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Lyons acquired the interests of the
Scribbans-Kemp group in November 1968 -
which included Scribbans-Kemp (Bakeries)
Ltd, Oliver & Gurden Ltd and Kunzle
(Products) Ltd for an undisclosed sum. The
acquisition was part of a drive to
increase cake volumes in the £5.5
million market. This purchase did not
include the non-bakery interests of
Scribbans-Kemp, which consisted of retail
tobacco and confectionery shops,
groceries, supermarkets and wholesale
warehouses.
The deal
involved the Scribbans-Kemp factory at
Smethwick, Birmingham employing 1,200
people. It had a floor area of 140,000
square feet, and was rebuilt some years
previous to the acquisition following a
fire. The Fuller's factory in Garrets
Green, Birmingham, with a staff
approaching 1,000, was built in 1960 with
an area of 130,000 square feet. The
speciality bakery in Oxford, where Oliver
& Gurden employed 160 staff, had a
floor area of 54,000 square feet.
Some
£30 million per year was to be spent
on products made by the Scribbans-Kemp
bakeries. The firm of C. Kunzle Ltd (which
was taken over by Fullers in 1964 and
acquired as Fullers-Kunzle by
Scribbans-Kemp in 1968) had been set up in
the early 1920s by Christian Kunzle, a
Swiss chef who worked for a time at the
House of Commons. On behalf of Lyons
Bakery, Kunzle's factory in Birmingham
continued to specialise in making small
cakes - such as mint meringues, macaroons,
Fondant Fancies and Home-Made Crackle
Cakes - as well as producing own-label
cakes for Marks & Spencer, British
Home Stores and Tesco. Kunzle's
best-selling line was the Showboat, a
chocolate shell containing a sponge
filling, topped with butter cream and
decorated by hand; 40,000 were made every
week. Another part of Scribbans-Kemp,
Oliver & Gurden, specialised in
Christmas puddings, which they produced at
their factory in Oxford. The puddings were
made to a traditional recipe which the
company's founders, William and Aubrey
Gurden, had developed when they were chefs
at Keble College before the First World
War. About 10 per cent of their Christmas
puddings were exported, mainly to the
United States and France. They also
produced mince pies, Yule logs and
Christmas cakes. By autumn 1973, however,
it was decided to change the name of
Oliver & Gurden to Fullers Cakes Ltd,
after market research found more consumers
were familiar with that name and
associated it with being 'good value',
'high quality' and 'suitable for special
occasions'. Fullers, of course, had been
acquired by Lyons as part of
Scribbans-Kemp, having been founded at the
turn of the century with bakeries in
Dublin and Hammersmith, London.
Nevertheless the name Oliver & Gurden
was retained on some specialised lines
such as shortbread and luxury cake, and
for overseas marketing.
Smethwick
Bakery, Birmingham, closed at the end of
1977 following the transfer of cake
production to the new Carlton (Yorkshire)
factory.
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