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Henry Telfer Ltd
Henry Telfer Ltd (formally
Ticky Snacks Ltd) was always regarded as
one of the less appealing activities of
Lyons. Their product range, although at
times very profitable, always had a
down-market image and for many years they
were not fully integrated with Lyons in
the fear of bringing their whole business
into disrepute.
The business had been
started by Henry Telfer Thompson and his
wife who had returned from a failed South
African venture in 1926. He started his
business from modest, rented, premises in
Croydon and as it expanded he moved to
Camberwell Green and then to Garrett Lane
in Wandsworth. One of his more famous
brands was a pie he called Ticky Snacks
and he advertised these as 'Made as Muvver
Makes Em'. They were clearly aimed at the
working class trade and indeed were sold
on pie stalls outside railway stations and
in high street pie shops of the period. He
registered his company as Ticky Snacks Ltd
in 1927. Thompson's business came to the
attention of the Salmon family in 1931 and
in 1932 they took a 49 per cent share in
the business with Geoffrey Salmon
appointed to the Board. In 1933, because
of failing health, Henry Thompson, his
wife and business partner Albert Muteham
sold their 51 per cent equity to J. Lyons.
In 1938 the company changed its name to
Henry Telfer Limited and it became a
subsidiary. During the acquisition
negotiations an accountancy firm had been
employed to carry out a study of the
factory. Their report criticised
Thompson's management style and the lack
of production and hygiene controls. It was
concluded that the whole factory area at
Wandsworth was unsuitable for food
production and Lyons distanced themselves
from the business. Production methods in
Lyons were modern, hygienic and efficient
and there was a team of qualified
laboratory technicians testing every stage
of manufacture.
Little could be done to
improve the factory in Wandsworth and so
it moved to new premises, a former
brewery, in Lille Road, Fulham in 1934.
New and modern equipment was installed
similar to that in use a Cadby Hall. By
1940 Telfer's were producing huge volumes
of pies and other processed meat products
for canteens, factories and hospitals and
much of their output at this time was
directed to the troops returning from
Dunkirk. When the government introduced
their Rural Pie Scheme the WVS, to whom
rations were allocated, were unable to
cope and their food allocations were
transferred to baking businesses. As a
result Telfer's production soared and
Lyons had to set up satellite pie plants
in their provincial bakeries.
After the war Telfer's
reputation had improved and by the late
1940s their turnover had reached £1
million. However, this was short lived
because when rationing ended in 1954 the
turnover dropped as fast as it had
climbed. Nevertheless the company was
awarded a Royal Warrant in 1955 for
supplying cooked meat products. Telfer's
continued to have a relatively strong
presence in the pie market with their
outlets associated with hospitals,
canteens and the catering trade. They had
less success with their sausage trade and
in 1958 bought the Excell Meat Company who
had a sausage factory in Stratford, east
London. By the 1960s the company attempted
to develop their own brands but they
failed to break into the retail sector.
They were fairly successful in supplying
the up-and-coming cash and carry
warehouses but their was stiff competition
from G. Brazil & Co who were market
leaders.
In order to save money the
Fulham factory closed in 1968 and
production was centred on Cadby Hall and
Stratford - by this time Henry Telfer Ltd
had become a wholly owned company and Jack
Silverman was the Managing Director. Despite all the company's
difficulties Telfer's were Britain's
largest manufacturer of meat products to
the catering trade but losses continued to
be troublesome. The relocation of meat
production to Cadby Hall, itself already
at maximum capacity, increased the
difficulties of Henry Telfer. Expansion
was impossible so a new factory was built
at Northampton which became fully
operational in 1974.
The
cost of the new factory, built on the
Moulton Park Estate, was put at £3
million. The factory was of a simple,
single story design, occupying a 20 acre
site. At the front was a three story
office block (with coffee bars on each
floor and a medical department) and
restaurant adjoining an amenities block,
which ran the full length of the factory,
with showers and lockers for staff and a
staff supermarket. The factory area was
spread over 250,000 square feet. A central
wall divided the production areas with the
bakery where all pastry products were
made. The factory area was heated or
cooled as necessary. The special flooring
(light buff yellow in colour) was designed
to be both attractive and hygienic. The
durable surface was a single continuous
sheet which sealed the floor throughout.
The complete absence of stanchions or
pillars created a feeling of spaciousness.
A 600 car parking area was provided for
staff and visitors. The first products
produced in the new factory, whose
occupation was phased from Cadby Hall and
Stratford, were beef-burgers, sausages and
Scotch eggs. Most of the Wimpy hamburgers
were made here and frozen before dispatch
to Wimpy shops.
Shortly
after Henry Telfer occupied their new
Northampton factory the Lyons business was
sold to Allied Breweries Ltd who carried
out a study of those part s of the
business which were unprofitable. It was
found (and known) that the new factory was
a drain on Henry Telfer's balance sheet
and it was sold in February 1980 to the
Unigate Group after first having changed
its name to J. Lyons Products Ltd. The
business went thought a number of owners
and the factory is now used to make
own-label sandwiches, probably the largest
sandwich making business in the UK.
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