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The Rannoch Road Factory was
situated in a residential neighbourhood,
much to the annoyance to homeowners, on
the north bank of the river Thames, just
south of Hammersmith Bridge, and a mile or
so from Cadby Hall. With its riverside
wharf and industrial buildings it was
ideally situated to take deliveries of
tea, coffee, cocoa, timber and other
materials which had been transported by
barge from London Docks. From here it was
just a short distance to Cadby Hall. It is
not known when the property was first used
by Lyons other than its description in the
Statement of Accounts of 1928 where it is
described as a 'construction and
engineering works'. Here much of the work
carried out for teashops, restaurants,
hotels and offices would be fabricated and
assembled. The freezer boxes for the
ice-cream trade were all made here from
balsa wood. During its history jam ,
mincemeat, suet, canned fruit, puree and
frozen food have all been produced there.
At one time it had extensive kitchens for
the frozen food business. Rannoch Road is
best remembered, however, as the Soft
Drinks factory. Soft drinks were first
made here just before the Second World War
when the sale of cordials and fruit juices
took off dramatically. Many own-label
products for the supermarket trade were
made and bottled here and for a time Lyons
were market leaders in the juice market.
Adjacent to the factory was the sugar
manufacturer, Manbre, and Lyons took their
syrup supplies through a pipe linking the
two factories. An alliance was formed with
Schweppes and production of their brands
were bottled on the Lyons assembly lines.
As the business grew so did the deliveries
to, and from, the factory. It was a common
sight to see a half mile of lorries
waiting in line along the approach roads.
This was not good news for residents.
By march 1970 the Soft Drinks Division, already the
largest manufacturer of fruit concentrates
in the UK, increased their capacity by 25
million bottles a year when they bought KC
Developments (Liverpool) Ltd. Not only did
they obtain KC's trademarks and production
facility but they also acquired a cooking
oil brand which Soft Drinks added to their
private label products. Built in 1963 the
Hindley Green (Greater Manchester),
single-story, factory covered 140,000
square feet and had four bottling lines;
three for concentrates and one for cooking
oil. At the time of the purchase two new
lines were being installed, one each for
oil and concentrate. The factory was
staffed by 54 people and the products were
similar to those made at Rannoch Road.
Hindley Green made it possible for Lyons
to increase their production of soft
drinks substantially particularly to
supply the large Manchester area.
When Allied Breweries Ltd took over Lyons in 1978 their
soft drinks business was merged with
Britvic, the Allied Breweries soft drink
business. Rannoch Road closed in 1988.
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