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Glacier
Foods Ltd
Ice
Cream manufacture during World War 2 had
been banned. Not because there was a
shortage of ingredients but because it was
classified as a luxury. The government
felt its continuing manufacture, while
almost everything else was rationed, would
give the wrong message to the long
suffering public.
After the war, production
soon started and the likes of Lyons and
Walls picked up where they had left off.
What these companies failed to
recognise was the cultural change the war
had brought about. The company continued
to trade on its past reputation and in the
case of ice cream this had been very high.
They rejected the idea of entering into
the ice lolly market emerging in the late
1940s because it did not fit easily with
their own preconceptions; it was seen as a
poor mans alternative. At this time they
rejected the idea of buying into a company
called Glacier Foods Ltd because of this
misplaced view. However, the lolly market
began to gain in importance and when an
opportunity presented itself again in 1951
the opportunity was taken.
Glacier Foods Ltd
had been started by Guy Lawrence (later
Sir Guy) whom Julian Salmon
had known when Lawrence was serving in
Bomber Command during the war. Salmon
raised the question of a possible
acquisition and after some preliminary
discussions it was agreed that Lyons
should buy the business and that Lawrence
should continue to run it. They agreed
price of £71,000 and this was raised
by issuing preference shares in Lyons. As
a young man Guy Lawrence had been a champion
skier and at the outbreak of war joined
Bomber Command, flying over fifty missions
into Germany and occupied territories, and
winning the DSO and DFC. During the last
year of the war he was a group captain on
the staff of Bomber Command headquarters
and for these services was awarded an OBE.
In the 1945 general election Lawrence
stood as Liberal candidate for the Colne
Valley constituency but was beaten by the
Labour candidate. Afterwards he started an
aircraft-engineering and freight-carrying
business in Buckinghamshire but sold it
after four years and bought the ice lolly
factory in Maidenhead.
The
Maidenhead factory was one of the most
successful in exploiting the ice lolly
market and by 1951 it was supplying the
wholesale trade. Lawrence had bought what
was then called the Koola Fruta Company
from two bankrupt
entrepreneurial speculators while it was
in receivership. After he renamed it
Glacier Foods Ltd, he continued to
specialise in making ice lollies and
retained the Koola Fruta range, which later
included Koola Kreems, lollies containing
milk solids. In 1954 the Orange Maid ice
lolly was launched as 'a
drink on a stick'; made from frozen fresh
orange juice, it was wrapped in foil and
sold at the then high price of 6d. Guy
, who continued to run
Glacier Foods after Lyons had bought it
from him, went on to make important
contributions to Lyons' ice-cream business
in the years following, becoming a main
board director in 1966 and deputy
chairman. He was knighted in 1976. Lyons
could not have realize when they entered
the ice lolly market just how dominant a
part it would play in their ice cream
strategy. Apart from the innovative
designs/names the new products required,
entirely new machinery would become
necessary to satisfy the huge demand, not
just from the young end of the market, but
also in adult lines. A tentative post-war
innovation had dramatic effects on the ice
cream industry.
After
the new Lyons Maid Bridge Park factory
opened in 1955 the Maidenhead factory
closed and production was transferred to
Bridge Park. Lyons retained the Glacier
Foods name using it as a holding company
to manipulate other ice cream
acquisitions/sales. Lyons Maid used the
Glacier name for their offices in
Hammersmith (Glacier House) and when they
moved to Cadby Hall's Elms House in an
office reorganization in 1977, this was
renamed Glacier House to the annoyance of
many old-timers.
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