Grace's Guide To British Industrial History

Registered UK Charity (No. 115342)

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 162,257 pages of information and 244,499 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 147,919 pages of information and 233,587 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Mr Kipling

From Graces Guide

Mr Kipling is a brand of cakes, pies and baked goods widely marketed in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

1967 At a time when cakes were more often bought from local bakers, the Rank Hovis McDougall company introduced cakes of a local baker's standard to supermarkets under the brand name Mr Kipling,

Mr Kiplings Cakes were made by the subsidiary known as Manor Bakeries Ltd. which also made products under the Lyon's and Cadbury names. The Cadbury cakes were produced under licence from Cadbury Schweppes plc the owners of the brand name.

The Mr Kipling brand name came from an Irish baker, Mr. Seamus Kipling who lived in London.

The company says, "Mr Kipling exists in the hearts and minds of Manor Bakeries' employees and all cake lovers, but not in fact as a real person. He was created over 30 years ago to represent the exceedingly good cakes the company was producing and now encapsulates everything the brand stands for, and personifies what is good about the company - its vision, its values and insistence on quality."

1976 With advertising featuring the phrase "exceedingly good cakes", the company had become the brand leader in the UK by 1976, a position it still holds 31 years later. Since then, the company has also marketed varieties of single-serving and individually wrapped cakes.

In the early 2000s Mr Kipling moved away from its traditional branding, and for about 1 year used a modern logo consisting of a red oval with "Mr Kipling" in a new font inside the oval. The slogan was modified to simply "Exceedingly Good" and the descriptions of cakes on the back of the packaging was altered so that it no longer appeared as if it were written by Mr Kipling.

However around 2005 the company briefly experimented with another new logo, before deciding to whole-heartedly return to its roots. The current logo is very closely based on the original one. The slogan "Exceedingly Good Cakes" is now back in use, and the write-ups on the back of their packaging once again is written in the person of Mr Kipling.

2007 Premier Foods acquired the trademark as part of its acquisition of Ranks Hovis McDougall.

See Also

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  • [1] RHM website
  • [2] Mr Kipling website

Sources of Information