cocoa and chocolate were first made at Bridge Street in 1848, when the firm had less than a dozen employees. The number of employees, men and women, at Bournville had before the war grown to nearly 7,000, whom over 2,000 have joined H.M. Services. Messrs. Fry’s s the oldest cocoa and chocolate business in the Kingdom. It has been in existence nearly two centuries, having been established at Bristol in 1728.'[3]
1919 A new joint company was established, named British Cocoa and Chocolate Company to hold both Cadburys and Frys.
1923 The Fry's division was moved to Somerdale.
1935 The directors of British Cocoa and Chocolate Co decided there should be a complete reorganisation of J S Fry and Sons, which would involve liquidation of the company and repayment of the preference and preferred ordinary shares and transfer of the business to a new company; the directors of Frys accepted the need for the proposed measures.[4]
Introduced the Crunchie bar to the UK.
1967 The Restrictive Practices Court abolished resale price fixing in chocolate and confectionery[5]
1968 The name of British Cocoa and Chocolate Co was changed to Cadbury Group
After 1981 the name Fry's was no longer in use at Somerdale, but the factory is still a major producer of Cadbury's products.
2008 Chocolate produced at the factory leaves there at the rate of 50,000 tonnes per year. [6]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ 1856 Post Office Directory of Gloucestershire, Bath and Bristol
- ↑ The Stock Exchange Year Book 1908
- ↑ Birmingham Daily Post - Saturday 19 October 1918
- ↑ The Times Nov. 20, 1935
- ↑ The Times July 26, 1967
- ↑ Trademarked. A History of Well-Known Brands - from Aertex to Wright's Coal Tar by David Newton. Pub: Sutton Publishing 2008 ISBN 978-0-7509-4590-5