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W. Symington & Co, famous for its
dehydrated soups, gravy, custard powder
and other foods, was acquired by J. Lyons
& Co. in 1969. The forerunner of this
company traces its origins to 1827 when it
first started in Market Harborough,
Leicestershire, England.
The
origins of the company are believed to
have been started by a young Scot, William
Symington. He was a native of Sanquhar,
Dumfrieshire, a village 25 miles west of
Symington, Lanarkshire - the original home
of the family. William Symington is said
to have rented a small warehouse in Adam
& Eve Street, Market Harborough and
began selling tea and groceries in 1827.
By 1840 he was classified as a wholesale
grocer and took a shop in Church Street.
In 1850 he expanded again and bought the
first piece of land with some buildings on
which the 1969 property stood when Lyons
acquired it. In those early years William
Symington perfected and patented a process
for the preparation of pea flour. Large
quantities of it were supplied to the
troops in the Crimea. Other patents
followed and in about 1865 he was joined
in the business by his son, Samuel. the
business expanded rapidly and by the end
of the century the first of the famous
soups - pea - was marketed. Other family
members joined the firm, notably a
grandson, and in the 1900s the company
widened its range to blancmange powder,
table creams, granulated gravy improver,
custard powder, jellies, fruit puddings
and eight varieties of soups. In 1904
Symington supplied pea flour to Scott's
first Antarctic Expedition. Fifty years
later, when a stores dump was discovered,
this product was found to be in perfect
condition.
During the
Second World War, and before becoming part
of the Lyons empire, Howard Symington,
chairman and managing director, agreed to
cover the printing costs of the first
issue of Reveille, a new paper for the
forces but enthusiastically embraced by
the public. Getting a different advertiser
for each issue to foot the printing bill
was a technique its founder, W. R.
Hipwell, used several times during the
paper's formative years. The first issue,
dated 25 May 1940, was free to the forces
but a penny to anyone else. It was printed
by the Church Army Press.
The family
business continued to expand throughout
the twentieth century until 28 February
1969, when Lyons acquired the whole of the
issued share capital for an undisclosed
sum. By then Symington's was operating one
of the largest factories in Market
Harborough, a small market town 15 miles
south of Leicester. Situated next to the
town's busy cattle market, the three story
building made all of Symington's products
with a staff of 350. The business was
merged with Lyons' Catering Sales Ltd and
Symington's sales team of 60 were
integrated with the Catering Sales team
who were responsible for servicing the
catering trade. The biggest selling items
to the catering trade by Symington at this
time were county soup sold in one-gallon
soup mixes, a range of savoury
specialities, dehydrated vegetables and
desserts. As a unit of the Grocery Sector,
Symington continued to handle their own
retail business - mainly table creams and
gravy mixes - and private label goods for
other companies which included Sainsbury,
Tesco, Fine Fare, Pricerite, Waitrose,
Littlewoods, # Greig, Budgen and the
Co-operative Wholesale Society. Sales
director A. F. Whittaker who, with sales
manager T. E. Satterthwaite, was
responsible for private label.
W.
Symington always had an export market,
although this was modest compared with
home sales, mainly to the Commonwealth
countries and the NAAFI. They also
operated a subsidiary company in
Johannesburg, South Africa, producing
dehydrated soups for the local
market.
Manufacturing
preparation was monitored by their own
laboratory and the ingredients consisted
mainly of dehydrated vegetables,
dehydrated meats, starches, salt, sugar,
herbs and spices. An important ingredient
was hydrolised protein, said 'to
contribute to the flavour and food value'
of the soup. The company operated their
own computer department.
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