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Chocolate
Sales Office
In
the office organisation of Lyons, the
Chocolate Sales Office was described as:
'the Office attached to the Chocolate
Sales Department'. The Chocolate Sales
Department was originally formed in 1921
and was operated by a traveller service
(salesmen) with deliveries by rail from
Greenford. A year later the Wholesale Tea
Department started what was first known as
the Confectionery Van Sales section of the
department, and in 1926 this section was
transferred to the Chocolate Sales
Department. The Van Section gradually
covered the entire country with the
exception of Scotland. Although good
progress was made, it was felt that the
Van Sales system prevented the sale of
chocolate and confectionery through the
better class channels and a regular
traveller operated service was
re-introduced, with deliveries from
selected centres throughout the country
(four centres in London and centres at:
Ashford, Belfast, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds,
Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Plymouth,
Southampton and Swansea).
This
arrangement operated until the outbreak of
the Second World War when zoning and
rationing was introduced by the
government. The various sweet
manufacturers co-operated and agreed to
deliver each other's goods. By 1942 fifty
per cent of the Chocolate Sales Department
staff were serving in the forces and the
supply of sugar cocoa and other
ingredients became increasingly reduced.
As a result many of Lyons' small depots
closed and finally only Greenford was
left. Although the combined delivery
system ended after the war, arrangements
were made with Rowntree to continue to
deliver many of the Lyons confectionery
orders. They handled bulk deliveries
outside the Greenford area which resulted
in considerable savings in manpower and
packing materials since goods could be
despatched in bulk which would otherwise
have to be sent to each agent (shop)
separately by rail.
In
pre-war days the Chocolate Sales Office
employed a staff of 45, a third of whom
were typists and secretaries. However, as
a result of rationing and the
re-oganisation of the sales methods caused
by war-time conditions the numbers were
reduced to eight full-time and six
part-time clerks in 1951. The Order Group
received orders for chocolate and sugar
confectionery from all sources other than
Lyons' own establishments. Until rationing
ended in 1954, every order received was
accompanied by a Personal Points Transfer
Form correctly made out in all details as
laid down by the Food Office authorities.
These transfer forms, which represented
the personal points spent with the
individual shopkeepers, exactly balanced
any accompanying order form. Any transfer
forms which were invalid, for any reason,
were passed to the Correspondence Group
for return to the agents (shops)
concerned. Before the war all areas of the
British Isles were serviced by travellers
or van salesmen, but after the war the
northern counties, Scotland and Ireland
were supplied on a mail order basis
After
the war many of the Chocolate lines had
been discontinued and some were never
re-introduced. Some of the famous lines
which disappeared were the Nippy
Shillingsworth, introduced after 1925, and
Dickens Chocolates. Before the war Slab
chocolate was sold in a variety of types
including milk nut, fruit & nut,
orange, plain, walnut & fruit milk,
brazil nut milk and coffee milk. In
addition there was a very large range of
boiled sweets, loose and in tins, toffee,
fudge and Turkish delight but many of
these were never re-introduced. In July
1947 Lyons did introduced a new range of
confectionery known as the Mint Choc and
the Greenford factory produced many tons
of them each week. A number of experiments
were made by the staff of the
confectionery factory before a recipe was
found for a cream centre with the required
flavour and texture. The next task was to
devise a machine to make the sweets and it
was not long before five large machines
had been introduced turning out Mint Chocs
as fast as possible. The cream centres
were made with sugar, glucose, fondant,
white of egg and oil of peppermint mixed
and heated. Pats of mixture were then
placed on a belt at the rate of thousands
a minute and as they cooled they passed
under the chocolate enrobers. They were
then packed in a green and white, 0.5 lb,
carton which had a double windows, so that
the chocolates could be seen twelve on
each side, and the whole wrapped in
Cellophane. The cartons were packed by
hand.
The
statistics associated with sales,
including what were called progress
percentage tables, showed the amount of
business carried out by each salesman.
Each salesman sent in daily summaries of
calls made, orders booked, lines sold,
etc. and it was the Order Group who
checked these reports with the actual
numbers of orders received. This was
carried out at the end of every eight week
period and a chart was then compiled
showing the percentage of orders received
against calls made. The periodic figures
were consolidated into an annual total.
Similar calculations were made for the
total weights of sales made over and above
each shop's basic allocation. Awards were
made to salesmen for the best results over
the year.
The
Correspondence Group endeavoured to ensure
prompt handling and reply to all queries
received, whether from salesmen (or
representative) or shop-keepers. This
included dealing with delays in delivery,
pilferages, incorrect transfer forms,
intelligence summaries, sales instructions
and general correspondence. In the early
1950s the Sales Department had
re-introduced advertising by means of
window displays and sign-writing. Salesmen
were notified of the display dates
allocated to their territory and they
arranged the dressings with the
shop-keepers.
The
post-war sales of chocolate and
confectionery were very modest and the
department lacked the funds to re-build
and develop new lines. Much of the
machinery used in baking and ice cream
manufacture had been neglected during the
war years and more emphasis was given to
these core departments than the modest
confectionery operation at Greenford. A
decision was taken in May 1960 to sell the
chocolate and confectionery business to
Callard & Bowser Ltd. This did not
include the chocolates and limited
confectionery which were made at the
Corner Houses.
See:
Products
Index-Group 5
Confectionery
©
Peter Bird 2005
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