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In 1969,
the Lyons Maid ice-cream business of J.
Lyons & Co. bought Tonibell thus
increasing their ice cream volumes of the
UK market. The purchase price was
£1,750,000 and the deal was between
Glacier Foods Ltd, the company which
controlled Lyons Maid and its associated
ice-cream activities, and British American
Tobacco Co. Ltd, which had bought Tonibell
Manufacturing Co. Ltd in 1964.
Tonibell
was started in 1937 by Italian-born Toni
Pignatelli and his Scottish wife. Known as
Tonis, it consisted of a small ice-cream
manufacturing plant in a shop in High
Street, Burnt Oak, Middlesex. The products
were sold to the public from the shop
window. Twelve years later the couple's
son Ronald, who had changed his name to
Peters, joined the business. He increased
sales and production and acquired a second
shop nearby. The first mobile vehicle - a
tricycle fitted with a holdover box to
carry ice-cream - was bought in 1951. A
year later a small van was converted into
a mobile ice-cream vehicle complete with
musical chimes. By 1956 six of these vans
were in use. Trade continued to expand and
the business moved to new premises in
Barnet, just north of London.
The name
Tonis was changed to Tonibell in 1960
because competitors began using Tonis name
and colours. All vehicles were painted
blue, and Tonibell's cow symbol made its
debut with a new jingle that was specially
written for the chimes. The following year
soft ice-cream was introduced and Tonibell
converted all existing vehicles to enable
them to carry the soft type ice-cream in
addition to their normal lines.
In 1964
British American Tobacco bought Tonibell,
and the company started to market a larger
and more varied range than before. A year
later Ron Peters left the company. In 1966
an extensive building and re-equipping
programme began at Boreham Wood. In 1967
the production of yoghurt was started and
this became an increasingly important side
of the business. In 1969, when Lyons
bought the company, Tonibell had eighteen
depots and four franchise depots covering
the whole country. The business was,
essentially a franchise operation and 500
vans were involved in taking ice-cream to
housing estates and other high density
areas. In addition they had 15 ice-cream
parlours, mainly in the London area, and
again operated under franchise
arrangements.
Lyons Maid
developed the business further and were
able to use their technology of soft
ice-cream which, in its early days, did
not have a very good reputation. Before
they acquired Tonibell they were in
partnership with a Swiss company helping
to develop a process called uperisation.
An American company was involved with the
ice-cream container/dispenser and these
were eventually used in vans and other
franchise outlets under hygienic
conditions.
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