Farley's was a British food manufacturing company, best known for the baby product Farley's

Rusk A rusk is a hard, dry biscuit or a twice-baked bread. It is sometimes used as a teether for babies. In some cultures, rusk is made of cake, rather than bread: this is sometimes referred to as cake rusk. In the UK, the name also refers to a whea ...

s but also for baby rice, cereals and breadsticks. The brand was started in the 1880s, but the company was taken over by

H. J. Heinz Company The H. J. Heinz Company is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. Heinz manufactures thousands of food products in plants on six contin ...

in 1994 in a deal valued at £94 million. The brand logo was a

teddy bear A teddy bear is a stuffed toy in the form of a bear. Developed apparently simultaneously by toymakers Morris Michtom in the U.S. and Richard Steiff under his aunt Margarete Steiff's company in Germany in the early 20th century, the teddy bear, ...

Administrative history

Farley's Health Products Limited started life in 1857 as a baker's shop, run by Mr. Samuel Farley, but they were made by his wife Ann Farley. At 90 Cambridge Street,

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

. In 1862 he transferred premises to 7, Exeter Street and in 1912 Edwin Farley sold the business, including the secret formula for Farley's rusks to Mr William Bolitho Trahair, prior to emigrating to Canada. William Trahair, a well-known Liberal, and Methodist lay-preacher marketed proprietary lines, such as Globe Metal Polish and John Master's matches, from his shop Globe Stores, 58-59 Notte Street, Plymouth. In 1915 Trahair moved the Exeter Street bakery to 14 Notte Street and in 1919 the Trahair family formed Farley's Infant Food Limited. During the 1920s, the business transferred to Woolster Street and gave up its agencies to concentrate on rusk production. A new model factory was built in 1931 at Torr Lane, Peverell, Plymouth and the Company expanded rapidly, until the Glaxo Group took over operations in 1968. In 1986 Boots The Chemist Limited bought the Farley's interest from Glaxo and operations continued at the Torr Lane site until the factory shut in 1990. It is now the site of a supermarket.

References

{{Heinz Manufacturing companies established in 1881 Food manufacturers of the United Kingdom Heinz brands Baby food manufacturers 1881 establishments in the United Kingdom 1857 establishments in England