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Bread
Limited
bread and baking activities had been
undertaken at Olympia (the company's first
headquarters) before Cadby Hall had been
purchased. Some bread-making activities,
especially for the outdoor catering
events, had been undertaken in field
kitchens-a skill which helped Lyons secure
the contract for feeding the troops while
they were on their manoeuvres between
Hounslow Heath and the New Forest just
before the Boer War. When Lyons took over
Cadby Hall in 1894, bread-baking capacity
was greatly enlarged and this was
delivered from handcarts, for sale on a
door-to-door basis. The Vienna rolls first
introduced into the teashops also became
popular with the growing clientele of
bread buyers. Such a heavy demand was
placed on the Cadby Hall bakeries that by
1899 it became necessary to expand their
capacity. Six new ovens were installed and
formed part of what became known as the
Vienna Bakery. Vienna bread was produced
in static ovens with sloping soles
(surfaces), enabling the dough to be
loaded under a ceiling of steam. When the
steam was withdrawn, the dry heat of the
oven baked the starch, thereby producing
the characteristic high glaze and thin
crusts of Vienna bread and rolls.
Undoubtedly it was this method of baking
which prompted Lyons to lay claim to a
'steam bakery', a term which appeared on a
hoarding outside the factory
entrance.
The
new baking ovens operated day and night to
meet the additional demand from the
catering establishments and their
associated retail outlets. Door-to-door
sales grew progressively, and the
handcarts were soon augmented by
horse-drawn vans which were able to
operate within a wider radius from the
factory. By 1900 the local door-to-door
delivery fleet numbered eleven handcarts
and five horse-drawn vans of the type
where the driver was exposed to the
weather on an outside 'dickey' seat. By
1905 the number of journeys from Cadby
Hall had grown to thirty, all operating
within a five-mile radius. To meet the
increasing demands from the suburbs, bread
depots opened at Crystal Palace, Brixton,
Highbury and Croydon. From these centres
the rounds developed with similar
success.
By
1913 demand again outstripped capacity and
it became necessary to build another
baking block housing what was known as a
Titanic travelling oven, which displaced
the draw-plate method in use up to this
time. The draw-plate method had gone some
way towards automating the production of
bread in that the whole baking surface of
the oven could be withdrawn to allow bread
tins to be loaded or unloaded very much
faster. This replaced the earlier static
oven system in which bakers manually
loaded or unloaded bread tins into the
baking chamber by use of peels or
spatulas. Incorporating a continuous-belt
action, the Titanic oven enabled bread to
be made on true production-line
principles. Prepared dough was placed on
the steel belt, in sandwich tins, and
taken mechanically, at the appropriate
pace, through the heated chamber,
appearing as cooked bread at the other end
of the production line, where the loaves
were discharged down chutes into a packing
area ready for dispatch. This was a more
efficient process than the conventional
draw-plate system, and when a second
Titanic oven was added, with automatic
machines for weighing and cutting dough,
the output from the bakery increased to
10,000 loaves an hour.
There
is some doubt as to the exact date when
the next phase of bread distribution
started, that of the wholesale sales. It
has been suggested that agents had first
contacted Lyons before 1914 to buy bread
in bulk to sell on to their customers.
Other evidence suggests the process did
not start until 1914. In any event the
real transition from door-to-door sales to
part-wholesale selling did not properly
begin until 1922. Then, two vans with a
nucleus of some ten dealers started to
build from the East End of London and from
there the service extended to cover the
whole of outer London by the start of the
Second World War. Meanwhile, the
traditional horse-drawn vans continued to
ply their routes radially from Cadby Hall,
but this service declined as the wholesale
and retail trades matured through agents
and the teashops. Nevertheless, by 1920
each morning 200 horse-drawn vans, of
varying sizes, were radiating from Cadby
Hall and returning later to the extensive
stabling facilities.
Bread-wrapping
and bread-slicing machines were introduced
and yet more ovens installed. With the
introduction of motorised transport the
wholesale trade expanded outside London,
distributing from provincial catering
establishments. Despite the huge output of
bread from the Cadby Hall factories, more
than 80 per cent of the nation's bread
continued to be supplied by local craft
bakers. As these small operations had
modest overheads, with little or no
transport or labour costs, they were able
to provide bread that was not only
inexpensive but fresh. In urban and
thickly populated areas the balance of
advantage rested therefore, with the craft
baker who 'established price equilibrium'
during the 1920s. Since the cost of retail
distribution amounted to about 16 per cent
of the price paid by the consumer for
bread (1923 figures), Lyons decided to
open provincial bakeries in Brighton,
Bristol, Liverpool and Margate in the
period leading up to the Second World
War.
At the outbreak of the
Second World War the government took steps
to control the milling and bread-making
industry. From October 1941 until
September 1956 national bread was
subsidised and its price was rigidly
controlled; 8d. until October 1942, and
then 9d. until 1946. The government was
also concerned with the potential
disruption of bread production and
distribution in the event of air-raid
damage to factories or to the supply of
gas, water, electricity and transport. To
prepare for such eventuality, the
Emergency Bread Scheme was introduced in
May 1940. In the London area this was
co-ordinated by Area Bread Officers whose
appointments were honorary) in
collaboration with the baking industry
itself. The Bread Officers were expected
to ensure that bread was produced whatever
the difficulties, so as to prevent a
breakdown of normal supplies which the
government feared would severely damage
morale. Throughout the war the public, at
least in London, never lacked bread
supplies except for a few hours after the
heaviest air raids. The success of the
scheme was partly due to the efficiency of
the bakers but mainly because every bakery
had spare capacity as a result of cuts in
cake production through shortages of
ingredients. In November 1940 the system
was comprehensively tested when the city
of Coventry suffered one of the most
intensive bombings of the war. All
services were cut off and the transport
systems crippled. Bread baking in the city
was impossible. Nevertheless, no one in
the city went without bread, since the
bakeries in other Midlands towns, notably
Leicester and Birmingham, stepped up their
production to maximum capacity. These
bakers worked long hours until after a few
days a small bakery was again able to
operate in Coventry. Similar instances
occurred when Swansea, Bath and Liverpool
were bombed. Two million loaves were
supplied to Liverpool from outside
bakeries on the morning after a heavy raid
on the port. The Cadby Hall bakeries were
fortunate in that they came through the
war period unscathed. Being so close to
much of the devastation in London, they
were able to make a positive contribution
to feeding the nation.
In July 1946 bread was
rationed for the first time in British
history, even though Europe had been at
peace for over a year. This followed a
disastrous shortage of world grain: the
United Kingdom's import of wheat was
reduced by 250,000 tons in the first half
of 1946. It was also necessary to feed 30
million Germans, for whom famine loomed
after the collapse of their agriculture.
Bread supplies were not rigorously
controlled, but its quality was adversely
affected by the progressive restrictions
that had been imposed during the war
years. Despite these problems, Lyons'
manufacturing divisions gradually improved
their performance to the extent that a new
bread plant opened at Tottenham in
1951.Other new bread factories followed at
Bristol, Crawley, Chessington and
Eastleigh. The Brighton factory too became
a provincial bakery. The opening of these
bakeries provoked a violent reaction from
some quarters of the trade, since local
bakers felt their own markets might be
threatened and the National Association of
Master Bakers organised a series of mass
protest meetings. Government control of
the milling industry ended at midnight on
29 August 1953, freeing the baking
industry from all restraints and allowing
white bread to be produced after thirteen
years of control. The National Association
of Master Bakers announced that the
recommended price for the new 14oz white
loaf was to be 5.5d. in London and 6d. in
most other parts of the country.
By 1953 Lyons were
classified as the third largest producer
of bread in the UK, while Allied Bakeries
and the Co-operative Wholesale Society
enjoyed a huge lead. With the demise of
the small craft baker, the bread (and cake
industry) began to consolidate into a few
large producers. Concerned that their
margins might be threatened by the
bakeries, the milling industry sought to
secure their markets. Rank and Spillers
began diversifying by forming their own
baking companies, which became known as
British Bakeries and United Bakeries
respectively. Before the war Lyons had
gained a good reputation with its Puriti
Wrapped Bread. With no artificial
ingredients, just flour, yeast, lard, salt
and water, it was highly popular,
especially since it could be conveniently
bought in all teashops. After the war,
Lyons' national brand was Superbread.
During the 1950s, competition from
Mother's Pride and Sunblest became so
intense that by 1960 Lyons' bread-making
position had slipped to fifth place,
accounting for only 1 per cent of the
national market, although its share in
London and Bristol, where the main bread
factories were situated, was higher.
Traditionally Lyons had favoured the cake
market, not only because of its longer
shelf life but because there was greater
scope for innovation, allowing higher
profit margins. From the table it can be
seen that profits from cake outstripped
bread profits enormously between 1949 and
1964.
Lyons' loss of market
share in bread was due not only to
competition but to a number of factors.
Unlike some of their rivals Lyons objected
to paying the vast sums of money that were
needed to acquire regional bread bakeries
in order to boost market share. Lyons had
already invested heavily in a new bread
plant, and in any case were reluctant to
enter into the retail bread trade for fear
it might alienate their wholesale traders.
Closure of some of the teashops had also
reduced the volume of bread being sold
through the front shops. With Lyons'
stranglehold on the more profitable cake
market, the effort expended in increasing
bread sales had diminishing returns. As to
milling, Lyons had always preferred to buy
their flour from a diversity of suppliers
because their vast consumption helped them
obtain the keenest price.
The bread-manufacturing
department of Lyons formally became the
Bread Division in 1963 under Brian Salmon.
He continued the process, started in 1962
to improve profitability, of
decentralising some of the new bread
factories which had opened in Bristol,
Crawley and elsewhere by giving management
control of their own production,
distribution and accounting. Bread sales,
however, were now only modest in volume,
just about meeting budgeted forecasts.
While the national consumption of bread
remained static, Lyons could increase its
share of the total market only by
relentlessly pursuing efficiency in
production and distribution. The quality
of bread had improved enormously since the
1950s, but this did not stop consumers
from complaining that it was not as good
as bread in the past. Management, on the
other hand, were convinced that the public
had never enjoyed such a wide choice and
such a high standard of bread.
By 1967 Lyons were
producing over fifty varieties of bread
and continuing to diversify. In a foray
into the developing slimmers' market, the
Bread Division brought out a high-protein,
low-calorie loaf called Slim-Vita, which
was made from stoneground wholemeal flour
and baked at a lower temperature than
other bread. In March 1968 at Cadby Hall,
under the Bakery Sector chairman
Christopher Salmon and the Bread Division
chief executive Robin Salmon, a new bread
roll plant came on stream. Costing
£250,000, it was capable of producing
up to 18,000 rolls or buns every hour.
Later that year a similar plant was
installed at the Eastleigh bread depot,
which made a variety of bread rolls and
buns, but specialised in Vienna rolls and
other types of crusty bread which had
become popular in southern England.
However, as Lyons had
such a tiny share of the UK bread market
as a whole, in June 1969 management
decided to hand over its bread-making
business to J. W. French and at the same
time reinforce Lyons' influence in
Celebrity Holdings by acquiring the
outside shareholders' interests. Thus J.
W. French & Co. Ltd became a fully
owned subsidiary into which Lyons
transferred its Bread Division for
£2.5 million on 31 March 1969.
See also
Provincial Bakeries.
©
Peter
Bird 2002
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