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Walkers
Dairies Office (Walkers Dairies
Ltd)
Walkers
Dairies Ltd, Liverpool, was founded in the
early 1920s and, in 1947 when it was
acquired by Lyons, it was said to be the
fifth largest manufacturer of ice cream in
the country. Since that time production
was quadrupled and additional sales depots
were opened in Preston and Salford and a
cabinet repair shop had been established.
To cope with these developments it was
necessary to enlarge the office, which in
1951 consisted of forty clerks. Although
200 miles from London the Walkers office
worked hand in hand with many of the Cadby
Hall offices and it formed an integral
part of the clerical service for Walkers
factory and also for Lyons Ice Cream Sales
and Refrigeration Service Departments in
Liverpool, in addition to the normal
accounting and general clerical work
associated with a manufacturing
company.
For
the factory these services included
verifying purchase invoices, controlling
materials used in the factory, preparing
standard costings, and calculating wages
and premium bonus. Wage packets for both
Walkers employees and Lyons employees were
made up in Lyons' local treasury in
Liverpool. Apart from the sale of ice
cream in Northern Ireland the whole of
Walkers production was sold to Lyons for
delivery to dealers in the North-West
Division. The service to Lyons Ice Cream
Sales Department covered all the clerical
work in connection with the sale of ice
cream to these dealers and also the supply
and maintenance of the iceless
cabinets.
The
Van Sales Group was concerned with all
deliveries within the Liverpool area. The
Sales Group dealt with all orders for
shipment to Northern Ireland. It also
controlled Ministry of Food permits
transferred to Lyons by dealers in the
Lyons area who received an equivalent
amount of ice cream in return. This Group
did all the clerical work in connection
with ordering and installation of iceless
cabinets on dealers' premises. As in the
Ice Cream Sales Office at Cadby Hall, a
correspondence file was kept on dealers in
the North-West Division. There was also a
Statistical Group producing various
statements for management on production,
sales and the repair shop. They also kept
the Walkers departmental accounts, saw
that these balanced with the financial
accounts and also produced the
departmental trading analyses. The
Accounts Group calculated the wages and
premium bonus, kept books of account,
checked suppliers' statements and prepared
payment advice notes. Walkers profit and
loss account and balance sheet were also
prepared by the Accounts Group. In
providing a service for both Walkers and
Lyons, the office had the benefit of
seeing both sides of the picture, in
working as a department of the parent
company, and as an independent
firm.
During
the 1930s Walkers had undertaken contract
work for Lyons by distributing Pola Maid
ice cream to Woolworth's stores in the
north of England. The Laurel Road factory
in Liverpool closed in December
1982.
©
Peter Bird 2005
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