 | |
| Type | Private (1919–86) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Food |
| Founded | 1919 |
| Founder | Richard Westley Gale |
| Fate | Acquired by Rowntree Mackintosh in 1986, currently a brand |
| Headquarters | |
Area served | U.K. |
| Products | Honey |
| Parent |
|
| Website | galeshoney.co.uk |
Gale's is a UK brand of honey, currently owned by Premier Foods. The former company had been established in 1919, remaining independent until it was acquired by Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery in 1986.
The company was established in 1919, when Richard Westley Gale (born 1895 in Hendon) of Richmond and Sidney Thomas Rayner of Mortlake started their business as "Rayner & Gale" which was a partnership. The partnership was dissolved on 3 July 1926 and it became "R.W. Gale & Co. Ltd", based in the SW9 district of south London. [1]
In 1948 Joseph Farrow & Company of the Carlton Works, Fletton near Peterborough, a subsidiary of Reckitt & Colman that made canned foods (green peas, later marrowfat peas), bought the company. [2] In the early 1960s it introduced a peanut spread called Smooth'n Nutty. In 1962 it introduced mincemeat. It was made in Carrow, Norwich.
For many years Gale's were the UK's biggest manufacturer of honey.
On 28 November 1986 it was bought by Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery for £11 million, and production moved to Hadfield, Derbyshire. The Norwich site was later owned by Unilever Bestfoods from 1995. The Hadfield Industrial Estate site, next to the River Etherow, had been bought by Rowntree's in June 1967.
Rowntree Mackintosh was bought by Nestlé on 28 June 1988 in a hostile takeover. [3]
In May 2002 it was acquired by Premier Foods, when it also bought Rowntree's's Jelly and other Nestlé brands for £132 million. The Hadfield site was closed in the first quarter of 2004, and production moved to the desserts and spreads plant in Cambridgeshire [4] which also made Hartley's jam.
It is now made at Premier Foods plant at Histon, north of Cambridge. It sells around 4 million jars a year. The plant is next to the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway (former Cambridge & St. Ives Branch).[ citation needed ]
In 1964, when owned by Joseph Farrow, it promoted the idea of stirring some of its honey into hot milk for a nightcap, or to help a sore throat by putting honey into hot water with some lemon juice. In the 1960s the account was handled by JWT.
A jingle used to advertise the honey was: Gale's, Gale's pass the honey please, think about the honey, think about the bees.
It sells strongly in the winter months from November to February each year.
Polo is a brand of breath mint whose defining feature is the hole in the middle. The peppermint flavoured Polo was first manufactured in the United Kingdom in 1948, by employee John Bargewell at the Rowntree's Factory, York, and a range of flavours followed. The name may derive from "polar", referencing the cool, fresh taste of the mint. Polo mints are also sold in other countries such as India and Sri Lanka by Nestlé. Polo mints are usually sold in a 34g pack containing 23 individual mints.
Nestlé Candy Shop was a confectionery brand owned and licensed by the Swiss corporation Nestlé. In 2018, the branding and production rights were sold to the Ferrero Group, and as a result, the brand was discontinued.
After Eight Mint Chocolate Thins, often referred to as simply After Eights, are a brand of mint chocolate covered sugar confectionery. They were created by Rowntree Company Limited in the UK in 1962 and have been manufactured by Nestlé since its acquisition of Rowntree in 1988.
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Sun-Pat is a UK brand of peanut butter founded in 1946 by H S Whiteside, a family run firm, from their factory in Parkhouse Street, Camberwell, London. Sun-pat is now owned by American company Hain Celestial Group.
Quality Street is a line of tinned and boxed toffees, chocolates and sweets, first manufactured by Mackintosh's in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, in 1936. It was named after J. M. Barrie's play Quality Street. Since 1988 they have been produced by Nestlé. Quality Street have long been a competitor to Cadbury Roses which were launched by Cadbury in 1938.
Nestlé UK Ltd, trading as Rowntree's, is a British confectionery brand and a former business based in York, England. Rowntree developed the Kit Kat, Aero, Fruit Pastilles, Smarties brands, and the Rolo and Quality Street brands when it merged with Mackintosh's in 1969 to form Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery. Rowntree's also launched After Eight thin mint chocolates in 1962. The Yorkie and Lion bars were introduced in 1976. Rowntree's also pioneered the festive selection box which in the UK have been a staple gift at Christmas for over a century.
Terry's is a British chocolate and confectionery brand. The original company was founded in 1767 in York, England, and was part of the city's famous confectionery triumvirate along with Rowntree's and Cravens. The company's headquarters and factory, Terry's Chocolate Works, was closed by Kraft in 2005 and production moved to Kraft factories in Europe. The business returned to the UK in 2019 as Terry's Chocolate Co located in London. Their best known products include Terry's Chocolate Orange and Terry's All Gold box of assorted chocolates which were both introduced in the 1930s.
The Menier Chocolate company is a French chocolate manufacturing business founded in 1816 as a pharmaceutical manufacturer in Paris, at a time when chocolate was used as a medicinal product and was only one part of the overall business.
Rowntrees Football Club, later Rowntree Mackintosh F.C. and Nestlé Rowntree F.C., was an English association football club from York, North Yorkshire. The team as their name suggests were affiliated to Rowntree's, a confectioner which later merged into Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery, in turn taken over by Nestlé. The club was founded during Joseph Rowntree's ownership of Rowntree's.
Princes Group is an international food and drink group involved in the manufacture, import and distribution of branded and customer own-brand products. Founded in 1880 and headquartered in the UK, since 1989 it has been owned by the Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Corporation.
Pearson's Candy Company is an American chocolate and confectionery manufacturer headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded as a confectionery distribution firm in 1909, the company began to manufacture its own products in 1912. Originally a family-owned company, Pearson's experienced changes in ownership, acquisitions and product alterations in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, before its most recent sale in November 2018 to Spell Capital, a Minneapolis private equity firm.
Fox's Confectionery Ltd was an English confectionery company based in Braunstone, Leicester which was founded in 1880.
Mackintosh's was a British confectionery firm founded in Halifax, Yorkshire, England. It was known for its toffee and the Quality Street and Rolo brands.
Brynwood Partners is an American private equity investment firm focused on leveraged buyout and other control investments.
Rowntree Mackintosh plc, trading as Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery, is a defunct English confectionery company based in York, England. It was formed by the merger of Rowntree's and John Mackintosh Co. The company was famous for making chocolate brands, such as Kit Kat, Aero and Quality Street. It was purchased by Nestlé in 1987, with products rebranded under its own brand.
Sunmark Corporation was a candy confectionery company based in St. Louis, Missouri. The company was founded by Menlo F. Smith in 1952 as an offshoot of the company owned by his father, Joseph Fish Smith. They invented many candy brands, some of which are still produced today, such as Pixy Stix, SweeTarts, Spree, and Lik-M-Aid.
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Hoadley's Chocolates was an Australian confectionery company founded in 1913 famous for the Polly Waffle and Violet Crumble chocolate bars. The company was bought by Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery in 1972, which would then be acquired by Nestlé in 1988.
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