Ladd's was a family-owned soft-drink manufacturer of
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
, South Australia, which operated from around 1860 to around 1950.
History
![J Ladds Ginger Beer](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/J_Ladds_Ginger_Beer.jpg)
Joseph Onesimus Ladd (c. January 1818 – 12 June 1882) was born in
Nacton
Nacton is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. The parish is bounded by the neighbouring parishes of Levington to the east and Bucklesham in the north. It is located between the towns of Ipswich and Felixs ...
, Sussex and emigrated to Australia, arriving in Adelaide around 1847 via
Melbourne, Victoria
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung–Taungurung language, Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the St ...
. In 1849 he was granted a publican's licence for the Gepp's Cross Hotel. He married Caroline Fuller (c. 1828 – 2 August 1897) in Adelaide on 6 April 1853. They had thirteen children.
He set up a
ginger beer
Traditional ginger beer is a sweetened and carbonated, usually non-alcoholic beverage. Historically it was produced by the natural fermentation of prepared ginger spice, yeast and sugar.
Current ginger beers are often manufactured rather than ...
manufacturing business in
Flinders Street, Adelaide
Flinders Street is a main street in the city centre of Adelaide, South Australia. It runs from the northern end of Victoria Square to East Terrace, Adelaide. It is one of the intermediate-width streets of the Adelaide grid, at wide. , around 1860. In 1868 he moved to a half-acre block on
Rundle Street
Rundle Street, often referred to as "Rundle Street East" as distinct from Rundle Mall, is a street in the East End of the city centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It runs from Pulteney Street to East Terrace, where it becomes ...
, between Wilcox's drapery and Allott's pharmacy. Shortly after, he began to manufacture cordials and aerated waters the following year. He had some connection with
Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...
, the nature of which is not clear. It is conceivable, but by no means certain, that he used his contacts on that island for his supplies of sugar and/or ginger.
J. O. Ladd died at
Lockleys
Lockleys is an inner western suburb of Adelaide, in the City of West Torrens.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data from May 2021 revealed that Adelaide's western suburbs had the lowest unemployment rate in South Australia.
History
The area ...
in 1882 and his wife Caroline Ladd (c. 1828–1897) took over the business, moving the factory to Harrow Road,
College Park in 1884, equipped with all the latest machinery. The family lived at the same address. This choice of location was no doubt due to the purity of spring water available in the area:
Woodroofe's
Woodroofe (often shortened to Woodies) is a brand of soft drinks in South Australia.
History
William Woodroofe and to a lesser extent, Bruce Randall, founded the business in 1878 in Norwood, South Australia. The factory was sited at a natura ...
and
Hall's soft drink factories and
Coopers Brewery
Coopers Brewery Limited, the largest Australian-owned brewery, is based in the Adelaide suburb of Regency Park, South Australia, Regency Park. Coopers is known for making a variety of beers, the most famous of which are its Pale Ale and Sparkl ...
all took advantage of the same water.
As with their competitors, Ladds used many kinds of bottles over the years, including various "stonie" pottery bottles, and in glass the
Codd pattern (with the internal glass ball seal), Barrett or
Riley pattern Riley may refer to:
Names
* Riley (given name)
* Riley (surname)
Places
* Riley Park–Little Mountain, a neighborhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
* Riley Creek (Ontario), a tributary of the Black River in Central Ontario, Canada
* R ...
(with a
Vulcanite
Vulcanite is a rare copper telluride mineral. The mineral has a metallic luster, and has a green or bronze-yellow tint. It has a hardness between 1 and 2 on the Mohs scale (between talc and gypsum). Its crystal structure is orthorhombic.
Vulcanit ...
"screw-top" threaded stopper) in the bottle and, from around 1930,
crown seal types. Bottles remained the property of the drink manufacturer, and if undamaged could be steam-cleaned and re-used over and over again. Mrs. Ladd purchased second-hand bottles from dealers ("marine store collectors") and instructed her bottle-washers and fillers to use all bottles, no matter what the brand. This was against the rules of the Aerated Waters and Cordial Makers' Employés' Union, (It was some 20 years before the manufacturers had a similar agreement) and the men refused to do so, and threatened strike action if forced to disobey Union Rules. Mrs. Ladd's motives were financial: she purchased secondhand bottles for 8d. per dozen, whereas new bottles cost 36s. per gross (3s. per dozen). In today's money that would be around $5.00 v. $22.00 per dozen.
Caroline died in 1897 and her son Joseph Ladd (1856–1929) took over management of the factory. Joseph had married Mary Cunningham (1861–1931) in 1888. Their son Roy Leslie Joseph Ladd (1892–1954) married Jessie Ann Sutherland (1890–1976) in 1917; they lived at 143 Wattle street,
Malvern
Malvern or Malverne may refer to:
Places Australia
* Malvern, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide
* Malvern, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne
* City of Malvern, a former local government area near Melbourne
* Electoral district of Malvern, an e ...
.
Joseph died in 1929 and his son Roy took over the business, and around this time adopted the (horseshoe)
Magnet
A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nickel, ...
trade mark. In early 1948 the family business was restructured as a limited liability company, and in June 1950 a new entity called J. L. Aerated Waters Ltd. was founded to take over the assets of J. Ladd Ltd. A month later the new company was renamed "Ladds Limited". Roy Ladd died in July 1954 and three months later the company was liquidated. Assets were disposed of included the property at Harrow Road,
St. Peters, and the right to the trade name "Spa-Kup".
See also
*
List of soft drinks by country
This is a list of soft drinks in order of the brand's country of origin. A soft drink is a beverage that typically contains water (often carbonated water), a sweetener and a flavoring agent. The sweetener may be sugar, high-fructose cor ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ladds cordial
Drink companies of Australia
Manufacturing companies based in Adelaide
History of Adelaide
Ginger beer